Police in Chuncheon arrested a 32-year-old American English teacher Saturday for beating a taxi driver. According to the report in the Gangwon Ilbo, the teacher, an English instructor at a language school at a local college, is accused of getting in a taxi in the wee hours of Saturday morning and striking the driver in the face and the side. Didn’t tell the driver where he wanted to go or anything. Just started beating him. For no reason. Or so says the report.
The teacher was supposedly drunk at the time.
And to think that with the closing of Camp Page, taxi drivers in Chuncheon had probably thought it was safe to come out.
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Twenty bucks says that what happened was this guy got in the taxi, the taxi driver told him he doesn’t take foreigners, and the guy got pissed off.
Or the cabbie didn’t say anything, crossed his arms his chest, turned his head away and proceeded to wait the foreigner out. Speaking from experience here
Except I just said a few nasty things then left the cab with the door open… He wasn’t happy to have to get out and close the door… What can I say? I must be mean…
It’s a symptom of America’s cultural imperialism, as noted by famed director Lee Jun-ik.
The beating of taxi drivers by Americans is happening all over the world.
Fifty bucks say the taxi driver told him he wasn’t going where the guy wanted to go, and although this happens to Koreans late at night too, the foreigner thought he was being discriminated against and freaked.
Seriously dda? He just wouldn’t go? Wow…I get occasional nastiness, i.e. a minority of drivers refusing to say a word, looking at me with utter hatred, etc, but never has anyone refused to take me on account of my foreignness.
When that happens, take out your cell phone and take a picture of the license on the dashboard. If that doesn’t get the cab moving, get out and take a picture of his license plate. File a complaint with the Korean Tourism Organization.
Montclaire: I’ve had worse than that. Since I don’t drive, I used cabs in Seoul as my own car, really, and I have quite a mileage in them, over 11 years. And to be fair, I’ve had loads of very nice taxi drivers, who were nice to me on the same basis others were nasty: the fact I am a foreigner – okay I am sure some were nice anyway, but anyway they went the extra mile because of my being foreign.
I don’t let it bug me anymore – but it sure took me a long time to get to this point. Once a driver refused to take money from my hands. He refused to speak either [although he *could* speak, as his quite impolite "어디?" when I climbed into the cab proved] and was pointing to the armrest between seats, indicating that I was to put the money there. I left without paying, his loss, not mine…
I used to carry the report postcards issued by KTO in the late 90s, and had to use them a few times – back then it was a 30,000 won fine at least, if memory serves. Compare with Singapore where there’s a court especially for visitors, with judicial decisions within 24 hours – and, in the case of cabbies, more often than not, they lose their license… Before [and after] that, I just wrote down the licenses numbers [registration license and cabbie id] and play it from there; sometimes things got better, sometimes worse. I’ve never had to beat up a cabbie, but a few times it was close. However, I knew how it would end – having been in and out of police stations for being attacked, I had a pretty accurate idea what attacking someone would do.
After my experience in a fender bender with a taxi driver, I’ll never believe what a taxi driver says officially again.
Taxi drivers as individuals may be alright–this one admitted to me that his car had been barely nicked, that he was at least partly to blame, and that no one had been hurt at all . . . at midnight my wife got phone calls from the driver claiming millions of won in damage on the car and being mostly paralyzed (yet he wanted to settle without insurance for “just” a few million). Was like dealing with the mafia. Too bad for him they took the car to a friend of ours to get fixed (120,000 won), and the insurance company determined it to be 60% his fault. If I had done as he had (faked injuries) he would have had to pay me a bit, or so they told me at the hospital.
Unless it’s on film you’ll never know what happened–my guess is the teacher was drunk, took a wild swing for some reason at the taxi driver, who then realized that a self inflicted wound would entitle him to some blood money.
First time I got off the plane here, my wife (then gf) and I hopped in a cab at Incheon only to be refused service because we weren’t going far enough. We had to walk way down the line to find a cab to take us, and even so he overcharged us and made us wait 20 minutes before he left (with our stuff locked in his trunk). Welcome to Korea!
