Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

A couple of weeks ago my somewhat-well-travelled mother, and very well traveled brother came to Korea for a week. All in all a good time. Here's a short summary of their stay.

POSITIVES
- the food, aside from kimchi
- soju
- cheap dinners and transportation
- Jeju (although, not quite "the Hawaii of Asia")
- Seoul's palaces
- Insa-dong
- great hotel, very friendly staff
- Temples in Kyungju and Daegu
- Hanbok
- ease of travel
- traditional song and dance

NEGATIVES:
- the spitting
- the nastiness of kimchi
- the pushing (yes, my 72 year old mother loved being bowled over by young adults here)
- not giving up seats for elders (mom liked that one too)
- the heavy loads of makeup
- the random whiff of sewers
- the "8:00pm drunken businessman"

It was quite interesting to note that in just a week, they were able to notice some of the less than savoury aspects of Korea that are often dealt with on Dave's.

THE AMUSING
- Seeing my mom go to give my mother-in-law a goodbye hug. MIL didn't quite know what to do.
- Uncle-in-law asking my brother if he wanted to ditch the family and go to a Norae-bang that had "servers"
- Little cousins-in-law greeting my mom with, "Hi, how are you. Wahh, your hair is a surprise" and then gawking at, and fondling her white white hair.
- Seeing my mom just speak louder when talking with people who didn't understand her. "Yeah mom, keep raising the volume, that will help"
- Seeing them both do the very newbie thing of always saying "thank you" and "excuse me" as if everyone would understand.

[DRAMA OVERKILL]

Sounds like a busy week. A lot of ground covered.

Cool experience for both sides of the fam.

[Hanson]

That's awesome, Newbie. Having family visit to get a taste of Korea is always an enjoyable experience.

As a side note, my family remarked at how nice and kind and generous and.... the Koreans in my life are. My wife's family, my Korean friends and acquaintences were all genuinely nice and smily and outgoing.

My favorite story of when my Dad visited in 2002 was when we were all having dinner with my then soon-to-be in-laws. We were eating a spicy Korean dish (Jjim Dak) when my dad, suffering from a runny nose with the spicy meadl, pulled out a handkerchief , blew his nose enthusiatically and noisily at the dinner table, and then put it back into his pocket.

After dinner, my dad remarked "Did you hear your fiance's father slurp his food and eat with his mouth open? How disgusting!", to which I replied "Y'know, dad, my fiance is probably having the same conversation with her parents right now about how disgusting it was for you to blow your nose at the dinner table..." Culture clashes... Gotta love them.

[Cerriowen]

spitting - I've been here 2 years and I still shudder every time someone haucks up near me.

Sewers - Experience the smells of Korea.

8pm drunks - It's the ones who are stoned drunk at 2pm that get me worried (yes, I actually saw this. I'm guessing it was a business lunch). My boss served us all beers at 2pm in the afternoon once.

[RACETRAITOR]

I guess I come from the only western city that has discovered spitting. I have never noticed it here. On the plus side, you can do it yourself without getting yelled at.

The one thing my mom complained about when she was here was how uneven the sidewalks were. And the abundance of strange random smells.

[the_beaver]

[Hanson]

[EFLTeacher]

That's a great review of a week in Korea for your mom and brother. It's eye opening.

[rsmm0224]

[Captain Corea]

[aldershot]

[Newbie]

[rsmm0224]

[darkcity]

at times it's kinda liberating to live in a country with minimal manners.

sometimes i want to pick my ass or flick a booger...if i was in america, i'd have to wait till i got to the bathroom.

but in korea, i can even do it in church and no one blinks an eye. it's just when OTHER people do it that I shudder and think to myself, ugh, this country has no class.

[WoBW]