Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

Talking about stupid questions...there's always old reliable.

'Have you tried kimchi'?

I have also had similar experiences. Some cute girl messaged me on my phone in Korean, I read it in about 10-12 seconds, and responded in Korean. Some guy beside me asked if I could understand Korean. I said 'No I just guessed and pushed random buttons'.

[jajdude]

How long have you been in Korea? --- a good question.

Answer: 2 years or more....

Have you tried Korean food, Kimchi, can you use chopsticks.... ---- bad questions..

[casey's moon]

The smartest question I ever got from a Korean stranger was from a little girl who had excellent English (she just got back from the U.S.). She could see I was with my Korean husband and the in-laws and I had my dog there too. She smiled and said, "How many years have you been in Korea?" I think my jaw dropped! It was such a smart question, seriously.

[peppermint]

Well, if the person commenting on your chopstick use is youngish, blame it on the elementary school textbooks. I recently finished a chapter where the key phrase was "Oh you use chopsticks very well!"

[Cedar]

On the orientation day of my graduate school, sitting at lunch with three other Korean studies majors (two of whom were Korean) the girl across from me says "Wow, you use chopsticks really well!" and mind you, I was just eating, I wasn't alternating picking up sesame seeds with my left and then my right hand operating the chopsticks or anything like that. And yes, she knew I was Korean studies, and yes, she knew I'd been here for a long time...

[eamo]

So what else are Koreans with limited English going to ask you?

Are you looking for..."Do you feel the sociological conumdrums foreigners feel in Korea is down to endemic Confucianism?"

I can easily imagine a conversation in Ireland between 2 strangers drinking Guinness in a bar.....

A. So, do you like Guinness?
B. Yeah. It's alright.

Same thing! It's called small talk!! It has no intellectual properties. It's just people starting a conversation.

Cedar. You were too harsh.

[Cheyne]

I was at Everland with my girlfriend on my second week here and while waiting in line for a ride, this little girl asked me in Korean "Why can't you speak Korean?" Girlfriend told me what she said and I said to the little girl, "Why can't you speak English?". The little girl turned to me and said to me in English, "I CAN speak English, dummy"...oh man, did I feel like a twit....

[Cedar]

I was too harsh?

If someone were stammering to get a sentence out, I'd give them ALL kinds of slack. The man at the rest stop and the fellow student were not just learning English. The man at the rest stop in my limited exposure sounded quite natural and made no grammar mistakes. The girl I study with is in an international graduate school and has studied overseas in the past.

Small talk is NOT necessary with someone who isn't even looking at you, but rather seems busy... and as for the fellow student, there was just no excuse. She has excellent English and could just as easily have asked me what I thought of the Capital Relocation plan (this was in late August, so that was more of a topic) or something like that... her English is practically speaking completely fluent. She could have asked me -anything-.

[cheem]

So now we've moved from the realm of stupid questions to stupid compliments. I think it's time for a vacation when one starts to construe simple well-meaning compliments as insults -- and I've seen enough foreigners using chopsticks to suspect it was a sincere compliment.

When discussing rudeness one should think about where they are, not where they came from, and try to see things from the other person's point of view. Take the man that approached you for example. He probably didn't know foreigners get asked the same questions all the time, and that it's annoying.

You might think he walked away from that encounter thinking:

"Well, that foreigner certainly put me in my place. From this moment forward I will be more careful phrasing my questions."

when in reality the thought bubble was more along the lines of (and note this is not what I think but what he may have thought):

"Wow, what a bitch. Are all foreigners this nasty?"

Yeah, you were too harsh imho.

[casey's moon]

Those of you who think Cedar was too harsh possibly don't get approached all that often. I'm not sure about Cedar, but I get approached constantly in Korea, and I can't always be sweet and lovely about it. I did that for the first 2 years and I wasn't be fair to myself. I'll still be friendly when the situation warrants it and when I want to, and towards absolutely any child who approaches me. But not to every guy who just wants to prove something by speaking English in public. I've learned enough Korean that I can speak with Koreans who don't speak English. I don't need to be friends with every Tom, Dick and Julie who speaks my native language anymore. I try to get the message across that I'm busy, but when the message isn't being received, I'm harsh too.

[shakuhachi]

For once I agree with cheem.

Is making conversation with a stranger some sort of crime? In a homogeneous country like Korea, the people that talk to you are probably nervous because you are a mysterious foreigner, and that makes them ask silly questions. Cedar, ����� �ʿ��ؿ�.

Cheem is right. Korean's will think you are a horrible foreigner and will treat the next foreigner they meet accordingly.

[tommynomad]

"Excuse me sir. Are you reading that newspaper you're sitting on?"

Dumb questions from smart people (see OP) deserve snarky answers. I think Cedar did cut the guy some slack by giving him a couple of opportunities to see what silly Qs he was asking.

Do you kow any Koreans who would take it as a compliment were we to say:

"Wow, you're really skilled with that fork!"?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Unless someone were to whack me up side the head, I think the common courtesies are called for, even when the other person is mildly rude.

[d503]

Wasn't there a thread about someone getting whacked upside the head.

But to chime in I don't think Cedar was rude. I speak a couple of languages and when I see someone reading in one of them or talking. I don't walk up to them and go wow you speak that language I do to. Well I've been known to when drunk but only through hearsay. If I did this sober though I would expect much the same results. I know foreigners are real interesting, but they are people and have every right to read and study in peace. If this man had noticed that Cedar's book was on a topic he too was interested in and struck up a convo like "Excuse me, I notice you are reading a book on number theory, I happen to love number theory, what are your thoughts?" And Cedar just stared back that would be rude. But what should Cedar have done snapped out an enthusiastic "Why yes sir I can read this Korean text, can you?" No that's silly.

And as for this incident making this man think foreigners are a hateful lot, that's nonsense. Even if he saw Cedar's actions as rude, it would be like me damning all of Korea because of the lovely man who follows me down the street yelling and clapping. The world simply doesn't work like that. So I thank Cedar, I know the last thing I want to do some days is to be an English practicing post for some stranger.

[Cedar]

I should just walk away from this thread. But...

Look, the fact of the matter is that when Koreans approach you and begin speaking with you in public it is because they are "practicing their English" (*) not because they give a rat's batookey about you or what you think.

I remember the guy I met on a long-distance bus (back to Daegu) once who was SOO annoying. Then about a month later I ran into him in Daegu on a local bus. He started talking to me and I answered him in Korean. What did he say after three or four exchanges of the conversation? "You should speak in English so I can practice my listening."

Well, I am NOT reading a book (and so intent I am taking notes) because I want to have a conversation with the guy walking past me, and as one of the previous posters mentioned, if the guy doesn't have something to say on the topic of the book I am reading, at the least he could wait until I put it down or look up or something. NO ONE forced him to interrupt me. If he was going to interrupt me, he could have had something real to say. If he just wants to practice English conversation, he can pay a monthly fee and study at the hagwon where one of you work. I did NOTHING to solicit conversation, and all I was was sarcastic (after giving him time to think through what he was saying). I wasn't rude, and I think he could have thought on the bus as we continued on our way something other than "what a rude foreigner".



* In fact, once in awhile, really cool people approach you and say interesting stuff, but this wasn't one of those cases.