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casey's moon
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: Daejeon
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 Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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captain kirk -- a bad Korea day IS like a bad hair day -- so true!
I also thought that a Canadian would never ask a foreigner what they thought of Canada, but when I went home with my husband (then fiance) 95 percent of my family and friends asked him that very question. |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| To those xenophobes, I would say: your women are not worth stealing. Oh, they're pretty, some of them greatly so, but they're exceedingly high-maintenance. But I can't blame some of my compatriots for wanting to take one home, especially given the fact that the smarter ones know how they'll be treated if they choose to stay here. |
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waggo
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: pusan baby!
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:24 pm Post subject: Re: 1st q. |
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| Ody wrote: |
1st thing i'm asked is where i am from, then something along the lines of "what brings you here..."
"what do you think of korean women?" really? wow. ' guess it's a guy thing.
off the subject:
the constant objectification of korean women (many examples being on this board) always reminds me of how they were treated by the japanese (soldiers) during the occupation/war in the early part of the 20th century.  |
...Yeah its exactly the same  |
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Harin
Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: Garden of Eden
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think it's a Korean thing, but is an univeral thing. American people always ask me two questions...
"Where are you from?"
"How do you like America?"
I am so sick and tired of the "where are you from?" question. People don't get completly satisfied with me until I say a name of town or country in Asia. For instance, 'Walla Walla' in WA doesn't cut it. They must hear 'South Korea' or 'Seoul'.
When I don't give them the 'right answer', do you know what their NEXT question is?
".....but, where were you REALLY born?"
"Where are your parents from??"
SIPAL!!!!!! |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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Most Koreans dont realize some of the common questions they ask seem intrusive to us. Korean english teachers are taught about this & try to explain to their students, some of whom get it. Older Koreans havent been schooled about it at all & it would get old fast trying to educate every Tom, Dick, & Harisu you meet in passing.
Rather than trying to explain about personal privacy, an easily understood way to deflect questions you dont care to answer is to say "Its a secret" (bimil-ieyo). |
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Koreabound2004
Joined: 19 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:21 pm Post subject: Cholla-do |
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| Someone please enlighten me, I have no idea what Koreans have against Cholla K's...new to everything here pretty much. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Harin, if it helps I get that in North America too, and I'm a white chick. Apparently my accent sounds slightly European to midwesterners. |
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agraham
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Location: Daegu, Korea
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:02 pm Post subject: Re: Why do Koreans always ask foreigners.... |
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| scott wrote: |
| 1. what do you think of korea?(when i meet a foreigner in the U.S. i never think to ask this. should i be constantly polling foreigners on America's image? i wonder why i was never asked in Japan or thailand. hmmm) |
Makes me think of an interview I saw of Gene Simmons by a Canadian (Narduar for the Canucks out there). Gene said "Listen Canadians, I know it's tough living across the street from the worlds only superpower, but stop asking me 'What do you think of Canada?' ten times a day. You've got a nice country here; good looking girls; good beer... But when you fish for compliments you sound like you have an inferiority complex."
Canada and Korea are so similar in so many ways it makes me laugh. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 1:56 am Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
I'm having a 'bad Korea day' (like a 'bad hair day'  ) and this is 'forcing me to admit' that Koreans are not interested in 'variety'. Everything that is standard is good. Maybe that results in thinking the same way, like 'mundanity thinks alike'  . So there are the same, 'good' questions. They're 'classics'
One I really 'like' is 'when will you return to your home country?'. I've been asked this at work by male, Korean English teachers. The tone seems to deliver this 'hidden meaning', 'I'm competing with you, I'm your superior since I am a Korean man, and you are in my country'. But we all have our moments, including these guys. Who are about as interesting as cardboard cut-outs.
ANYTHING we in the west would consider interesting about a person is here regarded as a disability, IF it is not part of the set standard. Which I'm not about to regard considering how I've always 'followed my bliss' and disregarded general opinion. How can conformity make anyone happy? Yes, unless it's a 'communal culture'. Well wiggle my butt like a bee, I'm a communal creature.
Look, Korea, I fit in. I'm doing the wiggle-butt bee dance like the rest of the group. Ah, we understand each other. What a rush, that deep, unified 'click'.
ARGHHH
It's a biaytch the last three months. The moment I set eyes on 'the end' I was 'already there'.
Time for some trancendental meditation. Ah, a mantra. How about Frank Sinatra's 'I did it myyyyyy wayyyyy'. |
Nice post.
That's my biggest worry about settling in Korea. The conformity thing is pretty heavy.
My girlfriend insists attitudes are changing but I just watched one of those drama's on Korean TV and a family went through a total heart-wrenching tragedy because they found out their daughter-in-law used to co-habitate with a previous boyfriend before she met and married their son. I repeat, before she met their son!!! Yet they behaved like she had shaved her head, got black-metal tattoo's and declared herself a lesbian satanist!!!
I know it's only a stupid soap-opera but my g/f was transfixed by it and I suspect these conservative, conforming attitudes are alive and well in Korea. |
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Sooke
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Location: korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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I get this one a lot:
"Korea has four seasons. How many seasons in your country?" I usually say "we have 9."
Another time I was asked, "How many mountains in Canada?" (I am Canadian, btw.) Just to throw him off, i said "7." Then he proudly stated "Korea is number one! Most mountains!!". |
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Sooke
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Location: korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I just changed my signature. I can't believe they censored d!ck. What if i was posting about what a great Vice President Richard (D!ck) Cheney is? |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:27 am Post subject: Re: Why do Koreans always ask foreigners.... |
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| scott wrote: |
i don't want to generalize or stereotype but it has been my experience 99.999999999% of the time that whenever i meet a korean and a conversation follows i am asked these questions...
1. what do you think of korea?(when i meet a foreigner in the U.S. i never think to ask this. should i be constantly polling foreigners on America's image? i wonder why i was never asked in Japan or thailand. hmmm)
2. why did you come to korea?(assuming i'm not a GI or a tourist most foreigners are here to teach english, do koreans not know this or are they asking 'why did you come to korea to teach english?'
3. what do you think of korean women?(i usually respond WHICH korean woman, after which i usually recieve a sly look as if i'm avoiding an important question)
4. do you have a girlfriend? and if so, is she korean? (i love it when a korean woman asks me this because i can fool myself into thinking she might be interested in me, but, unfortunately it's usually the men. do they have a friend they want to introduce me to or just genuinely interested in my personal life?)
5. how much $ do you make?(i would never think to ask someone i just met, especially if they were my teacher, how much they get paid. do koreans ask other koreans this too or is it just foreigners who recieve the question? i know that when i answer this question with the same question it is frowned upon by the original asker. |
Trust me when I say polite Koreans don't usually ask those questions to strangers. To be fair, you need to think about how much you knew about Korea before you came here. You might have asked some ridiculous things too if you had met a Korean before coming here. Another way to see it is that the excitement of meeting and speaking in English to a foreigner for the first time won over their manners, and common sense . But also, don't forget that while you're in Korea, you'll be treated with the curiousity usually reserved to a movie star, and thus some people will be compeled to pry into your personal life. If I'm not in a hurry, and the stranger seems nice enough, I indulge him or her. I can always be vague with my answers. But nowadays, they hardly notice me when I'm out for a walk because they go gaga over my infant son. |
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