Korean Job Discussion Forums

[whome?]

To start, I am trying to keep this a clean, non-attack Korea thread. It was pulled once already, but I was told that I could repost.

Anyway, Korean national(ism) pride is obviously a big thing to Koreans. I'm sure we've all heard or seen some interesting examples. I heard one of the funniest I've ever come across yesterday.

It's exam week and one of the questions was---

Q: Name one place you would like to visit and explain why you want to go.

A: I want to go to New York City, to Time Square, because there's a Samsung sign.

I'm hoping that people might post the best/worst examples they've encountered.

[jonpurdy]

"I only want to stay in Korea because it's the best country in the world."

-Girl at a bar after asking if she wants to travel anywhere else

[cazzy3]

any successful korean sporting team/player will be played and replayed at least 500 times.

also, i'm currently watching the bolton v. west ham match and they have mentioned lee chung yong's name probably 150 times...every time he touches the ball the announcers wet themselves with excitement!!!

[Xuanzang]

I like only Korean food because I am Korean.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

One of my co-workers was teaching a class of adults once, and some of them mentioned that they had gone on a package trip to Italy once.

My co-worker asked them, "Italy is wonderful. How did you like Italian food?" They answered, "Oh, we didn't have any. We brought our own food from Korea, or went to Korean restaurants."

She couldn't speak for a few minutes. Two weeks without trying Italian food, in Italy. I had a similar experience in Thailand on a package tour.

[ashland]

[kermo]

[whome?]

[DeMayonnaise]

[curiousaboutkorea]

[whome?]

[storysinger81]

I was helping a friend who works at a city office that tries to recruit international conferences to the city edit her powerpoint presentation for work.

She had a map of Korea, with "East Sea" labeled in big letters. The point of this map was to show how Korea is located centrally in East Asia.

I suggested that it might be inappropriate to make an issue of this in a presentation to foreigners who know that body of water in English as "Sea of Japan," and the woman launched into a 25 minute lecture about how the world must know about Japan's conspiracy to continue oppressing Korea and Koreans. I told her, one more time, that since this is clearly a distracting issue to her should someone ask about it (and she'd want to stay on-topic and secure the conference), that perhaps she should at least make the font smaller.

She insisted it is a point of Korean pride and must not be changed.

She didn't get the conference to come to Korea...

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I remember years ago a cheezy K-pop song that was a copy of Cyndi Lauper's "She bop." Instead of the dirty references, the song was just "Hey, mom, hey dad" or something similarly puerile in Korean. A different co-worker got into a lengthy argument with someone who insisted that the American song was the copy and that the K-pop song was first, as a K-pop song would never imitate a western one!

[redaxe]

[rkc76sf]

You have to admit though, when you do travel or live in a foreign country, home food is probably the first and biggest thing you miss (2nd being t.v.). In defense of Korea, I can understand it. However, when in Rome...