Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

There's that saying...that goes roughly "a Korean's awareness of the world ends at his nose."

The proof, I feel, is the number of times I find money (paper bills) on the street. You know a crowd of people all milling around, no one notices a man won bill on the ground, save for me. I figure I spot the money because I have a habit of, you know, looking around me.

"What am I about to step in? Is there a motorbike zipping up into my blind spot? What's coming that way to bump into me while my attention was over there looking for a motorbike? Better check the ground again to make sure I'm not about to step in vomit or lung butter. Is this a safe, clean place to wait for the light? Am I in the direct path of a four-ship formation of bullet shapped grandmothers rushing to catch a bus? Am I a standing target for a motorbike here? Is there some natural barriers around me that's going to make some idiot kid on his bike steer around me? Oh look, money!"

The other day I was walking through the subway station, saw a chun wan bill fall to the ground, and flutter around the feet of several people in line to buy a ticket. No one noticed. I grabbed the bill and looked at the people in line to determine who dropped the money. I saw one lady with three singles in her hand and it looked like the bill dropped around her. So I tried to give her her bill back. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out why some foreigner was trying to thrust a 1000 won note at her. I mumbled something about her dropping it, got her to take it out of my hand, and I wandered off.

[blynch]

u r a nice guy...

[Hyeon Een]

Does this happen a lot?

Can I get rich when I move to Seoul solely by keeping my eyes open?

In the country the best I've heard was a girl stumbling over an envelope with 2,000,000 in cash. It was nice for her but it never happened to me.. When I move to Seoul can I expect to find notes showering from the ceilings every time I take a stroll? Oh yeah, and are the streets paved with gold?

I'm looking forward to moving to the big city now.. easy beautiful girls, raining money.. can it get any better?

[ilovebdt]

[rednblack]

Hyeon Een.
"Give the op a break". Isn't this, more or less, what you said about those giving the 'come and meet people and drink beer for 10,000W', a bit of flak?
I applaud honesty and doing the right thing. Done it myself, will always do so. Good stuff op!

[Hyeon Een]

[shapeshifter]

Hi,

I guess you're half kidding but as an 'ethnic' Korean who grew up abroad, I find this sort of 'observation' dull, lazy and vaguely insulting.

You gleefully prattle on about how Koreans don't have the slightest idea what's going on around them and while I'm sure that's true some of them/us, I really don't see it as one of their/our (cue insightful remark about Kyopos and identity crises) defining characteristics. It's not as though Seoul isn't teeming with dozy Canadians. Consider how upset the expat community get whenever Koreans make pejorative generalizations about foreigners. That certainly does happen and I know I find it parochial and embarassing when it does.

That said, the blythe manner in which some people criticize and/or mock Koreans as a whole is also quite shocking and more than a little disappointing given that the subtext of many of the allegations (particularly those of racism) is that "western people" are infitintely more tolerant, worldly, sensible and insertanyotherappropriateadjectives here.

Without wanting to pick on any specific examples (including that of mindmetoo who, I'd like to stress, didn't saying particularly malicious), I've certainly observed a fairly widespread consensus on this board on views such as Koreans are dishonest, Koreans are hopelessly disorganised, Koreans are oblivous to the world around them, etc...

I guess that kind of thing is just a product of people's frustration over living in what I accept can be a frustating country, but I do find it a bit unsettling at times.

Of course there are Koreans who love nothing more than hopping on the internet and spewing xenophobic nonsense about anyone and anything that's not Korean, but the bulk of Korean society sees those people as wackjobs and I believe (I hope I'm right) that while they may be a noisy minority, they are being increasingly marginalised as Korean society gets more and more accustomed to the presence of foreigners.

It would be a shame to see that progress counterbalanced by any increase in intolerance from the other side.

Right, my soup is boiling and I'm sure I've said more than enough. Before I tuck into supper though, just a few reflections, humbly offered for your consideration.

1. Some Koreans are undoubtedly stupid, dishonest, dozy, insertanyotherappropriate adjectives here.

2. Far from being exclusive to Koreans, these words accurately describe large swathes of the human population, which probably goes a long way to explaining why our species is in so much trouble.

3. Since most of you don't speak the local language at a high level and haven't spent many years in the country, there is a great deal that you either don't know or don't understand about Korea and its people. With that in mind, I would argue in favour of a tendency to reserve judgement from time to time.

4. With a few notable exceptions (who even I think are sometimes too eager to deny any flaws in Korea or Koreans) the tone of many of the posters on this board promotes the very same 'us vs. them' mentality that Koreans are so often accused of promoting.

5. Many of you are for the most part dealing with a very specific segment of the Korean population, i.e the hagwon industry. I'm sure we can all agree this not a particularly solid or adequate basis for the development of sweeping cultural judgements. Imagine the image one might develop of the West based solely on a sample group of ESL teachers. That, I think, would be doing a great injustice to what is certainly an admirable civilization.

Right, now I've definitely said too much. This was supposed to be 2-3 lines but the soup ended up needing a little more time.

For those of you who took the time to read this, thanks. For those who didn't, I don't blame them. I doubt I would have.

Have a good day.

[Captain Corea]

[Mashimaro]

I once sat in a cafe for an hour or more in Seoul, where person after person would walk along and stumble over a 3 feet long piece of wire.

Seemingly it would be easy to avoid (there weren't THAT many people to obscure their vision)

Not a single person would reach down to remove the wire from the footpath (even after nearly going a over t themselves)

The thought crossed my mind to remove the wire myself, but in the end I thought I just let Darwinism takes it's course.

Must have seen 10 people trip over this thing, but luckily no one hurt themselves badly. Eventually it foud it's way in to the gutter of it's own accord.

It's those things that make you go

[bellum99]

I found a 10,000 won bill while walking, two times. But then I also found money in Canada,too. Means nothing.

[Mashimaro]

[kimchi_pizza]

Isn't there some kind of taboo against picking up dropped money in some Asian countries? I seem to think there is.....

A little off topic but...

You know how some people shake and rattle their legs while sitting? Chinese believe you shouldn't marry a person like that as all that shaking will cause money to fall out of their pockets and THAT means they will lose all their money now and in the future.

Ah! I know Taiwanese burn paper money and any money dropped belongs to the gods. To pick it up is like taking their money and they'll be angry. Bad Luck!

As for Seoul, I wouldn't pick it up either! I know I would first get bumped into and stumble onto the ground, then thousands of high heals and leather patent shoes would walk all over me. As I try to regain my footing and composure with a hundred puncture marks on my body from high heals, finally I can grin at my hard won cheon wan bill with a few teeth missing as well...

[ChuckECheese]

WoW! Very impressive!!!!

[jaganath69]

[mindmetoo]