Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hogwonguy1979]

Got an email from a friend of mine who just tried to have a nice weekend at the Kyongju Hilton hotel at Pomun lake. When you read this you will be shocked by the behaviour of the manager. This is a copy of the email he sent to Hilton's HQ

[peemil]

Absurd.

[desultude]

[Ya-ta Boy]

It's quirky and odd. Somewhat amusing. I don't understand why anyone would be offended by it.

Quite a few times my group has allowed strangers to join us in a restaurant/bar situation. I've had some fun evenings. It's happened at couple of times when we sent pieces of birthday cake around to the other tables and ended up in conversations. I've even been 'loaned out' by my Korean friends to tables of complete drunk strangers. If I'm drunk and they don't look like serial killers, I don't mind. My friends do ask me if it's OK before they do it and understand when I don't want to.

[ulsanchris]

If you want to have a nice quiet diner alone with your wife in a fancy restaurant, and get away from work, do you really think you want somebody to walk up to you and ask you to work. I don't think so. Especially since it was a special occasion.

The manager of the restaurant should have refused to even ask so of his customers to work. What he did was rude.

[weatherman]

[uber1024]

Having been both an English teacher in Korea and a computer programmer in the United States, I always get requests for favors beacuse of my job when I'm not working.

It's not that big of a deal. It comes with having a specialized job that, in some small way, shows that you have knowledge/skills that other people want.

[tommynomad]

I think it is a big deal, though not "disgusting."

It's one thing to--as Ya-ta said--be open to having others join you or joining others. IMHO this is one of the best things about public eating. It is quite another for the manager of a restaurant to ask you to be his monkey. Especially at a Hilton (if it's a real Hilton we're talking about).

Would it be ok to ask a doctor for a check-up in a similar setting? How about asking an editor to read over the presentation you have to give the next day? Work is work, play is play. Asking someone to cross that line is boorish at best, unprofessional (& worthy of reprimand) at worst.

[steroidmaximus]

the manager's conduct was extremely unprofessional. If he's at the Hilton he should know better, or be replaced by someone who does.

but

desultude wrote:

[Wangja]

[chiaa]

I literally had to push a guy out of my store because he would not take no for an answer in me giving him free English lessons twice a week.

[Swiss James]

oh boo-hoo, someone wanted to speak english to you, did politely but firmly saying "No" really affect your enjoyment of the meal that much?

[Corporal]

[dogbert]

Don't be dense...the OP said he's happily to spontaneously speak English with people.

It's quite another matter to be on a date and have to interrupt it so that other patrons can practice their English with someone that, for all the manager of the restaurant knew, may have been an Albanian couple with even worse English than the manager.

It's completely moronic.

(And I say this as someone who has been stopped by Koreans while on vacation so that I can help their kids with their English homework)

[Swiss James]

the diners said "no" and that was the end of it- besides which, some people on this thread have said they would do it for the price of the dinner, or a night in the hotel or whatever, so it's not as though the manager was barking entirely up the wrong tree is it?