Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chi-chi]

mods you may delete

[freesolo]

i asked a brand new student, who goes to hong kong on business once a month, about the differences with korea, and the first thing she said was how everyone there smiled!!

these people are emotionally repressed. it's why they drink so much and treat women so badly.

[Len8]

I sat in on interview where I work, because they were going to hire a Korean English speaker for a staff position. I got to see a lot of candidates interviewed for other jobs, but the thing that really got to me was their grimness. They sat their stoic like and parroted off answeres with out smiling. Geeze if that was in a western country they would have been booted out of the interview.

Music plays a big part in a a Korean person's life. They sing a lot especially in their norerbongs. Their church services have outstanding choirs, and their pasteurs are required to take voice lessons as part of their calling. I don't think a person who couldn't sing would make it as a pasteur. Have noticed that their turn over of pop songs is phenomenol. Lot of talent out there. In the west catchy tunes and kyrics stay popular forever. In Korea not so, because they are churning out so much. I guess they don't have time to be nostalgic.

Maybe their prolific musical drive is a creative outlet for their seriousness

[captain kirk]

They say dave's is a bleak place, full of bleaters complaining. But hey, what startles me is this thing called 'han', this sort of resignation that Koreans have. About their life and culture that puts them in their place, exactly. The hierarchy based on age, status, sex, and so on. Pretending to be nice all the time, and duty-bound.

Having a word for it means they hate it themselves. Not Korea, but the same seriousness, it's not footloose fancy free, foreigners like us pick up on and vent on dave's here about. Han shows that Koreans are bugged by Korean culture. And if Koreans are bugged about it then is this biggie something contagious? How do Koreans cope with Han?

[jajdude]

[Tiger Beer]

[Scotticus]

[Tiger Beer]

[aka Dave]

I think this is in-group, out group. In my classes (Uni), the students laugh a lot. If they see me around campus they always smile and wave. They know me. I'm in group and they can smile with me.

On the way home from work, any Korean I met is grim faced. Especially older people. These people are out group. No smiles, that would be presuming a relation. I asked one of my students if she ever made eye contact with strangers. "Never". Did she smile at them? "That would be crazy!" This is a really sweet girl, btw.

This was explained explicitly in my Korean language text book. Koreans don't smile at strangers, because the social relation hasn't been established. Remember, they have to know each other's age, relations, etc. before they can even talk to each other properly.

[Dome Vans]

[blurgalurgalurga]

They are a dour lot up in Seoul for sure, en masse, but are Londoners any better? I hear they're pretty grey there too...as for my hometown and its general neck of the woods (BC, Canada) people tend to be pretty mopey as well, whether they have a good reason to be or not. That west coast happy hippy schtick is a filthy lie; people look self-satistfied, often enough, but cheerful and friendly? Naaaaah.

I'm in a Jeolla now and people seem happier. Poorer, but happier. It's weird...I skulk about scowling at people, trying to bum them out, trying to school them on how the Better Class presents a visage, but they just keep on grinning at my with their busted up, smokebrown, orthodontic nightmare smiles. They obviously can't afford mirrors and the only rich people they see are in TV, where they are paid to smile, so they think the whole world is all cheery and Mary Poppins.

Rubes...don't they know how miserable they should be?

[crusher_of_heads]

[tigerbluekitty]

Have you ever thought it could be because Asians feel happier in warmer weather?

I know I'm happy when it's warm and the sun is shining. Ever since I got to Korea, it's been too cold and uncomfortable for me to smile.

Vietnam is hot, they love smiling and making slapstick jokes. Phillipines, I heard they're quite happy, friendly people. Singapore, they're definately happy too. All nice, warm, comfortable places. Meow, Kitty like! ^^

Just a thought.

[dasmith2]

[Underwaterbob]