Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Someone recently posted that he felt like Gulliver in Lilliput--in other words, superior.
I was surprised to read that, because I have been struggling to learn the Korean language for the last 8 years, and I feel like Gulliver in Brobdingnag whenever I am in the company of a Korean who speaks English better than I speak Korean.

I consider it a Korean flaunts his or her English profiency in the face of a foreigner who is struggling to learn Korean, just as it is rude to eat in front of a hungry person.
Other people don't seem to think so, though.

Why do I feel differently from other foreigners?
Probably because intellectual achievement has always been my highest priority, whereas other foreigners might have other priorities, such as family or friends.
So if a person rejects a skill which I have been working on for 8 years, I take that as a blanket rejection.

If you call me crazy or paranoid, you are not telling me anything I haven't heard before.
This time, I'm after constructive answers.

[Stevie_B]

I chose 'superior', though I should qualify that: I feel superior to everyone.

[aka Dave]

Tomato, where are you from? Just curious. (btw I clicked comparisons are odious

[Css]

Actually I feel the same as you when it comes to language...I often find myself feeling inferior to my korean friends who speak english really well...

[blaseblasphemener]

Let's see...

Driving home from work tonight, I saw:

A Korean women start to walk into a crosswalk (pitch dark) when there wasn't a walk signal, while my car was about 5 feet from entering said sidewalk. She eventually decided to not stand in the sidewalk and joined the group of 3 others waiting on the sidewalk.

I saw two men riding ten speed bikes in their suits, with no reflectors on the bikes, so riding in the pitch dark. One man was riding into the direction of oncoming traffic, as was a high school boy down a lightless side road.

Earlier in the day I saw a women coming up one of those alley roads with her stroller. Didn't seem at all aware of my car coming down the hill towards her, again within only feet of her she hadn't looked up and was still in the road.

Koreans developed virtually nothing in recorded history. They shun modern advances that don't jive with "korean-ness".

I feel vastly superior to Korean society as a whole. Individual Koreans I generally like, but despise the system of thought that keeps them in the dark to modernity.

[nicholas_chiasson]

Korea has invented nothing in recorder history?
Ummm they did invent the first armored battleship in Asia...
On a serious note is it just me or is this one of the worst worded topics I've ever seen on daves?

[tomato]

[GoldMember]

This is a really dumb thread. I certainly feel superior to the OP, and I'm not that bright!

[bovinerebel]

I feel Superior to just about everyone really. I don't feel that's a controversial statement given that most people are such helpless , lost , alienated idiots. I talk down to just about everyone , but am thrilled when I find someone that can keep up and hit back. It's not like I enjoy the feeling that everyone else is a unbearable douche.

Culture wise I feel while Korea has a lot to learn from the western individualism , we have lost a lot of the innocence that they still have etc. We could both learn from each other.

I do feel Koreans feel deeply inferior to westerners. That's clearly obvious to me.

[tomato]

[teachteach]

Actually quite interesting. I would have to go with inferior because they have a lot more advantages than us.

[Kimchi Cha Cha]

'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent'. as Eleanor Roosevelt said.

I don't feel superior to Koreans though I do believe that some Koreans may consciously or subconsciously feel inferior to and insecure in front of Westerners and this is displayed in various xenophobic displays such as attempted oneupmanship - for example, whenever I go to the gym or batting cage, there's often at least one guy trying to 'out do' me in one way or another.

I had a Korean once say, "I hate how Westerners feel they are above Koreans and that while it's natural to feel above others like we feel above SE Asians, we hate it when Westerners do this." Needless to say I didn't agree at all with the principle and vibe of the comment, but it was no doubt an honest comment from their perspective and I have no doubt that some Koreans perceive all Westerners think they are 'above' them and I'm sure some Westerners probably do.

I try to treat everyone as an equal and think I do for the most part. Sometimes I think things are done here in an inferior way compared to back home (then again there are just as many things done better), but I don't think of Koreans as inferior.

[bovinerebel]

[bovinerebel]

I'd also suggest that most Koreans feel unapologetically superior to other Asians or Africans (well...except the Japanese who they wildly envy). So they are hardly victims.

[bovinerebel]