Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Buff]

The last two weeks haven't been so great for feeling secure in my little Korean abode. Two weeks ago someone either broke in or let themselves into my neighbor's (a fellow teacher at my hagwon) apartment while she was at work and stole a good deal of money(which she should have had in a bank, of course, but still...it was 2 million won). Of course the police couldn't really do much about it because he was long gone by then and it was cash, not anything traceable like electronics or super important like a passport.

Two nights ago a Korean guy who spoke a little English followed me and another girl up our street trying to get us to talk to him and after telling him to go away I went into my apartment, locked all three locks on my door only to have him knock on the door for 15 minutes and be really creepy. He was ringing the doorbell and saying "I'm a stranger...come talk to me...etc." Slept with a knife by my bed that night.

Then just 30 minutes ago, someone goes around checking for unlocked doors in our building. Luckily, this time my boyfriend was staying over with me and another one of the foreign teachers (a big guy) went out to chase hime off. There was a confrontation (this guy also spoke a little English making me wonder if it was the same guy...I know it's a pretty big conclusion to jump to...there are tons of Koreans who speak English) Anyway, the intruder tried to kick my co-worker, so he hit him in the leg with a big kendo-type stick. He ran off and my co-worker friend chased him on his scooter, got the cops to chase him too, they arrested him and guy teacher and Korean boyfriend are now down at the police station. I hope this will put an end to all of this breaking in business.

So...lock your doors, lock your doors, always lock your doors...even if you are home.

I know it's common sense, but sometimes you let your guard down and forget to do it when you're at home.

It's just so strange to have three incidents in 10 days time. It's probably not that Korea is any more dangerous than any other place...probably just the same guy coming back to the place where he got lucky the first time....but again I say, don't forget to lock your doors.

[peppermint]

Yeah- it's sad, but lots of girls have these kinds of stories here. Be careful about windows too, Koreans are pretty flexible and can squeeze their way through some pretty small spaces.

Glad you're okay now.

[matthews_world]

Those ajusshis probably think you are Russian so watch out.

[Juggertha]

This seems to be a growing trend nowadays. Not good.


um, i have to ask though... why would anyone leave their door open?

[VanIslander]

I almost always leave my doors unlocked here in Korea.
Except when I sleep.

Life just seems pretty laid back and it seems safe here on the island. Of course there always is some risk, but I haven't much to lose, it's unlikely I think, and I have an incredible peace of mind here where I live.

New York City and smalltown Iowa are very different realities. So is Seoul and Geoje.

Take care you big city folk.

(I would too if I was conservative-minded.)

[peppermint]

Actually this is a case where the common sense doesn't quite apply. In a small town here, a foreign girl stands out far more as a target than she would in Seoul. When I lived in a city of 500,000 people, every foreign chick I knew had some sort of scary story. When I moved to Seoul- I never heard a single one

[VanIslander]

I believe the op's LOCATION: Seoul.

[mindmetoo]

My friend recently moved to Bundang. Being quite innocent still she found it rather charming men kept asking her if she was Russian. I had to inform her that your generic middle aged Korean male pretty much only comes into contact with white women who are russian prostitutes. And then I heard too Bundang is known as a place where Seoul salarymen like to all pack off to to consort with russian ho's. Ugg.

It gets worse. Her squirrelly married male neighbor started leaving her notes on her door asking her for sex. She caught him trying to jam a note through that weird "cat" door in her door so she kicked door open and confronted him while holding a pair of scissors. Now she's studied the Korean language at Yonsei so she could not only read the notes but tell him to hit the road.

You can imagine your typical spineless Korean male suddenly being confronted by an enraged scissor wielding white woman telling him to get the *beep* out of Dodge.

She figured it would end there, but oh no. This Lothario tried to force open her bathroom window so he could watch her shower (she's in a basement apartment). That's when she took the notes to her school whitey wrangler and then they went to the cops.

The cops were agog she'd confront the guy herself. Korean cops seem to avoid confronting criminals themselves. The job of Korean police, as best I can make out in Nowon, is to basically to stand six strong inside an ATM kiosk and then "patrol" their way two blocks to the next warm ATM kiosk.

