Talking to Evan Ramstad of the WSJ, the producers of “The Shocking Reality About Relationships With Foreigners” expressed their bewilderment at the anger expressed by some foreigners at the segment (grab your pills!):
The producer responsible for the newsmagazine, who asked not to be named, said the story was pitched by an outside production firm, called All That Media, that’s one of seven MBC has been relying on for content since its journalists went on strike.
“When they presented the item, we thought it’s a kind of issue that had been talked about for a long time, Korean women dating American English teacher to learn English, and especially in Itaewon area,” he said, referring to a neighborhood that’s long been frequented by foreigners due in large part to its proximity to the U.S. army post.
“I don’t understand why foreigners get angry about the issue while they are living with their spouses and having no problem,” he said. “Foreigner-Korean women couples are living happily, but why are they angry over an issue that has nothing to do with them?”
He said the piece intended to portray “Korean women who are out of their sense and get involved in these kinds of affairs.”
“We need to be awakened and try to change this culture,” he said. “We had no intention to disparage foreigners. We wouldn’t do a report about foreigner-Korean women couples who are living without any problem.”
See? They didn’t mean to demean foreigners. They meant to portray “Korean women who are out of their sense and get involved in these kinds of affairs.” They’ve actually done you guys a favor, helping you avoid these “women who are out of their sense.” As a resident of the Itaewon area, and therefor especially at risk of encountering such senseless women, I thank you.
Apparently, however, not all the higher-ups at MBC have appreciated “Sesangbogi Sisigakgak”‘s public service:
The producer said one of MBC’s senior managers conveyed a complaint about the piece from a couple he knew in which the husband is American and wife is Korean. “His American friend got angry about the report,” the producer said. “I don’t understand why he would get angry if it’s not something he was involved in.”
I guess he might understand the anger better if somebody like FOX or the Daily Mail ran a similarly produced piece about “The Shocking Truth about Korean Students Who Shoot Up American Universities.”
Anyway, I said we shouldn’t expect much. And we didn’t get much, the comedic value not withstanding. Now that the WSJ—or at least its blog—has mentioned it, I wouldn’t count out a statement by MBC, but would caution that nobody should get their hopes up—I’ve heard/read far worse directed at joseonjok and other non-Western foreigners with little in the way of reflection (or bitching from Western expats, for that matter) besides the brief window following the election of Rep. Jasmine Lee to the National Assembly.
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
me thinks a white man can only whisper about mass murderers.
k man = 2
white man = 10567
Wrong again! There are at least 3, are you Korean?
wow! three instead of two? the koreans are catching arent they?
catching up.
“Korean women dating American English teacher to learn English, and especially in Itaewon area…”
My god…is this why Korean women flock to Itaewon? To learn English. Glad that is cleared up.
You may have a point. That ignorant racist Norwegian fool even took over the record for spree killing from 우범곤.
So, if (as suggested above) a documentary was made portraying Koreans as uniquely prone to violence, that would be inaccurate, unfair and insulting, right? Focussing on the Virginia Tech massacre etc., interviewing Korean students about how easy it is to get a gun in the US and concluding that the increasing number of Korean students who want to study in the US represents a problem that needs to be dealt with…
It’s just what you’d expect: More Bull Crap.
Not only that, i’ll tell you why: it’s ‘cos they want to savour the taste of wilderness. The forbidden fruit of regressing to primitive, sensous life with the hairy cavemen from more technologically backward, but more animalistic, societies. Not unlike all the Montreal chicks boarding on Air Coucoune to go have fun with the black studs down in Martinique.
Now feel free to elaborate on why Korean 동성애자 are attracted to your Neanderthal type
I think many people find those of other backgrounds attractive. This is probably even more true for homogeneous cultures, which is why foreigner Joe is often described as Tom Cruise or Kevin Costner.
i love them MBCers: ‘what’s all the fuss i just said korean women are foreigners whores and race-betrayers? you gotta understand our culture, korean women hanging around the long-noser are used to being called that. it’s not controversial!’
