Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IamBabo]

Yeah, I've been driving here for over 5 years and to me it seems to have not changed at all or even gotten worse. In the last week, I have almost hit 2 small children with my car because of stupid uncaring/irresponsible "caregivers." And this is just in my apartment complex parking lot! There are always kids hopping around the backseat, not strapped in at all, etc. Idiot bus drivers blowing red lights, I count to five before I go these days to avoid death by bus. To me it's about accountability and enforcement. Nobody ever does anything about it. Police are useless too. I'm from Massachusetts, a place that has some rough Staties, but I'd prefer them patrolling the roads over the hungover, laissez-faire jokers here with lights always flashing for no reason Keystone Kops. Oh, and the selfish nature of people doesn't help at all either. Bbali Bbali at any cost...

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A year and a half ago, one of the kindergarten students (Korean age 3 - so probably barely 2 years old) came toddling up 2 flights of stairs by himself to my elementary school (the kinder is on the bottom floor). He had actually exited the building *by himself*, walked around the building and come up the stairs. No one knew who he was or where he was from. He was wearing a nametag but no one answered the number that was on the tag when a staff member made a phone call. I went downstairs to talk to the kinder director and she wasn't aware of any missing children.

As it was quitting time and I had my own child to pick up, I left him in the care of another teacher.

What actually happened was that the teacher gave the child to a 6th grade student, the teacher left the building, and the student was put in charge of finding who the child belonged to. Apparently none of the teachers in the kindergarten knew the kid was missing - even though most of the children had already left the kindergarten and so the teachers weren't busy teaching students at that time - but the kid's Korean age 5-year-old (read: barely 4 years old) brother was looking for him.

This is the starkest example I can find of "not having a culture of child safety". It's not the actual things that people do (leaving a toddler in the care of a child so you can go home and do whatever), it's the idea that there is nothing wrong with that, and the complete lack of foresight. When I came back to work the next day and inquired what had happened with the child, and none of the adults knew a thing, I was shocked. One employee even told me, "I didn't think about it as deeply as you did" when I mentioned how worried I had been, what if it had been my son, etc.

Just, the social awareness of general child safety - for one's own children or for children in general - doesn't seem to be as prevalent here as other places I have been (I won't even say "back in the U.S." because some parts can be fairly lackadaisical about child safety there, too).

And really, the carseat thing is a whole other matter. It seems every other infant in a car seat I see is in the front passenger seat, and may or may not be strapped in. It's like people think car seats have force fields in tact and that the higher the cost of the item the less damage it will sustain in any given crash. I know that Korea is changing, and the U.S. didn't mandate carseats until 1984 (or thereabouts), but I keep wondering how many awful tragedies will have to happen to produce significant change in this matter. It's the reason I don't mind keeping my kindergarten-aged son home from field trips, why I prefer the train to the bus, and why I avoid taxis unless they have a functioning seat belt for him to use if possible.

[Savant]

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[JustinC]

[Steelrails]

[wishfullthinkng]

[Smithington]

^ LOL.

Wishfulthinkng meet Steelrails. Steelrails meet Wishfulthinkng.

[wishfullthinkng]

[Zyzyfer]

[tealeaf]