Korean Job Discussion Forums

[buddy bradley]

Well, if you can't even spell "Picasso" correctly, what do you expect from the masses?

[canadianpicaso]

[canadianpicaso]

[peppermint]

[Blue Flower]

[Homer]

Canadian picasso...listen to Blue Flower...she is The One as far as sage advice for western women living in Korea....you will get a fair picture from her.

As for bowing, look at it like any form of greeting you may have encountered in your life.
Some people back home give a nod of the head. Here they bow and not bowing back is just a bit rude. Like someone offering you his or her hand and you just refusing to shake it (not precisely the same thing of course).

You should not find bowing strange, in fact, unless you have serious problems with social interaction you will not even notice that you and they are bowing to each other after a while.
These bows are just a slight inclination of the head and shoulders, not like blue flower said the full on head on the ground bows that are reserved for ceremonies.

[animalbirdfish]

[Ody]

Dear Picaso,

You are young, blond, and pretty, (young being key here) expect to be admired, i.e. "gawked at." You'll get used to it though as long as you realize it's a compliment.

Hope this helps.

[ratslash]

[Ody]

[Donghae]

Yeah, ratslash, like there are no men who are assholes in any of our home countries??


I'm not female, so granted not the best to judge here, but if it's any help I've had several female friends and relatives visit me when I was in Korea, travel there with me since I've been in Japan or go/come from there before/after visiting me in Japan. None has ever reported any problems and nearly all of them have commented that they actually felt safer than in their home country.

Also, I remember talking to a woman I worked with last year who reckoned that some other women she'd met had racist issues influencing some of their complaints. She said she'd more likely get her ass pinched in bars back home in Australia or get lewd comments about her body etc, and that whereas there it'd be thought of as unacceptable but just the bad apples, she found some western women here would react more strongly to even lesser things from local men and then claim "they're all like that here." She added that in their "superiority complex paranoia" as she put it, they'd conveniently forget the same or more likely worse things happening back home. Admittedly, this is a Japan story but if there is anything in what she was saying, then I'm sure it's applicable to Korea also as in my experience expat oversensitivity is about the same in both countries.

[Corporal]

[Ody]

[Corporal]

[canadianpicaso]