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Things back home that would annoy Koreans/foreigners
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Smithington

Joined: 14 Dec 2011

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:11 pm Post subject:

- Having their drivers license suspended, and they've only been in the country a week. - Getting thrown out of a restaurant and all they did was drool a lugie into the ashtray. - Being confronted for sneezing on people, cutting in line, bumping into people, staring at black peole, etc.. - Having a boss who's younger than you, and she's from South-East Asia. - Being invited to Mr. Smith's house for dinner and never being invited back.

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:54 pm Post subject:

Smithington wrote:

- Having their drivers license suspended, and they've only been in the country a week.
- Getting thrown out of a restaurant and all they did was drool a lugie into the ashtray.
- Being confronted for sneezing on people, cutting in line, bumping into people, staring at black peole, etc..
- Being invited to Mr. Smith's house for dinner and never being invited back.

If I had ten thousand dollars for every time these happened I'd still be poor.

Seriously did you actually interact with Korean people back home or are you basing this on ridiculous stereotypes?

How would you feel if some Korean wrote

"Things Foreigners get annoyed by in Korea"

-There's no pizza and hamburgers at every lunch.
-Having an Asian person as a boss
-Not being able to riot over a sporting event
-Not having a gun to shoot
-Not having everyone speak English
-Not being able to go to the drive-through all the time and having to actually walk.

Sound insulting? Sound untrue? Sound like the person has never even talked to a foreigner in Korea? Of course.

And for the same reason, your post, and hte posts like it, are complete crap.

PatrickGHBusan

Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:51 am Post subject:

Smithington, Sr is right, that post of yours was pretty ignorant and insulting...it was also not based on anything other than some need to be snarky...

Newbie

Joined: 07 Feb 2003

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:03 am Post subject:

Steelrails wrote:

How would you feel if some Korean wrote

"Things Foreigners get annoyed by in Korea"

-There's no pizza and hamburgers at every lunch. [1]

-Not being able to riot over a sporting event [2]
-Not having a gun to shoot [3]
-Not having everyone speak English [4]
-Not being able to go to the drive-through all the time and having to actually walk. [5]

Sound insulting? Sound untrue? Sound like the person has never even talked to a foreigner in Korea? Of course.

And for the same reason, your post, and hte posts like it, are complete crap.

Well now, if we're talking Americans (my numbering of 1,3, and 5) and European soccer fans (my numbering of 2), and stupid white North Americans (number3) I'd say your examples are pretty accurate!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself Laughing

NilesQ

Joined: 27 Nov 2006

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:57 am Post subject:

Steelrails wrote:

Smithington wrote:

I'd be quite rich if I had $10,000 for every time I've seen a Korean spit in an ashtray, in Korea. I think the purpose of this thread is to imagine taking a Korean, not Korean American, and putting them in a western nation. What is done in Korea that wouldn't fly in the west and vica versa.

One of my burnt into my psyche moments when I first arrived was seeing this beautiful Korean woman all dressed up for a night on the town hawk a loogie and spit into an ashtray at a galbi place. It was too funny. However, I don't see people do that as much as they used to.

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:01 pm Post subject:

NilesQ wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

Smithington wrote:

Imagination and How Things Are are two entirely different things. And the "imagination" here isn't imagination, it's stereotype and bigotry.

If one were to truly imagine things, they'd use empathy and deductive reasoning, not stereotype. You know the empathy we expect and wish Koreans to have towards us.

I'd be quite rich if I had $10,000 for every time I've seen a Korean spit in an ashtray, in Korea. I think the purpose of this thread is to imagine taking a Korean, not Korean American, and putting them in a western nation. What is done in Korea that wouldn't fly in the west and vica versa.

One of my burnt into my psyche moments when I first arrived was seeing this beautiful Korean woman all dressed up for a night on the town hawk a loogie and spit into an ashtray at a galbi place. It was too funny. However, I don't see people do that as much as they used to.

