Korean Job Discussion Forums

[toomuchtime]

After reading four pages of back and forths, I've come to the conclusion that each side has firmly imprinted beliefs that no amount of debate will shake.
Nonetheless, for those of you who haven't seen it, and therefore assume that it doesn't happen, I have to ask, 'what color is the sky in your world?'
I don't have to see domestic abuse back home to know that it happens. I have never seen a man hit a woman in the West, but I know it happens. I have seen a man hit a woman here- and therefore know that it happens here too, but would have been ready to believe the anecdotes of others, even if I hadn't.
Do you (those in denial) suppose that we who have seen the abuse are making it up?
The fact that so many people have seen it happen in public here, with few to no repercussions, is suggestive that much worse could happen in the privacy of a home.
(now that i think on it, I did have a five-year old boy bang on my door one night screaming for help, as his father wielded a butcher's knife at his mother next door. Oh wait, since you weren't there to witness it, I must be making it up.)
Domestic abuse happens everywhere, it just seems to be viewed as a private matter here, not one for public concern.

[Swiss James]

[The Lemon]

No, I don't believe you read the "four pages of back and forth". Where is anyone "assuming that it doesn't happen"? Please show me those posts. You're stating the obvious.

[ThisCharmingMan]

A "sycophant" can be a "whiner" or an "apologist."That's why not.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Things I have seen in Korea but not in Canada

A man (boy) punch his gf in the face and knock her head into the roof of his car, rendering her unconscious and convulsing on the ground requiring hospitalisation.

A man (boy) thrust a woman's hands into the flame on a gas stove in the kitchen of a restaurant, slam her face into a concrete wall and then kick her over a table.

A man (boy) throw his wife around their apartment and punch her repeatedly in the face in the hallway of his apartment building.

A man (boy) kick his date in the throat in the middle of a restaurant and proceed to shove his tongue down her throat.

45 year old men (boys) playing grab ass with high school girls.

Reporting violence to the police (clowns) and being told in English to learn to speak Korean or get out of the country (racket).

Two men (animals) curp-stomping two other men, laying their heads on concrete steps and then taking two steps back to punt their heads like soccer balls.

People (bipeds) leaving drunk bleeding people in the gutter to die.

A man (boy) get drunk, jump up on the table in front of my white female friend and thrust his crotch in her face.

Things I have seen in Canada but not in Korea

14 year old girls smoking crack on the street in front of the police station.

A young man getting his face split open with a golf club.

Someone slashing someone else's arm with a 2 ft. wood saw outside a bar.

Guns pulled on me in bars.

People getting smashed in the head with pint glasses and beer bottles.

People driving around naked in a van with guns and crack looking for hookers to screw.


Is this a male-female thing or is this a comment on overall levels of violence? Indeed, I would perhaps like to add that governmental policies in countries do forms of violence to the most vulnerable members of society in both countries. I am now, however, sounding like a Marxist Utopian. Time to stop.

[dogbert]

After that last post, it seems to me that what we see is not determined so much by whether we are in Korea or elsewhere, but rather more by the types of lives we lead and the circumstances in which we place ourselves.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Dogbert, what kind of point are you trying to make? I don't go looking for trouble, it just exists.

Things I have seen in Korea but not in Canada

A man (boy) punch his gf in the face and knock her head into the roof of his car, rendering her unconscious and convulsing on the ground requiring hospitalisation. --Happened on the street in Kangseo-gu, NEXT TO Seoul Immigration.

A man (boy) thrust a woman's hands into the flame on a gas stove in the kitchen of a restaurant, slam her face into a concrete wall and then kick her over a table. --Happened at 7 pm on a weeknight in Bundang, the richest suburb of Seoul.

A man (boy) throw his wife around their apartment and punch her repeatedly in the face in the hallway of his apartment building.--Also in Kangseo-gu.

A man (boy) kick his date in the throat in the middle of a restaurant and proceed to shove his tongue down her throat.--Hyewha station, trendy university area.

45 year old men (boys) playing grab ass with high school girls.--Bundang again.

Reporting violence to the police (clowns) and being told in English to learn to speak Korean or get out of the country (racket).--Bundang.

Two men (animals) curp-stomping two other men, laying their heads on concrete steps and then taking two steps back to punt their heads like soccer balls.--Ok, you got me. Hooker Hill.

People (bipeds) leaving drunk bleeding people in the gutter to die.--Chongno, Samgakji.

A man (boy) get drunk, jump up on the table in front of my white female friend and thrust his crotch in her face. --Kangseo gu

Things I have seen in Canada but not in Korea

14 year old girls smoking crack on the street in front of the police station. --Downtown Vancouver.

A young man getting his face split open with a golf club. -Vancouver, Water Street, major tourist area.

Someone slashing someone else's arm with a 2 ft. wood saw outside a bar. -Water Street as well.

Guns pulled on me in bars.--Ok, fine. It was a dive. The Ivanhoe.

People getting smashed in the head with pint glasses and beer bottles. --Several places in Vancouver. Graceland, The American Hotel.

People driving around naked in a van with guns and crack looking for hookers to screw. --Well, no comment on that one. I had some friends who.....


So, what I hear from you Dogbert is that your friends are all vicars, you never go out or if you do you attend bake sales and wine tastings. Is this correct? Would you say you have a happy and fulfilling lifestyle?

[nev]

A propensity for violence exists in a minority of people of all nations. Cultural boundaries and policing levels can shape the form that this takes.

I suspect that domestic violence is not so taboo in Korea as it is in Western countries. I hope, however, that this is changing. Currently, I would rather be the "average" wife in the UK than in Korea as far as domestic violence goes. Lkewise however, I would rather be a Korean wife of the 21st century than the 20th.

But as far as my own personal safety goes, I would far rather walk about any Korean city at 2am than face the menacing hoards of horribly drunk men and women of my hometown of Aberdeen, or any other British city for that matter, at the same time.

[The Lemon]

[dogbert]

Nope, not saying that at all.

It just seems like some people seem to have seen a lot of things in Korea and in North America that some people might never see.

So, I too, thanks to your example, can't view the Korean violence as something that is primarily culturally specific.

[Swiss James]

Frigging heck (sometimes the swear filter really does not do real-life justice) you've seen some crazy shizzle in your time Pyongshin.

[Homer]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Corporal]

[JongnoGuru]