Got this notice today from the friendly people at the Itaewon 2-dong Office:
Like their flagrant disregard for Korea’s drug laws wasn’t enough. They’ve got no concern for sanitation regulations, either!
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When in Rome…
Aren’t they cute?
While they are at it… Who’s responsible for clearing out all the prostitutes?
Foreigners…please do your part to keep Korea sparkling, OK?
Yeah, ok… Reminds me of my first landlady in Ulsan. She used to bitch at me about trash in front of the house that was in improper bags (shopping bags). She actually detained me one day while I was heading to work, so she could rip open the bags to scream at me. Too bad for her, it was loaded with newspapers (all in Korean) and dirty diapers (I didn’t have any babies, not do I wear diapers).
It is just another case of blame the foreigner. I can’t even count how many pieces of furniture sat outside of my last place for MORE THAN A YEAR because they didn’t have the little permit sticker on them. And guess what? I was the only foreigner in that area, and it was not I who chucked the stuff.
Maybe instead of finger-pointing, the ‘head officer’ shoudl tell everyone to pack trash properly. Maybe one or two Koreans will actually follow the rules, but I doubt it.
How sweet!
I love exclamation marks too!
Actually, I wish they’d do this better in Japan. Just like Korea, Japan has what Americans would say are ‘weird’ rules for garbage. I’ve got something like 10 different types of garbage to sort out. At least in my case, I speak Japanese well enough to read the novel sized information packet they give you at city hall when you register, but the same can not be said for everyone.
A nice explanation for foreigners here about things like the difference between burnable and non-burnable garbage is not, ‘is it safe to burn this and let all the chemicals into the air or not’, but in fact ‘how high does the temp need to be in order for the item to catch on fire; because environment be damned, we’re burning this either way goddamnit!’ That was a tough one of me to grasp at first, leaving me with mountains of non-burnable trash at home thinking, ‘this can’t be burnt, it will release all kids of chemicals into the atmosphere’ since they only pick that stuff up once every other week.
If they can manage to do it without random foreigner bashing, (”…some foreigners do not…”) it could actually be a really helpful pamphlet. Singling the foreigners out as the problem isn’t cool though.
Obviously whoever wrote this is an ESL student. It would have been better if he had left out the word “foreigner”. Koreans need not only to learn English, but they also need to learn the western concept of political correctness to not offend people from the west. Why don’t schools or hagwons teach that?
Tmc,
If you got shouted at for leaving trash in a grocery bag, you deserved it you (in this case-I draw no lines to your general intelligence) dumbass. At this point in time, Koreans sort their garbage, and every ajumma knows how to do it.
These are not ‘weird’ rules. Korea and Japan don’t have the space for (apparently) unlimited trash ejaculations a la North America.
This is Hugh speaking. This is NOT Koreans harassing and bothering and subjecting you to unusual treatment. This is your own ignorant jackass “I refuse to inquire, learn about, or follow, in any way” newbie credo.
Learn how to trash-wise do what Romans do, and STFU
“’ve got something like 10 different types of garbage to sort out.” Oh boohoo. It’s how it should be. Our nations are underdeveloped and primitive compared to this.
Uh…ok, 10 seconds after posting “Huh! who the hell wrote that?” I realized….the Marmot wrote that.
Heh heh. Uh….my mind is blank. I have mastered the Korean garbage system. Why the Korean fluent Marmot has not yet so far….
This is a great font. I love this font. And this, um, blog…template? Right?
That letter sounds like they just plugged and chugged the Korean version into Altavista Babelfish.
“Why don’t schools or hagwons teach that?”
Because that’s not going to be on the 수능 or the SAT.
Oh come on, give the poor guy at least a little credit. This guy is out of his depth as a bureaucrat, and is doing his best. Granted it’s not the best in the world, but he is doing what he can given the unusual situation of being assigned the Iteawon2-dong office.
@#8:
Please read #5. The problem with the letter isn’t the word “foreigner” itself but the presumption behind the statement “some foreigners…” Changing “foreigners” to “people” isn’t being PC. It’s being precise.
If I have any illusions about how well I write Korean, the person who put this brochure together probably did a better job with his or her English. It’s not Babelfish, because “편지를 씁니다” would come out as “write [a] letter,” rather then “send [a] letter,” which would have been “편지를 보냅니다” in the original.
That said, the “some foreigners” angle is troubling, although it is offset by the comment that most “foreigners” do it correctly. ‘Twould have been better just to write, “Hello! Welcome to our neighbourhood. Here’s how you should sort out your garbage.”
Hugh: I don’t think TMC was griping and complaining…his point was that he was accused of not sorting out his garbage, when in fact it was someone else who was being a bad neighbour.
(As the token Protestant here, I’d object to the title of the post, but seeing as I don’t object to all the other content and comments on this blog, that’d be pretty petty of me.)
Just for kicks, I plugged the last sentence of the introduction into Babelfish.
“그래서 올바른 쓰레기 배출방법을 알리고자 편지를 씁니다.”
Became:
“It informs a like that proper trash exhaust method and the letter to sleep it writes.”
Compare that to what was actually written:
“So I send this letter to inform you about the correct way of throwing trash.”
And suddenly the guy’s (or gal’s) translation skills don’t look so bad. Community relations skills are another matter….
My complaint is the garbage men have you ever seen these guys at 5 am on the trash run.