Anyway the group of them all then paid a visit to her neighbor to get, errr, clarification. In typical Korean male fashion he hid behind his wife and she defended him to the hilt, claiming it couldn't have happened as they were at the hospital visiting someone at 2 pm. My friend had to point out the guy was jamming the note in her door at noon so what was her point?

"YOU'RE WRONG BECAUSE YOU'RE WRONG."

While the cops and her school's whitey wrangler were pretty good about all this they still kind of then looked at my friend like "err I mean are you sure? The wife seems so certain her husband would never, ever do anything like this..." (Such famous last words... "oh no, not my child!")

The school ended up doing the right thing in short order. They moved her into a hotel for a couple days and got her a new apartment. It's a much better place too.

The sniveling Korean dude and his shrew wife themselves moved out too. My friend's Korean coworker also lived in the building and I think passed word about what was going down to neighbors. See when cops visit your neighbor, especially with a white woman in tow, the rumor mill starts up big time. They were so shamed they had to move.

I'm pretty sure the wife was defending her husband out of some wifely duty but I bet when the door closed she laid into him.

She reproduced a couple of the Korean notes the guy left:


�ѱ��� �Ƽ���
���߾��
�����ؿ�
��з�
������

and

��� SEX
�ϰ� �;��
�������
��

[Buff]

This is another interesting tidbit that I failed to include initially.... the girl who was robbed didn't really leave her door unlocked in the first place. The halmoni that owns the building regularly lets herself into our apartments without notifying us. She's old and kinda crazy and is really afraid of fire so she unplugs our electronics and stuff while we're gone. She's done this tons of times and often forgets to lock the door.

Of course on the day that my co-worker was robbed she denied up and down that she had been in the apartment, but she's done it tons of times before and two other of the foreigner's doors were unlocked when they came home too. Kind of a strange coincidence, not that the cops would do anything about it. They just said she's old and she's trying to take care of us. True, but if she's going to enter my apartment without permission and then leave it unlocked, that doesn't seem like she's taking very good care of me.

Everyone changed their locks and now she has to notify the wonjongnim if she wants to enter the apartments for gas,etc.

[The Cube]

..

[JongnoGuru]

[mindmetoo]

[captain kirk]

Good call, Cube!
Mindmetoo you're friggin' hilarious; wonjonim = school whitey wrangler.
It's so true
I live in an endless 'warren' of five storey, identical looking apartments. I've seen cops around a couple of times looking at the sliding balcony window/doors on the first floor units, with 'in the aftermath of a break-in' tenants. The cops look around and barely look interested. I drilled two 1.5 inch holes thru both sliding doors (wood frame) where they overlap in the middle of the doorway. Then feed a chain thru. A wire around the first link and twisted fast. Bend the wire and feed it thru one hole and back in the one near it. Then yank on the wire and the chain pulls thru. Lock some links where the chain ends meet inside the house. Before I leave I'll make a 'dowel' plug, then paint over white, like the frame.
It's set up for both front and back, but I usually don't bother locking the front, facing the street. The back always stays chained.
The original lock on the door looks like its been there since 1943 . I haven't changed it, though I have a 100,000 door lock set. Maybe I ought to but I've been here six months, it's ok so far, and I figure a shiny new lock would 'say' there's something inside worth stealing.
Park the motorbike out back, real heavy chain to a pipe. The tenant upstairs has been dumping all manner of garbage out the back window. Kimchi soup, rice, fruit rinds, eggshells, which lands near my bike. Once I had to use a shovel to scoop up a load of that crud. I told the building manager, but I also make quite a lot of noise. I figure the tenant above can vent in this 'organic' way and feel fulfilled and not vandalize my motorbike.
Some of these Korean guys are dead sexist and leeringly confident when it comes to foreign women. The stories here show some precise responses to set them straight. Cool. I don't know if Korean women just take it, but whatever it is, some of these guys need drastic measures, police intervention, etc. Some look down on foreign guys, and see foreign women as someone to use.

[Hollywoodaction]

Korea is not a crimeless society. It just appears so because foreigners rely too much on the English language media for info.

[Ilsanman]

Dudes have a lot less to worry about. If a creepy girl wants to have sex with me, I will prolly do it.

If it's a dude, I will kick his ass and send him flying down the stairs.