In you haven’t read it yet, check out Korea Beat’s translation of a piece of brilliant undercover reporting by the Weekly Chosun on Itaewon’s foreigner-only bars.
(HT to GI Korea)
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22 Comments
“brilliant undercover reporting”?
Tongue in cheek I am hoping. While far from brilliant or even being original, it made for an interesting read.
That story has lot of comments on koreabeat already. Its a pretty interesting read.
My question is is the point of the this article to see how foreign-only juicy bars are a place where drunk men try to grope girls, the girls are there because they want to make a lot of money fast, and most of the girls really hate the job and the men who come in there? How is this any different from Korean friendly room salons and girly norae bangs?
Answer:
-It’s about FOREIGNERS being drunk and trying to grope Kgirls.
-It’s about Itaewon: a place that represents, along with Hongdae, a seediness and “immorality” of foreigners.
there are articles about korean room salons, too. don’t get so paranoid that everything is about foreigners.
Yes, but making it seem as Itaewon and Hongdae are especially seedy and foreigner dirty, as well as specially pointing out foreigner-only juicy bars as something seedy- more so than the thousands upon thousands of places that cater to Korean men- is frickin’ annoying!
perhaps he was irish.
#5,
If the Koreans who commented on this article at Naver can be of any representation of the Korean people, most Koreans are concerned about the problem of prostitution and the prostitutes, though there were a few comments about foreigners as well. If this article was on room salons catering to Korean men, I’m pretty sure there would be quite a few comments about Korean men too.
Also, if you try doing a search on “room salon” at news.naver.com, you get 4,957 hits.
Personally, this is something that I wouldn’t mind. Like you said, there are tons of these places that caters to Korean men, so why can’t the foreign men who reside in Korea get their share of some R&R?
Good find. Reads like a Ryu Murakami novel (In The Miso Soup).
6: “He seemed pretty drunk already and was dancing as if nobody was watching.”
I wonder if he also loves as if he’s never been hurt.
“The tall one with the perm. She sometimes makes seven million a night. Split with the bar thats 3.5, right. She’s the most famous one here.” By ‘famous’ she meant that she is known by the customers and very popular.”
Hmm…3.5 million on a good night. Let’s see, a bad night is 2 million…she works 4 days a week…4 x 2.0 mil = 8 mil/week; 8 x 4 weeks = 32 mil/month (conservative); 12 x 32 mil= 384 million a year.
Yep, that makes sense. Nothing sensational here. The numbers add up.
Next, is she going to fly to the US and get to the bottom of this fishy Hines Ward story?
Here is the legacy of the Roh Moo Hyun nationalistic /xenophobic/juche loving era.
Blatantly racist idiots and their anti-wayguk yellow journalism to the point of being a canard. There isn’t one person here that doesn’t know that this sort of ‘night culture’ goes on in Korea…or Japan…or (add your favorite Asian country here).
What she should really write a story about is why the writer thinks in 2008 we haven’t heard these seedy foreigner/Korean men stories a million times over. I’m sure she’s ready for that Pulitzer Prize winning expose on the link between cigarettes and lung cancer.
Besides my stupid sarcasm…why doesn’t she do a story on KEVIN!!! Now, I’ll read that trash journalism.
Now that I thought about it a little more, I think that the purpose of the article was to mock dumbass whiteys.
Seriously…who the hell would pay 7 mil at that kind of place. As a commenter noted over at Korea Beat, that kind of cake would get you a night of nights in pretty much any random Seoul neighborhood. Dumb foreigners indeed.
#10 exactly!
Maybe her next expose will be to inform us foreign teachers that Steve Schertzer is a mental nutcase who should be removed from Korea!
Or she could go for the really secret underworld of Korean sidewalk motorcyclists/scooterists!
I don’t know if many know this, but the concept of the “Juicey Bar” also exists here in the states. A friend of mine took me to this one bar in a more seedier parts of central Orange County and it was a sports bar catering to mostly middle aged, blue collar men.
Same concept. You buy 20 something, scantily clad girls drinks (including alchy and non-alchy) and they talk to you, a little fondling to boot. It’s not for me, I only went twice during the Laker’s playoffs. It was A LOT cheaper though. Jack & Coke was like $5 and you tip them whatever you want. Obviously the bigger tippers get more time with the gals.
I’m not saying it’s just as wide spread in the U.S. as it is in Korea, I’m not exactly a connoisseur of the stuff.
I have to agree with some of the commentors here that the article does seem to dive a little too much into the physical description of the foreigners a bit too much. Gives it the feeling that foreigners are being profiled in a sense.
Can’t imagine that being a good feeling if you are one of the said foreigners.
I have to agree with some of the commentors here that the article does seem to dive a little too much into the physical description of the foreigners a bit too much. Gives it the feeling that foreigners are being profiled in a sense.
Can’t imagine that being a good feeling if you are one of the said foreigners.
Since we’re discussing “foreigners-only” establishments here, in order for the expat to play his hackneyed nationalism/xenophobia/racism card, he imagines evidence of such, where in fact there is none, in the article itself, which is supposed to be yet another “blatantly racist and anti-waeguk” example of yellow journalism.
I, actually having read the “undercover” article, and noting the fact that it was written by a woman, realize that the central issue is more about sexism (from the feminist perspective) than anything else.
“I, actually having read the “undercover” article, and noting the fact that it was written by a woman, realize that the central issue is more about sexism (from the feminist perspective) than anything else.”
I’m curious though. Do Korean news journals do similar exposes of room salons and room bangs that cater primarily to non-Koreans?
I’m curious though. Do Korean news journals do similar exposes of room salons and room bangs that cater primarily to non-Koreans?
Not just news journals but dramatically depicted in Korean movies as well. Kim Ki Duk’s “Bad Boy” is a prime example.
“Bad Guy” not “Bad Boy”, typo.
Bingo. Yet another sensationalist story with dubious details.
“Here is the legacy of the Roh Moo Hyun nationalistic /xenophobic/juche loving era.”
I was here during the KYS era. It was more close minded than it is now. These kind of stories in the media defy the ideological flavor of whatever government is in power. Actually, I’d have to say that racism/ethnocentricism - at least from the perspective of a guy with a Korean wife and kid - has improved over the last ten years. Roh was an inept president, but he sure as hell didn’t invent media hatred of foreigners.
GBI,
Would agree, but today’s young reporters are products of an education system during a “nationalistic /xenophobic/juche loving era” Look at the Korean military cadets story here: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....22029.html
#19,
It’s very likely that these girls are lying to one another in order to discourage the competition.