Korean Job Discussion Forums

jkelly80 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Location: you boys like mexico?

hella scary

Papa Smurf · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Seoul

not scary at all.

i've never noticed anybody not wanting to sit next to me on a bus/subway etc

MilkChocolate · Joined: 24 Feb 2009

I don't think I scare people, some parents bring toddlers to say hi to me. Teenagers stare and sometimes say hi..

Last week a random Korean man ran up to me and said "O..O..O?..Obama?.. OBAMA!!!!" and then ran away.. maybe he goes up to every black person with this OBAMA!! thing.. strange..

I scare the men though, they smile and kind of wave, giggle, and jog off.. weird..

I often get told I am nice looking so its not so bad..

mgafunnell · Joined: 11 Apr 2007

do you want those obnoxious, ill mannered folk sitting next to you anyway?

Oreovictim · Joined: 23 Aug 2006

sadguy · Joined: 13 Feb 2011

weird, my reply didn't show up...........

anyway, here it is:

i think lots of koreans are scared of me. a girl even said i looked scary in korean and my gf overheard it.

i have a shaved head and two gauges with tattoos and i'm pretty muscular BUT i'm also asian. they think i'm a gangster.

there was this one time i was walking to my apartment, and there was another girl entering right before me. there's a security code that you have to enter to open the door. as the door was opening, i was right there at the entrance so i walked in, and she didn't. she just waited there.

i knew she was waiting there because she thought i was going to attack her, i wish i knew enough korean to say "3119, that's the code, i live here, i'm not gonna touch you."

West Coast Tatterdemalion · Joined: 31 Aug 2010

I got the empty seat quite a bit last year. I think it was due to the fact that I had long hair at the time, plus I have tribal tattoos on my upper body(usually covered, but sometimes during the summer, it is too hot). A lot of Koreans have told me that I look Russian and a couple of Korean friends told me that people on the subway probably think I'm a member of the Russian mafia. One time, I overhead a little kid telling his mother about me and he used the Korean word for "gangster." So, I can only imagine what the older set thinks.

gypsymaria · Joined: 08 Jun 2010 Location: Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do

I am the opposite of scary to Koreans. Little old ladies and men offer me seats in the "handicapped/elderly/pregnant lady" section when they see me standing (and I'm chubby, but not nearly enough to be mistaken for pregnant!). If I happen to stand still for more than three seconds in a subway station, I inevitably get some well-meaning Korean fellow with decent English approaching me to ask if I need help.

Then again, I'm a short, chubby girl with Shirley Temple curls and dimples and glasses. I'm about as threatening as a marshmallow (and just as squishy).

I kind of wish I were a little scarier. I've made toddlers, who've never seen a foreigner before, cry and run to their mothers, but that's about it.

What do you guys suggest? Leather? Shaving my head? Wink

Jane · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

chellovek · Joined: 29 Feb 2008

I'd say below average scariness. People, men and women, come to talk to me.

Having said that, there was one occasion which rammed home that some people find me scary. I was walking home to the small apartment block (owned by the education board) in my village and one of the women who lives there was walking along ahead of me. As she was walking along she looked behind and saw me ambling along (still a fair distance away) and she stopped dead watching me with mortal dread and wouldn't move until I had walked past, way past. It just struck me as ridiculous, what was I going to do? Attack her? I'm the only white person in the village and everybody knows where I work and where I live. This woman has seen me around before too. If I had attacked what would the police interview with her have gone like?

Policeman: "Describe your attacker, please"
Woman: "He's white, male, and lives in the flats owned by the Education Board"
Policeman: "Ahh yes, that'll be chellovek, we'll go arrest him now."

That really got my goat.

Lastrova · Joined: 30 Dec 2010

Well, if little kids are always coming up to me and poking me on the subway, I'm probably not very scary. But it depends on my mood. A chilled and cheerful expression makes me look a lot more approachable.

DorkothyParker · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: Jeju

I am a female, so I'm not really scary in general. I do have tattoos on my legs, but I don't see anyone really noticing. Some of the ajummas at the sauna seem vaguely amused, but I don't think they think much of it either way.

My husband is of a stockier build and he has closely cut hair (like a #1 buzz all over) and a big full beard so he should be scary. And yet, little kids love him. Sometimes we'll see a little crying baby in a store, they get one peek at him and they are silent, just staring. I don't know what it is. He isn't a smiley kind of guy, he just exudes comfy vibes, I guess.

seoul777 · Joined: 03 Mar 2010

it happened in the usa too...

but i am often told here not only that i look evil but that i also look like the devil. and it confuses me a bit because i was raised religious and even i do not know what the devil looks like.

SinclairLondon · Joined: 17 Sep 2010

Koreans used to be scared of me when I weighed 230 and benched 300. Just bulk, mostly. Later, I picked up Kickboxing and dropped down to 165. Now, I get bumped into all the time, receive intimidating looks when walking alone at night in the wrong places, etc.... Its funny because I know I can either beat em or easly out run em if need be.