Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea

I seem to see a lot of crazies.

At least once a week, usually 2 or 3 times, I see someone walking down the street, shouting at him/herself (usually a man).

There is a psycho who works across from my mother in law's place.

Especially on the subway, I see these crazies.

Is there something in the water that I don't know about?

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Its not water, its soju.

flotsam · Joined: 28 Mar 2006

But tap soju is different from the bottled stuff.

ilovebdt · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Location: Nr Seoul

Maybe their hagwons closed down.

kangnam mafioso · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Location: Teheranno

it's quite normal. any western big city will have about quadruple the crazy people running around than you will see in korea.

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I had a guy try to pick a fight with me on the subway last week.

I got on the subway at Chungmuro, heading to Myeong-dong. I was sitting closest to the reserved seats, and heard someone shouting very loud in the reserved seats. I glanced over to see if it was someone on a cell phone, but it was just some guy shouting at nothing with a delirious expression on his face.

He caught my glance and offers me one of the cookies he's eating, to which I nod my head politely and say no. He then gets up and, quite forcefully, puts one on my shoulder. Irked, I toss it back in his direction. What ended up happening though is that I hit him in the forehead with it (didn't mean to; my aim is awful). So he gets really pissed off by this and starts throwing cookies and wrappers in my direction (missing the whole time). I got up and walked to the next subway car.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

"Koreans tend to think the problem is caused by someone else, that it does not lie within the Self," Professor Chey Jean-yung said.... Just about every Korean suffers from soul-deadening mental, physical or emotional tiredness.... "Korean people tend to think it is a luxury to see a psychotherapist,...

"But first of all we must do complete self-examination. Our history testifies that Korean people have lacked serious self-examination," Professor Rhee Dong-shick explained. Due to political hard times, dirty money and competition people feel that they are not being treated nicely.
Do You Need Therapy? By Lizette Potgieter, Korea Times (March 18, 2004)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200403/kt2004031817153511680.htm

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

plattwaz · Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Location: <Write something dumb here>

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the world's population. That's a pretty high occurence, when you think about it.

Also, statistics suggest that 60% of schizophrenics go unmedicated and untreated.

A lot of the crazies you see walking around - in any part of the world - are schizophrenic - they do have families that worry about them, families that wonder where their loved ones are, and wish they could help them. However, the part of the brain that comprehends illness is also the part of the brain affected by schizophrenia -- so you just can't get through to them that they are ill and require medication.

I'm not saying that all of the crazies you see ARE schizophrenic, however, because it is such a widespread illness, I'm sure that a lot of them are.

It's sad, really.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

I noticed a lot of dwarves around my neighborhood. Turns out there's some kind of social services apartments near me. Nothing better than seeing a dwarf sitting outside a GS25 with some soju trying to get a pair of high school girls to sit with him.

I have noticed when riding the subway the only people who talk to me are the crazy people.