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Slep
Joined: 14 Oct 2006
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 Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 1:47 am Post subject: |
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Today on the metro it was taken a step further. I was standing up and an old woman grabbed my pants and pulled on them and her friends started laughing.
Fucking wierd. |
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Noureli
Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Location: Nowhere but Here
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:14 am Post subject: |
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| I guess some of you have never been to Quebec, where everybody just stares at each other and most of the time they(French Canadians) stare in really mean way. So it's not just Korea. |
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Slep
Joined: 14 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:12 am Post subject: |
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| Noureli wrote: |
| I guess some of you have never been to Quebec, where everybody just stares at each other and most of the time they(French Canadians) stare in really mean way. So it's not just Korea. |
Huh?
I'm from Montreal, i've never noticed anyone staring, much less in a mean way |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:41 am Post subject: |
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| I didn't feel like cooking the other night, so I went down to the local Pizza Hut to order a pie. It was going to be fifteen minutes, so I headed across the street to get some groceries. When I returned, I set my grocery bag down to grab the pizza. The next thing I know, the Pizza Hut girl is pawing through my groceries, checking out what the foreigner bought. I've been here long enough that almost nothing from these people surprises me, but that was a new low in intrusive behavior. |
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Homer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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I did my undergrad in Montreal and they do stare there.... 
As for staring in Korea....it never really bothered me. Since I have zero control over it why aggravate myself?
It has no little impact on my life anyway...
As for looking for it...that is true. If a person obsesses over this they will be on the lookout for it and guess what...they will find it. Sometimes it will be people staring, often it will be people staring back... |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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| If you stare back, they do look away. But its too much efort to return stares all day long. |
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stevieg4ever
Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Location: London, England
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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hahaha ive had that too, in london that is. to be expected but no doubt it is annoying.
whats even worse is when im with a group of people ive met for the first time and they are express complete astonishment in the fact i know korean and why id want to learn korean in the first place. i imagine that this is what it feels like to be an animal in a zoo or something.
| Qinella wrote: |
| I would prefer staring to the typical annoyance I've been enduring lately, which is a surprised Korean who sees me reading a newspaper or something that's written in his language, disturbing my reading so he can exclaim with shock that he can't believe I can read Korean, and no other foreigner can do it, and Korean is such a difficult language, and blah blah blah.. I just wanna say, go sit over there and stare, please, because your condescension is killing me, jackass. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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| stevieg4ever wrote: |
whats even worse is when im with a group of people ive met for the first time and they are express complete astonishment in the fact i know korean and why id want to learn korean in the first place. |
Funny thing is a lot of them expect you to speak it as you are in Korea. They just chat away to you in Korean and assume you know what they're saying.
The only bigger surprise than realising you don't speak korean, is their realising that you actually do. |
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Chicoloco
Joined: 18 Oct 2006
Location: In the ring.
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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I've spent some time mulling over why Koreans stare so much and have come to this conclusion.
It takes them much longer to process something they see than most other nationalities.
Controversial, I know, but think about it.
If you are walking to the bus stop and you see someone lying on the pavement, drunk or asleep, you would take a quick glance, acknowledge it, process it in your brain and move on.
Koreans will stop in their tracks, have a good luck, take a few steps, stop and have another stare before moving off. Ten meters down the road they will stop, turn and just to make sure their eyes weren't deceiving them, look again.
Why do they do this?
I haven't a f**king clue, but it gives me something to look at while I'm waiting for the bus  |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| Chicoloco wrote: |
I've spent some time mulling over why Koreans stare so much and have come to this conclusion.
It takes them much longer to process something they see than most other nationalities.
Controversial, I know, but think about it.
If you are walking to the bus stop and you see someone lying on the pavement, drunk or asleep, you would take a quick glance, acknowledge it, process it in your brain and move on.
Koreans will stop in their tracks, have a good luck, take a few steps, stop and have another stare before moving off. Ten meters down the road they will stop, turn and just to make sure their eyes weren't deceiving them, look again.
Why do they do this?
I haven't a f**king clue, but it gives me something to look at while I'm waiting for the bus |
Too much study, too much work, too much 'face-time', too much soju. These things might account for the fact that most of them seem to walking around in a zombie-like haze. |
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joeyinasia
Joined: 21 Oct 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:43 am Post subject: |
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I found that I was stared at down south...Pohang....way more than Seoul and other places farther north. And yes, I've also experienced Korean checking out what I have in my shopping cart. It doesn't really bother me though, but sometimes....like when I'm PMSing...I stare back  |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:15 am Post subject: |
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| Woland wrote: |
| Compared to ten years ago, the staring here is way reduced now. I hardly ever sense it happening, whereas on my first time through Korea, I felt stared at much of the time. Same thing for being hounded by children in the street. It used to be if I saw children I couldn't a pack following me yelling, "hello, hello". Now, I walk by the middle school in my neighborhood as classes let out and get no reaction at all from the kids. It's nice. |
Don't you know it. The worst experiences foreigners have these days were pretty common back when. A very welcome change it is. Though I still feel a residual tenseness when I cross paths with groups of kids of a certain age, or I'm in the same subway carriage with them. One of the few indirect benefits I think we've all gained from Korea's Engrish Ranguage Exprosion is that Korean children today seem far less likely to taunt the random foreigner they come across. I wouldn't say they're all been taught better, we're just less of a novelty, we've been "played out". |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:10 am Post subject: |
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| Chicoloco wrote: |
I've spent some time mulling over why Koreans stare so much and have come to this conclusion.
It takes them much longer to process something they see than most other nationalities.
Controversial, I know, but think about it.
If you are walking to the bus stop and you see someone lying on the pavement, drunk or asleep, you would take a quick glance, acknowledge it, process it in your brain and move on.
Koreans will stop in their tracks, have a good luck, take a few steps, stop and have another stare before moving off. Ten meters down the road they will stop, turn and just to make sure their eyes weren't deceiving them, look again.
Why do they do this?
I haven't a f**king clue, but it gives me something to look at while I'm waiting for the bus |
Good observation. it really is a mystery.
My theory is that they are more curious because their levels of personal experience are more limited.
Also I think a lot is projection. They know that Koreans are basically clones so they expect foreigners to be. They expect foreigners to look, think and act all the same way. it must be a continual surprise to see the unending variety that goes to make up westerners and foreigners. Wow..that one has yellow hair! Wow that one has red hair! tall! Short! Fat! thin! Speaks a different language to the other one! and so on.... |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:45 am Post subject: |
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Well the group mentality rules; same is good! Then a Korean sees a foreigner and there's something off, the brainwave/vibe emanating from that foreigner cat just isn't right. If it was the movie, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' they'd raise a hand and point, letting out that blood-curdling shriek meaning, 'not one of us, not one of us!!!!!'. And I'd have to admit I'm not. A body snatcher.
And hopefully never will be.... |
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Doogie
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Hwaseong City
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Slep wrote: |
| Noureli wrote: |
| I guess some of you have never been to Quebec, where everybody just stares at each other and most of the time they(French Canadians) stare in really mean way. So it's not just Korea. |
Huh?
I'm from Montreal, i've never noticed anyone staring, much less in a mean way |
Same here. Born and raised in Montreal and I never experienced any staring whatsoever. I've never even noticed other people staring at each other. |
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