Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Eedoryeong]

Puts up the signs asking Korean readers to 'please have one more [baby] ' ?

For those of you who do not know, there is a huge building-sized banner in the north end of Mokpo, close to the 119 building, and it says exactly that message to anyone who can read Korean: 'Please, consider having one more.'

I went to this pregnancy clinic in Mokpo and my wife and I did all the normal tests to make sure we were healthy before planning for a baby. But my experience there was generally speaking kind of awful, really. Laughable now when I tell others about it but at the time I just wanted to chew out somebody.

I've been mulling over sending this friendly letter of complaint for a few weeks. I've decided that I should send it but not to the original destination, which was the pregnancy clinic I visited. It occurs to me that it would be much more useful to send it to the organization that promotes Koreans having 'just one more baby, please!' because I think my experience at the clinic exposes a kind of negative cultural norm about fathers and their roles that still lingers around in some corners of this country.

So in the interest of hopefully making a better experience for any potential future father who might consider visiting that clinic, I'd like to send this letter to their funders.

Who knows exactly what organization it is that puts up the signs encouraging Koreans to have one more baby for the good of the country and all that? I know it can't be only in Jeollanamdo.

Helpful replies only, please. Thanks.

[Ramen]

I think those signs are for Korean-Korean babies but not for mixed babies.

[Eedoryeong]

I'm sure they are but I don't think it matters for what I want to say, which would be in Korean anyway. I saw some major negativity directed towards fathers and most of the time it's Koreans who are in there so there's no way it's about me. If it were a clinic for foreigners, yeah maybe I'd think more along your lines.

I think I've become one of these people that believe that if somethings about the way fathers and fatherhood were viewed changed (for the positive) that some of the worse habits of [ajosshis?] would disappear. Maybe not but I think so.

I've translated most of it anyway.

[Young FRANKenstein]