Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stat]

mindmetoo: "if you read my post, you would see I was talking about the vegi-organic types who seriously seem to think 7 billion people can grow enough food via so-called organic methods."

sorry, but you typed "vegetarians" so I thought I'd just check that you knew you were wrong.

[pet lover]

It means I completely agree with you/support what you said/think highly of you for saying it in the first place.

I'm certainly not a kid--I'm older than most on this board. I think I had a high school flashback or something.

It'd be "her" blanket and the comment about putting bloody a pet's head under my blanket just made me lose all my earlier respect for you.

[paperbag princess]

the oceans are becoming increasingly more empty all the time. as well, a lot of the big fish and whales are becoming victims of bioacculmulation. for example, in norway they advise pregnant women not to eat whale meat as it is high in mercury.

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=20787

if you want to eat meat, you should be prepared to go out and kill/catch it yourself and not rely upon feedlots and fishing trawllers.

[red dog]

I don't think I can possibly address all the annoying comments that people have made here -- but first of all, when societies are committed to the development of less polluting, less environmentally destructive methods of agriculture, they'll find ways to do it and they'll find ways to make those methods efficient.

However, I don't always eat organic food or healthy food. I'm a near-vegan (I look out for most of the stuff Demonicat mentioned, but I admit I'm not always strict about vanilla flavorings) for moral reasons, rather than health or environmental reasons, and it's very important to me to live the way I do. So it's worth the trouble, and I don't feel that I have to be perfect in every way or else throw up my hands and live just like (many of) the rest of you.

Also, just because I'm not a healthy eater, that doesn't mean I have no right to refute the false health claims that are constantly being made for animal products -- they're simply not health-supporting foods, let alone necessary in the human diet. I strongly recommend the books Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman and The China Study by T. Colin Campbell for people who want to understand how solid the scientific evidence against animal products really is. The Food Revolution by John Robbins, whose focus is a lot broader, is great too.

About Korea, I lived there for five years and obviously had some difficult times, but overall the good far outweighed the bad. I didn't know much about the country at all when I went there and had no preconceptions about it being a vegetarian "paradise," but I also didn't automatically assume that all Koreans would be anti-animal and stay away. I don't think that's an intelligent approach.

Anyway, I ended up meeting some really nice Korean vegetarians and had a chance to participate in cool events like World Vegetarian Day 2000 and 2001. Nonvegetarian Koreans didn't treat me like a "freak" (unlike many people in my own country), and many of them did everything they could to help me. In the beginning I probably ate a little healthier than usual because I didn't know what was in all the processed and packaged foods, but after a while I found SM Vegetarian Buffet and Sanchon and that was a lot of fun. I really don't understand who these "intelligent" people are who go to Korea expecting to find a Sanchon on every streetcorner. Of course you can't expect that anywhere.

Over the past few years it's gotten much easier to find Western-style "health food" items in Seoul, such as Soy Delicious fake ice cream. Now they're even opening a vegan bakery, for the dogs' sake. (Traditional sweets like yakgwa -sp?- and ddeok are often vegan anyway.)

When I was in Japan a few years ago, it was a bit different. I had trouble talking to most of the Japanese people I knew, and other foreigners helped me a lot. I also found some Middle Eastern and Indian places on my own and even a really nice veg place in Kyoto called Cafe Peace:

http://www.cafepeace.com/indexE.html

Some convenience stores and grocery stores had veg (meat-free, fish-free) sushi made with pickles or cucumbers, grocery stores also had edamame, I got addicted to omochi (like ddeok) and yes I ate more fruit and vegetables than usual (but don't worry -- I don't expect a pat on the back for this from mindmetoo). There are also a lot of health food items available in the stores in Osaka and Kobe, and a couple of mail-order companies also sell them:

http://www.warabe.co.jp/english.html

http://www.alishan-organic-center.com/en/index.html

The company that posted the ad in the OP is really the loser in all this. Vegetarians can go to Japan, Korea and practically anywhere else in the world. Maybe Antarctica wouldn't be the best choice, but we don't have to stay home and cry just because people on these boards say so.

[pest2]

[red dog]

Right. One person proves nothing -- Campbell and his colleagues studied tens of thousands of people and conducted detailed surveys about their lifestyle and eating habits. Their work is very strong evidence that animal products are bad for us and that we're better off without them. People like Atkins and D'Adamo (the blood-type guy) don't have similar studies to back up their claims.

[endofthewor1d]

[red dog]

[JongnoGuru]

[jinju]

[bellum99]

First of all, I would have to say that hundred of thousands of years have shaped us the way we are and a few books written by people who didn't live noticeably longer or better lives has yet to convince me eating meat is harmful.
Truthfully, vegetarians have no facts on the benefits because there are no facts to date. People's life expectancy and health are determined as much by genetics as by diet. In fact, I would actually say that nature has showen us that a healthy mix of food is the ideal diet. Vegetarians are like the early vitamin pill poppers...they see some signs that there are changes and assume that overdoing it will increase the benefits.

[red dog]

[red dog]

[memorabilis]

To those that think Asia is not vegetarian friendly: need I remind of a lil ole country called India (or Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka for that matter)

In my year on the sub-continent, believe you me there were choices so plentiful you would be totally amazed. EVERY restaurant had at least as many if not more choices of healthy vegitarian ("veg" for the people there, or even more properly "weg" as they get their v/w's mixed up) than "non-weg". This includes places like KFC, McDonalds (of the one extant in South India - sacred cow eaters) and Pizza Hut.

Many restaurants are in fact "pure veg", as in meat and eggs are not even allowed past the doors. There are over 300 million "pure veg" vegetarians in India alone, and the vast majority of others probably only eat non-veg only very occaisionally. And the food there was so delicious.

Very different than here, of course. But let's not forget that Asia's where vegetarianism started. The capacity for the Hindu culture to absorb and force invaders to conform - to "Hinduise" them - is truly astounding. Can you imagine if people still wore hanbok here today, every day? But the sari and the shalwar kameez is consistently worn on a daily basis in India. Interesting.

Did you know that Gandhi lived for years in England on very little but bread because of his commitment to vegetarianism? He had vowed to his mother that he would not break the purity laws. But even in the early 20th century in London he eventually found a vegetarian restaurant.

[JongnoGuru]

FANTASTIC POST, Memorabilis!

Post more!!! Post more!!!


And welcome aboard! (<== what a fucking prat! like I've got any cred! like i've been here since 2003! I'm just another newbie!)