Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gollywog]

I wasn't going to say anything, but it has now been more than a month, and still no toilet paper in any of the men's rooms at school (I did not check the women's). Or as they say here: man toilet and woman toilet.

Is this common at other public schools?

It is especially disconcerting since the school also fails to provide soap for the student bathrooms (not the teachers' lounge, of course).

Naturally, I no longer shake hands with students, or touch their hands in any way, nor accept any unwrapped food or candy.

There are some bidets. Do Koreans teach their children how to use bidets? My mama didn't raise me to use no bidets.

While we're talking about life down the rabbit hole, would someone mind explaining to me why there is so much toilet paper everywhere else in Korea besides bathrooms, such as on restaurant tables, hanging from tour bus ceilings, etc.?

When did Korea's fascination with toilet paper begin?

My theory is it probably coincided with its love affair with Spam, that the U.S. shipped them over at the same time, using the toilet paper to fill up the space left over after reaching the weight limit for Spam. And so Korea wound up with more toilet paper than it knew what to do with.

What do you think? Seen any toilet paper, recently?

[ttompatz]

We have a common roll (the industrial size) in each washroom. You take what you need and go into the stall to do your business.

There is a bar of soap but no hot water and no way to dry your hands.

.

[jvalmer]

If your school has seperate toilets for teachers, then most likely it's better equipped than then student's toilets. Also, very often, student facitlities only have squatters.

[MUOhio82]

Our school has one toilet for all students and teachers. One boys stall, one girls' stall and one urinal. No soap, no paper towels, sometimes toilet paper....

[RJjr]

One time, a female Canadian teacher sort of insinuated that I was stealing toilet paper rolls. There were a bunch of rolls in the teacher's lounge and they were disappearing rapidly. Since I was too cheap to buy cable for my apartment and bought a used 20,000 won cell phone, I guess they thought I was too cheap to buy shit paper. Actually, I didn't buy any actual toilet paper since the paper towels in Korea are exactly twice as tall as a roll of toilet paper (unlike the tall rolls in America) and I thought what I bought at the store was toilet paper until I got home and found out it was short rolls of paper towels. Being cheap, I went ahead and used them as toilet paper, and they always flushed down okay.

I was like, "Don't blame me. Look how many rolls keep disappearing. A roll of toilet paper lasts a dude three or four weeks. A roll lasts women three or four days. Y'all's asses eat toilet paper. It's obvious the thief is a female. Plus, you ladies carry purses that could smuggle toilet paper and Canadians haul those enormous backpacks which could smuggle even more. I carry things in my bare hands. Seen me leave work with a roll of toilet paper lately? Think about it."

[Jandar]

I keep the "Wet Ones" in my drawer.

http://www.wetones.com/wo_FreshandFlush.asp

[cdninkorea]

Purell is your friend. Buy some.

[WoBW]

The crappers are nice at my school. Each stall has an industrial sized roll dispenser thingy that is always replaced when needed. Some old guy comes in and hoses the floor and urinals down every afternoon (not that it gets really dirty). We even have classical music playing through speakers in the ceiling, and a cool space-age hand dryer.

[JustJohn]

There is no option correct option for me. Mine is:

No toilet paper in the bathroom, you have to bring it with you from the office where it is kept in huge rolls laying at random on desks and tables.

[MrRogers]

It was funny to see this topic as I was thinking of the same thing.

I go to nine different public schools in the rural south and the conditions are not very good ...never any soap in most schools, and many times, no toilet paper. Realizing that after it was too late a few times, I now check to see whether there is any toilet paper beforehand. Most are the primitive-type toilets ... depends on the school... and there is never any way to dry one's hands if one was lucky enough to find soap with which to wash. I always feel bad for the kids in these schools, but perhaps they are not use to anything better. They are really nice children out in the country.

I, too, keep a lot of wet-type sanitary tissue packs and regular tissues with me.

I find it weird that it is considered a modern, "wired" country, and yet sanitary conditions are so time-warped. Any basic science being taught?

Also, I am supposed to change into slippers at the door at all these schools. Though doing that is not foreign to me as this is also normal procedure in the snowy winter in New England where I have been living. I just find the whole ritual so hypocritical / a facade...as then I see everyone walking out the door from one building to go to another to eat lunch...wearing their slippers! The whole thing is not very sanitary and then they walk into the dirty bathrooms with their slipppers.

So the slipper thing and the no soap, no toilet paper, no drying mechanism/paper towels (occasionally a dirty hand cloth towel that everyone has been rubbing their germy hands on) is so schizo.

I found similar conditions in China.

[samd]

What do you mean? Korean toilets are awesome and I've never been in a bad one. Even if I had, there are bad toilets back home too, so what are you complaining about? If you don't like the toilets here, maybe you should just go home...





Just kidding

The student toilets at my school have the big roll at the door, no soap, and no hand drying facilities. One day some kid smeared shit all over the walls and mirror and it wasn't cleaned up for days.

I don't use the teacher's toilets due our afternoon program being hated by the VP, but I don't expect that they're any better.

[fustiancorduroy]

I work at a foreign language high school. Not only does every toilet in the school have paper in its stall, but every toilet is also equipped with a bidet (which is much more sanitary and effective than TP), and every bathroom has foam soap and a "space age" electric hand dryer.

The school has better bathroom facilities than I do in my apartment.

[ernie]

bidets seem really unhygenic to me... what cleans the shit that gets sprayed all over the nozzle of the bidet? females especially should NEVER use a bidet!