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So, I went to GOM last night to watch the up-and-downs.
First I figured out how to get to mok dong, showered, shaved etc. And then headed out on what I was told would be an hour-and-a-half journey by taxi-subway-subway-walk.
I'm totally aclimated now so I just get in the taxi and say "bucheon Yeok" like a boss, dat right, they understand me and all. I totally speak korean.
And then my second time on the subway alone! I knew which platforms to go to but couldn't tell which train so i just asked some guy if the first train that came went to Sindorim. "This... Sindorim... yes?"
Dat Korean langugage skills.
He informed me it would go there by nodding his head, a gesture I've learnt means yes in this land of mystery.
So the train there was easy, I got off at Sindorim and knew I needed to get on the line to "Kachissan", so I followed the signs using my fantastic abilities to read english, hopped on the first train on the platform the signs pointed to and proceeded to ask a young dude in military fatigues "This...Kachissan... yes?"
The guy started freaking out, sweat dripping down his forehead and his head shook from side-to-side. A secret K-pop reference meaning "no". He backed away and moved to the other end of the carriage. That was weird.
Luckily there was an old dude with the grand total of 3 teeth left in his mouth who asked
"where you going?"
This was when I used a great skill of mine, I eliminate my Australian accent and take out all unnecessary words from my sentences so as to make myself sound like an utter moron
"Me... Kachissan...this....train....go?"
Blank stare. "Something in Korean/undecipherable English"
"This...Kachissan?"
Another undecipherable exchange took place whereupon I decided to pull out the address of the GOM studio and show it to him. He read it up and down, looked confused, and then decided to consult with his own bench of seniors and the adjacent one. It was a bit like watching "question time" in Australian parliament except it made more sense as they were speaking Korean, a language I absolutely understand. For those who aren't Aussies, let me just describe it as a lot of old people yelling about... stuff.
In the midst of all this a middle-aged Korean dude standing next to me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at his phone. It said:
"Sinjeong" - the station closest to GOM.
"Yes!" I replied, excited to be making progress, "This train go there?"
I got a confused stare and some nodding, shaking of the head and generally undecipherable sign language... maybe it was actually very clear but I can't remember cos this kind old man that was addressing the Seoul Subway Seniors Parliament was SET on helping me out. He was tugging at my sleeve and asking me more questions in garbled English whilst I tried to listen to the middle-aged phone-toting man at the same time.
It was all becoming a little too much for me so I decided to surrender.
"Uh.. thankyou, but, I just get off at next stop and get taxi"
The middle-aged dude nodded and said "cool bro" in Korean. My understanding is good enough to be 100% certain that's what he said. Old-guy looked disappointed but finally accepted and gave back my address.
PHEW, ok I'll just get a taxi, it's all good.
It was at this point I realised that hey, I never got a chance to finish checking the Subway map and this time around I quickly noticed the image of the line I was on and saw that this train was stopping at all stops and was just 2 from Sinjeong! Oh holy cow, all that trouble and I'm on track after all!
Then, out of nowhere.
"No taxi, I take you"
My gods, Old-guy was at it again, I really didn't want to waste this guys entire evening but he couldn't be dissauged.
"No-no, I get off Sinjeong then taxi"
"Awwww, agghhhh, ewwwww, no-no I take. I take!"
"Ahh thankyou you very kind but I not want waste you time"
"I TAKE!"
Ok step back crazyman, fine I'll let you take me.
Long-story short this dude hops off at my stop claiming he lives nearby, not sure if he just made that up to put me at ease. He forces me to get in the lift with him and then go up 20 flights of stairs (Korea has thousands of stairs wherever you go) that didn't even phase the old bro, and then proceeds to walk me the 10 minutes to the GOM studio. All the while stopping every 20 metres to ask a person on the street to look at the address and point us in the right direction.
He took me right to the entrance to GOM shook my hand, I thanked him profusely, and off he went on his merry way, happy just to have been able to help a stranger.
Nicest dude ever and one of the many reasons why I think Koreans are some of the best people in the world.
Hope you enjoyed my story 
If you want to see photos/updates from my stay follow my facebook/twitter links in my signature.
 
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hahahaha, Are you staying at the gom house? Hour and a half is faaarr.
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Nice blog .I enjoyed reading it,thx for sharing.
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I recall going there myself, If I recall, the walk from the station to Gom is not too bad. 20 min max I would say
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I've heard a lot about random koreans giving people lifts and being even slightly dodgy about it, its quite amusing. There are loads of stories of girls going clubbing, getting approached by a group of guys if they leave alone and being escorted back to their front door, its quite cute 
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Hahaha this made my morning, such a random read, but in a good way!
