Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Crois]

Today I was walking down the underground shopping section in Gwangju (dont know its name). Well i was looking a bit of tramp today with me fingerless gloves on. Yeah i was walking next to the shops and some Korean guy in an orange jacket and Trousers and black boots decided to hit smack the top of some clothes that were hanging up. He then didnt want to let me past for about 10 seconds. I told him to feck off and we went our seperate ways.

What other things have people done to you in Korea? Can be good things like one person i know said that an old lady covered her from the rain because she didnt want her to let the acid rain on her or some thing like that.

Frodo stuck in Naju

O and check out this website if you dont already know about it or someone else has said it before.

www.engrish.com

[Swiss James]

Possibly not the weirdest, but I was fresh off the plane so it freaked me out at the time. I was sat on the subway train in Seoul when the old ajumma opposite noticed there were a couple of foreigners opposite. She started saying something or other, obviously finding us very amusing, then got a little dead rabbit out of the carrier bag she had and started waving it's paw at us like it was saying hello.

[Len8]

I was working out in the gym once when one of my former students comes up to me and says what I'm benching is too hard for me, because I'm too old. Sheesh. I saw him looking at what I was lifting, and turn quickly back to me. There was no way he could have done what I was doing, but he still had to insist that It was too hard for me. I wasn't doing it with the most strain either, and it really wasn't that much by western standards. I explained that used to do much more, and that what I was doing was really "chogum". Gave it a chance to sink in as I watched his face. They sure got some weird people

[t.j]

I was in the swimming pool shower room and a Korean ajuma came up to me and felt me up. Did NOT appreciate that but had no idea what to do. That was definately the strangest thing that a Korean person has done to me.

I do think that the old lady with the dead rabbit was stranger and more disgusting than my incident. why would anyone do that????

[Tiger Beer]

I have tons when I lived in Pusan in 1996-1997.

Once I got a poke in the butt (whats that word again?) by an old man. I was shocked to turn around and see an old man who gave it to me. I was waiting for the bus at that time when I got it.

Pusan again. Another time some random guy came up to me while I was waiting for the bus to go to work. I had work clothes and books and everything. Anyhow, the guy really wanted me to go over to his house right at that moment for dinner. He was trying to grab me and pull me when HIS bus arrived. I kept telling him 'no, I can't' and he wouldn't give up. As his bus filled up and then began to pull away.. he let me go and started running for the bus.

Same area of Pusan. One of my favorite memories is riding on a bus going to work around 1pm in the afternoon. Looked out the window and saw an old drunk man in the middle of the road. He proceeded to pull down his pants (dropped to his ankles) and starting pissing away. Although he pissed directly straight down onto his pants that were lying around his knees.

Another time in Pusan I was walking down the street and came across some woman (or she came across me) and she began hyper ventilating like she'd seen a ghost.

Another time in Pusan.. oh sheesh.. the entire year there was one non-stop freakazoid experience after another.

[just because]

This is my wierdest one...
..I climbed Jirisan last year. So we did the 3 day 42 kilometre trek and it kicked butt. So our group(4 of us) are walking along and everybody is super friendly up there. So as we sit down this man in his mid-40s comes up and talks to us in English. says he is a pilot for Asiana and is on holidays. Says he likes his job,etc..gives us some soju(why do people drink so much soju when climbing?/) and then stood up, put out his arms like an airplane and procedded to walk around in circles in front of us and other Koreans for 5 minutes walking in circles making airplane noises, picks up his stuff and starts talking to himself like he is talking to the control tower coming into land. It was hilarious but if he is a pilot I wouldn't want to be on that plane.

[little mixed girl]

.....

[Joe Thanks]

[Tiger Beer]

For the most part all my weirdness living in Korea.. all happened in this one particular area of Pusan (including all of those stories).

I liked in whats called 'Deokchondong' in Pusan. Very few people know this, but that is where the largest dog market in all of Korea exists. My workplace and my apartment were on opposite ends of the dog market, and would take about 15-20 minutes to walk through. One each side of the street were a good solid wall of all dogs each going back a few rows with more dogs into the side streets. Had a constant small of singed hair at all times as well.

So as you can imagine.. the people in that area were a really weird bunch. I can't recall many days when something kind of weird would happen in that area.. they also called it the ghetto of Pusan. It wasn't really a ghetto.. as it wasn't dangerous or anything else at all. BUT that being said, any area that holds the title of largest dog market in Korea would definetely have many ghetto-like thinking people.

I had to have the rather interesting experience to have spent one year teaching these people sons and daughters in an adult hogwan. Believe me, the stuff I heard in those classrooms were shockingly Korean conservativism to the extreme. I just thought the entire country was like that.. quite a shock to later end up in Seoul and realize its not. (or any other area of Korea for that matter - including other parts of Pusan).

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Tiger Beer]

[Joe Thanks]

[Mr. Pink]

Hmm.

This one time I left my door unlocked cause my wife said she forgot her keys. I went to bed a little early. Heard some noise, thought it was her, so yelled out. Heard a bang and then nothing. I went out of the bedroom and no one was in the apt. However the cash I had sitting on my bookshelf was missing. Figure someone walked in took it and ran when I started speaking. Kind of freaked me out. But I was also happy that is all that was taken!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Joe Thanks]