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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Bingo
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
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 Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:11 pm Post subject: Korea's 'glorious' 5000 years. |
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It always amazes me that Korean's take pride in their 5000 year history.
Imagine being on the job for five weeks. The boss shows up and asks what you've accomplished, and the answer is kimchee! Fifty years pass, five hundred, five thousand!!! The question is asked again, and the answer again, offered with great pride, is kimchee. Twenty different types!!
Maybe this is just me! But, if I was on the job for 5000 years and produced zip I'd kinda downplay the whole five millenia thing. "No, no. Korea's only been arounfd for sixty years or so." Sort of the kinda thing we say to Koreans when we've been here five years but can't speak much Korean. We don't boast about being here for five years in such cases; we downplay our time here by saying we've been here two or three years. Because we're a bit embarrassed. But the master race feels that kimchee is five millenia well spent.
This brings me to another topic. Anti-Americanism. Since Korea invented diddly over the years, everything one sees about them on a daily basis is a Western import. Korea has benefitted immensely from these products, most of which arrived in Korea via the US connection.
I've done a short compilation (a-z) of Western contributions to Korean society. They include airplanes, air conditioning, anthropology, archeology,
buses, bicycles, biology, balloons, baseball, basketbal, cars, crayons, chalk, chemistry, clocks, coffee, dentistry, democracy, electricity, elevators, fans, free enterprise, glass, geometry, glasses, guitars,
helicopters, hygiene, internet, ice cream, Jesus, modern music, clothing, medicine, etc., motorcycles, newspapers, national independence,
optometry, orchestras, pencils, pens, personal computers, pianos, police force, pizza, reason, roads, running water, radios, science, soccer, shampoo, soap, televisions, telephones, traffic lights, underwear
vets, violins, etc etc.
What has Korea, with its massive head start over the West, given to the world in return. Give me a K. Give me an I. Give me a....well, you get the idea.
The massive intellectual and scientific contribution made by the West, mostly via the American connection, simply makes anti-Americaniosm in this country incomprehensible. Although I'm not American, sometimes when I'm confronted with the insane anti-Americanism of this country I want to wave a wand and make all the Western products, science etc. disappear.
But it's hard to kill optimism. Who knows what they might have come up with in the future.....given another 5000 years. The bicycle? The ladder?
The bottle opener? |
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flotsam
Joined: 28 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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| The troll? |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| The guy's been in Korea for 5 weeks and already so bitter..the job must be something like 1.6m/3 pyeong apartment with rats/6 day work week with a 6:30-9:30am and 4:30pm-10:30pm split. What a loser, |
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Newbie
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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A couple of years ago I visisted the grave of some Korean dude that apparently invented the pulley system... When was this great feat accomplished, ca. 1780!!!  |
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flotsam
Joined: 28 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| jinju wrote: |
| The guy's been in Korea for 5 weeks and already so bitter..the job must be something like 1.6m/3 pyeong apartment with rats/6 day work week with a 6:30-9:30am and 4:30pm-10:30pm split. What a loser, |
Ahem.
Jinju, I remind you of that other superb Korean innovation: the sock. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| flotsam wrote: |
| jinju wrote: |
| The guy's been in Korea for 5 weeks and already so bitter..the job must be something like 1.6m/3 pyeong apartment with rats/6 day work week with a 6:30-9:30am and 4:30pm-10:30pm split. What a loser, |
Ahem.
Jinju, I remind you of that other superb Korean innovation: the sock. |
The sock may be a Korean invention but it seems its been taken to new heights on dave's. Look at Satori. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: Re: Korea's 'glorious' 5000 years. |
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| Bingo wrote: |
I've done a short compilation (a-z) of Western contributions to Korean society. They include airplanes, air conditioning, anthropology, archeology,
buses, bicycles, biology, balloons, baseball, basketbal, cars, crayons, chalk, chemistry, clocks, coffee, dentistry, democracy, electricity, elevators, fans, free enterprise, glass, geometry, glasses, guitars,
helicopters, hygiene, internet, ice cream, Jesus, modern music, clothing, medicine, etc., motorcycles, newspapers, national independence,
optometry, orchestras, pencils, pens, personal computers, pianos, police force, pizza, reason, roads, running water, radios, science, soccer, shampoo, soap, televisions, telephones, traffic lights, underwear
vets, violins, etc etc.
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2 guys start teaching in Korea at the same time. One guy came up with a syllabus, found books, taught his students some new phrases....
You came up with a list of things that have been invented by westerners?
