Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BRawk]

Not that I would ever challange the supreme politeness of the politest race of people in the history of human kind, but I have been getting a tad ticked off at service people.

Whenever my landlord, delivery people, or service people (such as meter readers or internet service people) have visited my home, they have left the front door wide open! Even today and it was fairly cold out.

What's the deal? Has anyone else been experiencing this?

[VanIslander]

Someone told me years ago that "Koreans have no sense of door etiquette".

And by now I understand what was meant.

Which door to lock, whether to hold the door open for others carrying something big, opening without knocking, throwing doors wide open quickly into narrow hallways thereby hitting people often, not closing other people's doors, not noticing air cons or heaters on inside a room when leaving a door open, every possible faux pas.

Do Koreans have any do's and don'ts regarding doors? I can't recall ever hearing or seeing any.

[Bibbitybop]

Everyone take out your score cards (or Quinella's Korean Bingo) and make one more mark under "where logic goes to die."

[htrain]

My students like to come in late and open the door and leave it open. My Chinese students did this too. It's obnoxious. If Koreans are inside a room talking I kind of knock quietly and then open the door a crack and ask if I can come in... then they look at me like I have an arm growing out of my forehead.

[babtangee]

Was in a restaurant this evening. Some woman and her kids were leaving. The kids barged out the door leaving it wide open. The mother put on her boots ridiculously slow, paid, went to the door, was about to leave, changed her mind, came back in and, without closing the door, checked herself thoroughly in the full length mirror, to be sure her boots were still looking sharp and all her hair was in place, and then, finally, Freakin' Left... WITHOUT CLOSING THE FREAKIN DOOR BEHIND HER!!! Cold air was pooring in the whole time. I had to ask the waitress to close the damn thing. IGNORANT IDIOTS.

[Corky]

My friend had a drink and had his car keys with him. One of the patrons said, "Oh, I see, foreigners get drunk and then drive. That's what they do." She said that just before her drunk Korean friend got into his car to drive away. True story.

I've seen more Koreans close doors properly than I have seen Koreans leave doors open, but it's mush easier to remember the ones who leave the doors open on cold nights.

[bassexpander]

There is no central air in older homes here, and they're used to keeping the door open to help air out the house.

It could be that your home needs some fresh air, and they think they're helping you out by leaving the door open.

[htrain]

[browneyedgirl]

[seoulsucker]

In the West we use the phrase, "Were you raised in a barn?" Seems pretty appropriate considering the whole "one generation from the plow/farmers in suits" thing.

I think the proper Korean phrase loosely translates into something like "You have quite a long tail."

[bluelake]

Here at my university, we had quite a problem in the building where I teach. Students would blow through two sets of glass double-doors and all the doors would be wide open, summer or winter. One of my colleagues made it his mission in life (seemingly) for students to "Close the doors!" We tried what felt like everything, including locking one set of doors with signs on the others prominently telling people to close them. Nothing worked.

Finally, I pushed and pushed until the university installed on one set of doors an internal device so that the doors would always close. It was quite expensive (a few hundred thousand), so they would not put them on all the doors. Now, together with extra doors being locked, the problem is solved.

[Alan Partidge]

Just shout, "Put the wood in the 'ole!!"

I'm getting sick of the "Farmers in suits" thing. A lot of my friends
are from a farming background and they're some of the most well-rounded people I know. They can handle themselves on a farm and have law and/or commerce degrees. They can use cutlery fairly well and usually don't spit indoors. Peasants or plebs in suits might be a better analogy. But that would only describe some of the locals.

[OiGirl]

If it's not in your personal space (i.e., your home), why do you care?

[mrsquirrel]

^ The environment, man.

Leaving doors open lets out all that heat or cold air which has been altered using fossil fuels and will require more to get it back to that temperature.

I have rules in my class that if they leave the doors open, I open all the windows and doors until they answer questions correctly to close them.

If they touch the heater. Put the heat up to 35 or move the vents down to warm themselves in front of it. I turn it off.

I have explained to them that it doesn't matter if you turn it up to 35 it will never get there. Leave the farking thing at 21 degrees.

I'm going to super glue the vents when I remember and stick pins out of the buttons smeared in poo like the vietnamese did.

THat will learn them.

[SuperFly]