Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner1]

I know that when your new here, many Koreans will chuckle at how different you are and how funny it looks to them that you put yourself in such an awkward situation of living in one of the most homogenous societies in the world. After you have known a Korean for at least several months, it is normal for them to chuckle at you when you say hi (anyang haseo) or when they see you?

My question surrounds this particular situation. My land lady always chuckles at me when she sees me since a confusion over how to pay my bills occured 1 1/2 months ago. The school rented the apartment 3 months ago, but failed to find out whether the bills are to be paid to the land lady or to the utility companies like at my old apartment. The school pays the bills and then takes that money out of teachers pay, but not in my new apartment, unlike the other apartments. Without telling me of course, causing me and my new land lady a big headache due to language barrier and a lack of planning. The school and land lady should had made arrangements on how I was to pay my bills and communicate that to me, but didn't.

So one Wednesday night about 1 1/2 months ago after work, my land lady shows up in my apartment yelling at me in Korean while chuckling, thus, I could not understand what her problem was or what she was saying. I remained calm and I got my vice director on the home phone to translate. It was simply that I was very late in paying the land lady for my 1st months water, electric, and cable. Ironically, one week prior, I had questioned my vice director about were my bills were going and why none were deducted from my pay with no answers provided nor any efforts made to find out. I paid it immediately once I knew what was going on and what the amount owed was and the land lady left me alone.

But ever since that night, the land lady always chuckles at me when she sees me and it's annoying me. I feel it's not right and wish to make ammends with the land lady so I can feel comfortable living on her property, but that is impossible on account of the language barriar. The school obviously doesn't care as they didn't properly communicate with the land lady upon renting the apartment. It like the school and land lady assumed I can fluently speak Korean and know how things happen in Korea as if I lived her all my life when in fact, I had only been here a few months. I felt this lack of communication and planning put the schools rental and my job both in jeopardy. Pure stupidity. Now that I have my bills figured out, albeit, the hard way, I want the land lady to stop coming to my window and walking around the villa chuckling at me as she often does.

Any suggestions?

[Qinella]

Just try to imagine if you were an immigrant to the US in the same situation. The landlord would not be chuckling at all. Instead, you'd have your utilities cut off, and perhaps a letter, written entirely in technical English, sent to you explaining the situation. Your lack of English ability would be seen by all as a fault of your own. Koreans are much more gracious in this regard.

In Korea, laughing or smiling is often used to neutralize otherwise uncomfortable situations. That could be what it is.

[whatever]

Or she's just being a bitch. They're everywhere. Every country. Males included.


oh, and it's Noh Cahlinah ...not that 'North Carlinny' shit
We don't pronounce r's.

[Qinella]

[kimchi_pizza]

[RACETRAITOR]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[jaderedux]

Koreans will frequently laugh or chuckle when embarrassed or feel uncomfortable or put in uncomfortable situation. I still have trouble adjusting to it sometimes but I am getting better. When I first got here it drove me nuts. But my boss explained that it wasn't that they were laughing at me. They were nervous, uncomfortable or embarrassed. Take it with a grain of salt.

Jade

[whatever]

[jajdude]

[sojourner1]

Yes, it's probably true that chuckling is a way of neutralizing uncomfortable situations as Quenella and Jaderedux said. An uncomfortable situation that should had been neutralized by my sponsor, the school through communication. Of course, my stance is, the land lady knew she would be having a foreign English teacher moving in with having rented it to an English hagwon 2 blocks away and the hagwon knew it would be the first time a foreign teacher lived here. I will just keep showing respect and roll with the punches and bear with all the stares I am getting being a first of a kind in this villa style neighborhood.

As Quinella said, it's true if you�re slightly late on your bills in America, they turn your utilities off, regardless of the reason. Of course, the foreign expat communities in America do look after their new immigrant members in support of getting them set up and teaching them how to live there. Here you�re on your own with little or no support of that sort which is why many foreign teachers post online at Daves and other ESL sites. If you were a non-English speaker immigrating to America all by yourself with none of your people to meet upon arrival, you would be in for a very difficult way to go, even more so than non-Korean speaking foreigners coming into Korea such as myself. That's what makes foreign expat communities so tight knit in certain American city neighborhoods as is the case for San Francisco's China town and New York's Seoul Street.

That�s my honest 2 cents.

[tomato]

민병철. [1993] 2002. Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans: Cultural and behavioral diferences between Koreans and Americans. Seoul: BCM Media, Inc.: 75.

[danby_ll]

My boyfriend is Korean, and he always laughs when I try to talk to him seriously about something he does that bothers me. It used to frustrate me so much. I would ask him why he was laughing because it's not funny, and he always said he didn't know, he just felt uncomfortable.

[mateomiguel]

I knew a girl once, the secretary at my first hagwan, who laughed to express every single emotion she had. She laughed when she was happy, uncomfortable, angry, sad (that was funny!), or maybe even hungry. I dunno, I never asked her about that one.

I think laughing for Koreans means, "Oh my god I'm having an emotion and I can't hold it in anymore this is so embarrassing!"

[stevemcgarrett]

whatever:

I just want to inform you that it is very difficult to concentrate on reading your posts these days. Dang a dang, blue moon.