Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Threequalseven]

I swear, if someone in this country goes in for their drivers exam and does really really poorly, a Korean bus company rep must be outside waiting to offer them a job. Seriously, I feel sick 100% of the time when I ride the inter-city buses here!

I just went cross country for Chuseok, and I watched (and felt) the driver as he tapped his foot on the accelerator the entire time!! Like every 2 seconds, he'd let off the gas and then down press again. What the hell is that?! Thankfully, the driver on the way home didn't have this habit. However, he still made absolutely zero effort to make the ride comfortable. Every turn was taken as sharp as possible. Every stop was as lurchy and sudden as possible. No foresight was used when he'd accelerate through traffic just to slam on the breaks seconds later. It really ruins traveling around Korea. Yet, when I look around the bus, all the Koreans are sitting there apathetic, plugged into their phones as usual. I just can't imagine that my girlfriend and I were the only people on those buses feeling miserable. Are people here just too "courteous" not to tell someone that they're driving like a a dickhead? Or is carsickness, like perspiration and body hair, an affliction Koreans don't have to deal with?

And let me be clear, this has nothing to do with the bus itself or some unknown difficulty bus drivers have to deal with. I've ridden plenty of buses and not felt like I'm going to lose my lunch or get flung out of my seat... just not here.

[caniff]

I was on a bus once in Ilsan going to work and another bus sideswiped ours. I don't think there was any damage, but we all had to sit there for about 15 minutes as the two old adjoshi drivers threw punches and screamed at each other in the middle of the street.

Good times.

[optik404]

The driving doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when old people get on and the driver takes off fast as hell. I swear some of them do it just to be dicks.

[Threequalseven]

City buses aren't the problem. I'm talking about the larger inter-city (between cities) buses.

[Steelrails]

Inter-city buses are why I bought a car. I'm one of those people who has to have the temperature set at my comfort level, go at my pace, stop when I want, etc.

On the other hand spending 100,000 won to drive to Seoul vs. 40,000 by bus and getting to pass out instead of having to stay awake at 2AM on a Sunday evening-Monday morning has its perks as well. But I do always buckle up on those buses.

[drydell]

Ah the constant gas pumping driver phenomenon.. Usually more experienced in cabs... One of the more daft behaviours some Kdrivers engage in..
Why do they do it?. no idea!.. Maybe a belief they save petrol.. But even if they do - really?.. Lurching forward and back all the time - nice way to consider your passangers...

[Who's Your Daddy?]

[coralreefer_1]

I remember taking a bus a few years ago, not long after there had been some express bus accident in Seoul where the bus was found to have been speeding and slammed into the back of a broken down car. After this (at least for awhile anyway) some if not all buses were equipped with some sort of buzzer that went off and continued on every second the bus was going over 100kph.

And I literally went batty listening to this sound for a 3.5 hour bus ride up to Seoul.

[mayorhaggar]

You'd think that on any trip through the Korean countryside you'd see roads lined with the burned-out husks of siwe buses.

What bugs me is how they always, always accelerate into sharp turns, which makes the bus feel like it's going to flip over. Who taught them to do that?

[Threequalseven]

One friend told me, "Korean men do everything hard and fast. Everything." Assuming this applies to bus drivers, the impression I get is that they're in a constant state of, "How can I make the next 100 meters as fast as possible?" Accelerating through sharp turns? Racing through traffic, despite an impending stop ahead? Dancing through lanes just to get ahead of one guy? Fantastic! Everything else like the comfort of the passenger and the actual time efficiency of such driving can come second.

I do wish I could ask these drivers about why they pump the gas pedal, though. But with my limited Korean, I would certainly be met with little more than a scoff and a bad attitude the rest of the trip.

[augustine]

I've only taken three trips to the countryside here and found it to be pretty smooth, never had a problem. Anyone here traveled in Vietnam? Those are some death wish having mofos. Pretty freaky when you're swerving around a mountain and look out to see a marker signifying a place where the bus flew off the mountain and everyone probably died.

[nicwr2002]

My wife and I yelled at a bus driver for watching the TV instead of driving. It was a night ride and the driver kept looking at the drama on the TV instead of focusing on the road. He was serving all over the place and needless to say I couldn't take a nap the entire time. I get nervous when they go through the toll gates, they don't slow down one bit to go through those narrow gates...

[3DR]

[beentheredonethat777]

I swear to G*d, there have been at least 15 or so occasions, while riding in buses in Korea, that I have actually called my family back home and told them I loved them and I may not see them on this side again.

Of course they were thinking, a war between the North and the South, I was 100% thinking, the bus driver is going to take us all out with him.

I felt a bit relieved reading the OP. Just knowing I'm not alone in this fight for my life, is half the battle.

Do they actually have licenses? anybody know?

What about the drivers who jump out at every red light to smoke? The first time I witnessed this, I was in shock.

[Weigookin74]