Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Quack Addict]

When you see any expat on the street, store, subway, etc. do you greet them? Or do you pull out your cell phone and check nothing? Or does it depend on the looks of the foreign person? Or is it your mood? What say you?

[poet13]

In my little town, I say hello. I know all of them now. If someone makes eye contact somewhere else, a polite nod suffices.

[Quack Addict]

Head nod is good. Especially in Korea. A quick hello is also appropriate. Only if eye contact is made. I don't go out my way to greet someone. But I never blow someone off if they greet me. That seems to be popular with expats as well.

[spliff]

If I knew them I would greet them (if I felt like it) otherwise, NO...why would I?

[crusher_of_heads]

[VanIslander]

if i see a fellow expat it's the same as if I saw someone from my university whom I recognized but did not know

I politely greet if greeted; I might initiate a greeting or not

(depending on how I feel and how they look: many expats in this country walk around as if there is a cloud over their head, either malcontent or self-absorbed or simply looking vacant)

[PeteJB]

Usually there is a cloud over my head, so I don't notice other expats as a rule. I just get on with my intensive thinking like always and might occasionally make a mental note that I just possibly saw another foreigner. This is how I went about my business back home, and here too. I think too much.

[RACETRAITOR]

Why? Do we share some secret bond because we have the same skin colour?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[pidgin]

[nicholas_chiasson]

for the ten million time, this answer is very very dependent on where you are and what you are doing!! In Itaewon-no. In a town of 50,000, I think talking to anybody who isn't Korean is a fair thing to do. And on the off chance they don't speak English, they usually speak Russian. After three words its pretty clear if the person wants to continue talking, or go on his gloomy way down the street.

[mateomiguel]

I usually give an eyebrow raise. If that's not enough, screw you buddy.

[RyanInKorea]

[BS.Dos.]

[Cerriowen]

Eye-contact = nod and smile

Hello = Hello, nod, smile

No eye contact = chasing them down and beating the living hell out of them