Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AsiaESLbound]

By lunch time, some men are smashed out of thier minds in the old market place near my school. I go out for water and fruit often during lunch breaks and sometimes after work. I had this hellishly stinking on soju man stagger out of an orange food tent and grab from the side to tell me, "U careless man." He was shaking, could barely stand, and stank of fermented soju, but wanted to provoke a fight for no reason. I told him, "U careless on soju. Piss off." This woman quickly pops out the tent and grabs him, pushes him into a small cart hooked to a motor bike and carts him off in a hurry. I don't think he understood piss off so I want to say in Korean something along the lines of, "Do not touch me, do not talk to me, mind your own business, because you are too drunk and will regret this tomorrow."

This not only happens today, but many times rude drunks have been trying to wish ill will on me when I'm just walking down the street listening to my IPOD to get food and water or go to and from work. Most days I recieve rude gestures in the streets, but I just ignore them until it's so bad they grab onto me trying to accuse me of their own problems like I owe them something for thier failed life of drinking. Grabbing or assaulting someone in the street is a big no no and should never happen. I know in the West, it's a big no no to get stupid on the drink, because that can get you seriously KO'd and is generally not tolerated by the police nor anyone else. Now we can't go kung fuing the Korean drunks, because the Korean police support public drunkeness and any lies they might invent. I just want them to understand it's not OK to grab me, spit at me, and bad talk me, because I never did anything to them and don't intend any offense.

In Arabic, you'd just say, "imshee." What Korean speaking works to put them in their place in 2 seconds?

[pavement burns]

I understand your pain. Why is it never young attractive females who want to feel me up in public?

Last week the market adjohsi "shutterman" who runs a shop where I buy long distance telephone cards began brutally assaulting my backpack feeling around and investigating its contents, poking around at my stomach etc. while under the sauce.

His wife "Mamasan" sat nearby nonchalantly and once it was clear this was intolerable behaviour (I call it the stare of death) a few insincere "Sorrys" were haplessly given.

I got mine the next day. I stopped by a little plant shop on the way to the taxi stop and picked up a four inch cactus plant and put it in a plastic bag.
Sober adjoshi was standing in the parking lot and I thrust the bag at him and pointed for him to grab it. He did. He got the point.

Cheers, Pavement Burns

[nomad-ish]

i usually just say, "ya! ha-ji-ma"

야. 하지마. (i think that's right...)

hey. don't do that.

[Senior]

Wow, I always figured you were a woman. It turns out you're a "man", but you certainly don't act like one.

Firstly, I don't know what you are doing to get molested or have rude gestures.... errr gestured at you, but you are doing something wrong. I sometimes wonder if I am living in a different Korea to some of the people around here.

Secondly, if you do get yourself in that situation, you are well within your rights to forcibly remove the man from your direct presence. I wouldn't advocate assaulting him, as you are likely to come off second best in that encounter, but you can retaliate with equal force.

[Yaya]

[Jane]

Try not to make eye-contact and people will usually leave you alone.

If you need to yell at someone, just do it in English. By the time you've sputtered out a few Korean words they'll either be more amused or simply not understand what you are saying anyway.

[Fat_Elvis]

There are people on this board whose Korean is better than mine, but I think you you'd say "Man-ji-ji-ma-se-yo" or just "Man-ji-ji-ma".(not on a Korean computer now so can't type Hangeul).

[Css]

[djsmnc]

[is so delicious]

I'm not saying any of you are lying, but I almost can't believe the horror stories I hear every day on this site. Why have I lived here for almost four years and NEVER had anything like this happen to me? Am I just lucky??

[akcrono]

[southernman]

Even though I've been away from Egypt for ages... I think Imshee is a little bit weak in that situation. Imshee means If my memory seves me... go away. The expression I found most useful in Egypt when people que jumped, That was a major coz you could que for half a day, literally

Ip ne Miknaka(sic) (maybe with a Ko so mack(sic), as well, its been a long time) Rough translation..... Your mother is a belly dancer. Worked every time

[AsiaESLbound]

No, I'm not Arabic, I'm white. I traveled to Arabic countries several times in my days so I know more Arabic than Korean. Too bad this is just a dumb text messenging system were we are getting wrong stereotypes in our minds about each other. I'm not female either, just a middle aged white gentleman, but not a rude agressive type nor a wild partyer. It's obvious I'm being singled out on account of my race by a few ignorant uneducated drunk Korean men. They are comparable to what Americans refer to as, "rednecks, hicks, and hill billies." I'm not out being rude, screwing around, and acting crazy, I'm very mature in how I carry myself and never stare, play mind games, and touch people. I am living in sort of a backwater kind of place so it's not a real open minded place that can actually embrace diversity and new ideas me being here brings to their little hole on the map. When I travel to Seoul, it's a very different Korea than here where I live and work. Some people say all of Korea is the same, but this simply isn't so. Like every country, it has regions with each community and neighborhood falling somewhere peking order. This is not a high class place nor is it were you see lots of forward thinking intellectuals, just a place full of average drunk old people sitting in the dirty streets selling garlic while working class middle age people do real jobs like teaching, health care, and banking. Most people don't bother me, just the older drunks, but most ignore me instead of actually being just slightly friendly in any sense. I am polite, friendly, and considerate of others, becuase that's my values, but really not in the kind of community where it's OK to be very different than everyone else.

I've heard, "Ya! Ha Jima!" many times from my co-teachers which makes sense that it means, "Listen, don't do that." Good enough. Thanks Nomadish for a useful post.

[Css]

[furtakk]

if you want to be more civil/polite...

하지 마세요 HaJi MaSayYo

you can always throw in a ka-ra 가라 (more of a half l/r sound) for good measure.

more polite way of saying f*** off if i'm not mistaken.