“it’s ‘cos they want to savour the taste of wilderness”
Are we talking about Itaewon? These days it is so gentrified, yuppified and pussified I refuse to even go there…not to mention if I don’t d
ress fashionable enough some places might refuse me entry. If I was still looking for “wild” Itaewon would be one of the last places I would go to in Seoul these days.
Itaewon has changed a lot in the last few years. Generally it’s improved with better and more varied restaurants and better shopping options. I don’t think the place is that ‘wild’ at all and anyone who does must gave grown up in a very boring environment.
I’ve actually seen a hell of a lot more wildness and violence in Hongdae. Almost all of it carried out by young Koreans or gyopos. Young male gyopos tend to be the worst offenders for mischief in that area. Perhaps MBC should do a report on Korean mischief in Hongdae? I’ve seen plenty of Koreans kissing and holding hands in Hongdae, such shameful behaviour should be brought to the attention of the public!
Personally though I’d rather see people kissing and hugging in public than people punching each other in the face, beating up their girlfriends or puking their guts out on the street. The race of the individuals involved is irrelevant unless you’re a racist turd like the idiots at MBC.
Racism and xenophobia in Korea are going to really mess up any dreams of Korea ever becoming a hub of anything. There are idiotic people in every country, but the shame is not that a few individual Korean hold these backwards and ignorant views, but rather the tools at MBC and other Korean institutions see nothing wrong with the situation.
There are so many examples of this shameful behaviour that it’s quite astonishing. Black face routines, Osama Bin Laden adverts for newspapers, weird stories about jews, Nazi bars, racist cartoons in the newspapers, all the ‘foreigners have AIDS’ things, the anti American propaganda, racist textbooks, anti Japanese indoctrination of children in the education system. It’s not just a few idiots (every country has those), it’s the national media here.
Look how much damage that Poland and Ukraine (insignificant countries usually) are doing to their reputations with their loud racist bigots at the warm up training sessions to the Euro 2012. Racist skinheads making monkey noises at black players does not make you look like a civilised country. Racist and offensive items in the media make your country look even worse. For all the effort that is being put into branding Korea, they should realise it only takes one incident like this to undo months of work trying to foster a positive image. They can spend millions of dollars advertising about ‘sparkling’ this and ‘dynamic’ that, and hub whatever and it can all get mucked up very quickly by idiots in the media.
We should all remember MBC have a long history of this kind of behaviour.
Aaah, yes… thanks for reminder #76 as to why I’m glad I left Korea.
BTW—weather is gorgeous in Colorado today. Maybe some of you evil foreign devils should come back stateside and do a job hunt?
Members of the offended group tend to bellow the loudest, don’t they? Joseonjok don’t need help from English-speaking Westerners because they already do an adequate job of clueing in other Joseonjok. I bought a Korean-language book called “Korean Dream” from a Yanbian bookstore and showed it to a Joseonjok friend, who said, “I feel like crying when I read stories about the hardships faced by Joseonjok in Korea.”
No i was talking about interracial (Asian/whitey) relationships in general. It was a half-hearted attempt at humour, unfortunately i somewhat convinced myself i’m a talented comedian while many times, when i re-read myself, it just sounds inane and downright offensive.
Anyway you’re totally right, Itaewon is a very mild place and as i wrote once, nightlife in Korea tend to be, generally speaking, bland, at least comparing to Taipei or Tokyo or let alone Guangzhou. Being a conservative guy i totally appreciate it this way though.
I do recall one fun night with my ex, getting totally smashed at the slimelight, she ended up bugging, in street in front of the venue, some Aussie guys for x: hilarious times.
You’re right about the gentrification, it’s common everywhere. for specifically this reason i tend in my town to hang out in immigrant-owned places: tasty food, cheap drinks and relaxed atmosphere.
I don’t know how it changed since 2010 but back then it looked like the usual selection of hipster trash clothing and accessories stores
Almost all MBC journalists are currently on strike (and not for better wages/benefits) – this shit was produced by an outside company.
‘“Korean Dream” from a Yanbian bookstore and showed it to a Joseonjok friend, who said, “I feel like crying when I read stories about the hardships faced by Joseonjok in Korea.”’
they’re chinese who speak korean. their loyalty is with chinese people. korea shouldn’t allow them in. and i’m am sure a mexican here in the states could write the same book.
