Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

One thing I admire about Korea (and Japan) as opposed to other places in Asia I've been is the lack of hassels tourists encounter. The people may be clueless or xenophobic, but almost nobody sees you as a quick few thousand one. Or is that changing? In the 2 1/2 years I've been here I've already noticed an increase in the amount of semi-uniformed idiots hanging outside airports and around bus stations wanting to take people somewhere. However, spending the other day with a couple of geniune grade-A tourists was a bit of an eye-opener.

I spent the day with my aunt and uncle who had a one-day cruise ship stop in Busan. I took a taxi to the brand-new terminal, with cast W8,000 including getting a bit lost. Then, when we wanted to head back to Nampo-dong, the drivers lying in wait outside the terminal entrance all wanted W20,000 to take us there. I told them in Korean (although a couple of the ring-leaders spoke decent English) that it only cost W8,000 to go that distance, and finally after proceeding to walk to the main road to hail a taxi driving down the street the ring-leader sent out a taxi to bring us there for W8,000. He obviously had hopes of taking us around for the day, was quickly exhusting his limited English explaining this, and when I told him in Korean that I was an English teacher (hagwon annio - hakyo) and I was with my aunt and uncle he shut up and just kept driving, very disappointed that the tourists already had a tour guide.

Later, we were around a hotel from which a free shuttle bus left regularly for the cruise ship terminal. We were just checking it out before going for coffee to see out their time in Busan, and a guy with a partial uniform came up and asked rather rudely 'Where are you going?!'. My uncle, who's not afraid to speak his mind, said 'That's none of your business!' and I told him to go away in Korean, leaving him standing there looking very stupid indeed. I was wearing a backpack and the three of us together must have looked like ideal pickings to rip off on an unnecessary cab ride.

My aunt and uncle still had a lovely visit and we had a great time together, but it was really disappointing seeing Koreans treat foreigners this way. Korea to be frank doesn't have a lot to offer but it does have a few things. One of them, I had thought, was an impecible honesty in simple monetary transactions. However, if Korea is going to give obvious tourists the Thai / Cambodian treatment in addition to having few noteworthy sites, few resorts that would appeal to westerners, few bank machines with English, few restaurants that serve real Korean food where you don't have to sit on the floor, etc., etc., etc., how could it possibly succeed? Surely the various levels of government would at least have the foresight to see that preventing price-gauging on tourists is an absolute necessity if tourism is every to take off, wouldn't they?

[jinju]

its spelled won, not one

[seoulsucker]

In Thailand, the difference between a 50 baht cab ride and a 150 cab ride is negligible to people of means.

However, a 5,000 cab ride that ends up costing you 15,000 is tougher to swallow.

IMHO, Korea needs to abandon its delusions of becoming a top tourist destination and focus on making the country more foreign investor/business friendly.

Sure, some of the steps they need to take bleed into one another, but overall I think working the business angle (especially with FTA approval on the horizon) would be a better investment for them.

[Dev]

If Korea ever becomes a popular tourist destination for Westerners, the cheating is only going to get worse.

One thing I have appreciated in Korea is Koreans in the markets modestly raising their asking prices to foreigners. They don't increase the price five fold like I've experienced in Thailand. At most, it's been double, but usually 20%. You can easily bargain them down to the real price.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[blynch]

[Dev]

[blynch]

[Dev]

On the topic of the treatment of foreign tourists and workers, last Saturday I called TICKETLINK with the hopes of buying a concert ticket.
When the operator answered the phone, I politely asked her "Excuse me, but do you speak English?"

I got an embarrassed laugh from her and she hung up on me.

[Sucker]

I used to think that I would get ripped off at the market (Dongdaemun). Just stand there for a second until a Korean asks, "How much?"

Once the store owner gives them a price, you will know how much they are charging Koreans for it.

This said, if the store owner quoted the Korean customer five thousand won, they always quoted the same price to me.

I was never ripped off. At the market that is....

[FistFace]

The Korean males don't look at foriegn women here, and wonder how much money they can scam off of them.

They look women and wonder how much money they will cost.

[Qinella]

I can't decide what's funnier about this thread: "one", Suk making sure to point out the times he was able to mangle a basic Korean sentence, or SeoulSucker saying that 10,000 won is tough to swallow for people of means.

[Qinella]

[Dev]

One of the vendors in the mall of the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon tried to rip me off really bad.

I was just window shopping with no intentions to buy and the saleswoman on the top flor in a dress shirt shop showed me a nice shirt. Her first price was 45,000 won. I kept saying "no" and the price kept coming down. I got this whole story about how the same shirt sells for 60,000 at Lotte Department store. Before I left the store, the price had hit rock bottom at 12,000 won.

This exerience has really turned me off of shopping in Itaewon.

[nautilus]

I spent a day with 2 first time grade A tourists here. They drove me around ( I was showing them around).

Biggest problem they had was the traffic. They were hooting, cursing and generally pi*sed off whenver someone cut them up or blocked their way. They also remarked that the traffic lights here are too many and take way too long to change. Driving from seoul north, they then were amazed that the towns had no ring roads. Basically you have to go right through the centre of every town, caught in all the traffic instead of just bypassing it.

Last words were "I could never live here, I'd go nuts"-before they flew out.