As someone who lived in a town that had a constant influx of new Korean arrivals (basically a new bunch every uni semester) I can assure you that they are not like that. Koreans who move (tourists might be different) to the USA actually tend to look around and see how others act and try to blend in somewhat and are uber-self conscious.

First off 90% end up at a church within their first couple of weeks where smoking and drinking are absolutely verboten. They may smoke and drink privately (and often do, to excess) or have a casual beer with dinner, but they don't go out drinking like back home. Now that is definitely an annoyance for some, but this is in response to Korean Immigrant culture (distinctly different from Korean-American culture), at least in my town.

Put it this way, in Korean immi circles, you don't ask "Do you go to church?", you ask "What church do you go to?".

One of the really intimidating parts is not dealing with other foreigners, its dealing with other Koreans. You've got one group which was fabulously wealthy back home. You might just be normal/upper-middle class, but in your Bible study group or Korean friend circle in H.S. is the daughter of The Face Shop's CEO or the son of the Executive VP of Woori bank. Also you've got the Koreans who come over here and have "made it" and even if they were just middle class back home, are living in what would be a near-mansion in Korea, 2 brand new cars, golfing, etc. and some of them pull this off within a year or two. But you may have been at the same "level" back in Korea but you get there, for whatever reason can't get a good job, and you're working at a liquor store or dry cleaners while they're at Pfizer.

Actually I can think of one guy who stayed "typical ajosshi" back home and that was my ex-boss. Dude would regale us with such tales as "Last night I get so drunk, I see two lines while driving, so I put my hand over one eye and drive home safe" or "Last night I was so drunk, I try to park my car in my garage. It not fit.", shagging the Korean dry-cleaning ajumma two doors down from his joint, admitting to not being allowed back in Korea despite being quite wealthy, stories of business meetings and women/booze back in Korea, Jury-rigging repairs and dodging regulations, ignoring no-smoking signs, and more.

Unlike church-going Koreans, he was blunt and openly bigoted and nakedly greedy and cursed rgularly. And unlike them, he was one of the few who worked with minimum-wage people and a large number of minorities, ex-cons, rednecks, ghetto types, and druggies. He was able to relate surprisingly well, because while he may have been bigoted and greedy, he was bluntly honest and didn't play games, which people in that situation respected more than some false PC charm. Dealing with people on the bottom end of society, they could get frustrated and smoke in the back of the store (poor people smoke and hate smoking bans. They spit too) or call in drunk or even get busted for drugs and he'd understand. And he actually admitted to narcotics use in Korea-

"Did you ever do marijuana?" "Marijuana is that some sniff sniff?" NOOO Mr. Kim! "Oh, in that case no."

He didn't care much for brand names and appearances. Threw Christmas parties and was pretty charitable to his own employees, many of whom might as well have been on Maury, and was if anything too patient and generous with them.

The point of this rambling, overly-long post, is that things are not what you might assume on the surface. If you actually lived in a place and got in deep with the Korean immigrant community you'd realize that those things really do not match. And at the same time, that typical ajosshi guy might actually relate better to "real" Americans on a certain level, many of whom hold indifferent attitudes towards the law, smoking, drinking, and PC-views.

hiamnotcool

Joined: 06 Feb 2012

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:13 pm Post subject:

Steelrails wrote:

Smithington wrote:

It doesn't really sound untrue or insulting. On average the foreigners I meet complain about 3/6 of the things on that list. I personally wish I could shoot a gun, communicate with everyone in English, and use the drive through. Not being able to do those things does annoy me at times. If a Korean person said that to me I would probably laugh and tell him he would miss kimchi and squat toilets, and he would probably laugh at that too. You see, Koreans have a sense of humor. I think it's about time for you to take a break from the superhero business and let some else don a costume and defend all things Korean for a little while. You are really starting to lose it.

NilesQ

Joined: 27