Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

Now Korea isn't half as bad as Japan (well maybe 49% as bad), but one of the things that really jumps out at you here is the stupid uniforms Korean women (and sometimes men) have to wear in the course of their job. For example, last time I was at the 60-floor Building 63, the women taking tickets for the elevator ride were attired in these weird George-Jetson-Daughter-Judy dresses.

Any visit to a grocery store, especially the beer and tampon aisles, presents you with a young woman who simultaneously offends my feminist-driven sense of human dignity and wildly entices my primitive male drive. I feel the same mix of conflicting emotions and production of vital fluids when I think about the disappearance of department store elevator babes.

Any visit to KFC or a fast food place when they have some Mexican-themed burger on the menu is just a painful and embarrassing encounter in lime green and floppy hats.

They can't seem to open a business in Nowon without hiring a pair of midriff-bearing go-go dancers to thrust about all afternoon. One day they opened an optical store and brought in the go go dancers. One was just gyrating like she was pretty sure she was one hip swivel away from being the next Madonna. The other just looked pissed off, like she wasn't pleased she had to be dancing near the Sanggye station when she could have been doing a job at least near the Nowon station. I swear I saw this pair a few weeks later when they opened what has to be the world's smallest 7-11 in my school's building.

I do, however, love the waitress attire at Pizza Uno: skirt and kneesocks.

[Gollum]

Koreans are quick to point out, "This came from Japan."

So it's OK.

It's Japan's fault, therefore we shouldn't be offended or find any problem with it happening here.

It's another terrible Japanese thing.

I happen to know several "Doumi" as they are called. Most of them have 10 guys going at any one time and are constantly getting phone calls. I know for a fact that at least one of them works in the evenings at a Room Salon. It makes sense that others might do so as well.

That particular Doumi didn't tell me directly. I found out by accident when she e-mailed me a letter in Korean which was meant for a female friend. I had a male coworker translate it for me, and he got a kick out of what it said, and had all kinds of questions for me about how I knew this girl. Of course he had to see her photo, too. hahaha. The letter was about her new salon job and some guy she met there, etc...

That particular Doumi I met on UBLove. She's quite active, is as skinny as a nymph, but has a good-sized upper-body to boot. She would be your stereotypical "Tinkerbell" type. Amazing that she's about 30 now, but still working as a Doumi. She uses UB to improve her English, which is pretty good. The beef I have is that she won't tell guys that, and holds their hand, etc., and sort of leads them on.

Another Doumi friend I know (not a room salon girl) is just plain crazy funny and about 22 years old. One of the most outgoing people I've ever met. Her website is filled with funky photos including various sex devices which she calls comical. Some of you might remember the "naughty door handle" avatar I had. That came from her site. She cohabitates with some Korean guy she says is, "just a friend." Totally NOT your traditional Korean girl. I met her in the Samsung Plaza area when she yelled, "Hey, nice bike!" at me (no kidding -- can you imagine a Korean doing this to a strange foreigner they don't know?) from about 20 meters away. Next thing I know, she walks up to me and starts asking me if I will give her a ride .... all the way to Sadang. I said, "Sure, but you're mini-skirt is kind of short -- you'll give every ajosshi on the road a show." She got a big kick out of that, and we had drinks and dinner a few times later. Thing is, I always end up paying for the food and drinks, and she always invites people to try to set me up with.

The first meeting we had involved meeting 2 of her other Doumi friends at Bennigans. Curious George from here was along on that one, if memory serves. All of the girls were like 21 to 23, and pretty much all had boyfriends. But, I was informed, they would be interested in dating a foreigner too.

Last time she invited some late 40s lady (granted she did look 35) she hardly knew, and who was embarrased to admit she was married when she figured out this was a "meeting." Then when my doumi-friend ran to the restroom, this "married" lady says, "Well, I'm not really married anymore..." and proceeded to flirt with me the whole night. She gave me a ride home in her new big black Equuis, and told me she hoped she could see me again. Nice lady, but I had no interest in someone that age with kids entering college and a "maybe" husband.

Weird.

[HamuHamu]

The worst uniform has to be the parking attendants - you can find them out in front of places like Save Zone in Hagye. Big brim on the hat, head-set microphone on, waving their hands around in these intricate little gestures welcoming people into the parking lot. And the men, with those nifty gloves -- where do they learn those hand waving techniques!!

[Universalis]

I think it's Top Travel in Jongno where the girls wear these ugly-as-sin canary yellow uniforms with dark blue trim. Blech!

My girlfriend used to work at Choheung Bank and I always thought her uniforms were rpetty nice...sexy, even.

The odd thing is that I've heard a lot of girls saying they like wearing a uniform at work. My GF, for example, would show up in sweats and a t-shirt, change, and then change back when her shift was up. This allwoed her to feel much more casual after hours...

Brian

[noelinkorea]

Near my place a brand-spanking new ddokjib opened up, and they also had the scantily-wrapped-in-PVC chicks girating about - just to encourage people to buy ricecakes?! They often look like they've just landed...their costumes look like something any American 1960s space TV series chick might wear. Actually, have you ever seen anything Andre Kim (Darth Vader look-alike, when he takes his mask off just before his death) designs? Is he actually known outside Korea? Koreans would have e believe so... His outfits are wickedly frilly and frothy.

[tommynomad]

I don't know from Andre Kim, but i love going to fashion shows featuring student designers. I saw one in the pouring rain in Daejeon last week. Designs included a dead-on pippi longstocking, a dominatrix-bride, cleopatra in a miniskirt, and so much goth makeup I thought the suicide girls had landed in Korea.

Classic over-the-top student designs.

And what about those doumi who work the "cage-trucks." Enclosed in a giant metal ring, it's like something out of a bad go-go club. Not to mention that at least one of them looks like she's sure she's gonna die at the hands of some crazed Korean driver (and I don't blame her!)