Korean Job Discussion Forums

[moosehead]

I'm trying to be sensitive here because this is a serious q that I'd really like to know the answer to - where are all the Ks who need wheelchairs, crutches, etc., to get around? I've seen a few here and there - even a student in a wheelchair - but not as many as in other countries and even fewer amputees, disfigured people, etc.

I have heard of "orphanages" where the children are all disabled in some form or another and am wondering if that's what happens to children in general here if they are born less than physically "perfect?" or are the pregnancies terminated if caught in time?

I've also read/heard this accounts for some of the children given up for adoption; a longtime K friend back home is an adoptee who was born w/spina bifida and given up to an American couple and raised in the U.S. She gets around fairly well on crutches and is now a concert pianist, has traveled the world but never here to K.

So what happens to these children? are they hidden away somewhere? infanticide? late term abortion? adopted out?

what about less disfiguring problems such as blindness and deafness? I've seen maybe one seeing-eye dog since I've been here; no other helper dogs at all.

I remember telling students in class one day how a blind person in America can do most anything, and their jaws literally hung open; they were all dumbstruck as I listed off famous blind people like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.

[caniff]

[Join Me]

I know of a school near Yongsan that is for blind people. I have been there twice and the adults that attend there are extremely independent. There is also a teenager at my gym that has a mental disability and his family brings him in (and some times leaves him there alone) for training. The staff there all treat him like he is a rock star. The older generation here still has a stigma about mental illness and disability but I don't see that in the younger generation. I am not talking about the cruelty of school life. Let's be honest, kids are cruel in every country to those with disabilities.

[Ukon]

Soylent green....

[Chet Wautlands]

When I lived in Changwon I passed a group home for adults who had mental disabilities. But, now that you mention it, I never saw them out in public. I'm just glad there are programs to help them live decent lives. What's the saying? Something like "A society should be judged by how it treats its weakest members." I don't really like the term weak, but the sentiment is right.

[bogey666]

we have "special kids" in 2 special education classrooms with special education teachers in my public school.

I don't see any big/notable physical disabilities per se, but I think there are varying degrees of mental handicappness.

I was told when given the school tour that those are classrooms for children of "low intelligence" (I think this wasn't meant as a slur, simply the best way they could express themselves in their limited english)

[ryoga013]

I have seen a large number of the people on the edge of the city where I am. OK, not that large. Now, if we were to talk about who act in ways that others might think that they are disabled... that's another story...

[esetters21]

I know that is your thing and all moosehead to refer to Koreans as "Ks", but why do I feel everytime that I see you do so that you are calling them something similar to "Ns"?

Maybe I am just too sensitive to that, but the way you speak about "Ks" kind of gives me that impression.

[Chet Wautlands]

I'm not a big fan of the term "Ks". I doubt people mean it in a derogatory way, but it doesn't sound great.

[wylies99]

OP, I'm guessing their families bear the burden of caring for them, and the families do almost everything for them so they rarely go out in public. If they went out in public, IN KOREA, what do you think would happen? It's not a pretty picture.

[crossmr]

I often see mentally challenged people on the subway, sometimes with companions, sometimes not.
often..hmm. I'm not sure how often though..maybe half a dozen times a month.
Sometimes in a group sometimes with a single person.

I saw one guy last week apparently directing traffic at dongdaemun stadium...then oddly he was dancing in the street at seongsinyeodae I didn't even see him get on the subway..

[moosehead]

[esetters21]

[moosehead]

now that I think about it I don't even think I was the first; I recall seeing someone else do it and I just picked up on it

[Milwaukiedave]

A couple of years ago I knew someone (this was a Korean) who volunteered at a group home for physically and mentally disabled people.

I have seen quite a few blind people using canes. Having known a few blind people back in the states, I know how hard it is for them to adapt, especially if they have had their sight in the past.