Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fiveeagles]

[Bee Positive]

This is hypothetical and sure to provoke controversy, but here goes anyway:

One of the main reasons that you don't see quite as much blatant, undisguised poverty here in SK as in other parts of the world is . . . prostitution.

It exists everywhere, to be sure, but is clearly such a HUGE industry here in South Korea, in one form or another, that it cannot objectively be viewed as anything less than an integral and vital part of the economy. Anyone who's been here any decent length of time knows it: The dodgy barbershops, massage parlors, business clubs, basement noraebangs, etc. ad infinitum--they're EVERYWHERE!

Anecdotally:

My last job, in Kimpo City, had me living in a one-room apartment which was literally just one floor above the pink-lit basement singing room with a warning above its front and back doors that it was off-limits to youths under 19 (or 18, I forget the exact the number).

Gee, I'm living in a brothel! I mean, seriously, it's all in one building! And there's never a blush, nothing. No one thinks anything of it here.

My replacement was flown in from New Zealand and promptly put up in an Incheon love hotel, WITH A DILDO DISPENSER IN HIS ROOM, before he could be moved into my brothel over the weekend.

Never so much as a blush from the so-so proper good Confucian women running the hakwon (one ostensibly Buddhist, the other professedly Catholic). No worries, mate, this is Korea. Just don't expose any flesh in public and we'll all be fine, right? Kind of like Victorian Britain!

The poverty tie-in:

Last Friday, as chance would have it, I led an adult conversation class on the topic of homelessness. (Not my choice of subjects: we go through the book methodically and had simply come up on the Homelessness chapter.)

What do you know?: My adult students inform me that the homeless in Korea are almost all men. Why? Because women "have ways of avoiding poverty." Heh, heh, heh, nervous titters shimmering round the classroom, averted eyes, silence falling as I asked for an explanation.

OK, I'm no chump and can work it out: Women go to work in room salons, basement noraebangs, sports massages, and so forth, long before they ever spend a night in Seoul Station.

Lots of questions branch out from here (none of which my silence-stricken students would ever dream of answering when not drunk and in private), including

How many Korean men subsist on the earnings of prostitutes?

Personally, I'd like to know,

Will the current crackdown on sex-for-cash wreck the precarious balance of Korea's lower orders and lead to real social imbalances, perhaps in time unrest? Do the enforcers of morality understand what they're doing in assaulting one of society's sturdiest refuges from poverty? Do they have the "legitimate" jobs to offer those exiting the sex industry and not looking to pitch camp in the subway?

I put "legitimate" in quotes because, well, this is a far more complex issue, I submit, than little minds are prepared to admit.

Just wondering.




BEE POSITIVE

[igotthisguitar]

[Len8]

There is a whole suburb of poor low income people and their families somewhere in Seoul. Saw an article about it in the Chosun Ilbo. They all virtually live in those plastic makeshift homes that would normally be used for growing fruit. They have their own schools and social infrastructure albeit for poverty borderline families or less than homeless.

They have some pride, but geeze

People in the hospital who are impoverished cant paye the bills of course, and their relatives are supposed to cover the expenses. What happens is that relatives or members of the families sneak into visit their sick family member and try to get out before they are pounced on to paye the bills. The hospital staff fortunately or unfortunately know this and often just turn their backs and let them go.��

[fiveeagles]

[Hater Depot]

"Barbershops", noraebangs, juicy girls, streetwalkers, Hooker Hill, coffee girls, massage parlors, hostess bars... did I miss anything? It's not like they're really secretive about it. I used to walk outside in the mornings and every car would have a little "business card" with naked girls and a phone number. (They come to your house.) Nor was there any shortage of fliers with maps and directions and assurances that they accept credit cards.

I have a feeling this may be the reason that no Korean woman has ever believed me when I say I've never been to a prostitute.

[seoulmon]

[fiveeagles]

[jajdude]

As a huge egomaniac I thought I would be mentioned in this thread.

[brento1138]