Beating taxi drivers: Not just a USFK thing
Right. Like Korea’s got some kind of special monopoly on irate, unscrupulous, and hostile for no good reason cabbies. Except, of course, you’ll hardly hear of foreigners or tourist beating up cabbies here in NYC.
Only in Korea would expat-thugs, fresh off a plane, would going around beating up cabbies or whatnot clearly with no fear or forethought about the local laws or consequences of prosecution in a foreign nation. Well I guess you guys aren’t called barbarians for nothing.
Sadly, assaults on taxi drivers do happen around the world, for a variety of reasons or motivations. In some cases, maybe the driver provokes it; in other cases, it’s premeditated by the passenger. It’s a tough job, especially when these guys (or even in some cases gals) are out late at night, driving alone.
what? expats trying to excuse expat behavior? of course! anytime it involves a drunk expat and a korean, it’s the koreans fault! loafing, nasty, violent, drunk…yep, that’s the expat.
Oh, come off it. Taxi drivers have dangerous jobs, and are routinely assaulted in more places than just South Korea, and by more people than just expats. Making hasty generalizations based solely on your own distate for expats in Korea does nothing but highlight that prejudice.
“Making hasty generalizations based solely on your own distate for expats in Korea does nothing but highlight that prejudice.”
Following that advice would put pawi and bluejives out of business on this blog. Both tend to start from fixed conclusions and mould facts to fit them.
Pawi, I couldn’t care less what Bluejives says about expats…water off a duck’s back at this point. What got me was this comment:
“Like Korea’s got some kind of special monopoly on irate, unscrupulous, and hostile for no good reason cabbies.”
What a way to knock a whole class of people! It’s a fair bet that the majority of assaults on taxi drivers are through no fault of the driver. Yes, there are some unsurly or unscrupulous taxi drivers in the world, but overall, this was an unfair knock at people who put up with a lot of crap—and 12-hour days to boot in many places—to make (in many cases) at best only a half-decent living.
Actually, I have no idea what Bluejives was saying. But in his zeal to show that Koreans are no different from anyone else (which is fair), he ends up saying that all taxi drivers are undesirable, Korean or otherwise (which is unfair).
Making hasty generalizations….
My mistake. You know, I keep failing to notice that invisible signpost that surely must be around here somewhere that says it’s OK to generalize to one’s heart’s content about all those soju-drinking, anbang-going, hork-spitting, taeguk-waving, candlelight vigil holding, the many-awesome-wonders-of-kimchi hyping, constantly fan-death dying, unfathomable Koreans but an expat is entitled to a benefit of the doubt.
I’d like to think that we had some kind of a tacit, gentlemen’s understanding about this: expats can generalize about Koreans all they want and I’ll happily return the favor. Unless, of course, one of me versus like a whole truckload of the angry expat commiseriat is somehow turning out to be “unfair”.
And this is what? Like the umpteenth time we’re hearing about a cabbie assaulted by a waeguk incident? Shit, if I were a driving a cab there, I’d have a good mind to start carrying an iron pipe or a baseball bat or something while I’m on my shift.
Dda, cabs still have those “intercourse discomfort” complaint cards in the back seat?
Taxi drivers get assaulted all the time. My friend invented those cigarette pack-sized camera/flash drive that takes and stores a picture every second or two (taxi cameras). His device has been so successful in solving such crimes that lots of companies now produce their own version of it. Some cities, like New York, have made these devices mandatory in taxis.
“camera/flash drive that takes and stores”…Spot the mistakes and win a prize.
More strawmen from bluejives. Pawi and you misread the thrust of the Marmot’s post and certainly the thread, which contained only one comment that could be construed as a defence of this stupid behavior.
I’d venture that it could probably be argued that incidents like these do happen all over the world but (perhaps — I don’t know) only in Korea’s climate of exaggerated suspicion of foreigners do they become national news.
