Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ed Provencher]

[rant]
A group of Koreans were yelling at me because I was lighting roman candles while waiting for the new year bell near city hall. I had given away a whole bunch already and a young Korean man next to me was the most recent recipient of my roman candles. We stood side by side and fired away. An ajoshi came up to my face and was yelling at me to stop and that the fireworks were dangerous, etc. I told the ajoshi to yell at the Korean guy I was with too. He wouldn't. He said a couple words to the young Korean and kept pointing and yelling at me. Apparently a foreigner is an easier target. All of the sudden, the ajoshi grabbed both of the lit roman candles from my hand, pointed them at the ground, put pressure on the tips so that the candles both broke in half. As soon as he did that, fireworks began comming out of both ends of both roman candles and shooting into the crowd of people including the anti-fireworks protesters. Unfucking believable. I yelled at the ajoshi and stepped on two ends of the roman candles. Since fireworks were coming out of four ends, I couldn't stop all of the fireworks. Two other Koreans came over to help stand on the ends with me. When it was all over, I looked for ajoshi, but he had already dissappeared into the crowd. What an idiot.

The young Korean man whom I was sharing roman candles with and myself resumed lighting them. Nobody grabbed anymore from my hands. Instead they simply yelled at me and began a chant with a three beat rhythm. I created a counter chant in the moment based on the rhythm. "I-Love-You" was the best thing I could think of. Several Koreans around me found this chant funny, probably because of the stark contrast in emotional tone of the protesters and myself.

[/rant]

[afsjesse]

When I lived in Busan, my friend and I were at Haeundae Beach one afternoon. He bought some Roman candles and lit one of them. He then pointed the thing at me and proceeded to hit my jacket. I was pissed all the while he was laughing. It left a nice burn mark in my jacket and my jeans.
Wanting revenge, I took the other one from him, lit it and pointed it at him. I think I hit him once but my aim was bad. You see one of the candles hit a baby cariage (sp?) and the parents just looked at me like I was dead kimchi. Needless to say I was very ashamed and embarassed.

[chris_J2]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyUMDHT6JxRa2gpBcfzqzvdnZ0wAD95EM0H81

Maybe the above had something to do with it?

[Xuanzang]

You should have told them to go eat some American beef.

[Ed Provencher]

[Tommy]

I was never a fan of igniting fireworks in your hand - I've heard of a few instances where things go wrong.

What the ajoshi did was pretty stupid. Then again, lighting a roman candle in your hand while in a large crowd (I presume) isn't that smart either, so I can see his cause for concern.

[T-J]

Sorry OP, but you are an a$$. Pyrotechnics are not to be set off in crowds. Your behavior was irresponsible and dangerous and you're lucky nobody got hurt.

[Ed Provencher]

[whatever]

^ Well, then you were one of many people people doing an irresponsible thing in a crowd of people. That said, what the man did was completely stupid and it was fortunate that no one was injured.

[Ed Provencher]

I've never seen anyone get hurt shooting roman candles into the air, even in a crowd.

[Join Me]

Kinda hard to judge the situation. The last time I went to the bell ringing at City Hall (three years ago) the crowds were shooting off roman candles like crazy. In fact, the were doing it on both side of the street and it was like walking under a bridge so many were going off. Maybe something happened in the past few years and they made these things illegal at this event but I have never seen anything. Fireworks can be dangerous sure but the old guy seems to have been the one that created the danger here.

[Bramble]

Don't you need a permit to hold a fireworks display?

[Bibbitybop]

I would've been shooting off roman candles, too. Everyone does that at Jonggak on NYE.

[movybuf]

[i4NI]