Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nate2008]

So two days ago (Christmas Eve) I was in the Daegu Train Station with some friends waiting for our train to Sangju to arrive. We were sitting at one of the restaurants eating when we heard a strange noise.

It was some Korean guy, he was maybe 30 years old, standing in the middle of the station and screaming at the top of his lungs with his hands over his ears. He would scream as loud as he could until he ran out of breath, then breathe in and do it again. He let out maybe 6 or 7 screams, but by the 4th nearly the entire station was dead quiet. All of the Koreans in the station were just as bewildered as our little group of foreigners. When the crazy man was finished, he swiftly but calmly walked towards the station exit as if nothing had happened. I didn't see what happened after that, but he did walk out of the station with a security guard following after him.

Does anybody have any idea what to make of this?

[The Grumpy Senator]

My guess is he was mentally handicapped and was confused or upset.

[Xuanzang]

Mental illness? Stress coping mechanism?

[Koreadays]

Stress...

havent you heard high school students screaming in your neighborhood at 2am ?

[wylies99]

There are mentally ill people in Korea and they seem to be drawn to the subway, for some reason. I once saw a young Korean man on the #3 line, at Daewha, licking the hand railing around the old people's section of that car. He was licking all of it. Koreans glared at him but did nothing.

A few weeks ago, I was with a friend on the #1 line, (near Yongsan), and an adjoshi, who was wearing in military fatigues, took out a piece of paper, stand up ON HIS SEAT, and read some "manifesto" to everyone in the subway car, then he saluted, and walked on to the next subway car.
There were many "WTF?" looks on people's faces.

[Goku]

Thirded.

Similar to what Xuanzang said. Sounds like Autism to me. A stress coping defense.

Autistic people when dealing with incredibly "out of ordinary" experiences have different ways of dealing with it. Usually tantrums screaming, hitting, running away. It varies from person to person.

This one is a bit unusual for an Autistic individual to do though... maybe just from the way you describe it, I think he would have had to be with someone else.

Talk about a buzz kill though. Imagine eating with your friends and you hear sucessive screams again and again...

[cruisemonkey]

My guess is that he was K and just 'de-stressing'. I keep a loaded, plastic pellet BB gun on my balcony for shooting at the K-wackos who decide to 'de-stress' outside my window at 3:30 am.

[inkoreaforgood]

[Whistleblower]

Was it one of those weird bible bashers that frequent the subways or trains?

[ED209]

Maybe he missed his train.

[ryoga013]

It's nice and warm in the stations.... well, compared to the outside. And there are plenty more people to get the attention of. For those that like this kind of thing, stations seem to be a good place. I guess I can't blame them. I will still hate them though.

[Milwaukiedave]

[Countrygirl]

[Louie]

That's nothing compared to some of the things people might see or hear at Grand Central Terminal in NYC......

[Young FRANKenstein]