Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Holyjoe]

From the weekly email that Seoul Selection send out, thought it was reasonably interesting:

[DarthPaul]

I was a taxi driver while I was a student.......wow that was a memorable job!!!...I think we had similiar rules.......another good reason for a driver to refuse a fare is:
" I've been awake for 36 hours, If I drive you home we probably wont make it"
I said that to a couple of people who wanted to go to the opposite side of town to where my bed was, they were cool about it.

Taxi stories...oh man I have loads of them.....firstly you can never tell by their appearance what a passenger will be like, some of the yuckiest drugged out, homeless, no-money looking people sometimes were nicer than nice. Someone in a suit, working at Parliament House was more than likey a rude condescending git,

Totally fun job though, driving round on a Saturday night, radio playing
talking to drunk people all night!! I miss that, you meet loads more chicks than when you go to a bar and drink!

[The evil penguin]

[hellofaniceguy]

My take on all this is "no one told you to be a taxi driver." If you're too tired to take me to my destination, that's your problem and you should be using common sense and not be out on the road anyway! I always hear it from the taxi drivers, bus drivers and cops; we are tired, we work long hours and bla bla bla.... again, no one forced you to be a cop, taxi/bus driver. And what, in other parts of the civilized world, taxi/bus drivers are also not tired? Store workers are also not tired? Teachers are also not tired? But I guarantee, you won't find cops in Paris, London, L.A., Montreal and elsewhere sleeping in the cop cars like I have seen in korea! You also won't see stupid crazy taxi/bus drivers endangering lives like in korea with their fast driving, running red lights and "pushing" pedistrians out of the crosswalks!
korean taxi drives and bus drivers are uneducated and the low life in my opinion. And I think many also agree with me. They are terrible!
What, just a few weeks ago, the local newspapers ran articles about what foreigners think about taxi/bus drivers. None of it was good.

[DarthPaul]

[quote="hellofaniceguy"]My take on all this is "no one told you to be a taxi driver." If you're too tired to take me to my destination, that's your problem and you should be using common sense and not be out on the road anyway![quote]

Coool- Controversy!! Hellof a nice guy...NOT!
Well on the few times I did refuse to take someone it was right at the end of my shift, ie due to finish and have the car ready for the next driver at say 4am....sometimes at say 3:50 I'd be knackered and try take one more fare, hoping he's going near where I need to go, If he's going miles in the opposite direction and I was feeling very tired, Id decline.
Think of it as declining to do over time. If a bar closes at 4, you don't get much sympathy if you ask them to stay open a while longer.
Usually when I'd explain that it was....wait a minute...why am I explaining myself to you??? You anti-taxi driver evil man!!

Hey Penguin, I drove in Canberra, nice place for it, big roads, low crime and not much traffic. There sure are some gits who work at Parliament House though, the higher up people were nice though.

Yeah the negatives of the job were....the McD's drive through temptation, I ate a lot of cheeseburgers, and when I was working a lot, no time for exercise.
But I loved some aspects of the job, if its quiet you can pop home for a cuppa, visit friends, go to McD's etc.
And I guess this applies to all shift workers, working all night and trying to sleep during the daylight hours is a bummer.....I feek sorry for Vampires who are forced to sleep during the day forever.

Had some great memories from driving cabs, but I always remembered the arseholes more than the nice people, I could have 100 nice passengers, 1 arsehole and he's the guy I remember years later!!

Still it was a job I really enjoyed, I miss my taxi

[Holyjoe]

[wylde]

i love it when i get in a taxi and he runs the reds, swerves and gets his horn going... i just sit down, shut up and hold on..

i went from gwang ju to suncheon by taxi at about 10pm one day, it took 35 - 40 minutes (from chonnam uni to a motel just the other side of the suncheon toll gate)... the guy sat on 180kph, only slowing for speed cameras then opening it up again..

passing people going the same way was made safe by using the hazzard lights (in korea, the emergency lights)

i was a little concerned but i like speed so it didnt get to me that much

[GoshiwonGuy]

As if I'm not negative enough already, at times, the cab drivers here put me over the edge. As well as many other Koreans hoping to catch a cab.

In Korea, I can't count how many cab drivers just won't stop for me. But they'll go 20 feet past me and pick up Koreans.

Or, the Koreans will cut in front of me by 15 feet so the cab stops for them first. Close enough to me that I'd like to tell them what a bunch of A-holes they are but too far to bother.

The number of cabs that tell me to get out because I'm on the wrong side of the road is priceless too. If I was a cabbie, I don't care what side of the road you're on. In fact I hope have to drive 20 minutes out of my way for you.

Or, like other posters said, how they aren't going where you are? What is that supposed to mean. I'm a customer, no?

I want to take down their numbers, maybe to get them to change their mind, ansd do their job, but there are so many numbers on their cards I don't know which ones count for what.

Another example of bad work ethics, id yesterday I went on a short ride from Omokyo station to the Immigration office. The cabbie drives a bit down the street and points and tells me to walk. If I wanted to walk ANY distance I wouldn't have caught a cab. As I was in a rush I didn't bother and just got out. But that is classic lazy and another word that I can't find right now. Basically the meter was at 1600 won and would've been for a while, so i guess he figured that he could have spent a few more minutes driving me to the door and not got any more money.....

If I had time for the hassle I would've either refused to get out until he dropped me in the parking lot, or got out and flipped him half, seeing as he didn't do his job. And then of course wait for a fight or the police...hard to win being a foreigner...

From what I've seen so far, though, Korean cabbies rank up there with Thai tuk-tuk drivers for laziness. They are 3rd world workers all the way...

GG

[wylde]

learn some basic korean...

no - unny yo
go straight - dok pah roh kah chu sayo
turn left - wen jok eyo
turn right - oh len jok eyo
go fast - bali kah chu sayo
sore leg - tarli apahyo
sick - apahyo
go there (pointing) - cha jok eyo

get these under your belt and just tell them what to do

[DarthPaul]

[DarthPaul]