Korean Job Discussion Forums

[swetepete]

I was in a bar the other day, playing a board game with some friends and drinking beer. I was very well pleased with the food and the company, but I kept on having my attention dragged up to the big screen TV. I guess I'm just a sucker for the flashy lights. But, to my horror, they were playing 'garfield, the movie!' What are we, drug-addled seven year-olds? Even if we were, i bet that movie would still be agonizingly stupid. And, to make things worse, they were playing Metallica really loud in the background.

To be fair, I guess 'Garfield'--offensively, aggressively inane as it is--ain't much worse than most of the dreck that gets played on bar tvs. I'm for banning the practice altogether! Unless it's something that everybody gets into together, like sport, or the 'rocky horror' or something. Not that i particully like that movie--really, it's pretty good only 'cause it's so bad--but at least the audience can participate, instead of just sitting there looking clubbed.

Maybe if they played movies we could do drinking games to it wouldn't be so bad. The "Barfly' game, where you drink every time Mickey Rourke does, for example. Or "the Passion of the Christ' game, where you drink every time Caviezel gets whipped or punctured. Or the "Reservoir Dogs' one, where every time the eff word is uttered, drink! Now doesn't that sound more fun than simply cringing and whimpering everytime you glance up and see that (adjectival) CGA Garfield?

But really, I think it was miss manners who said it best: "getting all your friends together to watch tv is like running down to the corner to see if it's raining."

I mean, we can watch tv at home, right? Shouldn't bars be for conversation, and darts and pool and cards, and maybe even a bit of dancing? C'mon, we could be making the friends that will last a lifetime (which probably won't be that long, really, considering how much ex-pats booze and smoke). And with enough soju, and lowered expectations, maybe we can even find our Special Life Partner of the Week!

Can anyone convince me that bar tvs are good? I hope so, because it doesn't seem likely that they'e going away anytime soon. Not likely I'll stop going to bars either. Help!

[chronicpride]

I don't see this being a Korean-centric problem at all. In fact, I find that bars back in the West totally fit with what you are saying and 'why do friends get together to watch TV' would apply more better over there. Koreans are much more into conversing than watching TVs, as opposed to their western counterparts.

What the reason I don't get that is Korean-centric is the noise level of the music in sojubangs and bars. I have no idea how any decent conversation can be had. I used to go to a Wa Bar with co-workers after work and chat, and the noise was just ridiculous. I know that Koreans use noise as a marketing tool to attract attention, but you'd think some places might consider the idea about balancing the door speakers at a different level as the interior speakers.

But my guess is that no one complains, because once soju sinks in, the senses get all fuzzy anyways.

[RACETRAITOR]

It takes five minutes to type out a complaint about this. It takes five seconds to ask them to put it on something else.

[jaganath69]

A Pub/Hof is a place you go to for entertainment. Some people are entertained by the TV. Simple, innit?