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51415 Posts
perks of being white i guess
me being asian + australian accent is the worst, even if you can speak korean -_-
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That's awesome, thanks for sharing.
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Awesome blog dude! Yeah Koreans are really helpful. :-)
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^___^ good read. Glad to hear you're still enjoying Korea
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Wow... that's pretty awesome :>
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On October 30 2012 19:32 LgNkarmy wrote:
hahahaha, Are you staying at the gom house? Hour and a half is faaarr.
PiG is staying at the Prime house iirc
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Glad to see you've mastered the korean language since your last blog.
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Hahaha, how can you possibly get confused by the Korean subway system. It's so clear and simple. :O
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Canada13389 Posts
On October 30 2012 20:38 GTR wrote:
perks of being white i guess
me being asian + australian accent is the worst, even if you can speak korean -_-
Everytime you mention your voice I always want to load up this
http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/GTR_Soundboard.swf
Every. Time.
On topic: OP that was an awesome story. I think my favourite part was "cool bro"
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loved your story
Koreans do treat foreigners very well, most Koreans do anyways
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Being white and having never been to Korea, I'm also fluent in Korean. I'd just like to confirm that he definitely said "Cool Bro."
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me being asian + australian accent is the worst, even if you can speak korean -_-
Very true! During my week there (I'm Chinese-American), I got asked twice for directions in korean. One english-speaking Korean said I looked Korean. So racist.
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Haha you're a really funny writer. Fairly sure that most middle aged Korean men use cool bro frequently, as well as you jelly son?
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When I was in Helsinki - Finland, I asked a guy to tell me where the cell phone company was (Orange? Cant remember the branding now),
He took me and my parents for about four blocks front here until the entrance of the store.
I assumed it was his path too because he just led us there...
To my surprise, as soon as we enter the store, the guy goes the opposite way to leave....
wow!
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just came back from a 10 day trip and Korea and I have nothing but good things to say about it. the people there are so awesome
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I want to add my similar little story to this:
Being in Busan the days after the 2012 GSL Code S Season 3 Finale and before the OSL BroodWar Funeral, I walked around the town one evening. After discovering a building that had a HUGE screen and a platform filled with seats on the outside, I decided to sit down right in the middle (BIG MISTAKE) and watch the sundown. Tired by the heat I soon fell asleep. I had noticed a few people sitting on that platform too, thinking they would sit down to have a snack.
When I woke up from my slumber, almost all the seats (maybe around 150) were filled with people and ads for indie movies were projected on the screen. Even a little popcorn seller set up his cart at the front of the tribune. I was surrounded by Koreans. It was a little bit worrying that all of the Koreans seemed to be older females, but I didn't interpret much in it. I was looking forward to watching a free movie on a big screen outdoors. After another half an hour of the same looped ads, the movie finally began.
Suddenly I realized why the crowd was mostly, if not entirely female: In big white letters I read "WATERLOO BRIDGE" on the screen. There was I, stuck inbetween more than a hundred Koreans, watching a black/white movie from the 30s, designed to make women cry. At least the movie was in english with korean subtitles, so I understood. More than once I found myself asking if this would be a good thing and if it would be impolite enough to getting beat to death by angry old women when I would just ask every person to stand up so that I can leave. I didn't do it, though, and when the movie finished it was already completely dark and there were almost no people on the streets anymore.
Having the orientation skills of a BroodWar Dragoon, I completely forgot where I came from. To top that, I can't read or speak a single word of korean which led to me asking every person I saw if they spoke english or directly for a subway station by simply making the words "subway" and "metro" to questions. I didn't ask one of the women I watched the movie with, cause the movie not the happiest and I felt that especially the older ones were upset enough by it.
After a while of searching, I found a guy that could speak english. Well, to be honest he could understand english far better than speaking it. Sure, he said the right words but he had the same problem that most asians have speaking english: the pronounciation was so wrong that I had to repeat every word he said in a questioning tone and waiting for his nod to make sure I understand correctly.
The conversation's outcome was that I had to walk straight for "very long" and I will find a subway station. So I thanked him by bowing down a few times and started walking. "Very long" was not understated, after a while the lights of the restaurants were replaced by cold stone of skyscrapers and construction sites without any street lamps.
After walking about ten minutes, I heard somebody running behind me. Given the eerie surroundings, my first thought was that somebody would want to mug me, so I turned around. It was the guy that helped me. He was completely sweating and breathing so much I was afraid he would collapse any moment.
He apologized to me. Apparently, there was another subway station nearby that was not as far as the one he sent me to. He then walked with me to the other subway station (which was in a well lit area again :D) to make sure I would find it.
