Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TellyRules986]

More tame:

1. Do you have guns?

I then explain that my dad owns guns and likes to collect weapons, like swords and knives. They're usually shocked and ask me if I've used a gun before, to which I say yes because we used to go hunting and shoot targets together. At that point that asker's usually amazed, but I just hunch my shoulders.

Been asked both of these once by two different people:

2. Do they have cars in your country?

3. Do they wear clothes (as in, western-style clothing versus something else)?

A mom asked me the first one through her daughter. I had been teaching her daughter for nearly a year and she still didn't know where I was from. Random dude in a club asked me the second one. When they asked me those things I then asked them where they thought I was from.

[Mix1]

"Do Americans like chocolate?"

A little kid asked me this in Korean at a park once. I replied to him in Korean: "Of course! ALL PEOPLE like chocolate!"
He nodded "Ah..." He totally got it.

Ah, little kids. It was cool because he was too young to be racist and hadn't learned he was supposed to disdain foreigners yet, he was just completely innocently curious about someone different than him (non-Korean).

Some other funny questions of his (in Korean - not typing it out - I'm lazy):
"Do Americans rollerblade?"
"Do Americans like pizza?"

[wishfullthinkng]

i had a korean ask me one time what americans think about canadians. a strange question indeed, so i told them that americans think canadians spend all their time sitting around in the woods looking for any animals that they could ride and proceed to try and ride them.

i got a blank stare of awe and wonderment.

[geedawg]

[cdninkorea]

I get weird questions and beliefs about Canada (and North America in general) from my students, and I teach university (as opposed to small children). Things like:

- Canadians eat burgers and pizza at every meal (even breakfast), and rice is a very rarely eaten food.
- Canadians wear their shoes in the house, all over the place (do they think we bathe and sleep with them on?)
- Canadians sleep around all over the place (unlike Korean uni students, who are all virginal until marriage, right? )

And so on. When I tell them the average young Korean eats pizza and burgers more than I do (once every couple weeks or so), I don't think they believe me.

[pkang0202]

When I taught elementary school, I printed out some school lunch menu's. The kids were blown away.

They were like, "They can eat this all the time!?!?"

[Mix1]

Ah...not a question to me, but a Korean coworker asked someone new to Korea as we were going out to lunch:

"Have you ever tried...RICE?"

Seriously.



I told the coworker she probably shouldn't ever ask anyone that question again. It's like asking if someone has ever tried bread. She didn't understand why it was a silly question, as if Korea is unique in having ...rice!

[Died By Bear]

Sometimes I think they just come up with these questions to see if we're paying attention to them.


But that's not why I posted here, just wanted to say:


Boom Boom Boom Catfight bitches.....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYnb6x838nY&feature=player_embedded#!

[soomin]

I was also told that if you see a policeman in America, immediately put your hands up or else he will shoot you.

"Will a policeman shoot me?"

"If I say 'negro,' will a black man shoot me?"

"If you go to New York, you will go to Harlem and a black man will shoot you"

"If I say 'f*ck' in America, will someone shoot me?"

And my personal favorite...

"Do you know a gay?" coupled with "I don't/can't understand gays."

When I tell them that I do, indeed, have homosexual friends, they ask me if I'm a lesbian, or just gasp like I told them I was friends with some tigers and aliens O.O;;;

[rchristo10]

Do Americans (insert rest of sentence)?

[Scorpion]

A few years back a Korean student complained that the only Korean word I knew was "ice cream". How did I know it? Did we have ice cream in the States? Did Koreans take it there?

Reminds me of watching Arirang TV a few years back. A token foreigner was talking about giving up his seat for an elderly person in Chicago or some place, and the interviewer seized on it without missing a beat. "Oh, did you learn that from seeing Korean students doing it in America?"

Last time I ever watched Arirang TV.

[highstreet]

Someone asked me if we ate garlic in the states once.

I think they were just trying to make conversation though

[Zyzyfer]

[The Sultan of Seoul]

A Korean taxi driver onced displayed astonishment that I knew how to text on my cell phone. He thought only Asian countries had modern cell phones.

An adjoishi once asked my friend if he was miguk and when my friend replied he was yongook, the adjoishi looked confused and said in Korean 'same thing isn't it?'

Was in Shanghai over Xmas and a girl I was talking to in her twenties told me proudly that in America people only read books and newspapers on the subway but Shanghainese use modern things like kindles, i-phones and i-pads.... Oh and that we all like sweet and sour pork best. Well, it is good, so who wouldn't?

[joelove]

This guy I know, let's call him Ross, told me a funny story once. Or maybe it was sad. Anyway, he gets a cab in Seoul, and the driver asks him where he is from. Ross answers, South Africa. The driver doesn't believe him and even gets angry because surely Ross is being a jerk and lying to him. A white guy from South Africa, see.

Now wasn't that funny? No, no it wasn't.