Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rapier]

[Pak Yu Man]

I know computer programmers who have been working in the same place for over 10 years and make 1.7 mil a month....for god know's how many hours.....at least 3 or 4 times my 20 hours a week.

Two drunk Ajashi stories. The one guy who wanted to fight me cause he saw the girl I was with first (my wife).

Then the drunken *beep*...who was driving the wrong way down a one-way street. So he signals my friend to drive past (about 1.5 lanes).
Then he drives into us and folds his side-view mirror and breaks it. So he gets out of the car and does the "monkey in heat" thing....bamgs my buddies car and all that.

So we held him til the cops came. Physically held him. Cops did nothing.

[stvwrd]

accidentally posted twice. Edting the first one out. Sorry.

[stvwrd]

My story is about a guy that was neither drunk, nor an ajoshi. I'd say about 40 years old, well dressed, and a flat-top-style haircut.

It takes place when I first arrived in Korea about 3 months ago. This was my second time to Korea, but my first was just for a couple months and about 5 years ago.

I had arrived in Korea about an hour before and was meeting a friend at Seoul Station. I needed to call him, but my computer wasn't booting up so I couldn't get his number off of it. I stashed my things in a locker and headed out for a PC bang to go on my email and get the number. I call my friend, explain that I couldn't call from the airport because my computer was fried (really bad timing), but that I'm now at Seoul station. He's on his way to pick me up. So I just have to wait.

I'm minding my own business, on my way to get a donut when this guy approaches me, asking if I'm American. Being an American 'fresh off the boat' so to speak, I didn't really want to respond to this rather blunt question, but I give him the benefit of the doubt and think he's just being friendly and I shouldn't start off my first night in Korea by being a jerk.

So we chat for a bit. His English is good, but not that good. Through the conversation I tell him I'm a graduate student here on an exchange program, that it's my 2nd time in Korea, my first time in Korea was about 5 years ago and I was here for 2 months, this time I'm here for six months.

Then it gets creepy. He leans in and tells me 'if you lie to me it's big trouble,' and I notice he's holding his arm behind his back, like he's hiding something in his hand. I tel him I wasn't lying. He was understandably confused about the sequence of numbers I had thrown at him and we spend the next five minutes going over it.

From here I start being a lot less open with him, and I'm trying to appear as disstressed as possible, hoping the 15 or so police officers standing in a group about 20 yards from us will notice this guy is harrassing me.

Then he starts asking for my passport. I've been quite courteous to him the whole time, but for this one I just say, "No." 'You don't have your passport?' he asks. 'It's in a safe place,' I respond. I finally let him look at my Missouri driver's licenense, expecting him to look at it and give it back quickly, but he's studying it intently, like he's memorizing it.

Then a bald man in monk's clothing approaches (gee, a monk maybe?) and steps right in between us. This sends off my scam alarm, and I'm checking my pockets to make sure wallet, money belt, etc are all firmly in place. Again, I'm wondering why the police aren't helping. The monk doesn't speak, but grabs my license back from the man and starts making hand gestures I don't understand. The man speaks briefly to the monk in Korean, and the monk hands me my driver's license back and leaves.

I tell him my friend is arriving any time and he says, "If your friend not come, you in bad situation." All with a creepy smile on his face. "Are you sure your friend is coming?" He starts saying things like, "How good of a friend is he?" "How long have you known him?" "Where will you go if he doesn't come." "I'm sorry, but I think your friend isn't coming."

Now at this point I'm wondering if I'm going to have to fight this guy. I'm checking the exits out of the corners of my eyes, and standing in the 'prayer stance' I learned in jiu-jitsu (appears very docile and passive, but quite easy to strike/defend from). I'm still wondering why the cops aren't doing anything about this situation.

Finally, my friend arrives. My friend, by the way, is a Korean national that works closely with both Korean and U.S. law enforcement (including customs, immigration, etc) in Seoul. I give my friend, whom I haven't seen in years, a nervous 'hello' and dart my eyes over to the guy that's been harrassing me. The two exchange like two sentences in Korean, and then my friend and I are heading to get my things from the locker. My friend says "Who was that guy? He was really weird." I told him I had no idea and that the guy had been acting weird, almost threatening me, and asking for my passport.

As we're leaving Seoul Station for my friend's car, the man runs after us and starts shouting at my friend from the entrance in Korean. Once we're in the car my friend said that the man was telling him to be careful because I'm an illegal immigrant.

I still don't know what to make of that whole situation. I was supposed to visit friends in Gwangju a couple days after my arrival, but I was pretty freaked out by the incident and didn't really want to do anything on my own. Also, I needed to sleep because I was working a LOT right up until I left, and had a two day 'layover' in Vegas on my way out. So I cancelled the trip and basically slept for 3 or 4 days.

Some days I think they guy must have been a customs official of some sort, but I think my friend would have picked up on that quite quickly. Or maybe he did, and he didn't want to tell me who it was I just had a run-in with or something.

I'm extremelly glad it didn't turn into a fight. Even in the US, because I'm of a physically intimidating build, it would probably be assumed that I was the aggressor (truth is, I rarely get any kind of lip from anyone to begin with. I haven't been in a fight since I was 14 and in Boy Scouts, which made this whole run in even more foreign to me. I'm just not used to getting f*ed with. In spite of my looks, I'm a very affable guy that gets along with pretty much everybody.).

The guy also did not seem to be mentally ill. Or if he was, he was able to keep it together enough to dress himself well and keep a tightly-groomed hairstyle. As grandpa Simpson would say: "A haircut you could set your watch to."

My best guess is he was just some random dude that wanted to practice his English and didn't realize how creepy he was being.

Anyone else have an interpretation of the incident? I haven't had anything even close to this since arriving. When I'm off campus I just put my ipod earbuds in and try to look as unf*withable as possible. Even if I'm not listening to anything.

Sorry it's so long. I wonder if anyone kept reading.......

[Toby]

[chronicpride]

Just so I'm clear on this, the sexually assaulted part indicated in the thread's title, was when a drunk guy tried to reach for another guy's dick? Someone please tell me that there is more to that story that made a guy drop a word like 'sexually assaulted' on something like that. That's pure wuss with a pinky sticking out. Pull up a stool in any bar and tell that to the people sitting around you and you'll get laughed at. Any regular guy would simply call that 'some guy was trying to start shit with me on the subway, today.'

[Swiss James]

Hey stvwrd- I don't know anything about the specific guy you were talking to, but Seoul station is the biggest freak magnet in the city- if you'd been there for another hour or so you'd have met a couple of guys who claimed they were Jesus, several soju monsters and maybe the King of Siam.

[chronicpride]

On that note, what's with most of the total hardcore Korean bums around town, having that darker, leather-like complexion, like they've been passed out on a beach for a few years?

[Swiss James]

I assume it's because they sleep outside all day in a soju-saturated-stupor with the sun baking down on them.

There but for the grace of God..

[stvwrd]

haha, thanks for the heads up. I've been reluctant to go back since. I should also add that my time here's been quite positive. I just had that one weird run in.

[Homer]

Sad story.

[chronicpride]

[Homer]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[just because]