Korean Job Discussion Forums

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

Ah...do you remember the first time you heard it? Basically it involves a Korean (maybe your friend, maybe your coworker) rattling off a list of tests, jobs, errands, and/or responsiblities and then punctuating the whole thing with a big sigh and the phrase "I'm so busy." It's quite a work of theater, isn't it? And then you have that slight twinge of guilt like maybe you're not busy enough. Here you are, planning to spend your evening eating KFC and watching the girls on the exercise machine infomercials while your poor Korean comrade is slaving away. Oh, the injustice!

Is there anybody else out there like me who starts to smirk as soon as it starts? Sometimes when they start going on about how many projects are due and how many hours they work, I start daydreaming that the person starts floating up in the air and becomes affixed to a giant golden cross and a big crown of thorns floats down and settles on their head and they tilt their neck and roll their eyes back in a perfect expression of messianic persecution. And then I hear that sigh and I snap back to reality just in time to hear the key phrase "I'm sooo busy." Then I giggle and say "Hwaiting!" and punch them in the shoulder. Is that just me?

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

That's when it's your cue to break-out the violin.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I was suckered by that for a long time, although the version I was getting was the uni student version...I have to study. My first Korean friends were students at KAIST and Choongnam Nat'l (in Daejon).

They would tell me about having to get to the library early so they could get a spot to study. I was really impressed.

Then one day I went to campus. Hoards standing out on the library steps smoking and talking to the girls. Others playing jokoo (a kind of foot volleyball learned in the military), going off to play billiards or get a haircut.

From that point, I started asking more pointed questions when told someone was 'busy'. I try to teach them to distinguish between 'at work' and 'working'. They are not necessarily synonyms.

(Later I worked in Korean companies. My experience in one of them has led me to question how Korea ever got to be #11 in the world.)

seoulsucker · Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject:

This country needs a "work smarter, not harder" enema.

Angelus · Joined: 10 Feb 2006

I am sooooooooooo busy!!!!!! Unfortunately, this is true!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH help me!

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

I fall for that too. Until they say they're in university.
Then I laugh at them.

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

Due to conditioning it's the only way they know how to define themselves as human beings. You are what you do, and the more the better, even if it's completely useless stuff!

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Middle school homework booklets. These Middle school hagwon students write a half page bit of homework in a diary form, in English. I check their work. I was wondering what they'd say. Maybe it'd be interesting. Well three out of four guys wrote about how every day's the same, they've too much study to do, and please don't assign any hagwon diary homework.

The fourth guy wrote about how he got home and no-one was there (like that Twilight Zone episode from the 60's, the town is empty except for him. Turns out it's a brain experiment and he's dreaming an enforced dream in a test facility to see how long it takes for a soldier to crack). There's a phone ringing. It's mom. Come to the hospital. At the hospital his brother has some kind of serious flu. The doctor checks him out, too, but unfortunately he's well. And unfortunately he has to go back to school, do homework, etc.