Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ABC KID]

Have you ever experienced Korean children swearing at you in public (in the streets/near your apartment/other)? If not, what would you do in that situation? If you have experienced it, please answer the following questions:

What was the age and gender of the person involved or was it the work of a group?

How did you handle it? Did you ignore it? Did you use a few well-chosen expletives of your own in English/Korean? Did you give a composed reply? Did you report it to someone?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Rusty Shackleford]

Yes. But I have had punk kids swear at me back west, as well.

[definitely maybe]

[Xuanzang]

My apologies...

[mr. positive]

one time i was walking past an elementary school just after the students had been let out for the day, so there kids everywhere and one boy yelled, "hey, mother******!" i had no idea who it was, and really i didn't care beecause it's just some kid showing off for his friends, but iremember it because his pronunciation was spot-on. :)

[cdninkorea]

One day when I was working at this elementary school and walking through the dirt field there were two kids, boys, in the lower grades. As I'm walking by, one of them shouts "hi." I reply with "hello." Then, as I pass, he says"hi dog baby" (except he said it in Korean, which apparently violates the TOS if I write it in Korean). I ignored it and kept walking. He says it again, except this time louder.

I spin around, get in his face, point at him and say very sternly "야!사과해!" (hey! Apologize!). He gives me a very sincere apology, in English, and I go on my way again.

[eIn07912]

Perhaps they've cursed at me, but I refuse to learn the local language so I'd never know. Ignorance is bliss.

However, this past week, our school started a "free class day", where every Friday, if you want, you can take your kids out to play dodge ball or some other activity because the moms were complaining there were too many classes. I chose to do arts and crafts instead. But my co-teacher took her classes out and said all they did the whole time was curse each other, yelling them at the top of their lungs actually. I asked how could she let them do that. She just said she told them to stop but they wouldn't. I've also been told that their homeroom teachers let them curse in Korean and English as much as they want.

There truly is no discipline for children in this country. It just does not exist. There's going to be a whole generation twice as bad as the rude old adjoshi's around now.

I can say this with all honesty and no animosity whatsoever; this country is going down the drain. If you made a list of all the things that are going to bite them in the arse in the coming decades, there'd be too many to count. It wont be too long before they get taken over again. Not out of a conquering spirit like in centuries past. But merely to stabilize the region and prevent the peninsula from dragging down everyone else with them.

Anyone ever watch the "Gundam 00" series? It's set a few hundred years in the future, and in that future, China has essentially spread over all of her neighbors. Including the Koreas and major swaths of South East Asia. I feel that is a very real possibility. It wouldn't be the first time life imitates art.

[D.D.]

So swearing causes the loss of ones country. I bet the Germans lost the war because angry man with the little mo was always cursing.

[Old Gil]

Start walking at them if you can. Don't yell, don't do anything, just make eye contact and walk right at them. It's happened twice to me, both times they turned around and came back. It's weird they're still conditioned to obey an adult (at least in my case) and they stayed put and waited for me.

I just told them (in what Korean I could muster) that it's incredibly rude and they cannot do something like to a foreigner. Then a really loud ajeossi style 일겠지!?! a few times. They looked good and cowed. I don't know if it changes anything really but I felt better.

[thoreau]

<<<deleted>>>

[clyde]

Yes but a fair one that we, as teachers, are qualified to make.

[rgv]

(FYI, I teach elementary) This is one of the things I take kinda seriously so if it's one of my students saying something dirty they get in trouble. Foul language isn't appropriate regardless of the language and I'd like my kids to learn some respect for the English they know. This goes the same for semi-curse words. I had to have a whole series of 5 minute classroom openings about how "shut up" was a really rude thing to say after it showed up on boys before flowers and all the kids started saying it. Surprisingly it all seemed to work and the kids don't say bad things aside from the occasional middle finger to their buddy in anger moment (which they get in trouble for as well).

Only time I've ever been cursed at in public (in Korean) and caught it in passing was from an ajumma, but she was probably a few months from croaking anyway so I didn't figure it was worth the fight.

Once though we were at a rest stop coming back from a field trip to Seoul. There was also a bus of college students stopped with the students sitting on the steps. One particular guy kept randomly screaming out at the top of his lungs "WHAT THE ****!!" When I noticed a bunch of my students looking over at them (giving them the, ooooh he's cool look) and he yelled it again I went over and ripped him one for setting a bad example. I'm not sure he understood everything I said, but he got the point when I told him to grow up and pointed at my kids 20 feet behind him watching. That one was pretty satisfying actually...

Of course I curse constantly, just not in school/or around my students when I see them in town.

[BoholDiver]

If you are right, then pretty much the whole world is going down the tubes. Who's going to take us over? Everyone's messed up.

There was a beating at West Edmonton Mall yesterday that has everyone shocked. Women on women, totally random. You could say the same thing there.

[Julius]