Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyssa]

Today I was down town with two co-workers and a group of Russian men came into P.C room and the air was filled with a stench that you would not believe. One of my co-workers covered her nose and asked me if I was ok. She told the other Korean co-worker something, one word, and I was curious what it meant. Later on I found out that the word was a word that meant a "bad smell" and it was a word that came from a "non-Korean"! I thought that this was so funny.

[djsmnc]

Huh?

[BigBlackEquus]

Was it, "Name-say?"

[Qinella]

The last part of your post makes no sense, Alyssa. When you say it was a word that "came from a 'non-Korean'", what exactly do you mean? It was a non-Korean who said the word? The word is similar to a word that means "non-Korean"? What was the word?

[Mills]

I think she meant it's a word that means "smelly", from a Korean root that means "non-Korean".

[bellum99]

Seems obvious that the co-workers were korean. I have also heard that saying or something like it said about a non-korean. But no one stinks worse than a korean in the summer without air conditioning (ten women packed in the lunchroom--aka broom closet). Just sick sweet perfume on each on them to cover the body smell.

[SPINOZA]

The smelliest guy in the whole universe is a Spanish-American who lives, teaches here in Seoul. He's highly experienced (worked in Japan for a long while) and I've seen him on Arirang TV once. He's fluent in Spanish, English, not fluent but very good at Korean and is a good friend of a co-teacher. He paid us a visit at our school once and I was embarrassed to be around him because he literally stank the room out. I didn't want people thinking it was me who stank. Nice guy and all that, but, for f__k's sake, have a shower and use deordorant (LOTS of it!) you sweaty ba5tard.

[peony]

was it 'no rang nae' ?

i think that means armpit smell but the word is usually used for the smell of non-koreans

[Corporal]

Miguk Naemse - Smell of Americans
By David I. Steinberg

Koreans and other Asians have long had expressions about foreigners and those who associate with foreigners. They often have not been complimentary. For example, in Korea foreigners are often called waeguk-saram, or ``outside the country people.���� This is not a particularly attractive term, but it is better than the term applied to the Japanese, waenom, as nom is more pejorative. Westerners are known as kokun saram, or the ``big-nose people���� (also used by the Chinese), or more colloquially, kojaengi, or ``nose guys.���� The Chinese have called foreigners ``foreign devils,���� (yang kweitze) among other terms. The Japanese use gaijin (outside people), which has a slightly derogatory tone but is not insulting (jin, for people in Japanese, is not crude as nom is in Korean). The Burmese call them kala, a pejorative term for all foreigners but originating in reference to Indians. The Thai call foreigners farang, from the Portuguese, but it is a neutral expression.

Koreans and Chinese have long complained about the literal smell of Westerners, who were early and easily distinguished supposedly by the odor associated with eating cheese and drinking milk, but since diets have in part become internationalized, along with deodorants and as the West has taken to bathing regularly, this appellation is less common. Still, Koreans use the term norangnae, the ``yellow smell���� associated with sweat, which Koreans feel is more prevalent among Westerners.

But there is a term now in use that reflects not how foreigners smell from food or bodily excretia, but how Koreans perceive other Koreans who too closely interact in specific ways with foreigners, specifically Americans. That is miguk naemse, literally ``the smell of Americans,���� or, since naemse is not a perfume, perhaps it is better to call it ``the odor of Americans.���� It is not a pleasant expression.

The people to whom this appellation is attached are those Koreans who are seen to be too closely associated with the American camp, and who have an ``American���� way of thinking, processing ideas, or solving problems, and seem to forget or ignore Korean core emotions. Such a definition must lack precision given the multi-cultural nature of American society and problems defining Korean concerns. The Chinese and Asian-Americans sometimes use the term ``banana���� derogatorily _ an Asian who is ``yellow���� on the outside and ``white���� on the inside, and thus who is effectively disloyal to his or her ethnicity (an ``oreo���� cookie is used in the African-American community to describe someone who is black but has a ``white���� core).

Americans have had a privileged position in Korea, studying English is the rage, and most Korean extended families have a relative who lives, has lived, visited, or studied in the U.S. So simply having an American connection is not sufficient for employing such an appellation. Its use does not necessarily describe someone who has gone to school or have a graduate degree from the United States, for some who have obtained the highest degrees from prestigious American universities can be the most nationalistic of Koreans. One might argue that because they have received such degrees they may be even more nationalistic today to demonstrate their ``Korean-ness.���� And American degrees at any level are still a badge of some prestige. Nor does it relate to a Korean who might like American pop culture.

