Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Scorpion]

My landlord sucks. He never cleans the building. My apartment was absolutely filthy when I moved in. For the last two days I've had no hot whatever. I haven't showered since Wednesday, so I'm a bit grumpy. I asked the foreign teacher 'supervisor' to call the landlord and get the water fixed. A few hours later she says he did it. He entered my apartment with his extra key while I was at work and repaired it. Already in my bad books, I expressed annoyance that he had entered my home without my permission. He should have made an appointment to meet me after work (or at lunchtime). Not cavalierly entered my home. I asked the FT supervisor to inform him that he must never enter my home again. I was obviously a bit annoyed. The FT supervisor (or whatever they hell they are) later texts me and asks why I was angry with her. Of course I wasn't angry at her. I was annoyed at the landlord, and that likely was evident in my tone. But I was not annoyed with her.

This has happened several times with me over the years. Expressing annoyance about something to a Korean = you are angry at the person you are talking to. Anyone else notice this cultural disconnect?

Weird.

[War Eagle]

A landlord has the right to enter HIS (your) apartment whenever he wishes. The same is true in the states, at least the ones I lived in. I am not sure about other countries.

[highstreet]

[cabeza]

In NZ and Australia (And the UK I think) they have to give at least 48 hours notice if they wish to enter the apartment.
Tenants have bugger all rights in Korea.

[War Eagle]

Yea, it appears as though it varies quite a bit from state to state. Some require notice, some do not, but NONE require permission. As for Korea, I ran into this problem at my old hagwon/apt. a few years back. I was told they can enter whenever they wish in Korea.

Copy paste from internet:

[Smithington]

I certainly wouldn't want some ajoshie landlord snooping around my apartment when I'm not home (especially if I was a female). Given Koreans curiousity about anyone 'waegukin' I wouldn't be surprised if they frequently made up excuses to enter your home. You may not even know it has happened.

As for the co-worker thinking you were annoyed with her, just another case of Koreans being hyper-sensitive and famously thin-skinned. I've personally experience Koreans mistaking me and other Westerners as being angry when we're just having a vigorous conversation.

[le-paul]

without going into the ins and outs of it koreans, on the whole are definitely two things,
1/incapable of distinguishing between any kind of helpful criticism and a direct attack (or attack on their abilities or intellect).
2/ very, very emotionally immature.

yes, ive noticed this alot too.

one example; my recruiter phoned me two weeks ago and was almost crying because i asked him why he called. i said it was unusual. he was so upset that i could think that about him, he thought we got on well etc etc

[nicwr2002]

That's why you have those code locked doors. They can't enter your home without knowing the code. If they want to enter my home, they have to contact me first.

[Steelrails]

[Fox]

Sure, I have had Koreans erroneously believe I was angry with them. I have also believed Koreans were angry with me when it was in fact not so. It's an easy mistake to make.

[createasaurus21]

It's normal for an apartment to be dirty when you first move in. In Korea, the new tenant does the cleaning, not the old tenant. You won't be expected to clean your apartment when you move out. The same amount of cleaning (once) happens, Koreans just do it before instead of after. It's like how almost every Korean reverses into their parking space instead of driving in front first. Whichever you do, you still have to reverse once, Koreans just choose to do it before, and not after.

That said, I still prefer moving into a clean apartment and driving front first into parking spaces

[diver]

Similar to the OP do you have Koreans say "Stop yelling at me" when you are not yelling?

[everything-is-everything]

[Steelrails]

[Son Deureo!]

Since your landlord had to enter your apartment to fix your water heater, he probably interpreted your asking him to fix it ASAP as permission to enter your apartment. Did you honestly think that he was going to be able to fix it without going inside? He fixed your problem as quickly as he could while you were away at work, saving you not only the inconvenience of having to wait, but also having him doing the repairs while you were there. Your landlord might have pissed you off before, but it sounds like this time he was trying to do right by you.