Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mayorgc]

Some of the stories that I hear/read about seem a little bit far fetched. So can anyone verify these stories through first hand experience?

1. A white dude and a Korean girl are walking hand in hand together and the white dude gets attacked and a fight breaks out over the Korean girl.

I know that fights happen in bars over women and mixed couples get a lot of stares and spitting, but do people actually get into fights on the street? Actual fist fights?

2. Foreign guy is dating a Korean girl and the Korean girl hands the foreign guy a wedding invitation. The Korean girl is getting married to a Korean guy. Or the variation is that the foreign guy thinks the couple is exclusive but it turns out he's just one of 3 or 4 guys she has on the side.

I know people cheat all over the world, but the wedding invitation story is too hard to believe.

3. Foreign guy is dating a shy and sweet Korean gal. They get married and the guy finds out she's actually a hooker.

This one, I almost believe.

So has anyone ever gone through any of these situations first hand?

[Goku]

1. Very plausible but I think rarer than most would believe

2. plausible, and almost insanely innapropriate. I have heard of situations where girls were dating multiple partners and didn't reveal to the datees of this fact. Some people see marrige not as a love quest, but rather a parntership in the economical and practical sense. So this I could totally see happening with a 30ish something girl, trying to get married to anyone... (literally) and not finding anything wrong with inviitng their date partners to the wedding. Their perception of marrige is... disturbing (word choice?) to begin with so their perspective on inviting a "friend" to the wedding wouldn't faze them.

3. Hmm, I think any guy before marrige should know BEFORE. Obviously, the guy didn't do his homework or totally married the wrong girl if he was shocked by the revelation she is a hooker. How can you not know the person you're marryings occupation? This one sounds like the guy married a girl after meeting for 2 months and was shocked (oh really?) to discover she's a hooker.

[redaxe]

These are pretty ridiculous, but not impossible. Crazier things have happened. But the probability of them happening to you, if you're a white dude dating a Korean girl, is slim-to-none. Just use a little common sense about who you date and where you hang out, and you will be just fine. Korea is a very safe country. You will get stares, and she may get an occasional rude comment from a drunk ajosshi or judgmental ajumma, but that's about it.

[Jane]

1 and 2 I know for a fact has happened, cuz I know guys who had this happen to them.

Number 3, don't know about that.

[fermentation]

I have yet to see an actual fist fight in Korea between adults. Its mostly Korean dudes yelling at eachother or the occasional Korean dude yelling at a foreigner.

[T-J]

1. Been there, done that. Albeit it was only once and it was 1994. Long story short, guy clipped my girlfriend (now wife) with the side mirror as he was driving by, got out of his car and instead of apologizing proceeds to curse her out. Wrong answer, thanks for playing.

[thurst]

lol those things could (and do) happen in the states, i don't see why they couldn't happen here.

[Forward Observer]

I killed a guy in the Korea for staring at me. Just once.

[Freddypops]

I heard another urban legend about Korea. One mother was determined to her son would get into SNU. She wanted to ensure nothing distracted him.

Nothing.

So, periodically, she and the boy's sister (working some sort of a rota, I assume) would provide him with... relief. Alas, yon story telleth not if this unique strategy yielded entry into SNU's hallowed (hallowed within Korea) halls. Personally, seeing some of the frankly creepy ways in which Korean families physically interact with each other, I wouldn't be surprised. (Fathers having baths with 13 year old daughters, women in their 20s sleeping with their parents, scrubbing each other in bath houses, etc. I went to my friend's house and her mum started cleaning out her earholes while we were watching telly. "Melon, Freddypops?" "No thanks Mrs Park, I've suddenly lost my appetitie".)

[Goku]

[thegadfly]

#1 has happened to me, several times. Even had a taxi driver kick us out of the cab, then he jumped out and came after me...granted, we were snuggling in the back of the cab (my lady and I, not the cab driver and I), but it wasn't even second base yet.... Oh, this was back in 1996, and it was pretty common for me then...but hasn't happened to me in a decade or more....


#2 has happened to me, though not quite a wedding invitation. Had a woman break up with me to marry her Korean boyfriend, of whom I had no inkling. Also, unfortunately, have been one of several guys a woman was dating, whilst thinking I was the one and only. They weren't serious, so I wasn't devestated, but I date one at a time, so I moved on.

#3 nearly happened to me -- hooker implies that she accepts cash in exchange -- how about when it turns out the quiet, shy, introverted lady actually just shags everyone and anyone?

Man, my Korean dating history looks horrible in print -- and it is STILL better than my track record with American women... <sigh>.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Number 1. happened back in the 90s to a soldier and his wife. It was a big news story. "Gusts of Popular Feeling" blog has a big write up about it. I can't really get burnt up about this (except when the media blows it up as the foreigners fault. Which is what happened in this case), as asian dudes get abuse in New Zealand all the time just for being Asian. At least the Korean dude who fights you for having a Korean GF has a reason.

I'm sure the other two have happened. Stranger things have, after all.

[Forward Observer]

You are all legends

[T-J]

[redaxe]