‘Racism and xenophobia in Korea are going to really mess up any dreams of Korea ever becoming a hub of anything. ‘
that didn’t stop britain, did it? britain is not only a bastion of racism, it’s a bastion of looted goods. talk about cultural theft! let’s remember what we are talking about here; a television show that some view as racist. world ain’t gonna do shit to korea.
btw, remember that korean who was set on fire by russian skinheads? what did the world do to russia and it’s racism?
btw, the mbc art department is second to none. they often produce eye candy. i’m currently watching ‘dong yi’. it’s from lee byong hun so that means it’s just another version of ‘daejanggum’ but i like it anyway.
mbc manse!!
pawi: did you see 돈의 맛? i heard it’s marvelously trashy and fun !
(and no i don’t think you’re a moron, ove the way you grate the nerves of many posters here, also you should make an exhibit with your gravatars)
I can’t sleep, I hate insomnia!
I like the food shopping in Itaewon these days. What’s is not to like about lamb chops? They’re bloody delicious. You can get all sorts of herbs, spices and ingredients now that you never could in the past, I like that. I’m not a big eater, but I’m a very fussy eater.
@16 – The buck has to stop somewhere, and in most cases it’s with the management. If the management and owners of MBC think it is fit to encourage bigoted views, then the answer is simple. As it’s a commercial channel, I’ll simply boycott any product that is advertised on that channel until they issue a full and frank apology for their lack of judgement.
thanks, yangachi. i’m sure you understand why i grate these guys. beleive it or not, sometimes i worry that you will be offended because you are a white guy but i think you understand it all. somebody gotta grate these yahoos in korea to remind them they’re human too.
‘ton e mat’? never heard of it but i will look into it. did you see ‘war of arrows’?
man! fantastic action movie and available at netflix. check it out, yangachi. have a good day, my friend.
Pawi, lots of non white footie fans who are Britons aren’t going to Poland or Ukraine because of being afraid of being assaulted by skinhead louts. Lots of unsold tickets to the Euros this year. I know many Korean people who won’t go to Russia because of their fears about being assaulted for being Asian. As much as you like to insult the British, you are not in any danger there by being from an Asian heritage. British people are on the whole quite civilised, you should visit some time, you might be suprised.
You might get the odd idiot saying some stupid stuff, but I get that here too. ‘Ohh, you can use chopsticks!’ is patronising to say the least.
I certainly wouldn’t say that the British are racist, there are some racist idiots (of course, every country has scum) but they’re a tiny minority of the population.
Just because some Koreans are scummy racist it doesn’t mean I won’t buy any Korean products. I simply won’t buy any products that are advertised on MBC, it’s a simple decision to make. The biggest problem is that I don’t watch TV anyway, so I’ll have to rely on others to inform me about what products I need to avoid.
In this case, it really is the management. But a lot of people here tends to dissolve the borders of various different segments of the South Korean society, and it eventually just becomes ‘Ah, these fucking Koreans’.
Funny. I get that all the time in America.
Yes you’re oh so civilised, particularly when you spend your holidays in Cyprus, Greece and Spain. Now i really don’t wanna beat a dead horse but you guys mostly come across as a bunch of COWARDS who take advantage of poorer countries like Spain, Greece and Croatia to act like fuckin’ ANIMALS. Disrespect for the locals, fuckin’ in public, aggressions 10 vs. 1, you name it, you got it.
If you wanna get respected a little, maybe you could try to rein in your chav trash a little bit more. Don’t worry though, the tsunami of kaka coming out of the Eurozone soon will submerge you too, so adios holidays in Benidorm with that 14%+ interest rate Argos credit card and that dole money.
By the way your cousins, the Germans, make routinely fun of you as their poor, ignorant, trailer park relatives.
Thanks God you don’t have the money to vacation in my country (rich Asians and Arabs only are welcome here, thank you)
You know i never liked, believe it or not, the shankin’ AS Roma shitbags who stab your fans on a regular basis, but on the other hand it is about time you guys learn a fuckin’ lesson. I heard you tried to pull a few years ago the same stunts in the French island of Corse, with even more disastrous results. I hope, for your own well-being, you won’t try to bring your shit to Poland, big, tough En-ger-land warriors.
