Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wayfarer]

I'm sorry, I know this failing of Korean culture has been discussed in depth, but the teacher sitting near me is making the most excessive and unnecessary racket with her cat-like smacking noises with her food intake at this very moment and this is my ONLY way of lashing back! Disgusting urrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh

[nuthatch]

gross

[Bibbitybop]

It's not just ajummas. It's a large number of all types of locals here.

The smacking of gum on a bus or train is the worst, though. I have started mimicking the sound to draw attention to the crudeness.

[nuthatch]

yes - men, too - as you say - many types

good idea with the imitation of crudenss

[Ilsanman]

They don't get it. They just think you are also enjoying your (imaginary) gum.

[crosbystillsstash]

It's cutural. It means they are enjoying their food (not starving).

[sobriquet]

I asked about it, the slurping noodles and smacking lips etc.

Two prim and proper Koreans told me that they shouldn't do it as it's seen as bad manners, but most people do. Much like other things they aren't meant to do but do.

They are very well spoken and behave impeccably all the time, never slurping or chomping/displays of food mastication.

So I can well believe them.

[marlow]

What's the most annoying is when Koreans give me advice on my personal behavior. I'd prefer they complain on some message board instead.

[KAMAKAZI]

[oni]

I had this experience today on the subway: 2 ajummas sitting opposite me eating walnuts mouth open chewing away. One also dropped a nut on the floor and still ate it.
Probably don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom either but that's a whole other story

[VanIslander]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[samd]

Don't like it? Head home. If it bothers you enough that you have to post about it on Dave's, you probably have head problems.

Seriously, how thin-skinned are you people?

[Omkara]

Well, I had no head problems before Korea. This is one thing that drives me NUTS: Sitting in the teachers room trying not to notice that most every teacher is yapping away with rice falling from his or her mouth.

Watch TV. All the stars talk with food in their mouths regularly.

Yeah, I had a level head before. Having been here for so long, three years now, I have all but lost sanity for the million little things that drip on my head like the Korean Water Torture:

Chomp, chomp, spit, spit, snort, snort, puff, puff, bump, bump!

But I like the food.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Yeah, but if you're eating rice with chopsticks and some is falling from them or from your mouth, don't be surprised if a Korean you're eating with gives you a hard time about it.

You see? It's that way sometimes. They'll give you a hard time about something they do. Once I was told that Koreans don't spit. We were talking about baseball and it was mentioned that Koreans don't spit. The players don't spit on the field, but they do in the major leagues in North America. So Koreans don't spit. That was the conclusion. I offered up that Koreans spit all the time and that I was disgusted one time when these younger adults ahead of me on an escalator were spitting all over the place and that I see people spitting all the time. That's where the conversation ended.

It's funny the ideas they get in their heads. They completely block things out.