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Last month, 17 mariners were apprehended for drug related biz., but I have yet to locate the news in the English media.
And a few days ago, it was reported in the foreign news that their female judo athlete slapped her competitor, a Kazakhstan woman, at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China.
The only story that bothered me was when Celine Dion's husband was blackmailed and harrased by a hooker. Broke my heart as CD was then undergoing cancer treatments.
Last month, 17 mariners were apprehended for drug related biz., but I have yet to locate the news in the English media.
And a few days ago, it was reported in the foreign news that their female judo athlete slapped her competitor, a Kazakhstan woman, at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China.
The only story that bothered me was when Celine Dion's husband was blackmailed and harrased by a hooker. Broke my heart as CD was then undergoing cancer treatments.
It was a joint Korean police and US Army Criminal Investigation Division operation where 17 soldiers, dependents and 5 civilian contractors were arrested for synthetic marijuana coming through the armed forces mail.
East Asians are less friendly with strangers unlike western cultures. This include with citizens or locals speaking the same language within the same east asian city or country. We also don't smile or laugh as much as people of other parts of the world. Small talks are less common than western cultures. In the large asian cities, people are busy and stressed, have no time to talk to friends and strangers.
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Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Could there be issues with American servicemen serving in Korea? Japan has had some serious issues in that regard. It could be one reason for the brush-off the OP describes.
A young friend of mine went to Russia via Seoul, where she had to overnight to catch the connecting flight to her destination. When she was at dinner in a restaurant, a local couple befriended her; they spoke English, or at least--the man did. They told her they had a daughter her age, and proceeded to take her under their wing, gave her their contact info, and spent a charming evening with her. It was amazing! They said, if she ever passed through again overnight, to let them know.
I lived in Seoul for two years as an expat. During that time, I traveled around Korea and many other Asian countries. Here's what I found in general with Korea:
-Very aggressive/competitive culture. There's no concept of holding the door open for someone else, respecting your place in line or stopping for pedestrians on the street. Everyone is in an extreme rush, all the time. They treat everyone like this, even each other.
-As a very homogenous culture (98% ethnic Korean), there's not a concept of diversity and everyone being equal. You definitely see some examples of places that don't allow foreigners, have different costs for foreigners vs locals or don't cater to non-Korean speakers. That said, you're seeing more and more examples of the younger generation traveling a lot more and being more open to a foreign experience (sometimes these border on fetishes, however). There's also a hierarchy of foreigners. You're treated best as a white person from the US or another country in the anglosphere. Sometimes, you're almost held to mythical status as an example of success and beauty. They also treat Western Europeans well, especially from places like France, Italy and Spain. If you're black or of Indian/Southeast Asian background, you're treated like dirt as they view you as of a lower class. They even treat Chinese and Japanese poorly for historical reasons, although they're starting to warm up to Japanese as of late.
-The work culture is very brutal. You work long hours and it's often about seat warming (e.g., not leaving until the boss leaves). There's lots of micromanagement and other forms of hazing and there are reasons most Korean companies are not competitive globally.
-With all that said, once you make friends with Koreans they're very open. Sometimes it comes across as rude as they're direct. They may call others fat, stupid or other insults. But, that's how they are in terms of beauty/status. They can also be very good to hang out with and take you out Korean BBQ with soju, Chimak (fried chicken and beer) or karaoke.
-Other positives include an extremely safe place (you can leave your purse or laptop unattended in a public place to hold your table for example), amazing public transportation network, hyper convenient (food/grocery delivery overnight, medical/dental open on weekends)
Overall, it was a fascinating experience for me there. I do agree that Koreans aren't as polite as Japanese nor laid back like Southeast Asians. However, you have to get beyond the initial veil of rudeness to see a balanced side of this culture.
I worked 8 months in Seoul, very weird place with some things very awesome such as very safe, very efficient, amazing food. On the down side, people are not friendly though not really hostile either, work is long and stressful, and it's expensive to live. My net take away from living in Seoul was a good experience but not one that I would necessarily choose to do again. I did find that the longer I was there, the more I adjusted and warmed to it.
Could there be issues with American servicemen serving in Korea? Japan has had some serious issues in that regard. It could be one reason for the brush-off the OP describes.
A young friend of mine went to Russia via Seoul, where she had to overnight to catch the connecting flight to her destination. When she was at dinner in a restaurant, a local couple befriended her; they spoke English, or at least--the man did. They told her they had a daughter her age, and proceeded to take her under their wing, gave her their contact info, and spent a charming evening with her. It was amazing! They said, if she ever passed through again overnight, to let them know.
That's my Korea anecdote.
Just my observation after I went with a team of engineers to work at a famous Korean company and found that they treated American females much much better than American males.
I'm just a tourist in Seoul for a few soul crushing weeks. In that time I've had so many abusive, rude and inhumane things happen that I am compelled to warn others who often get a politically correct and sanitized view of other cultures from travelers and expats with stockholm syndrome. I'm an American and I've been to Mexico, France, Austria, Ukraine, Bulgaria, UAE, Vietnam and many more countries. All countries I've traveled to have been charming to visit because of basic hospitality and basic human appreciation and fellowship among men that I have taken for granted until now. Korea is a radically toxic culture and I suspect Koreans have high self awareness about the criticisms of their culture but are proud of and embrace it's hostility nonetheless. I have had several experiences where i enter a store and say hello in Korean while bowing or nodding my head slightly then later saying thank you in Korean while the worker says nothing to me, makes no eye contact and no physical gesture to acknowledge me. In years of traveling i can't recall this ever happening - anywhere! It's an immutable feature of healthy human psychology to respond to others. To be trained to deny that even to a very polite person is uniquely Korean. I was walking toward a restaurant i frequent in itaewon, the international neighborhood, and two guys were walking near me who appeared to be looking for the entrance to the same restaurant. I said hello are you looking for such and such restaurant? They said zero, did zero to acknowledge me and walked past me. This is very common, any benign and friendly attempt at public interaction is ignored. I haven't seen anyone smile in weeks. I think they are proud of being difficult, unemotional and standoffish. This culture views it as a strength and, kindness... Even politeness, as weakness. It's often -10c now in mid December and no more than 10% of people wear hats - especially beanies - because they don't want to disrupt their hair. A level of superficiality in the face of extreme weather that would be embarrassing in a healthy society that places health and comfort - at least somewhere, among vanity and status. I walked into an elevator and by the way I always yield to the locals who seem to always be Jockeying for first in line, and I'm 98% sure the 4 people in the elevator were laughing at me out loud in Korean. I said nothing and did nothing to provoke it. I'm surprised tourism is allowed here. It has wrecked my impression of the culture and the ethnocentric people and I can't ever imagine buying Korean products like Samsung, LG etc. They hate and disrespect others so acutely why would I? This is a uniquely hostile and antihuman society of emotionally unhealthy people.
I was sent to Seoul in 2004 for several months for work reasons. Initially, I was a bit shocked at the direct, “in your face” manners of some of the people there.
After a few days, I got accustomed to it and realized that my team that was based in Seoul, were quite friendly and accommodating to me. They took me out several tines a week, after work, to drink beer & soju and also to sample some Korean cuisine. At the end of the workweek, they took me out to Karaoke bars, to drink and sing. They even took me out on some weekends, to tour the city.
Seoul is a modern, safe, developed, fast paced city.
It was an educational experience and I learned a lot.
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