And speaking of Poland, it is really telling of that silly, ignorant haughtiness coming out of your goofball island the fact you called it an insignificant nation.
For your own info Poland has a skyrocketng, economy, the only one who didn’t suffer a recession in 2009. It has a solid banking system and more and more industrial and hi tech firms are moving their business there. Poles are incredibly hard-working and highly educated, truly the Koreans of Europe.
More and more companies are moving their business from Ireland (a complete, hopeless shithole) to Poland.
Germany, the Baltics, Poland, Czech Reublic, Slovakia and Russia are creating an industrial, resources and technology giant, that very likely will remain the only economically breathing lung of Europe and leave countries like the UKrap in the dust in 10-15 years.
Ah, one final note: FORZA GALATASARAY !
pawi: no offense taken, i never forget i eat thanks to a Korean company. I received only kindness and oppotunities from Asian people, including my ex who helped me a lot in a time of need.
And yes lots of Western massa wannabe need to realise the 19th century was a long-time ago
i am glad to hear that, yangachi. lol to the piece.on britain.
“but I’m a very fussy eater.”
Itaewon is now famous for “lamb chops” and “shopping” …. and of couse, satisfying the wants and desires of “fussy eaters.” I think you can now fully appreciate what I mean by “pussified.”
“The show’s chief producer said Thursday he couldn’t understand why foreign residents in South Korea were upset by the five-minute report.”
A Korean person will look you straight in the face and lie to you like nobody else without a second thought.
Senior colleagues(unionists) at MBC threatened the Queen newscaster of Korea(Bae Hyun-jin) by saying…”‘I asked to see you today because I was angry. We are doing the right thing. Sometimes you need to overlook trivial lies or small truths for the ultimate cause. The sacrifice is unavoidable. If you continue this way, you will not be able to do anything after the strike is over, working as a news anchor or in any other program. I will see to it whatever happens.’
I’d bet the chief producer wouldn’t see anything wrong with having MBC senior colleagues tell (recently returned from strike) news anchor Bae Hyun-jin…
“My senior colleagues(unionists) brushed my worries aside and told me to think simply, saying ‘women don’t know about the physiology of an organisation because they haven’t done national service,’ and to just follow them.” /여자들은 군대에 다녀오지 않아서 조직의 생리를 모른다. 그냥 따라와라’며 저의 고민을 일축했습니다.
MBC = 4 strikes in the past 5 years.
@ jkitchstk
Yes, because a turncoat rookie anchor posting on an internal MBC forum propagated by the beleaguered management desperate to paint the strikers as anything negative is a reliable source of trustworthy information.
# 28,
You got something against an internal forum? Have you ever used any information from this website as a source? You don’t have to believe her, but I do. It all fits with the MBC attack on foreign men which was also an attack on Korean women.
The Queen’s revelation certainly shows us more extreme Korean male supremacy at MBC. Are you a Korean male? The Queen has years of experience in the media. How much experience does one need to report when her senior extreme unionists/LOVERS of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-Hyun say “여자들은 군대에 다녀오지 않아서 조직의 생리를 모른다. 그냥 따라와라’며 저의 고민을 일축했습니다”?
You mean the show that the people Bae’s accusing of has nothing to do with, on the account that they’re on strike and the show was produced by an outside company?
She got into MBC in 2008, and got her first job as an anchor in 2010. Technically ‘years’, but not in the way you meant.
That’s according to her, and you’re basing your trust of her account on a false and unproven premise – isn’t the initial question whether that quote is fabricated or not? Why skip over that one and just use it as a proof that MBC journalists are chauvinists who produce crap like “White guys are taking our women” (even when they had absolutely nothing to do with that production)? Wouldn’t that be circular reasoning?
Bae is telling the truth about what the seniors said to her –> because MBC journalist are chauvinists –> which is true because of what Bae said about what the seniors said to her / they make crap like “White guys are taking our women” (which wasn’t made by them).
And it’s not like MBC strikers who are blasting her for the ‘big expose’ are all male – two of the five MBC journalists who are publicly criticizing Bae are women.
# 30,
…but not in the way you meant.”
