Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cdninkorea]

Just got back from vacation a few days ago- one day in Busan with my girlfriend before taking the ferry to Fukuoka for a few days, then another few days back in Busan with a Canadian friend (girlfriend had to go back to work).

While in Busan for Saturday and half of Sunday, my girlfriend and I were both shocked at how cold people were: store clerks, stangers on the street when asking for directions, tourism employees, etcetera. There were a few exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of people were not friendly at all, and some of them downright rude.

The four days I spent in Busan later that week with my Canadian friend was a very different experience: everyone was extremely friendly and helpful.
I find people in Seoul to be friendly by large city standards, but Busan people were even better. My meager Korean language abilities impressed many, and I got flirtatious smiles and even some advances from lots of Korean women (I'm pretty much ignored by women in Seoul, so it's not as if women flirt with me everywhere I go).

I can't think of any reason for this contradiction other than the possibility that people might have been mean to my girlfriend because of where she's from- she's Korean and, since she's lived in Seoul her whole life, has a Seoul accent.
I've read about Koreans discriminating against people from different regions, but is it really this bad? If so this is a real eye-opener for me.

I'm interested in other peoples experiences and thoughts on this.

[RACETRAITOR]

Other possibility is they don't like interracial couples.

My experience in Busan has been that people treat you a little less than human. I was wandering around with a soldier friend and we may have been mistaken for soldiers. It never got in the way up in Seoul.

[Alyallen]

People in Busan were a lot nicer to me than in Seoul...

Go fig....

[anae]

I haven't heard much about people discriminating against Seoulites, but discrimination against Honam people is pretty long standing.

[mikowee]

My parents (from Seoul) distrust people from the Jeolla province.

[jaganath69]

People here in Chungbuk are 50% more curious and 25% more friendly than people in Seoul, who, incidentally, are twice as welcoming as the people in Busan who, in turn, are one third as hospitable as the folk in the Jeollas. Or at least that is how I figure things to be.

[swetepete]

I'm in one of the Jeollas now, and it's true: many here do despise Seoulites. They loathe all greedy Japanese collaborators, Yankee-sphincter-lickers, Apgujeong elitists, and covetous, Paris-Hilton-mimicking polyps. They seem to see Seoul as not just cancerous, but in fact, carcinogenic.
"When the revolution comes, they'll be first against the wall," they say, looking north.

No doubt the distrust goes both ways. When I told my friends up north I was moving down here for a year, they looked at me like I told them I was moving to Port Moresby to start up an indoor tanning salon.

Yeah, there's regional rivalries here for sure.

[Mix1]

[mateomiguel]

I think that may be a reason why the North/South divide has gone on for long... the people in other provinces simply didn't like those norks very much to begin with.

[bonanzabucks]

My boss is from Jeolla province. When I tell other Koreans this, they all cringe. Apparently, people from Jeolla have a reputation for being backwards, shady and back-stabbing.

[swetepete]

I get the impression that Jeollafolk have a reputation as red-sympathizers, basically, who loathe the economically successful Seoul people, and who figure that everybody rich in Korea became moneyed because they were either a) in power when the Japanese left, and were permitted to keep that power rather than be shot or shaved or shytte-kicked like the Vichy collaborators were in France, or b) because they were ruthless capitalists who oppressed the workin' man, with the aid of dictatorship and Seoul-centered economic policies.

There is a south-north brain-drain as well; people who do well in school down here move north to attend uni, and then, if they can, find work in Seoul. As the best and brightest and prettiest often leave, there's a certain amount of resentment.

A lot of people in Seoul strongly dislike the Sunshine Policy, seeing it as appeasement and an economic disaster. The president who implemented that policy was, I believe, from one of the Jeollas.

[mateomiguel]

Oh, its my opinion that prejudice exists independently of reason. First comes the prejudice, second comes the reason. So I'm sure people will use any excuse to be prejudiced, cobbled together from quick and easy circumstances lying around. Skin color, foreign accent, religion, attitude -- basically anything.

This is true both inside and outside of the Great Peninsula.

[PeteJB]

Has anyone ever dated a Jeolla girl?

I once met a girl from Gwangju, we went out a few times but not really official dates. I liked her, but, she was just too weird sometimes - And it seems she had a hard time understanding me (whereas people from Seoul don't..) - She told me her parents were *very* old fashioned. So, I don't think I'd have ever had a chance

[The Perfect Cup of Coffee]

I remember my old director who was from Andong (Kyungsang-do) telling me when her family took trips through the Jeolla provinces, some gas stations would refuse to serve them. Guess the new license plates have taken care of that problem by not including which province you're registered in anymore.

I guess former President Park and the Daegu posse really stomped hard on the Jeollas during military rule. Probably had something to do with some Jeolla people sheltering and supporting communist partisans running around in the mountains well into the 1960s.

Anyone heard anything about Gangwon people? Aside from Kyunggi and Chungchung province people, I've found Gangwon people easiest to understand as well as fairly friendly.

[jvalmer]

I believe 6 of 10 SK presidents have been from the Gyeongsang region. Also, of the 40 year period from 1960 to 2000, close to 35 years have been under the rule of people from the Gyeongsang region. Obvously the capital region will benifit the most from any economic and industrial output. But, the gyeongsang provinces saw way more benifit when compared to the jeolla region.

So, I think that the people from Jeolla feel shafted.