Korean Job Discussion Forums

Sleepy in Seoul · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:28 am Post subject: Random act of kindness

I was buying some �Ҵ߲�ġ (spicy chicken on a stick) at a food stand last night, just waiting for them to be prepared for me, when an ajosshi came up to me. He didn't say a word, just gave me the thumbs up, shook my hand, thumbs up again, put man won on the bench and left. I was gobsmacked. I didn't recognise him - maybe he was the father of one of my students, but I didn't know. This is far from the first time that a random Korean has done something kind and nice for me. It made my day Smile

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RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Maybe he thought you were homeless.

emkeyen · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Location: Seoul

Come to think of when I was really new here, like the second day or so, and was walking back and forth in the super market trying to figure out something that I could eat and finally resorted to picking cup noodles by random. I was interrupted by a woman who probably saw right through me as she pointed on some noodles I'd taken and said "vely stlong! dis one - vee-eely spicey!" Smile

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 3:11 am Post subject:

There have been several threads about "random" acts of kindness by Koreans.

In an important sense they are not random: it's a cultural trait.

How one defines the cultural trait is open to debate but there is no doubting the non-random repetitive PATTERN to it.

I gave up being amazed by act so kindness from strangers after about thirty or forty of them (seriously).

Beej · Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Location: Eungam Loop

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 4:00 am Post subject:

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

A few months back I missed my train home and got stranded in Seoul. Some young koreans at the bus stop not only told me which bus I wanted, but missed their bus to ensure I got on safely and told the bus driver to tell me when I should get off.

I was dead impressed. Of course the grinning ajumma who steals my cab in this freezing weather is the flip side of the coin, but I find Korea a very friendly place.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

I was eating hotteok once at a stand when the guy next to me bought us another round. Not by any means the only time this kind of thing has happened, I'd actually forgotten about it until the OP reminded me.

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

In Osaka recently I met a guy from Senegal with his Japanese girlfriend. He invited me along to a bar called "'African Jungle" where they played some good reggae music. We had a good time chatting and dancing for an hour or two. He said he had to go, and he and his girlfriend left. I was still on a beer for a bit. Went to leave a bit later, going to pay the bar for my beers, not necessary, the Sengalese guy had covered me: 3 or 4 beers at 500 yen apiece. I was pleased enough to stick around and drink more! Ran into some cute Japanese girls, danced or whatever. Fun place. Nice owner, guy from Ghana.

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

I was on the subway, trying to find Insadong on the map and having no luck (little did I know, there is no stop marked Insadong). There were two girls near me both doing their (very difficult) university-level English homework. So I asked them where Insadong was. Well, rather than trying to speak some English and telling me what to do, the one girl had me get off on the next stop, showed me how to duck under the turnstiles to avoid paying for the privilege of switching lines, and put me on my way. 10 minutes later I was kicking myself for not asking her name and number.

krats1976 · Joined: 14 May 2003

riley · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: where creditors can find me

random acts of kindess rock. I've had them done for me and I try to do the same for anyone I can.

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

Story time:

1. One time, my friend from Canada came to visit me. We were at the Cheonan train station waiting for a train to Seoul I think. At the station, they have one of those machines that makes almond cakes. We were standing around, watching it because as you know, it can be quite mesmerizing.

This old lady must have seen us watching it, so she bought us a small package and just handed it to us. She couldn't speak English and so I thanked her as best I could in Korean. Very cool. My friend was amazed!

2. One time, I went hiking to some National park by myself. I didn't want to go down the mountain the same way I came up so took some random path. I ended up with no idea where I was. I started walking the road, hoping to find a bus stop or something. I ended up at a ranger station and the ranger, through my horrible Korean figured out where I wanted to go. He motioned for me to get in the truck and drove me totally out of his way to this bus stop. Then he got out and appointed this nice old man to make sure I got to the bus station in the city I wanted to go to.

Lots of good experiences for me in Korea with random acts of kindness. More times than I can mention, while out hiking, Koreans would invite me to join them for lunch or a snack or a coffee or whatever they had. It was awesome.