Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zack_in_Korea]

EXTREMELY PISSED OFF HERE.

and no one to yell at. I would yell at the Koreans but I can't effectively cut them to the quick like I could in English.. then again I have never come across this in Canada or the USA.


Why is it that Korean people never watch where they are going when they walk? By the way I love Korea deeply so please don't mistake my rants for prejudice. When I get angry I can't seem to control myself sumtimes.

So they are either walking while completely texting sumone.. or they are looking at the ground or sumthing else.. or they look right at you but still keep coming at you expecting YOU TO BE THE ONE WHO COMPLETELY MOVES 100%.

Sorry but where I come from, and yes I know this isn't where I come from, but this is just a common sense thing, people both move equally out of the way so they both pass quickly. Koreans do not. They will walk out of a shop without looking who is coming.. and if you don't move you will just smack RIGHT into them.

Usually I just let it go.. but sumtimes if i see they aren't willing to move at all.. well then I am not willing to move at all. So I bodycheck them, but not really cuz like I said if they aren't moving, neither am I. Or sumtimes I just stop dead in my tracks and they just stand there and look at me totally baffled.. "Why isn't he moving?" Lol, like I have a sign on my head that says b****

This is extremely infuriating to me but even if I spoke Korean I don't think I could make sumone understand why i am upset. One of the last time this happened I was so angry when I came home I broke my door off the hinges.

So is it just me, which it can't be, or do others of you have similar beefs?

[VanIslander]

Come on, admit it. The American in you wants to yell "Get out of my way!"

The rules and responsibilities are different here.

(There have been a couple of good threads discussing the details of the legal and cultural differences, the history, etc.. "Search" for them.)

[pet lover]

Well, if you are braced for impact, it's going to hurt them more than you. Sometimes I allow myself to be run into just to annoy the other person.

[Troll_Bait]

I've found that using my hands to guide them out of the way works well.

Use the opposite hand, so if you're on the right and someone's approaching on your left, use your right hand to guide or gently push them more towards the left.

Often, when they see my hand, they move a bit.

If your hands aren't free, you could also turn your shoulders. Then, if they bump you, you won't be as knocked-off-balance.

[weatherman]

There is nothing wrong with the locals, it is you who is getting upset. What is wrong with you?

You have to change your thinking. Don't care and walk with determination. If somebody is in your way, it is their fault. Make a straight line like the best of locals. Point A to point B with selfish determinism while maintaining a nonplussed demeanour is the way to go. It is a brave new world. Go for it.

[elynnor]

...

[Grotto]

First year in Korea....I was shocked and appalled at how little attention they give to where they are walking...getting on or off of elevators, subway cars or just walking down the street. I used to get absolutley infuriated scream and rant about how these people dont pay any attention to where they are going.

Year two: Its just the way things are here....so when in Rome I put my shoulder down and walk straight through any and all who cross my path....my arms flinging them to the side as I cut my swath through Seoul or Suwon

Year three: as I walk down the street text-messaging not watching where I am going I realise that there is a flow to the movement....an almost hypnotic pattern as pedestrians swirl in a blithly blind flow down the cement rivers in the cities.

Relax...you'll adjust

[Ilsanman]

Today I was walking, and it was clear people expected me to move. Not a 50/50 'we both move a little', which was what I expected.

I levelled my briefcase up to my hip, ready to nail anyone who walks right into me. Shockingly, they all moved. I didn't have to hit anyone.

[korian]

understand the frustration, but like another poster said, it's life in korea. you're not going to change it as i doubt very much most koreans even notice it. i found it much easier to bear when i realised that it was nothing aimed at me, just one of those annoying things you shake your head at and forget about.

out of curiousity, why do you take time to write grammatically correctly with correct punctuation and so forth and then continually spell some with sum i.e sumone/sumthing? it has to be a conscious decision, jut curious as to why?

[nautilus]

Theres a natural order to it, although I can't put my finger on it. Could well be status-related: younger give way to older, women give way to men, poorer gives way to richer, scruffy gives way to smartly dressed: single person gives way to group: and so on...: koreans have an unspoken heirarchy drummed into them from birth, so they follow this code on the street too, without thinking.

In the west everyone is to be equally respected, so everyone makes adequate space for eachother.

[Zack_in_Korea]

A few things to say:

First of all this is one of those things that crabby people might get upset about and others might not.. but it is even beyond that though.. yes I do get too upset about it though, infuriating as it is.

Second, I don't have culture shock, and didn't when I got here.. I was out and about by myself the very first night with no problems. I have been here since 2001.

I don't give off the impression that I will move, nor am I hard to spot. I am 6 foot 1 and weigh 240 lbs. Maybe the hierachy could be cuz I am a foreigner.. but like I said half the time people don't even look at you to even judge anything about who you are or social status.

It is true though.. there is a rhythm to the movements in life here, and I am extremely in tune with it.. I almost never had any bad experiences here in terms of racism. I thought I might have lived here in another life even and sumhow intuitively understand things that I couldn't before. But the walking thing bugs me. I am always in a rush to get where I need to go, and even if I am not this is a common everyday occurance.

One day I was carrying a heavy chair across the street and this woman just looks at me not moving at all.. Yeah get real! like I even could move.. i nearly broke my back.

And lastly. I spell sometimes with a u. as well as some. I also use z to end plural words. I am an English major and believe language is fluid. I have decided for sum reason to spell those words that way.. I don't know why.. i think from using the net alot.. so that is one way language has changed. I even write like that for official purposes too. We all use language and have the right to change it.. it's happening every day and faster than it ever has.. look at rap songs for instance. To anyone who wants to hold fast so strictly to rules.. whatever.. i am not interested in that. If I was writing sumthing very official then I would change my spelling, and would sumhow remember too.. so that when sumone reads it they wouldn't get distracted.. otherwise I just go with my flow.

[ajuma]

You ever drive on a uni campus??? Talk about frustrating!! Now and then, after a particulary "interesting" drive (ie: students looking at my car and deciding to cross/walk in front of it, students using the road as a meeting place, etc.), I sometimes do a mini-lesson.

a) person
b)car
c)sidewalk/pavement
d)road

Match!!

To amuse myself, I sometimes count the number of students I can "legally" hit (not turning the wheel). The most I've been able to bag was 23!

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Grim Ja]

On my way to work in the morning. I must drive by a few different schools. Of course there are cross walks which are used but most of the time the teenagers just dart across the road into oncoming traffic, or they casually walk through the crosswalk when it is already red, about one hundred students at a time. A week doesn't go by when a student is not almost hit by one of the hundreds of cars rushing to work in the morning. The problem is that if any studnet was hit no matter how stupid they act it would be the drivers fault, especially the foriegner's fault, and the driver would have to pay.

Be careful out there.

[Universalis]