Or how about this:
Some guys you graduated with at university got jobs at executive firms, management positions, one wrote a book, another is a sports star. They have nice cars, apartments, big bank accounts...
You ended up in a foreign country that you hate, with a free tenement, and a list of western inventions.... |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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Hehe-- well, I had to have a guilty laugh, even if the fun police are all yelling at the OP. 5000 years and all you have is one type of spice?
Nevertheless, be careful with your list. Coffee and Jesus don't come from 'the west', if you mean European civilization, but from the mideast, to name a few. The Chinese are said to have developed glasses. Reason is hardly exclusive to the west. No country can be expected to match the achievements of the other 218 combined!
Ken:> |
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Kwangjuchicken
Joined: 01 Sep 2003
Location: I was abducted by aliens on my way to Korea and forced to be an EFL teacher on this crazy planet.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| jinju wrote: |
| The guy's been in Korea for 5 weeks and already so bitter..the job must be something like 1.6m/3 pyeong apartment with rats/6 day work week with a 6:30-9:30am and 4:30pm-10:30pm split. What a loser, |
America invented glass? So, that means one of my most prized gifts (a hand made Persian Cup that was made in the early 1400's with a chicken head handle given to me by a very rich friend) was really made in America. 
And, why is he so lucky to have rats? I want one. I think rats are so darn cute.  |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Kwangjuchicken wrote: |
| jinju wrote: |
| The guy's been in Korea for 5 weeks and already so bitter..the job must be something like 1.6m/3 pyeong apartment with rats/6 day work week with a 6:30-9:30am and 4:30pm-10:30pm split. What a loser, |
America invented glass? So, that means one of my most prized gifts (a hand made Persian Cup that was made in the early 1400's with a chicken head handle given to me by a very rich friend) was really made in America.
And, why is he so lucky to have rats? I want one. I think rats are so darn cute. |
Show you how dumb the guy is. He had all the time in the world to come up with that list and it turned out to be the stupidest list, full of holes. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Korea was a vassal state of China and got its know how mostly from there. China was making iron a thousand years before anyone, anywhere else. It got the high temps necessary to smelt iron from their pottery kiln technology which was way ahead, just slipped the iron in there and voila, whadyaknow? China was organized, a civilization with government, beaurocracy, high populations, large cities. Europe has, in comparison, been a backwater and didn't have its moments in the sun in terms of being a civilization until after the Middle Ages. How can one take history personally and attempt to refute it? Supposedly your Western Heiney is larger than the Asian variety. Take pride in that! |
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philipjames
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
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philipjames
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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WTF?????
I must have hit the wrong button. Sorry. This is a NEW thread. Apologies. |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
| Korea was a vassal state of China and got its know how mostly from there. China was making iron a thousand years before anyone, anywhere else. It got the high temps necessary to smelt iron from their pottery kiln technology which was way ahead, just slipped the iron in there and voila, whadyaknow? China was organized, a civilization with government, beaurocracy, high populations, large cities. Europe has, in comparison, been a backwater and didn't have its moments in the sun in terms of being a civilization until after the Middle Ages. How can one take history personally and attempt to refute it? Supposedly your Western Heiney is larger than the Asian variety. Take pride in that! |
Are you Korean and did some Westerner piss you off, maybe steal your girlfriend away?
Dude, Rome: roads, farming equipment, war machinery, tactics (turtle for example), indoor bathrooms, etc etc... Did you forget to study history? Now, unlike you, I am not putting down the East. Lots of stuff and history there. But the West wasn't much until the middle ages? Mesopotamia? And what about the Americas too (Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, etc) or the Middle East?
For Asia, China has a lot to be proud of. So does Japan and others. |
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Bingo
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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Holy hijacked thread Batman.
Anyway, I'll clarify a few things.
1. I don't hate Korea. It's absurd to reach that conclusion from my post.
2. The list was written up in a few minutes. Not meant to be comprehensive or without flaws. The point is that if one stops at any given stop light in Seoul and looks around, one can count an endless number of things that the West (usually through contact with the US) has contributed to Korea. Korea has contributed nothing to the world, and would be dirt poor without the West. Their country wouldn't even exist.
3. Anti-Western (and expecially anti-US) sentiment is a luxury Koreans cannot afford.
4. Koreans act like all of these benefits (from Western contact) just fell from the sky.
5. At least once a month some Korean tells me "Koreans are really genius." :roll:
6. Nice gratitude people.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp0yGE3NcJQ&search=fucking%20usa
7. Again, if I could wave a wand and let them live in the pre-American contact days - even for one day! |
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