The term also seems to apply not to those who have American friends, but those who are too close to American policies and ideas. And when those American policies appear to be in conflict with policies that are interpreted as at the heart of the Korean psyche, then those who espouse them are considered to be ``anti-Korean���� or ``un-Korean���� and ``pro-American;���� those who hold such sentiments are derided. There is Korean resentment that their national policies sometimes appear to be dictated by a superpower.

The most critical of these policies today is that related to the treatment of North Korea. Since the Clinton administration eventually became intent on engagement and followed the lead and supported the Sunshine Policy of president Kim Dae-jung, there was not too great a space between the Korean and American view, and thus those Koreans who were considered pro-American in this policy sense could be considered as pro-Korean. But the use of this term seems to have become more common since the Bush administration��s overt abhorrence of North Korea and its leader and the growing split between Korean nationalism and U.S. policies. Whatever the public relations facades that both the South Korean and U.S. governments may wish to set up about the convergence of views on treating the North, the differences are apparent and troubling, and obviously important to a large segment of the Korean public. As one Korean academician said, ``If Americans are considered friends, North Koreans are considered brothers.���� The U.S. should remember this.

Perhaps the use of mikuk naemse illustrates aspects of Korean life. There is a cry for a kind of orthodoxy of view when Koreans as a whole seem threatened by outsiders, and thus this is a form of nationalism that has historically enabled a relatively small and generally vulnerable society to survive culturally with more powerful neighbors. Another is the ambivalence between globalization and nationalism _ the external and internal pressures, the issue of continuity or change. Historically, there was resistance when Buddhism was introduced, and when Confucianism was promulgated. When modernization was introduced in the late 19th century the same conflict occurred. So contemporary Westernization, or Americanization, prompts a similar struggle, just more evident when fundamental policies are involved _ such as the unity of the Korean people-culture-society. In this period of the rise of anti-American sentiment, all too apparent from the surveys of the Korean population by a number of respected survey firms, the use of the term is spreading. It would be nice to be able to regard this as a simple fad among certain elements of the population, and expect it to go away. That would be reassuring to many, especially of course, Americans. Sadly, that is an unlikely phenomenon. It seems evident that this expression is another piece in the anti-American puzzle exacerbated by policy differences, confidence and economic power levels. It should be treated as significant, as expressing an emotion with important policy implications for both governments and peoples.

[Big Mac]

[joe_doufu]

I hate it when some reeking ajosshi gets on the elevator and everybody starts looking sideways at me. I bathe, for goodness' sake, I'm no dirty Korean.

[The Kung Fu Hustle]

Whenever I go to the jjimjilbang I'm always drenched in five minutes yet some of my Korean friends haven't even broken a sweat. They say it's because I'm a hairy ������ so I naturally sweat more. No sweat = no smell right? I guess they keep the toxins on the inside then, and they all build-up and go straight to the brain. This is the probable cause of that special kind of Korean craziness.

BO = �г�

[xingyiman]

Yes Russians are notorious for B.O. But Americans during the past decade I noticed became more lax in the hygene category as well. I remember in the 90's when I was in college I was ran out of the computer lab by more than 1 "grunge" disciple in the heat of Summer who was sporting a flannel shirt and not having bathed in a week. If you want a bad gasp of B.O. you need to look no further than the Bass Pro Shops headquarters store in Springfield Missouri on any given weekend. The parade of human refuge and strench will literally make you vomit. I know because I worked there for years. We had guys that would come into the once fine dining restaurant to gorge themselves on crablegs who smelled so bad they could knock buzzards off a *beep* wagon.

[Corporal]

The crablegs smelled bad?

[own_king]

It's not just Russians. If you ever go to Limelight or worse King's Club on a Saturday night, it reeks - especially the p@ckies (I'm not racist, but I don't know what else to call them) and black guys. These guys are letting down the team. We're all waygooks to Korean poeple. They make all of us look bad. What I don't understand is how they can not know they stink and not care. Living in Korea as migrant workers may suck and the pay may not be great, but at least they should be able to afford soap and water.