Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

I don't want to start a flame war, start a chain of Korea bashing, or some counter bashing flame war that devolves to comments like "oh you think you're so high and mighty let's talk about all those fat people I see in Toronto"��

That said, do Koreans seem to you like people with good advanced planning skills? Now I can only judge based on Korean teachers, hagwon owners, etc. And that's hardly a representative sample of Korean people. I readily caution others who quickly judge all Koreans based on one dishonest hagwon director and the neurotic teachers he's created in his Skinner box masquerading as an educational facility.

But they do seem terribly reactive. Like more often than not, I find out my work schedule has changed but no one has told me for a solid day.

I have this pet theory that a 3,000-year old monoculture tends to produce a line of thinking like "well, for every situation there's something in our culture that tells us how to handle it, so sit tight and let shyte happen. The answer will present itself."

[JacktheCat]

Are you familiar with the Korean idiom "bali bali"?

I think this whole do-it-at-the-last-possible-moment thing is more a byproduct of Korea's rapid industrialisation (they went from being a third world basket case to being one the world's biggest industrial powers in just three decades) than some ingrained cultural trait.

[ryleeys]

"Bali bali" my ass... they run everywhere, yet stand at the crosswalk because of the little red light when nary a car is to be seen.

[Skarp]

Not planning runs deep in Korea. I think it is because of the authority of elders, employers etc to make demands at the last minute - any plan will never survive so people just stop bothering...

People are bad planners most places - laxiness is not confined to ROK.

Skarp

[weatherman]

Yes, planning in Korea isn't the most thought of, but what I think is behind this is a lack of communication. Nobody really talks about what needs to get done or how it should get done. Nobody wants to be direct and impliment direction and organization, Korean managers will decree it, but then the communication plain breaks down.

[Skarp]

I meant laZiness.

Laxness is another choice - or is it laxity? Slackness is another option. You know what I mean anyway.



I agree - communication is absent here from most work places and relationships.

Just a lot of silence.

See people in bars. Watch people eating. Friends will go and do something - never sit and talk....

It's also absent from most EFL classes - and it's not all the fault of incompetent/lazy teachers...

Skarp

[jazblanc77]

I like weatherman's take on this. I think it is also a matter of social protocol and how you should be careful about how you present 'plans' to people in different levels of the hierarchy. If the person at the top isn't organised, the people under him/her won't be either.

I asked my wife about this yesterday and she thought I was crazy!

[JW]

Thank God for this forum. I thought it was just me.

[Demophobe]

This strays a little from the current direction, but is congruent with the title of the thread.

Have you noticed that when they construct a new building, no accomodations are made for boilers, air conditioners, vents, cable TV lines or drain pipes?

They complete a building and within weeks, it has holes crudely chistled through the new walls, windows and ceilings. Corners of windows broken out to fit the boiler exhaust pipe. TV wires, gas lines and air conditioning lines are strewn over the building randomly, haphazardly, often dangling loose in front of windows or over balconies and doors.

They don't even think that the tenants of an apartment may want cable? Air conditioners? Gas? A boiler?

How about new buildings (such as the one I currently work in) with NO HEAT AT ALL? No heating system is installed in the building. At least, one that isn't designated for apartments.

It's like they don't know about winter.

I guess it's the raging kerosene burner in the middle of the room this winter. Headaches, nausea, tiredness...you know...all of the cozy trappings of CO2 poisoning.

So, the windows muct be open in the winter or else we could die.

Really, I think that in many ways this is the land of the morning afterthought.

[lush72]

I am CONVINCED that koreans CANNOT see cause and effect relationships. But... that makes it even easier to exploit these fools!

[Kalhoun]

It would seem that the part of the brain for planning ahead is not found in most Koreans.

[oneiros]

[Blind Willie]

[Son Deureo!]

This topic came up in Korean class, and my teacher's take on it was that planning ahead in Korea is considered to be unmanly. Rather than being anal retentive and trying to plan for situations that may not even happen, it's better to be able to swoop into a crisis situation "like MacGyver" (her words, not mine) and take care of business.

Tough to say if it's the truth or not, but at least it made me laugh.

[phaedrus]