How do you know what I meant, what other way is there than “technically?” Perhaps what you mean is that if she had worked there longer she would’ve learned how to bow to every male and bend over whenever they ask her to? How long have those “other two women” worked there, right, long enough to have learned to bend over I’m sure.
As in, 2 years of experience is, while technically ‘years’ (plural of a year), is hardly “years of experience”.
But please. Continue stuffing my mouth with random words while marching on with your circular logic.
I wouldn’t want to defend football hooligans, drunken louts on holiday or Britain’s imperialist past. Most countries have their unpleasant side and failures. But the UK, in parts, is one of the more genuinely integrated places on the planet. The mixed race population in the UK is about the same size as the foreign population in Korea. For this reason alone to call Britain a bastion of racism is perhaps mistaken.
# 32,
“stuffing my mouth with”
hehehe I think you mean ears, but what about another hole? I see that you’ve been forced to regrettably suggest an internal MBC forum isn’t trustworthy and Bae Hyun-jin is a liar. So typical! It’s not a reach or circle to use more than one example to show how MBC is chauvinistic(among other things).
The variety of food available in Itaewon now, both restaurants and ingredients wise, is a million times better than it used to be. I don’t think eating crap food is something to be proud of, or is in anyway ‘hard’. A lot of Korean food is boring to me, I prefer to cook at home myself. Some people might like to eat gochujang, kimchi and white rice every meal, I certainly don’t.
Britain does have many problems, too many chav types, too high taxes, a broken public transport system, shitty politicians. But there is some good stuff too. Hooligans and scumbags are fortunately in the minority, most Britons are actually rather decent people. As most Koreans are essentially decent people, it doesn’t mean that Korea doesn’t have its’ fair share of human scum.
No, I mean mouth, as in “put words in my”. You stated,
which is a strawman meaning to make me look like a sexist Korean male (which you also pigeonhole me as) who thinks Bae should just bend over and take it like a good woman should, instead of someone who’s disputing the presented accusations.
Look at the facts. Bae is a 2yr rookie who turned her back on the rest of the MBC journalism staff, and she posts a self-justifying babble not on a public site where her words would come under public scrutiny, but on an internal forum. And now that the MBC management decided to flaunt it in public as ‘proof’ that the MBC strikers are evil, chauvinistic, and violent… complete silence from Bae. If she is indeed truthful about what she had said, wouldn’t she have followed up with a response now that her former coworkers (men and women) are accusing her of ‘being desperate for attention’, ‘not worthy of even responding’, ‘narcissist’, etc.? Where is the angry, outraged response against her coworkers who are apparently complacent/guilty of extensive chauvinism and who are now accusing her of being a liar?
Of?
You provide two justifications for the premise that Bae’s words (MBC strikers are sexist and violent) is the truth.
1. Bae’s words (that MBC strikers are sexist and violent)
This would be a circular logic, because you’re justifying your premise with the said premise. You are literally saying the logical equivalence of “every dog in southern California is purple because every dog in southern California is purple”.
2. The idea that the MBC strikers have produced the “White guys will take our women” show.
This is empirically false. The show attacking foreign men and Korean women who date them was produced by an outside company while the strikers were on strike.
In a rare flash of honesty i’ll readily admit nothing even remotely bad has ever happened to me in London.
Actually London seems to be a really safe city, considering the size and diversity of the place. Overall more livable than i.e. Paris, Rome or Amsterdam
Korea safer than Japan? Really?
I guess it depends on your ethnicity but I have found places like Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, definitely Singapore, and even parts of China to be safer. A lot less verbal and potential physical abuse from the locals who, in my experience, don’t really take much notice or care that you are there. May be related to the fact that the majority of men in those places (with the possible exception of Japan) don’t drink themselves into oblivion nightly and aren’t contaminated with a ethno-facist worldview based on hating and fearing an ever threatening ‘other’.
