Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

The Culture Shock Test

You are in the grocery store with your cart, wandering up and down the aisles. The peanut butter is not where it was the last time and you get a knot in your stomach and maybe mutter something about why they can't just leave things alone. As you continue your search, knowing you can't ask where the peanut butter got moved to because you don't know the Korean word for it and even if you did you wouldn't understand the answer, you notice that an ajumma takes a peek in your cart as she goes by, even maybe picking something up out of your cart to inspect it. The knot in the stomach gets a little bigger. More muttering under the breath. You ignore the bumping and make no outward reaction but the knot gets tighter. You finally stumble across the peanut butter and finish up shopping. You head for the check-out counter and find yourself in a sprint with the lady with her cart filled to the brim and beat her, only to have another ajumma cut in line in front of you.

Do you:

a) Cuss her out under your breath, then ignore it and get on with your life, forgetting the incident within a minute?

b) Cuss her out out loud and say, "Hey lady! Get back to the end of the line where you belong"?

c) Reach into her cart and start throwing her stuff down the aisle, all the while cussing her out at the top of your lungs and turning red, denouncing Korea as the most uncivilized place on the planet, possibly the universe, and questioning the manhood, womanhood, legitimacy and mental ability of every Korean who has ever had the gall to blight the face of the earth in all of recorded and unrecorded history?

d) Do nothing, but the rest of the day, in every free moment, re-play the scene in your mind, fantasizing what you could have/should have done? Possibly take revenge on some agasshi (who had the unmitigated temerity to stop on the sidewalk 10 feet in front of you) by deliberately bashing your shoulder into her back on the way by--and NOT saying 'Excuse me'. Get home hours later, log on to Dave's, and post the story while ignoring the story about free pair of socks the shoe store man gave you when you bought new shoes after grocery shopping and forgetting to mention the ajumma who shared her umbrella with you while you were waiting to cross the street?.

e) Never refer to the incident again, but add one more reason to avoid Koreans as much as possible, restricting your social life mainly to bars and almost exclusively to foreigners. Your main and maybe only topic of conversation is reviewing the failures of Korean society, culture, food, people, fashions, music, weather, architecture, sports, TV and movies.

If you chose A or B, you are a well-adjusted Westerner. If you chose C, D or E you are caught in the web of culture shock.