As we’ve seen in past such incidents, there is also the perennial problem in Korea of media that don’t try to get the other side of the story or the context, not that these will make hitting a cabbie right.
slim, they should make those taxi cameras mandatory in Korea, too. It would provide unbiased evidence of how these incidents occur and make taxi drivers hesitant to be rude to foreign customers. A Korean company in Daejon is one of the biggest producer of such devices, so I’m sure the government could put a nationalistic spin on this to ensure their acceptance by taxi drivers and the general public…Well, I’m not so sure about the taxi drivers. I’ve seen representatives of the taxi drivers’s union on TV protest the government’s plans to pass a law that would have made it mandatory to drive with the headlights turned on during the day. Their argument against the law: it would drain the battery.
(I swear, I couldn’t make something like that up).
Anyone else thinks it’s funny that bluejives is trying to get in the pants of JAPs now? The hypocrisy level just keeps on rising.
Someguy (19/22): Cameras. I was thinking exactly the same thing. At least some buses in Korea already use them (at least, videocams; not ones that take still shots), as there was an ajeossi horribly beating up a bus driver recently, all caught on tape.
As of now, I would never, ever recommend taking any taxi from the airport at inchon. I have had too many problems with the drivers there. I take the shuttles only.
I also wish the airport authorities would prevent some of these guys from going up to disimbarking passengers inside the airport and asking if they need a cab — all before they get a chance to make it to the shuttle bus ticket counter.
Almost all other cab drivers I’ve used in Seoul and elsewhere have been the best decent, regular guys who have made my trips shorter and pleasant.
The bus service is excellent from Incheon, anyhow.
How much must it cost just to get off the friggin’ island, let alone to civilization?
Check this, sewing. The company was founded by engineers that worked on the Canadarm 2 (on the International Space Station).
http://www.verifeye.com/produc.....scs-q.html
My friend is one of the passengers in the first picture.
There are other companies, too….
I know, but none of them have one of my friends on their payroll.
I must confess I was confused by Bluejives’ comment as well. The post doesn’t defend such behavior at all. All it does is express my surprise that the assailant in this case was an English teacher rather than a GI, the usual suspect in a case involving a foreigner and a taxi. Heck, I didn’t even make any snide remarks like, “The report failed to mention whether the assailant sleeps with Korean women.”
Still, let’s keep in mind what a terrible reputation taxi-drivers have with the Korean public. I’ll bet the average Korean has more bad experiences with them than we foreigners do.
My favourite taxi driver story comes from a city in North America, where the average fare between the airport and the city centre is about $25 CDN. It’s a metered fare, the same regardless of # of passengers. So the driver picks up 3 foreign businessmen downtown and takes them to the airport. When he starts, he tells them it’s $100 flat per person. They paid, too.
So I’ll concede that there are both good and bad taxi drivers everywhere!
montclaire, most of the bad reputation that taxi drivers get comes from the ones who opperate illegally.
For the record, the guy I mentioned in 33 did get caught. The passengers discovered they’d been ripped off a couple of minutes after stepping out of the cab.
Montclaire: no, the guys operating legally are just as guilty. Cabbies on their own [개인택시] are usually friendlier – except some of those who did time courtesy of the equivalent of the Department of Corrections], and there’s quite a bunch of them there – but those employed by cab companies usually don’t give a flying foock.
I agree with a comment above mentioning the illegals in the arrival lobby – I hate it when they come to me up close and whisper “You need taekshi?”. Last time I answered “Let’s ask the policeman over there whether you’re legal”. He wasn’t pleased…
I just try to look like I know what I’m doing (which is what I am doing…looking for the counter to buy bus tickets) and steer clear of them.
How much is the fare from Incheon Airport to downtown Seoul, anyhow? It must be prohibitively expensive! Just to get off the island has to cost a pretty penny, not to mention the expressway toll.
When I worked for a Dutch company in Seoul, I used to take a cab to ICN, and the KAL limousine bus on my way back. The cab fare set you back around 45,000 won – including the toll gate fee for the bridge.
Wow, that’s actually less than I was imagining. Still more than I’d be willing to pay, though.
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[...] Having left roughing up taxi drivers to the English teachers, USFK is apparently concentrating its effort on wreaking havoc on Korea’s city bus system. [...]