So this guy ran after me long distance in the middle of the night just to apologize several times and then accompany me to the subway station. Just because that second subway station was not as far away as the other one.
This is how awesome Koreans are.
Also, when I waited to get a ticket to the OSL Finals - being horribly late because I got lost again (a couple of times -_-') - a young korean soldier gave me a ticket and talked to me while waiting, just because I looked foreign and he didn't want me to feel left out. That guy even shared his food with me and made my OSL experience a whole lot more awesome. Sadly, I lost him when I went to search for a better spot to take pictures of the celebrating JangBi.
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On October 31 2012 00:16 ZeromuS wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 20:38 GTR wrote:
perks of being white i guess
me being asian + australian accent is the worst, even if you can speak korean -_- Everytime you mention your voice I always want to load up this http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/GTR_Soundboard.swfEvery. Time. On topic: OP that was an awesome story. I think my favourite part was "cool bro"
Looking at GTR's picture and listening to that soundboard just wrecks my brain.
Does not compute.
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Same as PiG and regiment, me and my father was in Korea, and just got to Busan for the GSTL finals, so we ask someone on the subway station where our hotel was, we had gotten it written down in korean so we could show it to the koreans. Anyways, we asked a family out on the street, and even though they had very bad english, they did their best to help us.
So the father of the family I assume, he went arount and asked other people where the hotel was, they he found out, then he let his family to go where they was supposed to go and he came with us just to show us the way to the hotel.
TLDR; Koreans are super nice
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I also found people in Korea very nice as well when I visited there earlier this month for the first time.
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Korea sounds like an amazing place full of mysterious/magical/benevolent beings... who ACTUALLY help and give a shit about strangers.... must...go.
anyways OP had me laughing hysterically at the "nodding was clearly korean gesture for yes" and such lolol. so good.
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On October 30 2012 19:03 PiGStarcraft wrote:
Nicest dude ever and one of the many reasons why I think Koreans are some of the best people in the world.
If you're a white guy.
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On October 31 2012 05:29 ripr wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2012 19:03 PiGStarcraft wrote:
Nicest dude ever and one of the many reasons why I think Koreans are some of the best people in the world.
If you're a white guy.
yep
asians rarely treat other asians at the same level.
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That was a pretty entertaining read. Good on that old guy for being so nice, this world needs more people like that.
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Cool story!
I have a million of them just like this one in Japan lol. People are so friendly in japan. Except in tokyo. They're all assholes in tokyo big cities (actually a lot of friendly people in tokyo too, had this happen many times there too, even taking the subway with me).
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that's a nice story and it does warm my heart a bit -- but my feeling is not unadulterated since I know that if you weren't white (say, SE asian), you might have not gotten the same treatment.
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On October 31 2012 06:02 Pulselol wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2012 05:29 ripr wrote:On October 30 2012 19:03 PiGStarcraft wrote:
Nicest dude ever and one of the many reasons why I think Koreans are some of the best people in the world.
If you're a white guy. yep asians rarely treat other asians at the same level.
Wouldn't say rarely, you get good folks in every country. A Japanese girl carried my 30KG luggage then sprint to the boarding gates with me just so I don't miss my flight while I transit in Osaka, I don't know her, I'm Chinese and all I did was asking her where the bus terminal is (I thought my gate was in a different area).
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It's nice to hear that he was a genuinely nice man who didn't take advantage of the fact that you are a foreigner. Too bad he didn't stay to watch GSL with you though.
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Korea (South)855 Posts
Having lived over 10 years overseas, I learned that the getting good impression of certain country is often about how kind the local people are. I remember this one time in Turkey I was trying to find McDonalds(I was curious what menu a McDonald's in Turkey would have) but got lost. I asked for direction to this teenager who approached me to help but he did not know either. Nevertheless he came back after 15 mins or so with a friend who knew direction and they walked with me to McDonad's which was about 20 minutes away. Turkish people in general were very kind to me once they learned I was Korean and to this day Turkey remains my favorite country I visited.
For same reason I try to help foreigners with directions as much as possible. The time I was going for a job interview at Aisiana Airline this Indian guy asked me for bus stop. I did not know the direction as I did not live there but I looked around the map and eventually was able to help him. I took too much time and I was late for my interview. Of course I didn't get the job but I remebr the interviewer guy giving me this lecture on how people willing to work ar airline need to be prompt and willing to be kind to foreigners. I never told him why I was late but it was kinda ironic.
My dad was a diplomat and he once told me that when dealing with foreigners everyone is diplomat. Because they will judge your country based on your behaviour. I work near COEX and therefore see many lost foreigners now and then. I always help them if I can. They may be one among many foreigners I meet each week but to them I may be the only Korean they will remember after their visit.
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EPT