Also, I don’t know where you are from YangachiBastardo but I love it when ppl rag out on countries like the UK or US for supposedly being ‘racist’ while completing ignoring the fact that those countries and others in the Anglo world (Canada, NZ, etc.) are world leaders in terms of setting up and pioneering liberal and inclusive immigration and refugee programmes and passing (and most importantly, actually enforcing) legislation designed to prevent discrimination, hate speech, and while actively promoting equal opportunities for all. This system is supported in many cases by independent human rights tribunals and civic organizations which combined with a largely free and varied media scene are very active in bringing to the national attention issues around racism and discrimination and specific cases thereof.
Of course, it’s not perfect and there’s room for improvement as there is in any system.
Do the UK and US have a history of racism? Yes, of course they do and so does Europe (witness the monkey chants, and worse, that follow black football players around places like your beloved Poland or the open beating of foreigners in the same stadiums while police stand by and watch: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18233736 ) and most other places in the world certainly including Korea. I would argue, though, that not many countries have been as active in combating racism through programmes, legislation, and general education than the US and the UK and it shows in the large numbers of foreigners that still want to immigrate to those countries. If they were the racist s**tholes you make them out to be, then why would they come? I don’t large numbers of foreigners flocking to Korea or Poland for the good life.
Not so, strictly speaking, whilst produced by an outside company, authorised for broadcasting by management not on strike.
i.e. who produced it is pretty much irrelevant, it was the corporation that decided to broadcast it, regardless of content.
@Arghaeri
The original accusation from Bae (and jkitch) is that the MBC strikers, not MBC as a whole including the management, are sexists. And one of the two warrants that jkitch gives is that the strikers have produced the problematic show in question. The MBC journalists on strike, therefore, have not been involved in producing/making that show. MBC management and MBC as a corporation is absolutely responsible for the contents of that show since they decided to broadcast it, but that’s not the issue here.
looks like we got another korea basher. word to congee, go live in japan.
Bumfromkorea,
Got you…understood.
Where did i rail against the US ?
And i didn’t say the UK is a racist place, i said tourists from that country are some of the most hated and despised in the world, something that can be verified easily .
On a personal note my mom and her man were refused entry in an English-owned restaurant in Rhodes and they were also insulted for being Italian (yes that’s where we are from).
Now little chav boy who did this has to thank his God as my mom partner is one of the mildest man alive, i assure you if i was there little toughie would by now spend the rest of his life going through atrocious pains every day, but i digress.
I also added that i begrudgingy agree this pack of animals you see abroad must be a minority as nothing even remotely bad happened to me in the dozen times or so i was in London.
The vast comlex of parasytes sponging off the political correctnesss bandwagon, typical of the Anglo countries, truly don’t impress me. Actually i think this social worker economy, as Thilo Sarrazin poignantly defined it, is one of the many reasons why i think the Anglo Sphere will quickly follow the Eurozone into a severe economic slump. That’s why as i mentioned in another thread, if we settle in Asia, i hope my son will give up his American citizenship: he definitely doesn’t need double taxation in his life. Especially to support insane programs peddled by Mr. 3000 bucks for thingamajig or some other, equally inept, substitute.
He was born with a 120% public debt to GDP burden on my side and a 100% debt to GDP burden on the other side…scary.
On the other hand the lack of this insanity constitute a solid advantage for Far East and oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, which i’m convinced will remain the biggest contributor to world growth for a long time to come.
We need scientists, we don’t need diversity managers, thank you.
Speaking of safety standards in Asia i’m not saying drunkness is not a problem, i’m just saying for all their soju Koreans don’t seem excessively mean drunks to me, more of the loud ad clownesque variety.
Taiwan is a kick-ass place. Taiwanese people are super-smart, super hard working and very welcoming with foreigners. Truly a great country with a good chance to become China’s Silicon Valley.
On the other hand i found it a bit noisy and not excessively clean, reminding me a bit of Southern italy.
I didn’t say Japan was dangerous but it’s full of creepy types and, comparing to most North East Asian locations, you can notice a distinct visibility of drug abuse there.
I agree Hong-Kong and Singapore are super safe: they’re small clusters, literally drowning in dough so they can scarcely compare to a 50 million people nation.
I’m truly curious about your experiences in China…where did you find these relatively higher standards ?
Well if you wanna play the money talks, bushit walks gae, let’s analyse some facts:
Korea modernised very recently, many people still don’t know it’s a rich country. I met Brazlians, for fuck sake, who thought Korea was a poor country and samsung a Japanese brand.