Most of the crap they spill all over the street stays there, they break bottles and glass is all over the road.
It’s pretty unprofessional.
And second the paying for a god damn garbage bag is pretty stupid too.
If trash is separated then any plastic bag should do.
Plastic is pretty much plastic. I may be wrong but the 20 gallon bags you buy on base are much better than the 100l bags on the Korean economy that start splitting and ripping once they are half full.
Hugh,
I don’t thing the illegal trash in #5 was his;
Sounds like he was being blamed for it, not that he said he was doing it.
I think the intention was good but (as so often is the case) the execution was bad.
Not all people know the garbage procedure here in Korea. I certainly didn’t….
Paying for the bags would seem to simply be another tax which is fine by me.
I remember when I first moved here and it took me a month to figure out that the trash was actually sorted and another month to figure out where to get the bags. A little slow on the uptake? Sure. I admit that. But, I doubt that I was the only one.
What is wrong with a person attempting to clarify things in a language that is not his own? I actually appreciate it. Are we solely freaking out about the error in “political correctness”… Yeesh… Big deal… Message was received… Good enough.
And paying for garbage bags… Sorry… Brilliant. Started implementing the same practice back home about 10 years ago now. Users pay. Great novelty.
Actually, the paying for the bags is not a tax — it’s an instrument to skim profits from the public. First, they pass a law saying you can only use an approved, official garbage bag. Then the approval gains an economic value — if you want to supply garbage bags, you’ve got to pay for that approval. So the official who exercises the approval right gets a payment, probably from various companies “competing” to gain approval. And the company supplying the approved bags usually turns out to be either owned by, or sharing profits with, the person who came up with the idea to have approved bags.
I saw Koreans using shopping bags to deposit cans, plastic and paper. The special bags were for items that couldn’t be sorted, or people were lazy and put all their trash in the approved garbage bag. This makes sense to me. If you don’t want to take a minute to sort, then pay, and also pay for taking out your garbage.
What? No one has learned about using trees as trash receptacles?
Get with the times, yo!
Give the guy a break. I think he was just pointing out that some foreigners don’t know the rules for throwing stuff away. They might not know they should have special bags, or should sort their trash. (Whether Koreans follow these systems is another matter).
Our local Nonghyup mart sells grocery bags that can be officially used for trash. 60ish won. They’re pretty tough, too.
I live in a complex with almost no foreigners, with us few married to locals. It ain’t us that fucks up the trash pile, and the pick-up guys dump ALL recycling together anyway.
“What? No one has learned about using trees as trash receptacles?”
@ Hugh,
Might I recommend that you learn some reading skills before ripping into me and referring to be as a “dumbass”? Who’s the dumbass. I SPECIFICALLY said that I was automatically blamed and she was proved wrong when I was DETAINED and she found it full of dirty diapers, and Korean language newspapers, neither of which I use, which was abundantly obvious to even her.
So, before jumping to conclusions, dish yourself out a nice bowl of STFU and call 1-800-ABC-DEFG.
Are you all sure that by “trash”, he/she’s not referring to the women in Itaewon?
Time to throw: 6 pm - 4 am. Do not put out trash during the day.
Where to throw: In front of your house.
Runs for cover.
South Korea came a long way.
Trash used to be thrown away without being separated or put in special bags. That, I clearly remember.
As a resource strapped country, this is pretty healthy for Korea.
Unfortunately, the outsider is blamed, because it’s frankly easy to do so, and Korea has had bad experiences with foreigners who came to take, take, take. China, Japan, Russia.
To be honest, this kind of complaint is filed often against 1st generation Koreans living in apt/condo complexes with majority Korean populations in the US.
Management would get someone to write in Korean, pleading for Koreans to stop throwing crap all together in the trash without bags, without separation of recyclables, or throwing away fridges, TVs, mattresses, furniture, by just leaving it by the trash container.
There is about 50% increase in better behavior after this. But, periodically, someone needs to be taught a lesson with fines or more frequent warnings. 2nd generation Koreans are more responsible. Although, without fines, and the refusal to pick up trash by the trash collectors, there would be more noncompliance.
Don’t badmouth the women of Itaewon. They fill a valuable need for you
“Koreans need not only to learn English, but they also need to learn the western concept of political correctness to not offend people from the west. Why don’t schools or hagwons teach that?”
cm, it has nothing to do with being politically correct. Pointing the finger at foreigners when Koreans also contribute to the problem is simply irresponsible. Still don’t get it? Just imagine what kind of message it is conveying.
don’t badmouth the women of itaewon. They fill a valuable need for you
- wjk
You’d like to think it’s the women of Itaewon, wouldn’t you.
But in this case the foreigners are giving.
So, the cost of the approval goes into an individual’s pockets and not to the “municipality” or “state”? I can understand a portion being skimmed profits that the bag manufacturers and license approval individuals receive. Especially, if individuals are approving their own companies and receiving the benefits. But, would the money received not be considered a user-pay tax… as it is an in-voluntary fee that is paid to the municipality to ensure a legal action.
I’m not a lawyer… just not sure if both taxes and skimmed profits are at work here. Regardless… supply side… it is still user pay.
Makes things harder to determine when public officials have their hands in so many pockets..
the should send out another notice
“some foreigners don’t hang out on hooker hill, or smoke weed, or fight with koreans, or have fake degrees….but some do”
BE CAREFUL IF YOU DO
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