Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Bobster]

I also don't approve of "so-so."

How are you, I try to explain is a variation on standard greetings like Hello. I don't really want to know how you are, especially if you have some problems. "So-so," immediately makes me want to ask what is wrong, why aren't things perfectly fine?

I think Koreans have a similar thing going when they ask acquaintances they run into by chance on the street : Have you eaten?

Think this was covered in the Culture Shock! Korea to me I read on the plane my first trip over here - I still made the mistake of saying, "No, actually, I'm on my way to lunch." At which point they canceled whatever plans they had and guided me to a ramen place or (more often) their own favorite lunch spot. Once there, I noticed they didn't eat - they had just come back from lunch, I later found out - but usually paid the bill for me ...

The wife says this used to be a custom, but isn't much anymore. "We used to be poor, so we asked our friends if they had enough food. Sometimes even people we didn't know very well."

Anyway, the correct response to "How are you?" is "I'm fine," and if you are a close friend that I have some reason to be concerned about, you look them in the eye, maybe touch their hand or shoulder, say. "No, really, man, how have you been? Do you need anything?"

But if you are not a close friend, and you tell me things are not so good, it presumes and puts an obligation to care about you in ways I'd rather not because the relationship is not suited to it. This is what I try to teach my students.

[VanIslander]

not too bad

[Tiny_Tibbo]

I usually say "I'm alright"

[Apple Scruff]

[Mills]

[AbbeFaria]

I usually just say "Good" or "Fine". I only stick the 'I'm' on there maybe half the time.

"How are you?"
"Good. You?"
"Pretty good."

And, "pretty good" is also one of my more commen responses to that question. And I felt like instituting corporal punishment more than once from all the "so-so's" I get. Now that I know other people have the same problem I think I'm going to make my classroom a No So-So zone. Yeah. Effective Monday. I make some banners and post signs.

��S��

[numazawa]

[Lizara]

[Privateer]

[The Bobster]