Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Swiss James]

I don't know if this site has done the rounds already, but I think it's dead interesting.

Suk-so dong :


1968


2003

Taken from Neil Mishalov's site

[ajuma]

I've been here (off and on) since 1996 and one of my most interesting memories of my first year here was seeing a farmer in his field plowing with an ox accompanied by another man on a 4-wheeler! Wish I'd had my camera with me at the time!

[Real Reality]

Which picture looks better for life?

[waggo]

[captain kirk]

I'm interested in the 'old Korea', too. Like what was it like living here a few decades ago.
A female architect was in the adult class. She said that the first foreigner she met was when she was a girl. In Ulsan. This would be the seventies. He was a Peace Corps volunteer. At that time the U.S. sent Peace Corps volunteers over . So this volunteer visited her father. She said her father trusted and liked this guy so much that he allowed him to use his record player when he wasn't there. The volunteer ended up marrying a Korean woman and taking her back to the U.S. He stayed a year or two, then went back to the States.
When I asked this female architect about life back then she became stand-offish, touchy, not wanting to talk. As if she felt I was mocking Korea by wanting to hear about when it wasn't so developed.
I guess you like the old ways, too. Out in the country it's visible, and charming.

[jazzplayer]

I lived in Korea in the early seventies--as a teenager. I lived with my family on the military base at Yongsan. I loved it and spent a large percentage of my time wandering up and down hangangro, right outside a gate of the base (near the Samgakchi area). I haven't been back since but someday would love to--though I understand it has changed to the point of unrecognizability. When I was there, for example, there were very few cars--just buses, small cabs and lots of trucks. Seoul essentially stopped at the Han river. There were a handful of nice hotels, but Seoul was quite poor and basically run-down...if you're familiar with, say Central America, it kind of looked the way a lot of Guatemala City looks today.

Jane at Seoulscene let me post some of my 70s Seoul pics there if you are interested--go to the Photos section and look for "Old Pictures" or something like that...

[Manner of Speaking]

I remember the old Pusan station from my first arrival in Korea in 1996; although it looked a little dowdy, I really liked it because it had that feeling of Korea from the 1970s and 1980s. When I went back to Pusan 2 years ago, it was gone, completely replaced by a brand-spanking new facade, EXACTLY the same style as in Daegu, Seoul and Station.

I've never been much of a heritage nut, but I like looking at pictures of the old Korea as well. I'm surprised Koreans seem to have so little interest in that period.

[jazzplayer]

Here's a shot from 1972.

Anyone recognize the location?

[BKH32]

Just a guess. Is it the bridge (Perhaps at the time the only bridge) on the south west side of Seoul Leading to route 1 south. I first arrived in 1983 and travelled from Inchon to Seoul frequently. It's looks like the bridge I used to cross almost daily.

[Wangja]

Hannam bridge from UN village ..

[Ihavenolips]

I was in Korea for the first time in 1999. I was in the remote countryside surrounded by rice fields. There were no hotels and nobody could speak English. My hagwon was the only school in the area. It was over one month before I saw another foreigner and fleets of children would chase after me as I walked down the street.

In only five years the area has exploded in population size. There are dozens of 15 story apartment complexes and entire roads of bars that never existed before. I wish I had the pix to post because entire mountains have been removed to make room for new factories. Now there are well over a half a dozen hagwons. But, oddly, I am still the only foreigner in these parts.

I would love to hear more from the old-timers that were in Korea during the 70s and 80s.

[jazzplayer]

Thanks for identifying the bridge--I couldn't remember where I took that picture. If I recall correctly we were at, or near, a place called Walker Hill (which, I understand, now is quite a resort--at the time I was there it was a fairly small restaurant/hotel).

I've got a few more pictures that I'd like to post if anyone is interested--and a lot of stories, though bear in mind they are from the perspective of a teenager living on the 8th Army base in Yongsan.

[jazzplayer]

Here are a few more--that picture from Neil Mishalov's (great) website reminded me I also have some pictures of kids. No one EVER did the peace-sign thing back in the early seventies. But all the kids were addicted to Rock-Scissors-Paper, which they called something like John Cammy Shay (some service guy said it was the name of an American GI that taught the game to them, but it could have equally been some kind of korean term--anyone know?)

Also--does anyone recognize the second location? What would be really cool is if one of you could get a shot in the same location and post it here...for my own nostalgia kicks if nothing else.

[Derrek]

[Swiss James]

rock scissors paper is still going strong, I'm told kids do it all the time in schools, the guys in my office use it to decide who gets ice-cream and someone on this board said a couple of ajossi's settled an argument over a car-parking space that otherwise may have turned into a fist fight!

The name's changed now though...but I don't know how to spell what it's turned into