Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hadeshorn]

As usual when I head to my usual PC room (God is watching me count the days till I buy my own computer) and I try and find a place where there are no smokers on either side of me.

I usually find a computer, sit down and within 5 mins. Someone pulls a smoke from their pocket and lights up.

I come home smelling like I have been to a bar. I hate it!

I wish they would ban smoking indoors like they do in Australia.

[hippie]

They're getting closer and closer to that ban all the time. I first came to Korea 4 years ago, and the only establishments with no smoking sections were Starbucks and western restaurants (Burger King, Chili's [where are they by the way?]), but lately, I've seen a lot more non smoking facilities, including non-smoking sections in PC bangs.

[shawner88]

[tomwaits]

I noticed my last job in Incheon they banned smoking in the stairways---not that it seemed to stop anyone. Newer pricier PC bangs seem to have non-smoking areas...

Most remind me of the old joke--there 2 sections, smoking and chain smoking...

I smoke-a lot -but there are so many here you would think there could be both...Smoking and non-smoking rooms I mean.

I feel guilty (a bit ) lighting up beside someone that doesn't smoke so this would suit me fine...

[kangnam mafioso]

i loved smoking in the pc rooms and everywhere else. korea is a great country for smokers, period. i loved going to get kalbi with friends and colleagues and lighting up half-way through dinner. i never used to do that at home. and once, on a flight to china, they allowed smoking near the bathrooms at the rear of the plane. it was awesome! i loved the cheap cigarettes, 1200 won when i was there. i just used my spare change to buy them. now, i live in new york and they're $8 a pack and you can't smoke anywhere except outside on the street. it's a travesty.

[mack the knife]

Ironically, smoking is illegal in PC bangs that do not have a specific, partitioned "smoking" section. In other words, 99.99999% of the people lighting up are breaking the law. Not that it will ever change. I used to frequent a PC bang with a humungous "no smoking" sign right over the front desk. Naturally, 99.999991099% of the wasters in there lit up, probably out of spite.

Problem is, the ones laying down the cash money in these dives are not rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed Korean youth, but losers stuck in an apocalyptic, post-high school/post-college rut with no discernible escape or future. Of course they smoke. Unfortunately, without their she-bal-sekki spouting presence, all of these seizure-inducing gas chambers would fold.

[iiicalypso]

I am in the PC bang right now, with a cigarette in my mouth, and I love it. My feeling is that in a country like this, which is driven by the mighty won, it is simply a matter of the marketplace reflecting the desires of the customers. I know of a few PC bangs that don't allow smoking, and I avoid them. I sympathize with nonsmokers, but as long as the majority of people playing lineage are doing so with a cigarette dangling, or at least tolerating it, cigarette smoking will be allowed. If enough people felt strongly about it, no somking regs would be enforced.

I do feel sorry for people who go to the PC rooms out of necessity, rather than the perverted social desire that seems to drive most people. Since it seems that everyone already has a computer at home, I suspect that everyone around me is only here because they are high school students who don't want to smoke in front of their parents.

[uberscheisse]

what i hate most is when you sit down in a PC bang that has a nice non-smoking section, cordoned off and everything... and old man cancer sits down next to you and lights up.

you point out the non smoking sign on his computer monitor, and he shrugs and continues.

you go to the friendly PC bang owner and whine about the fact that the reason you come to his PC bang is because it has a non smoking section. he shrugs and does nothing.

you then download some napalm death and play it really loud. smoker leaves.

it works! but i'm still buying a computer next paycheck.

[hadeshorn]

Well I was in a PC room yesterday in the NON smoking section. I couldnt believe it existed.

Anyway I sit down and set up my game. Takes about 15 mins to do that. Then the bitch next to me lights up. I am seething on what to do. I wait for her to finish and then hope she wont light up again.

15 mins later, another cancer stick appears. I jab her in the arm and point the sign angrily. She hastily puts it away and the manager comes over and moves her to another section.

I was high on that victory for hours.

[igotthisguitar]

[tomwaits]

You smoked for 15 years and are now talking of "supportive?" Do what you have to---quitting is obviously a good thing. I do take issue with people (I dont mean you) who come to Asia and want to save everybody and "enlighten" them. Stay home where smoking is akin to releasing anthrax.

And if you don't like smoky places buy a PC and stay in your flat. You can afford it with all this cash you save not smoking and all.

Just don't bring the ciga-nazi thing to Asia.

[uberscheisse]

ciga nazi? what fruitcake thought up that buzzword?

how about the "hey, despite the fact that secondhand smoke just straightup kills people, i'm going to obstinately smoke in lungshot of everybody and anyone because i have a warped idea of what the words PERSONAL LIBERTY mean" syndrome?

yeah right. another pesky cultural relativist issue and as foreigners, we have no right to pose a common-sense challenge to it. right.

[paperbag princess]

i'm really tired of everyone raging on smokers, espercially when in my experience the most rabid "non-smokers" are the most avid pot smokers. as somone who only smokes legal substances, this pisses me off.

anyway, all the pc rooms i've been to have had pretty stirct smoking and non-smoking areas. if you don't like it, buy a laptop and hang out at starbucks or stay at home...

[peemil]

Yeah I love that coming from a non smoker as they draw from the might peace pipe for the hundredth time in the evening...

"I don't know how you do it? Smoking cigarettes are so bad for you."

God all mighty- Give me strength.

[Homer]

This is ridiculous.

If the place has smokers and you don't like smoking then...don't go there!

Buy a pc and do your surfing at home.

Go to those PC bangs with non-smoking sections.

Buy a gas mask.

Bring your own oxygen tent everywhere.

There are many options...