Korean Job Discussion Forums

Carmy · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Location: Seoul

So the other day I was on the subway. There's this young boy, probably 14/15 years old and he's holding a box on his lap. The train stops and he gets up to get off the train and all the contents of his box, which happens to be pear juice in sachets, spill onto the floor and makes a huge mess.

Immediately (like a reflex) I bent down and started helping him, trying to gather the remaining sachets and put them in his bag. But they were so slippery they kept on falling out.

Do you think one other person helped me to help him?

Eventually the train moved away, so he missed his stop and I was still trying to help him whilst the people on the train either just ignored us or kept watching us. I couldn't help but feel a bit redfaced, not sure why though, because I was doing the right thing by helping him.

Anyways I'll just leave it that and not ask questions about Koreans and their reluctance to get involved etc.

Rather, I'll ask what interesting subway experiences have you had?

KYC · Joined: 11 May 2006

Yeah...Koreans are so...I dunno lol. I got on this bus but there were no seats available. I put my stuff on the floor and the bus started moving. I fell face forward on top of another girl and we fell back pretty hard. No one got up to help us or even said anything. (I'm also a girl).

I was recently on the subway and it was PACKED. I felt this old dude pressing up against me. It was really gross and the first time something like this happened to me. I wanted to get off the next stop but I couldn't even move. GROSS!

xingyiman · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

I was on the train form Dongducheon to Uejeongbu one evening. A few stops before Uejeongbu the train stops, doors open and this wild eyed ajoshi storms onto the train and shoves me against the wall. He barged into the passengers and kneed this little Korean girl in the face. He was trying to get to this other ajoshi who was on the train. The little girl was pulled off the floor by her father and at this point her nose was bleeding and she was crying badly. This ajuma was between the two and they were spitting and arguing. Eventually the crazy ajoshi decides to get off the train. No other passengers did anything including the little girl's father. As he passed me I was a hair width away from driving my fist into his face but I decided to control myself for the better good (of my own future). Man that was messed up!

rD.NaTas · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Location: changwon

i ordered a italian sub.....but i got a tuna sub

flakfizer · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:32 am Post subject:

A few months ago, I, my clearly pregnant wife, and our 3-year old were on the subway. A fairly old guy (60?) stood up either for my wife or our boy. He did not make it an obvious gesture by saying "anjusayo" or anything, but it was pretty clear he stood for the purpose of relinquishing his seat as it was not his stop and he continued standing next to me for quite a while. Woosh! In slides a woman no more than 25 years old. Unbelievable. Then, she does another thing that has become my wife's pet peeve (she says it happens a lot).
When my wife takes the subway or bus with our tyke, many people are loath to give up their seat for the benefit of a toddler. So, they use the common tactic of pretending not to see the lad. But then, as soon as someone else gets up for their stop and the boy sits down, they suddenly spring to life and fawn all over him. Oh, does my wife hate that.

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:33 am Post subject:

rD.NaTas · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Location: changwon

creesschaef · Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Location: Gyeonggi-do

Within the first three weeks of being in Korea, I could see the subway was going to be an interesting place.

There was a car-to-car salesman just starting on his sales pitch for some pointless piece of something that we all needed. In the middle of his sales pitch, in walks a preacher. The preacher decides that it is time for mass. The salesman immediately quit what he was doing and got right in the face of the preacher. When he refused to stop, the salesman started throwing jabs, uppercuts, and hooks, all to the face. The preacher didn't hit back, fall down, or say anything. He took 5 seconds to recover from the beating and went onward with his sermon. Talk about committed.

Chicoloco · Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Location: In the ring.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

Yeah, section his azz.

NilesQ · Joined: 27 Nov 2006

I used to take line 4 from Seoul to Anyang every Saturday night at around 10:30/11:00. Needless to say, this is prime drunk ajoshi time and direction. I have seen it all. Best one first. One night an old(70ish) man was sitting on the end of the regular seats by the door. A half comatose drunk guy was standing in front of him holding himself up on the vertical pole at the end of the seats. So, the drunk guy unzips his fly, hauls out his dick, and starts to piss on the floor. The "floor" also included the leg of the old man sitting in front of him. Gramps springs up and punches the pisser in the kisser! An OG punch in the mouth if I ever saw one. This wakes the guy up. You can tell he is honestly out of it and had no idea of what he was doing. The old dude kept screaming and cursing him out and slapping him all about the head and face and drove him right out of the train. It was hilarious!

On a bus one night around Shillim Station, i heard this gushing and splashing sound. I turned around to see that some drunk guy had emptied about 4L of puke out on the floor of the bus. So what happens? He rings the bell and walks through the puke to get off at the next stop. Nobody even blinks and eye. The bus keeps going! In all fairness to the driver, it was near the end of the route and the bus gas and cleaning depot. But imagine doing that on a bus in Canada. You'd be in jail fo sho!

Those are the over the top gross ones. There are too many strange conversations and scenes to list. A guy gave me the Jesus is Korean and died in 1965 speech, told to "GO HOME" more times than I'd like to remember, been stood up for/comforted/apologised to by sympathetic locals on a number of those ocasions, and of course I see the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life 4 or 5 times every time I ride the train. The subway is a new adventure everytime.

DrunkenMaster · Joined: 04 Feb 2008

I was on the green line going home after working and drinking. There was this Korean guy wearing sweat pants standing next to a couple of very hot girls wearing really sexy short skirts, the kind where if they're walking up the stairs ahead of you, you can pretty much get the money shot. Well, this guy starts rubbing himself, at first it just looked like he was adjusting his gear, but pretty soon he has his hand down his pants and he's rocking back and forth with his head tilted back. By now, most people on the train have noticed, but no one is doing a thing about it, and this guy is really getting into it: he's holding onto to the pole with one hand and he's just beating away with the other, and people are looking and not doing a thing. To top it off, these two girls haven't noticed this guy two feet behind them because they're too busy taking pictures of themselves with their cellphone. I bet you any money that when they got home and took a closer look at those photos, they would've got a big surprise. They got off right around the same time he did. Wish I'd had a camera.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Today, the there was a lady who kept trying to swipe her bus card for getting off the bus. It wouldn't work ("tashi ___ juseyo"). I lost count of how many times she just kept doing it. I'm sorry, but if it won't work the 10th time, it's won't work the 50th time. Really? But the bus driver just looked at her, then looked away. He didn't say anything. She asked him some question and the driver ignored her.