Still there’s a rapid influx of immigrants, in 10-15 years the diversity make-up wll not look much different from Europe.
Poland was a communist country til the dawn of the 90′s so it has lots of catch up to do. Still a record number of Poles are returning home.
On the other hand immigration to the West largerly decreased in the last few years, Christ even Mexicans are returning home.
In 2030 this world will look like a completely different place
YB – just for curiosity’s sake what’s the total amount of time you’ve had your feet down in the territory of the republic? are we talking a threshold of a couple months at least?
bibimbong: 4 trips in 2009, 4 trips in 210 and 2 trips in 2011 for a total of less than 3 months there.
Admittedly very small time but i honestly was never, ever one single time, diiscriminated or let alone assaulted there.
I have also to admit it is unlikely everybody’s lying about their experiences with xenophobia and drunk, violent boors.
The management of my company is made of normal, decent and smart people. Yes they don’t mind their wine when they visit, but they never act rowdy or arrogant. 사장님 is actualy one of the funniest assholes i ever met.
We don’t often agree about everything, i’ve been perplexed about some of their distribution and marketing tactics, to put it mildly, but we have so far always worked on basis of absolute, mutual respect.
Truth to be told i’m extremely perplexed about everything, i wonder seriously where truth lies cos you guys describe a Korea i’ve never seen, if not in some outlandish movie
thanks. the question wasn’t necessarily targeted at the xenophobia issue. just gauging your on the ground experience relative to your tendency to act like know the country. you must be a quick study. i’ve got roughly twice the time in italy as you have here and i wouldn’t begin to presume i know jack shit about the place.
I’ll readily admit i’ve some kind of an assholish, volatile personality, i’m trying to work on it…to my partial excuse i can say i received a lot from Korea and Koreans hence my allegiance
My truest condolences
“allegiance,” ah i see. carry on then.
i know the feeling, believe me. but it comes and goes, yes?
Assuming you are a Briton….let’s be honest: where you think prospects are better, in Korea or in either of our countries ?
I’ve been in my life poor and rich, now i’m just ok and i’m basically realising i don’t need more than i have.
All i ask for is not dealing with the problems i face everyday, slowly poisoning my quality of life.
I’m approaching my 40′s and my son will be a teen soon. I just don’t want for the 2 of us to be in a place where, if you set up an e-commerce platform, the tax police pretty much immediately raid your operation, like a fuckin’ junkie feverishly scouting for money to score the next fix, in order to make the next BTP payment.
I dont wanna be in a place where half the stop lights don’t work, where the streets are littered with dog poop and potholes or where most buildings are old, outdated, badly kept and wounded by idiotic graffiti.
Let alone the fact the generation coming of age now has absolutely zero chance of building an indipendent life and start a family.
I also don’t wanna move to a country rife with toxic political gibberish, where the national discourse seem to be dominated by Zimmermann vs hoodies. Where 1 person out of 7 live on food stamps, where vital segments of the economy like the car industry and the higher education complex are propped up with sub-prime lending. Where print&spend seem to be the only management tool deployed.
That’s why a country like Korea, after dealing with a few Koreans, seem more and more alluring every day.
It may not be such a diverse, culturally appealing society, but at least the nation seem to be financially relatively sound, well organised, crime-free and focused on growth and technological advancement. Not to mention the low taxes.
Maybe i’m just gettin’ old and cranky but that’s all i need from a society, even if that means incurring some abuse from drunk ajeosshi here and there or even not being allowed to lay my eyes on the local female population for the rest of my life
I can’t wait until that MBC strike is over so the real pros return and the network can resume the great journalism it is known for.
Well, by all means, come to Korea. Here, you’ll find that the stop lights work, but some drivers ignore them and continue through the intersection; that the streets aren’t littered with dog shit, but with vomit from last night’s after-work piss-up; and that the buildings, new or old, are relatively free of graffiti, but are covered by advertisements slapped up by ajummas with electrical tape, flogging this or that bit of cheap crap.
And how many bottles of
pink lemonadesoju?#51: That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a while.
man these MBCers are priceless:
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