Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ryouga013]

[ryouga013]

[caniff]

[ryouga013]

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

Here is the ultimate acid test.

Imagine a group of foreign ESL teachers did exactly the same thing in Korea.

What would be the response of the Korean media?

The Korean government?

Certain members of this forum?

[Julius]

I'm Giving 5 minutes of observation to see how much unnacceptable Korean ajosshi behavior I can see. I'm in a PC bang in Mokpo.

9.54:21pm Ajosshi #1spits into ashtray. (disgusting)
9.54:43pm Ajosshi #2has his own music blasting loud. People beside him stoically put up with it. (Selfishness)
9.56:38pm Ajosshi #3sits on computer next to foreigner. Suddenly he realises the person is not Korean, mumblers some invented excuse that the computer doesn't work, and shifts to a seat the other side of PC bang. (Racism)
9.58 Young Ajosshis playing game squeal at top of voices, yell at volume enough to wake the dead, including expletives. Nobody bats eyelid. (Inconsiderate)
9.59 Ajosshi yells at serving assistant to get over there fast and get him a drink. He then talks down to the young woman as if she were an animal.(Rudeness, sexism)

So thats 6 offences that would earn a smack in the gob anywhere in the west, in only 5 minutes, and just in a PC bang.

I chatted with an American businessman in Shanghai recently. He said he only occasionally came to Korea on business, and only if it couldn't be avoided. If he ever had a choice of dealing with Japanese or Korean businessmen, he always chose japanese, because it was simply a more pleasant exercise.

[moosehead]

the irony here is it's NIKE that's being offended; however this is one of the companies vilified in the press so many times for using sweatshop labor making its shoes, including allegations regarding child labor abuse.

the difference being, Korea has sweatshops and acts like they don't know any better.

the U.S. sells products unflinchingly from sweatshops and act like there's nothing wrong with it or it's not really happening.

I'm not sure I can figure this one out.

[ryouga013]

[rocklee]

Was this it?

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[hack]

Our school here in Vancouver runs an intensive 6 week course for Asian business people who have reasonable English skills. Attendees are from small to medium sized companies that deal with Western based companies. They learn Western business culture, idioms, protocol, negotiating styles, and many HR practices not yet accepted in Asia such as ageism, sexism, racism etc as well as privacy issues and fiscal matters. We also have a deal with local businesses who do biz with Asian countries where the students do a 1 week practicum with a mid level manager. We charge a lot because most of the instructors are bilingual, have at least an MBA and have a minimum of 10 years experience in a Western business environment, and given the job market in Vancouver now, we have to pay them between$150-$200/hr. Also, we place them in high quality living environments. Regardless, the demand is there as we are now booked through November of this year.

We initially put students from Korea, Singapore, China and Japan in the same class (usually 6-7) but had to stop this integrating of nationals after the Koreans continually questioned and ridiculed some Western standards such as sexism and working with women as equals in a business environment. Notwithstanding the past bad blood between Chinese and Japanese, we were able to keep them in the same class together and had no issues with the business culture we taught.

The final straw for Koreans came when one of our CBK (Canadian born Korean) female instructors told me that a Korean played grab azz with her after I had already warned him twice that sexual harassment (up to then only verbal) was not acceptable. I walked into the classroom, gave him a cheque for his full tuition and told him to leave immediately. He and the other 2 Koreans in the class who were from different companies, laughed but when they realized I was serious, all 3 of them left calling me racist against Koreans (and of course the other 2 also demanded a full refund-which I gave them.) The 2 Chinese and 2 Japanese students only looked straight ahead and never said a word and were anxious to get back to the proceedings once we all cleared out of the classroom. A few days later I received a formal apology in Korean from the offending student's boss to whom I had written an explaining email and sent me back our cheque along with the news that the offender was no longer in his employ.

Regardless, now our Korean business agents no longer market this course in Korea although we still frequently get expressions of interest from Korean business people, so we quote them 50% more than anyone else and we still manage to fill a class with Koreans every couple of months but they have to sign a "no refund" waiver, pay the full tuition when booked and we spell out the details of acceptable and non acceptable behaviour in their contract. No Korean has ever asked me to explain those details any further as they just seem to accept them as something a stiff-azzed Westerner would ask of them.

I also find it interesting that 20-30% of our Japanese and Chinese students are female, but we have yet to have 1 female applicant from Korea.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I'm off to the Philippines tonight where I look forward to seeing countless ajeoshis acting like over-grown middle school boys with platinum cards. Who knows, if things get boring I might even play the new-best-friend waegook card and join them!

[PBRstreetgang21]

I guess all I can say about South Korea and it relations with women is that while they may be lagging behind in the workforce, female politicians have WAY more power than in Japan or China. Neither of these countries has ever had a female Prime Minister (Korea has). Look at Park Geun Hye, she is one of the most powerful people in Korea right now. And lets not forget, Civilized Japan is still aborting fetuses if its a girl, and China is even worse. Korea is the only East Asian country where this (at least according to the NY Times) no longer occurs.

Take a look at the CEO's of Fortune 500 companies in the States. Where are all the women?

I dont think this issue has anything to with a mentality against women. Why is it anyone who makes sex jokes about women automatically thinks women are inferior? This is ridiculous. I think a universal source of humor for all men the world over is body humor. Sex, Defication, Masturbation, Farting, Pain, Groin injuries, eating, and any other basic function is a source of great laughter for virtually all men regardless of age. Sure its more prevelant when we're younger, and it receeds more with age. But even at 70 I bet most men still find agood football hit into someones groin, or a sex joke pretty humourous. Thats whether its about men or women.

How many naked statues to you see of women in Korea? Id say they were interested in it as a novelty. I bet if you took guys from other non western countries you would see it happening too. Trying to look at this incident and use it as a broad brush to paint Korea and it's men as uniquely immature and prone to this situation, and further use that brush to explain whats wrong with this country, is showing more about the ethnocentric semi-racist views of the poster's writing them than it is reveiling anything about Korea.

[JongnoGuru]

[TheUrbanMyth]