Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I've seen children (about 5-7 years old) wandering Seoul by themselves at night. Sometimes even late at night. It looked like they were headed home after whatever after school program they were in.

I wonder what the Koreans would make of the commotion a story like this makes in the U.S.?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_fe_st/odd_boy_s_subway_odyssey

Authorities say a 5-year-old boy slipped onto a New York City subway alone and rode for 34 stops from one end of Manhattan to the other before anyone intercepted him.

Samuel Sosa has been reunited with his mother, unharmed, after his hourlong transit odyssey Monday.

Griselda Sosa says her son got away from her around 7:40 a.m. while she got coffee near an elevated station on the No. 1 line in the northernmost part of Manhattan. The boy apparently sprinted up the station's stairs, squeezed under a turnstile and boarded a southbound train before she could stop him.

Police quickly put out an alert, but Sammy made it to the end of the line before transit workers spotted him around 8:40 a.m.

His mother calls authorities' response "good and fast."

[Forward Observer]

One of the first things I saw that impressed me about Korea back in '96 was a five year old getting off the bus alone in downtown Seoul. The kid knew exactly where she was going too. I was shocked, but there was an air of confidence about the kid - she wasn't lost! I wanted to grab the closest adjuma and try to help the kid, but it was apparent that the kid knew exactly where to go. I brought this up to my students later on that day, and not one of them even blinked.

Korea independent!

[Joe666]

I have seen plenty of this in Busan. I could not believe it either! I had heard that there is very little to no crime in this country. Is this true? I don't really know! I also heard that there is quite a bit of crime and it goes unreported. What to believe, a common occurance on Dave's!

Children under 8 years old walking the streets alone at any time of the day, seems to indicate a very low crime rate in my view. That would never happen in the U.S.

[jkelly80]

It's more about the perception of crime in the US. Some lady in MS let her kid walk to baseball practice (about 4 blocks) and a cop picked up the kid and tried to charge the Mom with child endangerment, until the media picked it up and went nuts about it. There's certainly some areas of the US that are crime-ridden, but this is usually tied to the drug trade. It's not like it's all-pervasive.

[Yesterday]

2008 was a year in which many kids were kidnapped and murdered (after terrible things were done to them)

suddenly - most Seoul Metropolitan schools installed CCTV all around their schools and within the main school entrances/exits...

many parents began walking their kids to school and back to home..

by the beginning of 2009 - it was all forgotten - and kids once again are left to wander the streets by themselves...

its always been a Korean custom to allow the kids to be independent and go places by themselves -

I really thought things had changed last year.

But I guess Koreans are just too busy and have forgotten the events of last year already - to be bothered about their kids safety.

[harlowethrombey]

When I was in Hiroshima I noticed two 5 year old kids riding the train by themselves. They waited for their stop, hopped off and skipped on. Yeah, I was amazed they were out in the city and I find it equally amazing that kids do it here, too.

It's wonderful that its so safe. I know other posters will put up some links showing how it isnt actually safe. But, come on, what kids could do that back home?

[crossmr]

Ask your parents how often they walked around alone as children. its only those of us in the 30 and under crowd who were really beginning to be smothered by our parents. I was mostly left to my own except for that year there was a serial killer on the loose..

[yawarakaijin]

I'm 34 and I will completely go along with what that previous poster said. The amount of time I spent unsupervised/allowed to do my own shit when I was a kid would undoubtedly land my mother in jail these days.

I mean, I have vivid memories of spending entire days down by the creek with all my friends with not a parent in sight. Timelines are slightly blurred, but it was in our first house and we moved away when I was 9, so everything I remember of those days probably happened between the ages of 6-9.

Crossing train trussles, exploring those huge open water tunnels, running around forested areas like little soldiers, sneaking into "enemy" apartment complexes, day long bicycle journeys having no idea where I was going or how/if I could find my way home... ahhh good memories:)

All without a parent in sight and without a care in the world.

[oldfatfarang]

We all see Korean kids walking home alone late at night (from hagwons). I just assumed Korea was a very safe country, but what's up with all these ads about 'missing' children?

They're on the back of electricity/gas accounts - and in ad. slots on Korean TV. I've tried to talk about 'missing' children with Koreans - but I just get 'face' answers ("Korea's very safe etc").

Are these ads. about children taken by pedophiles, or are they about overseas adoptees?

Does anyone know how 'safe' it really is in Korea - and how many kids go 'missing' each year.

[espoir]

I used to walk the streets of Toronto during the day by myself when I was much younger. I always walked to school, which was 2km away without my parents. Most of my friends did the same.

When I was an early teenager I used to walk around toronto at night as well and never had anything happen to me or any of my friends. No one ever thought twice about it.

[Straphanger]

This is semantics compared to the OP's point, but I rarely see a little Korean kid "wander" anywhere. To me, "wander" is like someone in a shopping mall deciding between Dayton's and Nordstrom's.

But to the OP's point, I've seen, and yes, I think it's odd, that very young children (and the occasional adult)...

RUN AS FAST AS THEY CAN BBALI BBALI GO GO GO GO GO GO FASTER RUN ACROSS THE STREET NEVER MIND THE CARS GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO NO TIME FOR SIDEWALKS GO ACROSS THE GRASS LIKE THAT EPISODE OF STAR TREK WHERE WESLEY CRUSHER GETS THE DEATH PENALTY FOR CRASHING THROUGH A GREENHOUSE WINDOW

...at odd ours of the day and night.

But "wander" works too.

[Michael_75]

When I see kids out late on the street at home I think "Why aren't you in bed?". When I'm here I think "Why aren't you in school?".

[Sapa]

I read this a while ago, I think it's from a New York paper.
Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-the-subway-alone/

[JongnoGuru]

(by fuq, the board is slow today!)

Not just Korea. It's nearly everywhere in Asia I've been, and from what I've heard & read, nearly everywhere in Asia I haven't been, too.


While small kids roaming around the country without parental supervision doesn't even register anymore it's so common, one thing I find hard to get accustoned to is....

I'm at a CVS or fast-food joint, and some just-past-toddler-aged kiddiewinkle in front of me whips out the plastic to pay for his/her Happy Kids Meal or 3 donuts. No mommy waiting at the table, no mommy waiting in the car, no mommy in sight. And I've seen what they write, few even sign a name, it's just some scratch or a smiley face. WTF?

A good 20 years away from their first job, head doesn't even clear the counter, and they're already racking up mileage points?

The proper understanding that credit cards are "big-people toys" and the financial crack-pipe of our modern age.... where is that?

[Crockpot2001]