Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Threequalseven]

Sometimes I feel like I live in two different countries. One day I feel like Steelrails, the next day I feel like Julius.

There's one Korea that bends over backwards to be sure you're having a pleasant experience: The Korea that spares no expense and pays for everything at the end of the night; the Korea that offers you "service" just because you're a familiar face; the Korea whose children bow at you with a gracious 안녕하세요; the Korea that gives you their umbrella to keep when it's raining; the Korea that buys you the most expensive beer in the shop just because you offered them a shot of soju; the Korea that earns minimum wage yet still comes to your house with pizza, chicken, and a bottle of Bombay; the Korea that rushes to the door just to hold it open for you; the Korea that always makes sure that your glass is full and your belly is full.

Then, there's the Korea where it seems people are almost encouraged to disregard everyone around them: the Korea that blocks you on the sidewalk; the Korea that scoffs at you after asking your age or home country; the Korea whose children you need to practically scream at to shut them up, and they respond a cheeky grunt and proceed to talk in Korean about how funny your hair looks; the Korea that takes cuts in line; the Korea that quickly turns a corner ahead of you just to walk at a snail's pace; the Korea that never misses a chance to make you out to look like a fool; the Korea that shouts and screams at 4:00 in the morning as if nobody else is in the building; the Korea that uses the language barrier as an opportunity to say bad things about you; the Korea that regards most foreigners as a sub-human species not worth their dog's respect, then sends their kids to schools and academies thinking and acting the same way.

[cabeza]

Yip. Although you could make similar lists about every country on earth. The paradox here sometimes can be exasperating and for me personally much more noticable than most other countries i've been to.
But....

[saram_]

[Savant]

I appreciate the two faces of Korea but sadly the latter negative points from the OP irks me more frequently than the pleasantries mentioned in the positive spin.

The door opening thing? Not counting those official greeter people at the door, I can count on one hand the number of times that a Korean has held a door open for me in the 5 years that I've lived here; the rest just let it fall back behind or try to shuffle through the small opening; thus, letting me take the full weight of the door swinging back.

[Stan Rogers]

So you are saying that some days are good and some days are bad. That isn't 2 faces. That's life.

[Savant]

[fermentation]

There are very clear differences between the two instances in the OP. The first is people who know you, the second is people who don't know you. Although I have never seen anybody open the door for somebody they don't know. Hell most people don't hold the door open even for the people they know.

[lithium]

You sound like you need friends.

[optik404]

When the bad start to outweigh the good, maybe it's time to leave.

[Savant]

[Joe Boxer]

Who was it that made that super-long list of complaints about Korea ,and where can I see it again? It was pretty funny.

[NohopeSeriously]

Now you know why I feel more comfortable in my church than on a busy Korean sidewalk with full of passive mindless people.

[seoulshock]

In a recent trip to Korea, I bought a subway train ticket and after putting it in the turnstile, forgot to take it out from the other end and kept walking. I heard some guy yell out "선생님!" several times before I looked back and saw that he was running up to me with the ticket.

[Lucas]

[Smithington]