Korean Job Discussion Forums

Skippy · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Daejeon

Yea I have a small world story like those.

When I was in my teens I went to a morning bible study course. And I was frequently harassed by a group of older students. Picked on , chased, held down and tormented. One of them was named XXXXX Jarvis.

Years later, in Korea. Get a phone call asking if this was Mr PXXXXXXXX. Yea! He then told who he was. I was thinking why would a guy who used to torment me in school would be calling me in Korea. Well he was apparently a missionary here in Korea. He had heard I was in Korea and wanted to meet. Met him a few times, got an apology, talked, etc. He eneded up be a good friend.

Other small world experience is. Talking with a next door neighbour/ new teach to Korea. Asked where he was from. He commented a small town in the middle of nowhere Canada. I pressed he said ____________. I said shit I know that place my grandparents lived their. He asked who they where and he knew them.

Beej · Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Location: Eungam Loop

One Canadian ESLer running into another long lost Canadian buddy in Seoul is not really amazing.

Rob'sdad · Joined: 12 May 2008 Location: Seoul

When I was teaching in the foreign language high school we got a new teacher. He was a bit of a hayseed and for some reason we got on to the topic of cattle.

A: Damn. You know alot about cattle.
B: Yep. My gramps raises cattle.
A: In the Willamette Valley?
B: Nope. Near the border with California.
A: No S... Where?
B: You ain't never heard of that town.
A: Try me.

To make a long story short, his gramps and my gramps lived in the same town. Well, not town, out on the farm. The rest of his relatives lived the next town over (10 miles).

On a sidebar, we're talking about towns with populations of around 1000.

Nomadder · Joined: 16 May 2008

One time I was reading while my roommate was watching tv. Suddenly I stopped, shocked to realize that the last sentence I had read... I had also heard at the exact same time.

Also, one time when visiting family, I decided to show my mother, and aunt The Game (David Fincher thriller). We started the film, but then they had to go make popcorn and get drinks etc. (I just sat and waited, so what happened could not have been me subliminally attempting to create this...) Anyway, they finally got situated and pressed play. Now about 10 minutes into the film Michael Douglas gets a call from his wife. It's his birthday, and he says, "11:59... You almost missed it this year dear." Guess what time the (not correct) player read?

One time I bought a book of of Irish Fairy and Folktales by W B Yeats. I read all the way up near the end of some story almost half way through. Then I didn't touch the book for months, always meaning to get back to it. Anyway that summer the place I was working for got all of the employees a private screening for the movie A.I. (Spielberg). In the film there is a quote from a poem:

Come away oh human child
To the woods and waters wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world is more full of weeping
Than you can understand

The next day I decided that I would finally get back to Yeats.
Guess what was sitting there one page turn after I had stopped? That poem in its entirety. (Keep in mind I had never read Yeats before and until A.I. had never heard/read the poem)

If you keep your eyes open you'll see some pretty freaky coincidences in this life. Stranger things than "small world" fare to be sure.

I don't suspect any causal relationship, but I wonder if there is any meaning to be found in 'coincidence' in general? Any patterns in randomness that could be found.

sineface · Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Location: C'est magnifique

Similar to the last post...

My flatmates and I went to Blockbuster to get a movie. We got home, popped it in, and it turned out to be some kind of vaguely porno slasher flick, where people died in various ways and terrible things happened at 11.11pm. This is somewhat in contradiction to the film we'd got, but in the name of going with the flow, decided to watch it. Our door bell rang at an indiscriminate time during the film, we paused it to answer, and the clock was at 11.11pm. No jokes.

There have also been loads of times when, whilst singing a particular song, I switch on the radio and not only is that exact same song on, it's the exact same part I was just singing along to, and the radio and I can continue on in harmony.

robot · Joined: 07 Mar 2006

OMG!

I was just about to make an amazing coincidences thread!

Stormy · Joined: 10 Jan 2008 Location: Here & there

T-dot · Joined: 16 May 2004 Location: bundang

Somebody near me has always (except twice) died whenever I went to a hospital.

Near me could be equated to a family member of a friend, an acquaintance of friend that I dont know etc..

1st time was at birth; grandpa died.

Most recently, GF's uncle was diagnosed with a brain tumour a week after i went in for the medical check. 6 months ago went to the emergency room; a co-workers friend commited suicide a couple of days later.

My past is checkered with these events, so I only go to hospitals if I absolutely have to. Everyone around me knows this.

danby_ll · Joined: 06 Dec 2006

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:31 am Post subject:

My Korean wife studied English in my hometown in Canada for one year, 10 years before we met. Her homestay is a 5 minute walk from my mother's house there. My wife told her homestay "mom" via msn messenger that my wife was expecting. I phoned my mom the next day to tell her, but she had run into the homestay mom who told her the good news. They had met once a year earlier, and had never seen each other since.