Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zantetsuken]

I know this topic is as lame as "Where can I find deodorant" or "Do Korean chicks dig foreigners" threads but I don't recall seeing a thread dedicated to this.

After 4 plus years...this is something I'll never understand, get accustomed to, appreciate..like etc. It just plain sucks. My goddamn legs always fall asleep so I spend most of these outings banging my freaking useless stump of a leg against other hard inanimate objects just to "wake it up."

Whenever I bring up the uselessness of sitting on the floor to Koreans when you have perfectly good and accessible chairs handy..I am looked at like an a-hole. I know its cultural and king sejong and his homies used to chill out on the floor in front of an 8 inch table. But, the negatives definitely outweigh any positive effects one might have by sitting and eating from a low table. In the words of my esteemed countrymen "It's Freakin' Retahhhhded Bro."

Fellow Dave's ESL knights of lore...what say ye about this abomination?

[JongnoGuru]

[jotgarden]

Not as intolerable as some frat boy calling you "bro."

[Zantetsuken]

[Zantetsuken]

[bogey666]

I'm not your "bro"

but it's extraordinarily irksome to me.

not only do I not care for the food, but my feet and hips are killing me the entire time.

every time I hear the teachers are having dinner, I cringe.

[fortysixyou]

Gonna have to disagree, chaps.

I find it more comfortable than sitting in chairs, and my feet never fall asleep.

I'll watch my back next time I'm in a moving vehicle with the likes of you two.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[tzechuk]

I don't mind sitting the floor as long as there is space for me to stretch my legs...

[Ukon]

In perfer to eat standing up and walk around....

[Robot_Teacher]

I find the floor dining to be rather uncomfortable and have to put my legs in different positions, but still can't get over it until I stand up and walk. It's not pleasant nor do I like all that fat. It also makes my back ache after an hour.

I just came from sitting in a floor restaurant for the past hour and a half and it feels so good to have walked for 20 minutes to get to my luxurious PC bang Starcraft gamer style chair. Now, I'm off to the shower as I'm so greasy from all that fatty pork belly smoking and cooking in my face with no exhaust tubes to suck it out. I feel just like I've worked a shift in a fast food restaurant working the fryer. Ivory soap and hot water will take care of it.

[Panda]

Damn, why they always pick the day I wear my BREATHABLE socks to have group dinner?

I swear I have many many many socks that dont show my toes

[crossmr]

The reason its uncomfortable is because we're simply not accustomed to it. If we'd been doing it all our lives like Koreans have, it'd be far easier and a non-issue. if you want to take part in it, you gotta practice it.

[superacidjax]

Actually, I love it when I get a nice soft, pillowish pad and get to lean up against the wall.. 'Specially when drinking is involved.. don't have as far to fall.

It's also great when it's freezing cold and you get to sit on a warm floor. Many of the chairs in the mandu places are little more than uncomfortable, cheap stools with a bit of padding -- the floor is usually much more comfortable than those things.

For a quick meal, the floor is ridiculous, but for the long, social type meals, the floor is great (although an Outback booth is probably the cushiest sittin' spot.

The floor thing and the attitudes against it are straight-up cultural adaptation issues. There are as many arguments for it as could be found against it, no one is right, no one wrong. Japan has a similar floor-based life. Thinking that it's "retarded" is pretty juvenile.. not unlike the crowd that packs generic frat bars in the USA and calls people "bros." You are free to not like it, but it's pretty silly to pass judgement on something so innocuous and rational.

It isn't like the absurdity of ATMs that have business hours! Or eating dogs to make your manhood better.. (which by the way ISN'T a historical Korean cultural tradition, it emerged during the Korean War due to food shortages, pre-1950, dogs weren't a notable part of the culinary landscape.)

There are plenty of truly baffling things about Asian cultures, but eating on the floor is pretty logical, even if it's different than our western norms.

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[Yu_Bum_suk]

I'm the same as the OP - 4+ years and I'm still not used to it. The only advantage is that if you're having a bunch of Koreans over for dinner and there's not enough room at the dinner table, just set places around the coffee table and it won't make any difference to them where they eat.

If you don't grow up doing it it's just really hard ever to get used to. I know a gyopo who spent his first 18 years living outside Korea. He came back, chose Korean citizenship, did his military service, married a Korean, speaks Korean without an accent, and is basically Korean in every respect except that he can speak perfect English and can't stand sitting on the floor.