Korean Job Discussion Forums

antoniothegreat · Joined: 28 Aug 2005 Location: Yangpyeong

this is in response to the thread "what koreans think foreigners know about korea" i want to see what they assume about us...
for example...
kimchi is too spicy for foreigners

foreigners can not use chopsticks

foreigners either speak korean fluently, or have absolutely no knowledge of korean.

foreigners know who all Korean actors and singers are.

no matter how long a foreigner has lived in Korea, he or she still needs help to get a train or bus to Seoul.

Foreigners know who Park Jiseong (��) is.

ok, i think that is enough...

holeinthesky · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Location: Sadang.

Koreans think foreigners eat hamburgers, chips, bread, pizza, pasta with 1kg of pizza cheese in the sauce and "salad" (i.e shredded cabbage) with thousand island dressing~ as staple.

Koreans may assume we are 'dirty' for not taking our shoes off, when in fact many families in Australia/New Zealand and the West do. But anyway, my argument is that our streets are much cleaner and we don't spit, so its not so much of an issue....

Koreans think we don't know about the '4 seasons' of Korea..
God, the number of times I've heard that..."In korea, we have 4 seasons..."

Many of my students were surprised that I knew anything about Mr Hwang's scandal, "Oh, how do you know!!??" as if all Korean news is not available on the internet or in translation..

But Im sure there are many positive examples as well, they're just harder to remember!

Oh, I guess the most ovbious is that many Koreans think we are open minded and strong-willed for living this long in a foreign country.....

semphoon · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: Where Nowon is

I was discussing the process of recovery that a mother goes through after giving birth to a child with one of my adult students.

In Korea, the woman is not allowed any soild food for a a few weeks and she must remain at a warm temprature with her family tending to her needs.

My adult student thought that, after giving birth, a woman in the west would always eat a hamburger. In my mind, this painted a funny picture of a doctor running through the corridors of a maternity ward with a Big Mac held out in front of him.

indiercj · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Is this thread about what Koreans think about foreigners that think Koreans think that foreigners think that Koreans think that foreigners think that Koreans think that...?

SOOHWA101 · Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:00 pm Post subject:

rai · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Location: Osaka

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

The guy at my school before me wouldn't eat any Korean food and refused to use chopsticks, bringing a fork with him everywhere. I met 2 people like this in Japan. I also know another girl here in Korea who only goes to fast food restauransts (only Western), she's pretty fat obviously. You'd be surprised how many people can't use chopsticks when they come here. Some refuse to learn, some learn (but I watch them and they really use them bad), and some pick it up quite nicely (or already could use them). Don't be so judgemental of Koreans, as maybe the one or two foreigners they have met before really didn't eat kimchi and use chopsticks.

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

Yaya · Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Location: Seoul

doggyji · Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject:

I was sort of enlightened by this forum. When I first found this place and started reading, I was fairly surprised by the diversity of topics being talked about here and the amount of knowledge a few non-Korean people possess about Korea, let alone the negativity issue. Now "threads-translation-specializing sites" such as gesomoon.com translate some of what you post here into Korean and more people than you'd expect read them. It would be definitely fun if we have a machine translating message board for Koreans and English-speaking people like enjoyjapan.naver.com for the Japanese and Koreans. Of course, Translation between Korean and English would be much much harder than between Korean and Japanese, which is a big hurdle. Just a thought. Smile

antoniothegreat · Joined: 28 Aug 2005 Location: Yangpyeong

Cedar · Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject:

They think we eat bread. A lot of bread. Sweet bread. In fact, I have such a problem with this one, I get embarrassed to be seen carrying bread in Korea (i'm not much of a bread eater, but I know the moment they see the foreigner with the bread I am confirming their theory and i hate doing that).

They think if we are blond with big b--bs but not fat then we are Russian.

They think that we know the words to every "pop song".

They think our students don't study as hard as theirs and completely ignore how much many Korean students flake in university (when my friends and I were pulling all-nighters and forgetting the meaning of social life for months at a time).

Cedar · Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:36 pm Post subject:

Park Jiseong plays for Manchester United, doesn't he? And he is great. He's getting worked into the rotation there as they learn they can trust him to deliver... he's not a half-ass player at all. Park Chanho on the other hand... he crashed and burned as soon as they sent him to Texas.

jacktar · Joined: 04 Jun 2003 Location: ��

bellum99 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: don't need to know

Most Koreans think these things about us:

1: Lazy stupid people who couldn't get a job back home.
2: Working in a profession that has no respect.
3: Trying to have sex with many Korean girls.
4: Drink a lot and cause trouble.
5: Poor with little actual money
6: Uneducated and laking in manners.
7: Bring AIDS and illegal drugs into Korea.

***I actually agree with all of these things some of the time.