Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gollum]

Myself and another Daves poster were out in Songtan recently. It was my first time to hit one of these filipino bars where you can buy the girls drinks for 10,000 won a shot. I thought it would be off-limits to military people, like many bars in Itaewon are, but it's not. They don't have "private room" or do things for money, so we figured the place wasn't all that bad.

Things around the Songtan area seem quite a bit more relaxed (fewer CP/MP troops checking around). I'm sure there are some "naughtier" bars around the area, but we didn't see that sort of thing around there. We were curious to see what Songtan was all about, and just explored.

We had a fun time drinking and talking with the filipina girls at one bar, who I might add, are a refreshing breath of fresh personality when compared to talking to Korean girls at places like Limelight. We bought them a few drinks, and they hung out with us for a good hour or more, in between dancing on stage (fully clothed). Yes, we were "customers" for buying them drinks, but they were such fun to chat with, and they hung out with us for so long, it didn't bother us. Heck, if we had been with non-working girls, we would have spent nearly as much on their drinks in that length of time, anyway.

My friend and I left that evening, questioning whether or not something must be going on "behind the scenes." It took us another night of watching and chatting (the following week) with the girls to figure it out.

Before I get to my second night there, let me tell you what I learned about these girls' lives. They come here on a 1 year contract. Their boss takes their passports and won't give them back until the end of the contract (would the labor board care about that?). The girls work 7 days -- Monday to Monday -- a week from 6pm until 1am (nearly all bars close at curfew around Songtan). They get one day off a month. For every 10,000 won drink, they keep about 3,000 of that. Their base pay is around 800,000 won a month, and they live in one big apartment with all the other girls in the bar.

Now on to our 2nd night, a week later....

We went there and ended up chatting with the same gals. We paid for a few more drinks and talked another good hour or more. Of course, the halmony/ajumma running the place was REALLY pushy about us buying more and more for the girls. She was a rag, to say the least!

As we near 1am, my friend and I start noticing lots of soldier-looking guys eyeing us and the girls we were with. They were obviously trying to get the attention of the girls we were with, but they were being ignored. Another girl across the bar was approached by a guy, and they appeared to be leaving together. This seemed odd, because the owner of the bar took his ID and what looked like money. So I asked the girl sitting next to me if he was bar-fining her.

NO NO NO! That's her boyfriend!

What? Her boyfriend? He has to pay money to take her out? That's a bar-fine.

No, it's her boyfriend. She won't go with anyone but her boyfriend. But he must pay 200,000 for her to leave our house for the night.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... ok... not a bar-fine. So will she see any of that money?

Yes, but only 60,000. It's not fair!

The end of the night came, and the girls said nothing to us about "going home" with them. They just went on their way. We walked out of the place with them for some distance, and went our separate ways.

So, there you have it.... these girls go all evening and don't "bar-fine" but their "boyfriend" pays the korean owner of the bar money to stay elsewhere that evening. If the girl goes somewhere other than home that night, she is in big trouble. They check to make sure they're home.

They seem to have a fairly well thought-out scheme going on to skirt the anti-prostitution and human-trafficking laws that the US Army has.

The girls working at this bar said they didn't have to go home with guys if they didn't want. This seemed correct. But the holding of their passport, and virtual "lock" on their after-hours lives made their jobs seem a lot like slavery to me.

The girls we spoke to took great interest in us when we started mentioning topics like the Labor Board, getting a 2nd passport made, etc. We also mentioned that we had no idea if the labor board would be of any help to them at all (probably not, since it's about contract disputes). They were obviously not happy with their situation.

What do you think... could these girls easily make a 2nd passport at their embassy and just go home? Or are they stuck? What are their options if they want to just leave?

[Ya-ta Boy]

The women are probably also held under control by things like debt for the ticket here and back home, presentable clothes for working, food and rent, not to mention any financial needs the family back home might have.

[Gopher]

Korea can be a freakin' harsh place, man. Mamasan also takes attendence at the pad right after work, by the way.

"Democratic society" is so much more than presidential elections...

[mindmetoo]

[Gopher]

I am aware of the Asians who are running other Asians in the Bay Area sex industry, and there are also Asian-run, "Asian massage" parlours in Las Vegas, but I know nothing of Eastern Europeans working in mamasan-run hostess bars in the United States, working in the above-described conditions, for example. And I don't know how much money the Asian massage people are making, or what their living conditions are like, or whether they are held in bondage like they are here in Korea. I also didn't even know there were Korean-style hostess bars in the United States. Your post seems to imply that there are.

There are many, many topless bars, however, where, in Las Vegas anyway, women can make up to $5,000 in a single night, but they are not usually related to prostitution, indeed they rarely are. There are also "escort services," but my understanding is that they are voluntarily working in this very, very profitable industry, at least in Southern California and Las Vegas. There is an influx of Eastern Europeans -- Czechs and Polish, mostly -- as nude models and porn stars, lately, but that, too, is voluntary, and very profitable, I understand.

So, who exactly is importing these Asian and Eastern European girls into North America and holding them in bondage, and what are the exact conditions they live and work in?

Please be specific.

[Derrek]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[Derrek]

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[FUBAR]

[Gollum]

[itaewonguy]

maybe 800.000 won base pay and then 3000 a drink and 60 for sex is good money for them!... I dont know.. what would they make back in the phillipines??

[Gopher]

[Gopher]

[Homer]

[poddubny]