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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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 Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
My diagnosis is 'culture shock'. I'm on my third Korean president and I still have bouts where the frustrations like you mentioned just get to me. I think the only solution (that works for me) is to drop back and punt. Give up the chore for the day, go home and take a nap and then re-group and try again, maybe with the help of a Korean friend to handle the language problem.
Anyway, my sympathies on your bad day. |
This sums up how I've been feeling since coming back from a 2-month holiday back home. Although I'm only on my second Korean president, I thought I'd been here long enough that culture shock wouldn't affect me anymore. Oh, how wrong I was.
Since returning to Korea 3 weeks ago, I've had my 'tongue-biting' moments, just like Kermo. It's tough, especially when these moments add up in a relatively short period of time.
Although I haven't had any banking problems recently, I've had other culture-shock/different treatment being a foreigner, and it just gets the blood going. I don't even want to write about these events here, cuz it'll get me going again.
I've found that playing the shame card, in a calm manner, sometimes gets the desired result. I've learned to say, in Korean, "is this because I'm a foreigner?", which sometimes (not always) gets them to try to help you out of a Korean need to not appear biased.
Although an all-out explosion at Incheon airport, when I arrived back, also had the desired effect and felt damn good. My wife and I didn't have any change to make a phone call at the public phones to contact my brother-in-law, who was to pick us up. So she went to a Family Mart to buy a drink so she could get change. Being tired, she didn't notice that the juice cost 1000won, therefore not producing the change we needed. At this time, I was waiting outside with our 1-year-old daughter. My wife explained that we needed change to make a phone call, and to please give out some coins from the 10,000won she paid with. Clerkboy refused and brushed her off, serving the next customer.
Now bear in mind, we'd been traveling for over 30 hours with layovers, so my patience hit a wall. I walked into the Family Mart and went straight to clerkboy (ignoring the other customers), my daughter in my arms and my wife by my side, and angrily, in my broken Korean, told him to change 1000won into coins. I told him I was angry and to give me the change now! He hesitated, opened his mouth to refuse again, and I laid into him again, with even stronger language than before. (I was actually pleasantly surprised by my Korean ability and how easily it came to me!). All the customers' jaws dropped and looked at clefkboy to see what he'd do.
He gave us the change. |
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ChopChaeJoe
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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I just have Koreans pay my bills and transfer my money.
It helps to have a Korean friend that I trust with a million won or so....
We do get cranky as we get older, mostly because we learn the rules and realize that we are getting shafted.
I have learned to not speak Korean. Speak Korean, you lose. Speak English, they just want to to move on. Keep speaking english and they'll help you so that you do. The trick is to appear as a sympathetic character, never angry, just curious and a bit bewildered. it's all an act. Don't crack and throw in a korean word, then you lose. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Lizara wrote: |
I've always had good experiences with customer service at the banks here... I mean, at my second bank the clerks mostly didn't know how to wire money, which was a bit disconcerting and led to a lot of frustration while I waited for them to do it over and over and over again, but generally I haven't dreaded going to the bank and I've always been treated well and given lots of free gifts and -mnidas.
Pharmacies, though. Once upon a time... and i feel like Grandma because I've told this story, or shorter versions, a few times on here already... I tried to get some insulin because, you know, I kinda need it or bad things happen. It took longer to find a doctor than I'd thought, so I was pretty close to running out of insulin by the time I got the prescription... and then I took it home to discover that very few pharmacies carry it. I went into pharmacy after pharmacy, handed over my piece of paper, and got puzzled frowns and stares and things said grumpily in Korean. Okay, you don't carry it, fine, but it was annoying that literally *every* pharmacy was so rude about it. Yeah, going into a place that sells medicine looking for medicine, whatever was I thinking? grrr. I tried to call the clinic to ask about pharmacy locations and they were just as rude, and I was getting quite low on supplies and increasingly distressed.... and when I finally found a pharmacy that had what I wanted, I found out the prescription had been written such that I only got enough insulin for about two weeks.
(A little less than two weeks later...)
I went back for a second prescription, took it to the pharmacy which I now knew sold insulin, and was told that it was completely wrong and couldn't even be filled. I ended up going without insulin for a night and then to the emergency room in the morning because it was the only way I could find to get any insulin at all... and then nobody there spoke much English and I had to try very hard to talk them out of making me stay at the hospital for a few days to get my blood sugar down because it was so high. I finally communicated my wish and got a prescription for enough insulin to last until my parents could send over some more supplies. I've been getting it from Canada ever since, even though it's much more expensive, because it's just not worth the hassle of trying to get it here. |
That's what gets me with some doctors here. They don't prescribe nearly enough because they want you to return for more. I found that whenever I have a sinus or an ear infection, most doctors only prescibe antibiotics for 3 days. What good is that gonna do me when it takes 10 days to clear up an infection? But two weeks of insuline? Considering the fact the prescription is non-renewal (and the trouble you had getting it filled), I'd say that's practically medical malpractice.
You need to find a good doctor (I just deal with ny wife's friend's husband, who is a no-nonsense doctor). Make sure you request at least a months supply of insuline. For a pharmacy with insuline, you need to find the one that supplies all the other pharmacies in town (yes, that's how it often works in Korea).
Last edited by Hollywoodaction on Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Hanson wrote: |
| Is it because I is a foreigner? |
Respek. |
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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| gang ah jee wrote: |
| Hanson wrote: |
| Is it because I is a foreigner? |
Respek. |
Made my day! 
Wicked! |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 1:03 am Post subject: |
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| Hanson wrote: |
| gang ah jee wrote: |
| Hanson wrote: |
| Is it because I is a foreigner? |
Respek. |
Made my day!
Wicked! |
Yes, mine too.
Would have been a bit funnier if he said "Is it because I is black", though. |
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GoshiwonGuy
Joined: 31 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 1:40 am Post subject: |
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kermo wrote:
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| but I just don't know the bank lingo, and I can't express myself too fluently in the first place. It doesn't help that nobody even tries to understand (my Korean or my English.) They just say "ok, ok" and jump to conclusions despite my frantic explanations. |
I agree it can be frustrating...so try to get your basics down.
[i.e. find a bank that has English tellers, a doctor that speaks English, etc, and then deal exclusively with them.
I run a very small circle of people who understand my needs and put out in as painless a way/s as possible...
GG |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:55 am Post subject: |
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| Hub of Asia. |
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numazawa
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: The Concrete Barnyard
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| Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:20 am Post subject: |
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| My ass~ |
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joyfulgirl
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:07 am Post subject: |
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i can't speak korean for shit, and don't even try, but have never had a problem tranferring money home, at woori bank, at my branch. maybe they do know me, even tho i don't try to be particularly friendly. i just go, smile, give 'em the paper i got the month before, sign somewhere,...and it's over in 5 mins.
last time i went the guy asked me if i'd give him private english lessons. i said i didn't do that. tho, if anyone is interested, there's a guy at woori bank in mokdong wanting some english lessons.
altho, oddly enuf, i go in mentally prepared for the day when it'll be a problem, and they'll tell me they can't do it, even tho they've done the same thing for the past few years. i think that's a 'living in korea' thing. 'cause things can go so oddly wrong, for no reason, sometimes. |
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