Korean Job Discussion Forums

[eaglenovan]

Deleted

[manlyboy]

I blame mobile phones. Have you noticed how people seem to think it's ok to step in your path or cut you off on the sidewalk like you don't exist so long as they happen to be in the middle of a cell phone conversation?

[quiksilver]

While I wasn't here before the advent of mobile phones I'm pretty sure it was happening long before they arrived. I'll agree that it makes the situation worse but isn't the cause. It's just a care-free attitude. Too care-free I'd say.

[pet lover]

I was here in the beeper era. Things haven't changed. No one looks. Not the pedestrians, not the drivers. Not children, not adults.

[fidel]

Well I was here when they only had two paper cups tied together with strings and believe you me...

[captain kirk]

Funny, 'aint it. It's interesting to hear someone new look at what is new to them and comment. Korean people don't look around much. Is it a social contract not to run into each other? Is it pride? Is it not acknowledging the other as a real person and he does the same to you. Which invites accidents/collisions which don't matter because 'nobody' was hit. Nobody you know, anyway.

It becomes frightening when it's not just pedestrian traffic. I don't want to sound crusty but I've been driving a motorbike here in Korea for six years or so and just recently it's occured to me, my feeling about it is, that it's a lot of bother.

I mean I can match my speed to allow for anything to happen and so avoid collisions. But it's rough. Nerve wracking. And when you look at the violators, the ones driving in a haze talking on the phone or doing a u-turn suddenly braking ahead of you and veering in lanes they shouldn't be in just to get where they're going and fast....well, it's disappointing. I mean it's stupid in a deeply disappointing way, as well as being dangerous.

Ego driving. Pride driving. Drunken driving. Talking on the cell phone driving. Whatever kind of stupid driving a person is forced to anticipate and react to is a delightful jolt of adreanline across the chest, it's true, but it's also just lower order stuff. Like why aren't these drivers aware that driving is a right that can be taken away. Because incoming governments revoke charges, tickets, to please everyone?

Like the black car the rich guy's driving which comes sailing in on a left hand turn while the light has gone red already and patient people are now able to go on the green, if it weren't for this rich guy in the black car, that is. Who's risking his and the lives of others should there be a collision which is NOT out of the question.

It's like this kind of driving goes on in a state of ignorance. Pre-occupied talking on the phone, vain wanting to be first, whatever. It's a free-for-all which is 'ok' but for the two or three incidents of near misses. Like how in Korea there can be tons of good encounters with Koreans but one or a couple of bad experiences can really sour you. Or, in the case of driving, kill you. There's an ignorant element one can, in peacetime/calm time, see as cavalier, devil may care, wild, reckless, having fun, loving the game (in this case, driving). For example, cement trucks.

The drivers of cement trucks or any large vehicle, including buses. They can be drivers who identify with the mass and momentum of their vehicles and, being bigger is best, not give right of way. Lunge into the traffic stream or hog the lane when on-coming. In the case of bus drivers isn't a bus driver supposed to be a professional? Humanitarian like a milkman? Instead of a repressed, acting out, homicidal maniac behind the wheel?,haha.

[eamo]

Good post Captain.

The driving here is unusual. I would put it down to confucianism which accounts for a lot of the strange behaviour in this country but then, the Italians are horrible drivers and they certainly aren't confucian. Maybe it's just that Koreans are relatively new to driving. Car ownership was uncommon until the 80's.

[mindmetoo]

I saw a guy try to cross the street in front of a fire engine. What's funnier is the two fire engines RIGHT BEFORE the one he tried to cross in front of both made a turn right in front of him. Why did he not assume that third fire engine was going also make the same turn, forcing him to scurry his polyester panted fanny back to the safety of the sidewalk? For all he was concerned, that third fire truck was just behind the other two out of pure coincidence and the third one was going to go straight through the light instead of making a right turn like THE OTHER TWO RIGHT BEFORE IT...

Then there was the old guy that during subway rush hour decided breaking into a limb flailing sprint was the best thing to do. I mean, he'll get far, during rush hour? How far did he think he'd make it in a crowded interchange station during rush hour? I only saw him coming at me at the last possible second. The only thing I could do was turn into him and let the energy of his run dissipate on the point of my shoulder, which I angled in the dead center of his chest. It was either spearing him PAINFULLY in his 70 year old chest or letting him knock me flat on my ass, bash the back of the skull on the subway title, and be in a coma forever. I hope the old ForUnlawfulCarnalKnowldge still remembers the pain and thinks twice next time he tries to do that...

Oh then there are the people that stop dead on the subways stairs heading down, during rush hour. You know the person just has to dig out her cell phone and expects the 100 other patrons right behind her to have prescience and come to a dead stop and not push her down the stairs...

When I walk in Seoul I have have a maxim: In a city of 10 million people, you have to assume someone is close behind you and someone is probably coming around a corner.

[cdnhawk]

When I try to explain this behaviour to my friends back home I say that a Korean's world ends six inches in front of his or her nose. They have zero awareness of what is going on around them.

[mindmetoo]

[joe_doufu]

[Zark]

I loved living in Taiwan.

I rode a motorcycle there and every traffic light was a new drag race. Nothing like reving the bike and screaming off the line with fifty other bikes and scooters. Whew huuuuu!

Great fun!

[Wangja]

Those who think the driving standard in Seoul is low have clearly not travelled much.

Given the volume of traffic, I think the standard here is high.

[Lizara]

[mindmetoo]