Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gatohorrible]

ur so sweet leslie u remind me of ' derrek' and 'tomato'

avoid denz, the man know as the spam, and on the other hand, they might try and beat u up for being a pansy.

luv
GH

[the_beaver]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

Jjak-sarang = unrequited love. Or stalking if you wish. Ha ha.

But seriously, I like to use logic to guide some of my charges. Some of them feel that if there is no exact word for it in our language as there is in theirs then it simply doesn't exist in our world. For example: Hyung means older brother, right? I have a younger brother. I should be his hyung. But our language has no word to express that idea. Hmm, I don't exist.

[HardyandTiny]

My favorite concept is that if a woman has more than five dates with a man she sleeps with him.
I guess if the man was reluctant at that point it would be called abnormal or "cultural differnce".

Not sure if that includes meeting the family also, but I imagine if you meet the family prior to the fifth date that negates the five date rule and you go to bed on the next date, since meeting "the family' (mom / dad) is an entirely different concept that implies marriage.

I have worked with many Koreans and they swear by the five date rule.

[weened]

what is skinship?

[Zyzyfer]

[xingyiman]

BUMP! Hey remember some of these old guys/gals?

[redaxe]

If by favorite you mean most hated, then yeah I'd have to say nunchi. Where I work it's used as a guilt-based system of deciding what time you can go home from work every day. Every day I have to calculate "what's the earliest I can leave without making all my Korean coworkers FEEL bad and resent me?"

[mateomiguel]

I remember HardyandTiny, but the others are strange to me. Digging up something from 2003 is before my time though!

[beercanman]

wow what an old thread.

No way is "face" or any of these ideas really, unique to Korea. About as unique as the 4 seasons crap.

Here's a unique concept: The Newfie Shuffle. Only known to Newfoundlanders, cannot be understood by anyone else in the universe because NFers are special.

(All NFers nod and agree with that little self-satisfied smirk that comes from being special.)

[rchristo10]

Skinship.

Give a little, take a little. Oh yeah.

[Aelric]

You see, everyone starts with exactly 10 face points at birth. You can lose points by having a bad reaction to anything (i.e. losing your cool over a prank), anything having a bad reaction to you (i.e. not losing your cool over a prank, therefore ruining the joke), having some physical of mental defect in yourself or your family (i.e. your son has downs, therefore you are filled with shame) or anything else at all (i.e. waking up, not waking up, living, dieing).

You can regain face in one or more of three ways:

1. Become rich through any means.

2. Attract a physically beautiful and stupid wife (brains on a wife make you lose face!)

3. Become an easily ignored cog in the great machine, keeping your head down and avoiding all interaction. Better lonely, emotionally stunted and unexceptional in every way your whole life than embarrassed for a heartbeat. Face will slowly regrow, but never increase past ten.


The concept of face has socially stifled the southeast Asian cultures. It is one cultural tradition I openly and vehemently denounce because it benefits no one, ever.

[polarbear119]

There are Western concepts that Koreans can't grasp either. One that comes to mind is character. Koreans don't see the purpose in doing something ethically, or honorably just for the sake of it being the proper thing to do. They will shortcut everything. They will never personally sacrifice something unless there is something in it for them. They lack this discipline and don't even see a need for it. They see character as a weakness to be exploited.

[fermentation]

Han is being bitter and blaming others for everything bad that happened to them.

I always thought the English equivalent to Jung was "attachment." Like people say they have jung for their dog after so many years. I think you can say they are attached to their dog.

[typo]