Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ThingsComeAround]

[Steelrails]

Steelrails Apologist Verdict: This guy is a douche.

[northway]

It's worse if you read the original piece:

[isitts]

[Adventurer]

I know this fellow personally, believe it or not. We were even "friends" on facebook, no more. He caused a major storm in Gwangju. The fellow was going out of his way to befriend foreigners. He is omnipresent, so to speak. Both local Koreans and foreigners slammed him for the the article big time. And some Koreans said that it more-or-less reflects his thinking, not their thinking, per se, and some thought it was ridiculous to comment on how old people think about the elderly based on one Australian woman in some city giving him a dirty look allegedly because he gave up his seat. The whole thing's ridiculous, and, anyway, we spend much more than South Korea on the elderly, and many of us do give up our seats. I have done it here-and-there. I haven't seen many Koreans do it, to be frank. A lot of the young people don't really care. If you've ridden buses you'd have seen that. Many expats thought he had some nerve writing all that when he was trying his best to befriend us.

Anyway, just because older Koreans treat younger Koreans at times doesn't mean Westerners aren't generous. We sometimes treat our best friends, people we're very close to, and we donate a lot of money to charities. And foreigners provide a ton of help to orphans in Korea and encourage local Koreans to do so, and have inspired Koreans to help their orphans even more. We sometimes have random people paying for other people's coffees. I have not seen that here. I have even for the heck of it bought cookies and gave it to a cab driver. Koreans are generous in their way, we're generous in our way. It need not be a pissing contest, so to speak.

Foreigners in Gwangju have worked hand-in-hand with Koreans to fund orphans. Many Koreans in Gwangju know that the foreigners do a lot of good and are good people, and so they didn't defend his article. And many Koreans and Korean Americans slammed his article as did foreigners from Latin America, Asia, Europe etc...

His article was full of anecdotes, very superficial, and vacuous. He was very sorry that he offended so many foreigners. He said it wasn't his intention, and that was musing. He didn't give it too much thought. He just want to share his observations. However, in the end, his observations made it seem as if he thought Koreans were superior to foreigners. Yet, he's the one trying to befriend so many foreigners rather than spending more time with Koreans, who he allegedly believes are more generous, faster drinkers, and treat the elderly.

Don't get too work up about it. He's not a bad person. He didn't think of the implications and the ramifications of his words. We were definitely incensed.

[drydell]

[duhweecher]

That has to be the poorest, least-thought-out crap I've read in years.

So are we talking societies that have social welfare programs in place for the elderly, or societies that will beat the idea of respect-for-elderly into the head of their children for the sake of old-age survival?

Hmm...I'd rather invest in a society that has social welfare programs in place rather than one banking on the the old-age view that kinship is immutable and the only means of social survival.

Was this guy making an attempt at bragging about Korea or exposing the country's greatest long-lasting fallacies? Kinship and (even notions of) family are not the cores of modern capitalist societies. Jesus...catch up with reality already.

A society that places such values on the elderly sure doesn't show it in terms of social spending...to say the least. Clearly a mismatch in theory & reality. Yeah, OK Korea...I'll believe you "care about your elderly" when I stop seeing senior citizens cleaning your public toilets.

[Paddycakes]

Anyone who gets worked up over some stupid guest editorial in the Korea Times needs to get professional help...

[Smithington]

"At the moment I found a young lady staring at me so unkindly and sharply. She seemed to be extremely upset with me. She wanted to take the seat for herself. She never cared about the person who was at least 70."

LOL. How does this clown know that the young lady wanted to take his seat? Why on earth would she be angry that he had a seat (unless he bumped her out of the way to get it, Korea style.) The "unkind and sharp look" also probably had something to do with the loogie he just loudly coughed up and drooled onto the ground mere inches from her foot (after finishing his cigarette under the posted 'no-smoking' sign, of course.)

She was angry because the dude was going to give her seat to an old lady.