Korean Job Discussion Forums

yakey · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Korea

I've been in two cases of road rage in the last month where Koreans just simply went nuts.

1. I was in an apartment parking lot and a guy had just parked illegally right in front of my car. I asked him to move his car. He walked up and put his face about an inch from mine, raised his middle finger and said, "FU," then pushed me. He raised a fist to hit me and I ducked and pushed him back which seemed to scare him and he ran into his apartment.

2. I was driving in the left-hand lane on a street with two lanes on each side, but the right-hand lanes on each side are each dotted with illegally parked cars. So a guy speeding tried to suddenly miss a parked car he's about to run into and quickly makes an evasive and unsafe lane change almost on top of my car. I honk my horn as he almost hit me. He makes a screeching halt at a green light, gets out of his car with fists raised and yelling all kinds of vile crap. I back the car up about 8 feet to evade him and surprisingly this time other Koreans stop him in the satreet and tell him it was his fault and to stop harrassing me and he leaves. I was helped by the Koreans sitting at a neighboring Family Mart drinking coffee at lunch time, and some other local business people.

If you drive, just beware. To me, these are no-win situations. You just want to defuse it and evade as quickly as possible.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Try driving a Matiz.

When I don't allow the taxi drivers and old farts driving an 8 year-old Hyundai Grandure or Ssanyoung Chairman to just push me aside, they go absolutely bonkers.

Sometimes I just play with their brains.

I've learned the best thing to do is to laugh at them, shake your head "no", and shake your pointer-finger at them. Never get mad, just laugh at their face when they go out of their way to pull up next to you and stare. It makes them seethe with anger.

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

Try driving a motorcycle. While waiting to make a left turn a taxi decided he was going to go around me to make the turn at the same time I started to go. Having nearly been flattened I gave into the rage and gave him the finger. He followed me for two blocks, managed to pass me on a busy city street, cut me off and stopped his car in the middle of the road. He got out to come and yell at me, saw I was a 6'5" foreigner, got back into his taxi with everyone he's blocked off staring at him and left.

poeticjustice · Joined: 28 Feb 2009

I'm not sure you could call this road rage or not...

A week ago I was at a gas station on my motorcycle. There were eight or nine kids working there (high school age) but no other customers so they all huddled around to look at the foreigner on a bike. I didn't mind it so much.

I told them to fill it. It should have cost about 12,000 to fill my bike. There was a little bit of gas left but not much. Anyway, I politely make sure they understand and one of them puts the nozzle in my bike, squeezes for two seconds, then stops pumping and says "만원."

I thought there was a bit of confusion. I said "not full" "full 하주세요" etc etc. but he still kept saying "만원!" and pointing to his hand. I told him I wasn't going to pay $10 for a second's worth of gas and that I wanted him to fill it. By this time I realized they were dicking me around as a bunch of them were behind the pump laughing.

I wasn't sure how far this joke was going to go so I just kept telling them to fill it. The boy with the gas nozzle squeezed just a drop more of gas into my tank and said "만오천원!" and started pointed at his hand. Then he said "ARE YOU OKAY?! ARE YOU OKAY?!" and started laughing.

I said "Okay! I'm okay. 끝났어요!" I gave up. He pulled the nozzle out, I locked the tank, turned the engine on and drove out of there as fast as I could without paying. I looked in the rearview mirror and they were all chasing after me.

Now I can never go back to that gas station again. Too bad, as its near my home Sad

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

I once saw two young Korean motorcyclists (delivery guys) going at it in Itaewon. They were in the middle of the road, pushing and shouting, oblivious to the cars braking and swerving around them. Absolutely hilarious. I was only visiting - and didn't have my camera. Talk about missing out on a real-life Korean photo op. I remember thinking, this sums up Korea - North and South - forever 'fighting'.

asmith · Joined: 18 Jun 2009

I drive every bit as wildly as the Koreans.

I even stop in the middle of the road to get my Toad Juice from the local super.

I just make sure to turn on my flashers.

poeticjustice · Joined: 28 Feb 2009

byrddogs · Joined: 19 Jun 2009 Location: Shanghai

This topic is one of the very reasons I sold my car recently. It wasn't always the locals with the rr, if you know what I mean.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

yeremy · Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: Re: Parking Lot Rage

I'm not sure the parking lot incident qualifies as road rage. At least two motorists have to be driving and getting into it to qualify as road rage, right? There tend to be too many [darn] cars in many parts of Korea, especially in the apartment complexes. Often Korean drivers will leave their cars in neutral in case you want to leave and they parked in front of you. That's how it seems to work here, especially in the more crowded urban and suburban areas. Get used to it. They aren't going to change for you.

The basic problem here is enforcement. There isn't hardly enforcement at all, which is a big problem here. I mean, the only enforcement that you usually see on the highways are the speed cameras, which many Korean drivers have the locations of on their in car GPS. What good is that? I've only seen one manned radar speed trap in the last two years.

Another issue is that the Korean National Police Agency, from what I have heard, does not have the authority to police the roads, so they don't. That is in total contrast to the police in the US, who are known to sneak up on you and to look for any tiny detail like a broken tail light to pull you over.

earthbound14 · Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Location: seoul

driving in Korea doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to do. There are more than a few angry and aggressive drivers.

It's hard to say exactly why. Some are like that because others are so bad and do so much stupid crap. Others are just plain arseholes who think they can do anything, everyone else sucks, there car is better or bigger and thus they are allowed to do whatever they want or that driving agressively and dangerously actually means they are a better driver than you and it's your fault for not getting out of their way.

Luckily nothin turns into out right violence here all that often. Back home I'd be worried about things getting ugly if people yelled at me the way they do here. But here it's just yelling....

I too get road rage a lot here. I've punched cars many a time. Many drivers just do nt give the proper right of way to motorcyclists and do things that are very dangerous for us. Many of the couriers and delivery guys get pretty nasty too in dangerous situations. Without proper police control it's kind of up to you to state your case then and there and hope that it never happens again. The problem is when you start thinking it's always someone elses fault and get angry when you shouldn't. I once barked at a lady for cutting me off...only to look back and realize it was I who had run the red light....I was so accustom to people blasting this red light near my house that I just assumed that's what she had done...

I'd just say, look out for yourself, don't get too riled up and if someone gets nasty...let em know they are an idiot and leave. Sometimes they just need you to stand up to them and put them in their place...other times it's just not worth it.

NightSky · Joined: 19 Apr 2005

the majority of Koreans are scared of any interactions with us, and this applies to road scenarios too. they get all ready to come scream at you and then they see a whitey behind the wheel and it has a remarkable cooling effect on their temper because they assume you probably won't understand anything they say anyway.

of course, a small percent of the population is just crazy or drunk anyway and don't give a shit where you come from, they want to mess you up, try to avoid that variety.

GwangjuParents · Joined: 31 Oct 2008

I drive everyday, and I'm amazed there isn't more road rage.

In order to drive in Korea, you have a "let it go attitude". Or you'll get a bit batty.

If you're one of those guys who gets into an emotional state over the slightest perceived slight, I would recommend not driving in Korea.

Still, though, there are countries a lot worse than Korea when it comes to driving... some of the complaints here make me think your only driving experience is in Iowa...