Korean Job Discussion Forums

[UKsimon]

by using the sentence

'You will inevitably become an ajumma'

That backfired and she stormed off and won't talk to me.

Is this really that offensive or is she (as I guess) just an overreacting princess?

[hondaicivic]

[jvalmer]

You made the biggest mistake when talking to a young Korean woman. Unless the lady you are talking to is clearly an ajuma, and in no way attracted to, don't use the word.

[happiness]

age-ism is a weapon. kids learn it very young. its good to be a kid, or an old person, but nothing in between. that said, i love all the balck hair dying, esp when the ajushii is balding, has a combover , but his hair is jet black.

there is no 40 is the new 20 here. no young girl wants to be seen as anything but a sweet young innocent thing, so she can get a good handsome man who will please her parents.

i am 38 now, im in good shape, dress well, and have alot of cool talents what impress my firends back home. Here, Im just "ajushii" teacher to all the viriginal 24 year old teachers in the hagwon. noone here can escape it. its a wild card to pull out to insult/attack/jab at someone when youre at a loss.

that said, i know they envy the hell out of our freedom in the US.

[sadguy]

she sounds dumb and overly sensitive. you're teaching her a word and i'm guess you were just joking.

[Globutron]

[Jake_Kim]

You could've simply said, 'Everyone inevitably dies at some point.'

Relating Ajumma-ness to any young woman in her face sounds more like picking a fight, not even teasing.

[redaxe]

a good woman would have laughed at that one and maybe told you that you'll inevitably become a gross old foreign English teacher.

[sadguy]

[cragesmure]

[Kuros]

[JMO]

I would never make an age related joke around a woman unless she is too young or too old to take offense. Or my sisters..but that is just when we are being mutually cruel. Women in general don't like jokes about their age or how well they are aging. Not rocket science.

[UKsimon]

She normally has such a great sense of humour.

I'll think twice about mocking her future image in the future.

[AsiaESLbound]

Young Koreans feels same as we would about the closed minded shell shocked looking old people sitting on the side of a freezing cold street selling garlic or hunched over with aching back working red pepper into a red tub of gimchee wearing pink rubber gloves and cooking, "tinny," tasting war era soup in a huge aluminum pot. I wouldn't want to be compared to them or told I was going to be like that. It's inevitable that you insulted her by teaching, "inevitable," using the most dreaded idea in a young Korean's concious awareness. "Adjumma," carries many connoctations of this not so pretty manual laboring bitter old lady with a round permed hairdo who never knew joy and happiness with the ability to step outside this stereotype to just be themselves.

[candypants]

a sensitive women,you'd better admit that you were joking