Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RACETRAITOR]

While driving through Bangbae tonight I passed by a new contender for most offensive bar name in Korea.

"Manhattan Hof Bar 911."

Didn't get a good look and of course didn't go inside. It's about a block north of Bangbae Station on the west side of the street.

[twg]

Now now.

Hitler Bar and SS Bars all have very obvious Nazi themes.

Unless this has toy jets glues to the side of the building and tiny little office workers jumping to their deaths, I can't see it being purposeful.

[Masta_Don]

When I was in Tokyo, the most popular bar in Roppongi was called 9/11. And it soon after met a fate similar to its namesake.

[Hyeon Een]

eh. Doesn't bother me. There is an 오사마 bar near Sinchon subway station though if that gets your goat up. Been there at least 18 months and I never heard anyone complain about it though.

[blurgalurgalurga]

On cultural insensitivity:
I go to the casinos here in korea with a few good friends of mine. They have an expression for the people who jump from table to table dropping o-chon chips on the roulettes; kamikazes, they call them.
So, on our way out the door one night, I found a fiver in my pocket, dropped it on my number at the closest table, and hit dead on. I was pretty surprised. All the gamblers at the table, older fellas, were like ' hey, nice hit kid.'
So I shouted to my friends, twenty or thirty meters away by this point, "HEY BOYS!!" I yelled. "SWEEEEET KAMIKAZEE HIT, YEAAH WHOOP" and they're like "what?" and I yell the same thing again.
Then I notice that all the old boys at the table are Japanese, and they're looking all kinds of appalled, and no longer congratulating me in any way whatsoever.
I took my money and walked on.
My point is: what is an incredibly painful and unpleasant memory for one group of people may be, for another group, a kind of joke, or something they're only dimly aware of.
Then again, there's times when people use that sort of sore spot as a way of grooving on their spite. and getting a bamboo shoot under the fingernails of the ones they hate. I think with the Japan bar, it's probably more the latter. With my story, it's just me being dumb.
This new bar the OP has pointed out...who knows?

[bobbyhanlon]

오사마 might just be a cool guy named mr 오, like 욘사마 or something..

once i was in a taxi in busan, and the guy asked me 'where you from?' i said england, so he said 'ahh! very good... princess diana, crashbang! hahaha!'
to be fair, it totally cracked me up.

[Scotticus]

Yeah, no one seems to take 9/11 too seriously here. Some of the kids are very, I'd say, offensive when referring to it. A couple times I've come real close to flipping out, but I always manage to keep it together by reminding myself that they don't understand that they're being completely offensive.

[RACETRAITOR]

[cj1976]

Do you think that the 911 could actually be a reference to the emergency number? It has been used in various hip-hop songs such as Public Enemy's '911 is a Joke'. Is it displayed as 911 or 9/11?

[reactionary]

it's displayed as 911...but with "manhattan" written in hangul next to it...well..it's a bit hard to believe in coincidences....or inthat level of obliviousness.

and by the way, some folks refer to the public enemy song "911 is a joke" in reference to 9/11 being a conspiracy

[Ginormousaurus]

There's also a bar in Bangbae called "Uncle Tom's Cabin". I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[reactionary]

[CentralCali]

[vlcupper]

I saw a Kunta Kinte bar in Pohang about five years ago, too.

[billybrobby]

there's an Abortions And Gay Marriage Bar & Grill right down the street from me. always thought it was an odd name.