Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SweetBear]

My adult class was discussing jobs last night and one student told me that it is common practice for big companies to hire "face readers" or fortune tellers to sit in on the interview process, hence some Korean women get plastic surgery if they are serious about getting a good job. I was also told that in some companies women get one day off a month as menstruation day. I found this to be remarkable.

[sparkx]

Hey, when the honey is gone, mind if I use that bear for....uhhh.....research?

[marsha marsha marsha]

Legally the women get a day off every month if they need it. However, it looks very bad if they take it. Think about it, women want to be treated the same as men in companies so if they take off for something like that on a regular basis, they won't be treated the same. My friends told me very few women use it and if they do, the will be fired eventually.

[Bulsajo]

[mokpochica]

In a way, I can understand them giving women a day off for menstruation because there has been research showing that 'an estimated 10% to 15% of women experience monthly menstrual pain severe enough to prevent normal daily function at school, work, or home.'
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003150.htm

It's not 'PMS' leave as I've seen some people write. Actually, it has nothing to do with mood swings or whatever. This leave is presumably for the 40% of women who have what is called primary or secondary dysmenorrhea, which is pain that goes beyond just mild menstrual cramps. However, I think that most women that have this condition find ways to deal with it (pain meds) and don't need any more sick days than what men are given. Most people--men and women--do not use all of their sick days at work (and again, it's a case of if they do, it looks bad). I guess they started this because dysmenorrhea is a condition that they know can occur once a month and there aren't really other conditions like that.

As far as plastic surgery goes, it's on the rise for men and women from what I've heard. I think the most common is the surgery to create a so-called 'double eyelid'.

[SweetBear]

I can understand maybe dying your hair or wearing your make up a little different, maybe wearing colored lenses especially in a country where everyone has brown eyes and black hair, but it seems a shame to get your face cut up. Koreans have a natural beauty.

It seems a little odd in this day and age to give menstruation leave, though I admit that medically and psychologically it may be better on some rare occaisions. I know that medicine exists in the States to remedy these problems, don't know about here.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I've heard of the face readers, too. LG is supposed to use them, from what I heard.

I once had a student named Dr. Kim (biology). He fell in love and took his girlfriend home to meet the family. His mother met them at the door and took one look at the woman. She pulled her son into the room, closed the door and told him he could not marry his girlfriend because she didn't like the woman's face. He went along with it and broke up with her.

He went to a matchmaker and was married within 6 months.

Similarly, my principal in the high school I taught at said he tossed applications into the wastebasket if the person was ugly. His defense: Good-looking people can be just as good at teaching as ugly ones and he would rather work with good-looking people.

[Howard Roark]

i once had a 13 year old student whose mother changed his name on the advice of a fortune teller!! how weird is that??

[captain kirk]

face readers sitting in on job interviews. i heard an enlightened buddhist master say that a person's character is there to be seen by the look/s on their face. a friend came back from the bar once and said a korean he met said to him, 'i like your mask'. he meant the display of his face. extreme displays of emotion ought not cross the calm weather of a face's equilibrium, i suspect, in korea. note the rigid, posed looks in the photos. a highschool yearbook, say. once the visor of my helmet broke so i drove without it. when i got to school the director was all concerned i 'looked angry'. squinting in wind at 80km/hr, like. koreans have great skill at 'reading' someone's mood by looking at their face. they are like 'passive antenna' that way. after the antics of class my face, i suspect, tends to relax into a skulking mug. until i get warmed up and talking, i sometimes get the same look back. like they figured i was in the mood to eat brains!

[orpheusdown]

[On the other hand]

In fairness, its not just Koreans who subscribe to this "face reading" jive. I once read a piece in a North American paper, in which a psychologist said that, if you look at photos of truly evil people(his example was Don King!), you will notice that their eyes are "blank" or "empty". I have tried this a few times with photos of numerous well-known rogues, and can honestly say that I see no more emptiness in the eyes of an "evil" person than I do in the eyes of Joe Blow. And, remember, the North American saying this was a trained psychologist, not just some wizened old huckster on the street.

[whatthefunk]

One of my coworkers went to a fortune teller before she got married to make sure that the marrige would work out because she had never slept with her future husband. She went to a palm reader. Im not quite sure what palms say about future sex life and relationships, but I sure would like to find out.

[rapier]

As you probably know, many companies in the west employ the services of a graphologist to sift job applications before interview- apparently its quite effective. i think I'd trust a professionally salaried graphologist more than some freelance"psychic" out to make a buck.

[denz]

i know a little about grafology.

I burn my name up quick like a Thai stick
As red as my eyes get I still rocks the fly shit
Back with some ultra flat black catchin wreck in a sec
Wet paint, ain't shit, when I'm on the set
I'm live like the third rail, on time like a fast train
The name Tame alone got fame so *beep* a last name
I tags mad when I drag a fat sack of ism
Comin out with New Editions like Mike Bivins
I get a sticker from my nigga with the bag of em
Write my name on em then I peel off the back of em
And stick em to victims of underground systems
Let the toys bring the noise, me and my boys are gonna diss em
denz

[crusher_of_heads]