Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lastat06513]

In Korea, I think that personal emotions outweigh the way the legal system is run here.
I think the government is too afraid of bad public opinion to make a logical legal decision. Especially in case of foreigners.

Cases in point;

~ A foreign man is walking with his girlfriend. They are fooling around, chasing each other down the street. Then she hits him on the arm and he playfully spanks her and runs. A Korean man sees this and automatically come to the woman's "rescue". He attacks the foreigner. The girl tries to stop the fight but gets knocked down and a bloody nose. The foreign starts to defend himself until 3 other Korean men intervene on behalf of the Korean "rescuer".
The police come and the Koreans say that the foreigner attacked the woman. Seeing that the woman has a bloody nose, they arrest the foreigner.
At the police station, the woman tries to convince the officer that he was her boyfriend that they were playing around. The Korean man says "Why do you defend such foreign scum?"
The officer looks are her and she becomes quiet.
A few days later, the Korean man's entire family is at court watching the whole proceedings (I mean the WHOLE family, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc.) waving their arms demanding justice.
The court sides with the Korean man and the foreigner is sent to jail for 2 years for assault.


~ A foreigner is riding his moped down the street and he stops at a cross-walk where the cross-walk sign is green yet there is no one crossing. Then a car comes speeding around the turn, smashing right into the car. The moped rider is on the ground, his clothes tattered and blood everywhere. The driver of the car gets out and starts yelling at the guy on the moped, asking why did he stop at the cross-walk if no one is there. The police come and the driver tells him that the moped rider just stopped for no reason and he had no time to stop his car. But the foreigner, who is fluent in Korean, tells the cop that he stopped because the cross-walk sign was green. The driver flies into a rage and yells at the cop, "Are you going to believe this foreign sh%t over a Korean?" The cop calmly walks over to the foreigner and gives him a ticket and walks away. And since the police sided with the driver, he is removed from all liability for the accident.

These are stories I got from people I have met.

[Freezer Burn]

It's heresay, but I'd believe it, it makes you wonder why we come here if we are treated like sh-it, and face it we are treated like sh-it at every corner.

[Freezer Burn]

Maybe we have a sh-it fetish

[Leslie Cheswyck]

From a bit before my time here: The Great Subway Riot of '95

http://usacrime.or.kr/Eng/ChoJK.htm

[lastat06513]

I came to Korea a year after that incident happened and that was the news for much of the time I was here the first time.

During my "in-briefing", the S-2 NCOIC used this as an example of what not to do in public.

He said; "No matter what the case is or what relationship you have with a particular person. If the person is Korean, never touch them in a way that looks like an assault"

That sticks with me even today.
So I tend never to joke around with anyone in public.

But it re-enforces my argument that Koreans don't care if a person is a soldier or a teacher. To the average Korean, they are one and the same. And it doesn't matter if the person has been here a week, a month, a year or even a decade. To Koreans, we could only be viewed as "guests".

Another example of injustice, I guess, would be the death of Matthew Seller.

[plattwaz]