Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rationality]

[Chet Wautlands]

When I was first learning Korean I found it frustrating that people would treat my hellos and goodbyes with laughter. They thought it was cute. Now my Korean is better than their English and they treat me with more respect. The fact is that in Korea, if you can only say hello and goodbye it is an invitation for people to treat you like a kid. It's not cool, but that's how it is.

While I would never laugh at someone who spent a long time in Canada and only knew basic greetings, I would be a little surprised.

[VanIslander]

Neither my boss nor his wife (at this job nor my last) have ever laughed at me behind my back, and frankly, if they had, I wouldn't forget and wouldn't re-sign (have spent 3 years at each job).

Three of the women who teach here have laughed at me behind my back more than once but I ignore them for the most part. The math teacher never does laugh with them, perhaps partially due to her excellent English, a sign she's been around foreigners enough to know how disrespectful it would be seen by us.

I don't mind it because it quickly helps me know who are nice to get to know and who are *beep* to not waste my time talking to.

[fromtheuk]

I used to get that for a while. As things got worse between my co-teacher and I, it went away.

Now, I give them the same awful fake smile when I see them and they realize I'm taking the you-know-what.

When we argued, I told my co-teacher she was a zero, I explained to her if she spoke English in an English-speaking country, they would laugh at her.

Previously, she used to bad mouthe me very obviously, in front of her Korean colleagues.

Nowadays, when she speaks to Koreans in my presence, she just utters a brief sentence, which expresses her misery for being unable to get me to lose my cool.

I'm sure she must have told her colleagues what I had said to her, I also recently deliberately told a friend in the VP's office, the staff at our school are rude, I said they should get a job at Homeplus, instead.

My Korean 'colleagues' don't laugh anymore, they just mutter things to themselves.

Because you're outnumbered, they expect you to shut up and take it. In my case, I shunned all of them, and decided to mock them all by imitating their absurd mannerisms.

It wasn't easy, but good fun. It helps to avoid them like the plague too.

[Chet Wautlands]

One thing to be careful of is assuming that if people laugh after you leave the room, it must be because they are laughing at you. The OP knows better than anyone if this is the case in that situation. Sometimes when you are feeling a little tired of Korea you might be more inclined to assume people are making fun of you.

Not too long after I'd been in Korea I was having one of those days. I was walking with a Korean friend when I a little kid looked at me, got frustrated, and said "Yeong-eo suk-jae!" I knew that Yeong-eo meant English and I was pretty sure suk-jae meant sucks. My friend told me that I was being paranoid.

[ChinaBoy]

Yet more reasons NOT to learn Korean.

[ThingsComeAround]

Don't take it personally, OP

I have tried to speak Korean to co-workers and got the "aww, you sound so cute" reaction, which usually isn't helpful nor encouraging.

Thing is, Koreans don't like to speak English in our presence because they feel that foreigners will treat them the same way.

If you really believe that they are laughing at you, confront them about it as soon as it happens. They will lose face and they will be more mindful of their actions later.

[gangpae]

They're laughing at you and there is swf you can do about it. Don't get angry get an mp3 with a record function. Get some incriminating stuff and take it to someone who can make their life a living hell.

[lifeinkorea]

I found that when I establish relationships in a 1:1 situation, there isn't as much awkwardness. When you are in a group, you become entertainment.

Their laughter isn't because of you, it's because of the mood and they don't know what to do. They aren't programmed to react in front of their peers when a foreigner interacts. It's like a kid who gets caught when they do something they shouldn't. Laughter or anger builds up inside.

After you establish these 1:1 relationships, then meet them in groups and you are more likely to get more natural responses.

[bassexpander]

It's very easy to take this personally, but I can see where it might have been a situation where one of them teased the other about speaking in English to you. Maybe the 2nd person was too shy, and the first person laughed at them loudly.

Be careful taking it too personally. Sometimes they think well of you but laugh at themselves while we think they're laughing at us.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

They'll get used to it after a while. My guess is that you're not quite pulling it off naturally. Give it another year or ten and you will.

[some waygug-in]

[some waygug-in]

[intl girl of mystery]

I've had my nascent Korean laughed at several times; even when I feel like I've pronounced 안녕하세요 correctly, for example (I practice!), the principal and VP and a couple of the teachers repeat it with an exaggerated accent and laugh. It's particularly offensive because their English really is amusing, and yet I've never failed to keep a straight face while trying to figure out what exactly they were getting at. And sometimes it's really hard to hold it in.

Anyway, now I say "Good morning" and only know enough Korean to function in shops and banks and talk to my students. And that's as far as I'll go with it.

[crusher_of_heads]

I would have to pretend I am interested in them as human beings and I don't want to have to do that.


Hot single chicks, certainly, but not ignorant Kimberly.