Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Freezer Burn]

I went to work today only to find out that some guy from a building behind my apartment saw me dump some trash in front of his building.
I live in the middle of the town so there are a few buildings around and there are about 5 westerners in the buildings around the place, so what this guy did was ring around to find where the foriegners live and rang their hogwans.
Well it was me and I knew that I had to use the specially designed bags but everytime I have tried to put these in front of my own building I have had some surly Korean janitor yell at me, Im obviously not doing it the Korean way, so to avoid confrontation I would use the building behind me as a waste disposal area.
So the director says to me why are you dumping trash etc, I ham it up, everytime I dump trash some guy yells at me, making me angry so instead of me becoming angry I would take it behind the building.
Then I really lay it on, because now the janitor sh-ithead has become involved 'oh he's not recycling and he doesn't use the blue bags', "how am I supposed to know, I'm a forienger I don't know the korean way, I'm embarrassed and I get angry when the janitor yells at me"

The truth is I got caught doing it because the people here are all nosey and they all know where the waegooks live, I was accused of throwing things out of my window as well (which I didn't), so its good that I can play the "im a dumb white guy" I just wonder how long it will last.

[Hollywoodaction]

You probably have to wait to take it out until the day they collect the garbage.

[Gopher]

There are no dumpsters here. I've had the same issues.

There is one residence/land plot where eveyone seems to dump trash, hardly always in the approved plastic bags, indeed, there is garbage everywhere on the streets around here.

An ajoshi and his ajumma wife live here, probably in their mid- to late-fifties. I've seen this guy stand at the land plot where there is a small gate and violently kick the gate until his ajumma, working in the small field, came over and let him in.

In any case, once he "caught" me leaving a trash bag there (I just tie up a grocery bag) and went apoplectic. Nearly came after me, but luckily, he didn't. I walked away pretending not to hear him.

I've asked the director and the worthless KT at my hogwon and, typically, the don't know. They don't know anything about it. They don't know what days are the "trash days," they don't know where people should leave their trash, they don't know anything.

So I found a playground where everyone seems to dump their trash that doesn't seem to be connected to anyone's private property. I leave my trash there, along with a whole bunch of other people...

[djsmnc]

Your homes suck

[Qinella]

I love the idea of color-coordinating your trash and then just throwing it on the road for dog and cats to tear it open. I imagine it isn't just in my neighborhood where that happens.

[pet lover]

You forgot about those giant magpies. Not so many stray cats around here...think they've all been eaten up by those magpies. Now those birds can rip their way into a bag in just a few seconds.

[captain kirk]

Gopher, you gotta put your garbage to bed right. It's a densely populated country and you have to, as you probably know, buy your g-bags. They're at any grocery store. 20 litres is a good, household size.

Then look around for more of the same kind and where they hang out, full of garbage. It's usually by a busy road in the neighbourhood.

Putting garbage in a non-pay bag and stashing it somewhere is just gross. People do that at my small apt. building. First it's someone, then that gives the ok to the others starting a heap, chain reaction.

It's annoying when somebody starts barking about where to put garbage. It's a good chance for some guy to try to talk down to you. I usually walk it out at night on the way to the pcbang, putting it with it's paybag brethren at the cool place for garbage.

[that guy]

[Captain Corea]

This topic was done a month ago.


Simple, be an adult and learn how to throw out your garbage.

[Gopher]

[Cedar]

It takes one person in the know to explain (building managers, janitors, security guards are a good bet), you may have to ask two or three people but you can certainly find out how to do your garbage. You have some excuse, the Koreans have none. It's not so hard, there are banners in my neighborhood explaining it (in Korean). In my neighborhood (this is far different than garbage was in the past) we now have a garbage site where we drop off the garbage twice a week (evenings and it's picked up in the morning) and the food garbage is put in the food garbage bin (also picked up twice a week) and the recyclables are thrown in the green mesh bags (also picked up, but not sure if it's twice or just once a week). In the past of course it was daily... oh the good old days...

[Freezer Burn]

The guy threatened to call the police, I have to go tomorrow and apologise (really don't want to fuming that I have to) to avoid a fine, and give him some bottles of vitapower drinks.
The reason I was dumping it in the first place was the agression from my janitor everytime I went to discard my trash in front of my building and my director couldn't tell me what the procedure was since he lives 50 mins away.
A language barrier is a language barrier, the only way to get around that is to learn the language, but I've only been here for a few months.

[Captain Corea]

[Freezer Burn]

If I had pressed the issue, sure that would've been the answer and I knew that, I thought everything was ok, the trash was being cleared and no one was hurt in the process.
Its very typical of the Asian mind to assume that the language trapped foreigner will know the ins and outs of the councils disposal laws, I mean it makes perfect sense to me to have ESP.
A hogwan boss being on the ball

[rapier]

I buy the proper bags- I separate plastic, paper, and glass. I think thats fair enough.
recycling is a good thing, its well that they do it here.