For a truly riotous/absolutely horrifying look at some of the proud Westerners that have served as representatives of Occidental civilization here in the Republic of Korea, you are encouraged — no, make that ordered — to check out Aaron’s post on the open air nuthouse at Idiot’s Collective. The post dates from August, but one is better late than never, especially with a gem like this. Here’s a taste of what you’re in for:
First, there was “Kiwi Bill” who preceded me by a few years at my present workplace. While eating lunch with co-workers at the local KFC, he would point to the discarded chicken bones on their plates and ask,
“You finished with that?”
If they said yes, he’d take the bones and proceed to lick and/or chew them clean.
Bill ran tabs all over town, vomited on a prostitute in the Itaewon district of Seoul (but, c’mon, who hasn’t?), and felt that the ‘Korean Experience’ could only be truly felt by urinating in public, which from my observation of drunken Korean businessmen may in fact be true.
And there’s the story of how he came to work at ENI (where I now work): Evidently, he finished a contract at another school, got his severance pay, then passed out in a subway station after a night (or three) of drinking. When he woke up, all the money - about $1,500 - was gone, thus sending him on a job hunt as he now had no money with which to get back home to New Zealand.
That, folks, is only the beginning. And this quote by Aaron is pure gold:
No wonder Koreans are generally friendly to foreigners…until we want to date their daughters.
At the end of the post are some photos from the Seoul subway system that are absolutely hilarious.
23 Comments
sounds like the old classic freaky waygook contest from dave’s esl.
I always tell my Korean friends: Don’t think that the foreigners that you meet/see in Korea are like the people you’d meet/see overseas! I think many (western) foreigners who travel to Korea are somewhat unusual characters (myself included). God knows I’ve met many of them when I go there. Unfortunately, for some westerners, Korea is still like the “wild west” where they think anything goes (not that the wording or enforcement of certain employment contracts would make one think anything else!)
hehe… well shiver me timbers!!?? Thats MY STORY!! I wrote that on Daves. AND I worked with that guy. Geez, it was MY chicken but my name doesn’t even get a mention.
/sigh
Coincidentally enough, I was just watching Casablanca (You know, Humphrey Bogart, Americans in WW2-era Morocco, “Here’s looking at you, kid”). I tuned in right at the part where some French general is asking Humphrey Bogart why he won’t go back to America even though there have been opportunities. The general says something like this:
“Why don’t you go back? Did you run off with the preacher’s daughter? Or was it the Senator’s wife? I like to think you killed somebody. That would be more romantic.”
It gave me the impression that back then expats were mostly believed to be fugitives, or at least had some horrible incident back home that they don’t want to return to. Kind of similar to the whole thing about men running away to join the French Foreign Legion. Think it still holds water today?
Also, I knew a female American English teacher in China from a chat room who ran away at the altar all the way to China. She’d come in and cry about how lonely she was.
Hell, I’d like to see an example of an expat *without* some chip on his shoulder or some horrible secret. Like The Onion says, 100% of Americans lead double lives…
Asia by Blog
Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Monday and Thursday, providing links to Asian blogs and their views on the news in this fascinating region. Previous editions can be found here.
This edition contains Chinese condoms, sexless Singapor…
i was going to say… most koreans i know can clean a chicken bone as good as i can.
You can also visit the sites about gmntn
- Tons of interesdting stuff!!!
Stupid foreigner tricks BONANZA!
Stupid foreigner trick…
Audio Sharing
Stupid foreigner trick…
Play Keno
Stupid foreigner trick…
Nomad Jukebox Zen MP3 Player
Stupid foreigner trick…
Nomad Jukebox Zen MP3 Player
Stupid foreigner trick…
Compaq MP3 Player
Stupid foreigner trick…
Firehouse
Stupid foreigner trick…
Cranberries
Stupid foreigner trick…
Built-in Natural Gas Burners
Stupid foreigner trick…
Tomas N’evergreen
Stupid foreigner trick…
Grill Rotisseries
Stupid foreigner trick…
Dean Martin
Stupid foreigner trick…
alaska cruise tours
Stupid foreigner trick…
lrgst nln gmblng st
You are invited to take a look at some relevant information about st gmblng rlt.cm
loans
You may find it interesting to visit some relevant pages on home loans mortgage rates
damsels bound gagged tied up
Stupid foreigner trick…