Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rapier]

Older korean men have that stern, fixed, dissaproving stare/gaze. They just look wrapped up in their own self importance. They behave like they're samurai warriors: look at them wrong and they'll slice your head off in an instant. They are prehistoric.

[Dr. Buck]

Get the *beep* out of the city and into the country where the "real" folks are.
Don't you see the correlation?
City equals weaklings and superficial flakes.
Country equals wise, tough old geezers that know more about life than any Yonsei twit.

I know the feeling and I have experienced it before and I think it all boils down to work: hard work, tough work. Not sitting at a desk, but from working the fishing boats or planting rice.

Check out the age of people out in the country--nobody under forty.

The last generation to break a sweat in this country were the two generations right after the Korean war. Since then, the following generations were so pampered and spoiled and brought up to be minor princes, that any character eveolved from hard work is non-existent.

[sparkx]

BTM -- Where you been hiding man??

It seems like an eon since I last saw that convulsing little man doing his little jig. There were times when I would hit the pillow at night and when I closed my eyes that little SOB had branded itself into my brain....ahhhh the good ol' days.

[Marathe]

[BTM]

[the_beaver]

[desultude]

I know the image they project, and sometimes I am put off by a taxi driver, but even most of them have been okay , even good.

I am now teaching a class of mid-level bureaucrats from the city government, and they are really fun. Its nice to get past the plaid shirts, bad ties and tummy high-belts and spend some time with them. Once you spend time with someone, the stereotypes melt away.

[weatherman]

My feeling on this is that they are not willing to except you as a part of the Korean system, and they push you outside of it all the time. They build up a wall of US and THEM, on the most subtile and of issues that are non issues. It is wearing...... it is tiring, even if you make a very good friend, this outside the system appears in subtile ways, and definitely on any national issue....

[HardyandTiny]

manners

[Paji eh Wong]

I think a lot of the OP's post had to do with being treated as an equal, as opposed to a speedbump.

I figure it's a Judeo-Christian vs Confucian thing. The thing that annoys the hell out of me is when adjossi thinks he's better than I am because he's older and I'm in his country. I think I've had a fairly strong sense of egalitarianism bread into me. I try to treat people as equals, and it makes me angry when adjossi doesn't extend me the same courtesy. Irrationally angry.

[riley]

Interesting topic. I wonder if it is because for a lot of them it is hard to feel comfortable. I had adult men in my class that I couldn't feel relaxed around. It felt like a wall was around them. I think that many are afraid to make a mistake in their English, so they don't speak. They are very tense and wary of any errors in what they say. No one wants to look foolish.
The ajumma classes were always different. A lot more of them were willing to talk and relax in class. It made it fun.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I think you answered your own question (in your second post): I've always had an indescribable reverence for men of the soil.

You approached the Indians with a romanticized view. You even mentioned that you didn't mind if they hacked people up with a machete or repeatedly stole things 'at machete point'.

The trouble in Korea is that you didn't come here with a romanticized view, so don't make any mental excuses for bad behavior.

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[J.B. Clamence]

So you finally decided to spoil your perfect 5000 number?

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

Yep, I only planned to look at it for a couple of days but to be honest, there have been no threads that have moved me to make a response lately. I see some great ones here tonight, so it looks like the cycle has come back around again.