|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 02 2011 23:59 KurtistheTurtle wrote: these have already been kind of answered and some seem obvious but i usually find the dumbest, simplest questions are the rewarding ones
1) What should I start doing now to cultivate decision-making? prioritizing with heavy schedules? 2) What situations, books, and other experiences should I throw myself to develop/mature nunchi? 3) If you wrote your ass-lazy undergraduate self a guide to college, how would it look (in addition to 530-10 and fuck off rest of day post)
1. put yourself in new positions of responsibility that have non-routine environments, make a fuck load of unintentional mistakes, fix em and learn from them.
2. stop talking so much and listen and look and try to anticipate the words and thoughts of where people are going with a conversation or mood; do it long enough and you'll know if you suck at it or if you have some talent at it. If you suck at it, the stop talking altogether, if you're good at it, don't get cocky and think you're a mind reader. At home I rarely speak, just grunt here and there.
3. get a job and pay your own tuition then you'd not be lazy ass and appreciate your studies
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 02:59 RoosterSamurai wrote: Do Koreans actually use the word "Reckon" very often?
Koreans actually speak Korean, but if they are raised in Australia or work with a lot of Aussie then will pick up 2 things: 'no worries' and 'I reckon' instead of 'no problems/don't worry about it' and 'I think' but I reckon you don't have much contact with Aussies, but most casino expat staff in Asia are Aussies.
|
What makes Koreans different from everybody else? The fact that they live on the other side of an imaginary line? Just because you are developed with different paradigms doesn't make you different. Everybody is essentially the same.
|
wait it kinda got answered nvm
|
would you ever consider going into politics? why/why not?
|
On March 03 2011 04:49 tryummm wrote: What makes Koreans different from everybody else? The fact that they live on the other side of an imaginary line? Just because you are developed with different paradigms doesn't make you different. Everybody is essentially the same.
it's called culture bro
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 04:49 tryummm wrote: What makes Koreans different from everybody else? The fact that they live on the other side of an imaginary line? Just because you are developed with different paradigms doesn't make you different. Everybody is essentially the same.
Since you already answered your own question with such insightfulness I really don't want to bother to reply.
But for others who encounter this type of outstanding line of logic which masks arrogance with acceptance, lets break it down.
Who is denying that people on a basic level of humanity are not all the same? It is what makes us human.
If you use that level of understanding and then apply it to the obvious cultural differences, thereby simply ignoring everything and concluding all those differences are insignificant because we are human, then what have you accomplished except to justified your continued cultural ignorance under some pretentious and misguided attempt to look above it all? Leaving no further room for discussion or understanding. It's like the British going into India and saying these cultural differences are insignificant, so lets just ignore them, not realizing or caring that in fact that by saying so, justifies them to impose their own cultural norms over others.
The fact that you use a phrase 'imaginary line' completely simplifies the socio-economic and real cultural territories which have created environments in how people interact to each other, and you assume that these lines were arbitrarily drawn. If someone is raised in South Central LA opposed to Beverly Hills, the cultural divide is quite real even if you were to suddenly take away any imaginary lines and put them all into the same room to interact. Now this is further amplified if we take different cultures separated by centuries of development and boarder drawn by wars and bloodshed.
What makes Koreans different? Lets say by your line of reasoning, everyone is essentially the same? Now lets apply it the way you have, so men and women are essentially the same. So people from different levels of wealth are essentially the same. And even with all the different personalities of people, we are essentially the same.
So what does this kind of reasoning lead to? Does it make us more accepting or does it make us arrogant in assuming that these differences don't need to be considered? So lets not consider that women are generally paid less for the same job, this must be an exception. Lets assume that someone from poverty has every same ability and chance to go to an Ivy League school or support his/her family, no, we are all the same, what does the lack of wealth affect one's opportunities. And lets interact with everyone in the same way, treat everyone equally with no consideration to their unique personalities or even mental disabilities.
And I'm sure that if you go negotiate with the Chinese gov't that you're sure to negotiate with them the same way you would with the British gov't; I mean, we're all the same right?
We don't discuss our differences to say one is better than the other, but to really appreciate and come to an understanding that once we fully acknowledge our differences, our sight is cleared to truly accept that we are the same in humanity.
I understand you're trying to say that we shouldn't let our cultural differences stand in the way of our shared humanity, but you're insulting and ignorant to insinuate that the object to point out these differences is contrary to that objective.
|
Is military service a waste of 2 years, especially to your education and youth?
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 10:06 milikan wrote: would you ever consider going into politics? why/why not?
I have and no, I would not. But that is just me. You need to look at the motivations of why you want to be a politician.
Now the common answer would be to 'do good' for your nation. But the reality is, you can do a lot more good for your nation outside of politics because you do not need to go through the various levels of procedures.
The main obstacle for doing good is actually capital/funds; whether it is food for a food bank or an orphanage. Now if you had a million, you could actually hire a host of people to do further charity work.
But at a national or infrastructural level, yes a politician can do changes, but they need the momentum of society or key figures to push these kinds of plans through, so personally, I'd like to do good, but play a more efficient part of the chain by funding social projects.
Now in terms leading national security or creating bill/laws for the people; I think it takes a certain type of person who enjoys the thrill of the political process; I can remember in my political since department there were 3 distinct groups of people, the public admin, the international relations and the political philosophy group.
The pubic admin guys look always made up, were part of a political party and had something stuck up their asses; the international relations group were the cool sophisticated group who argued about the value of about NGOs and different gov't structures and had plans to travel and the political philosophy group look like coffee house intellectuals who didn't care about anything but study and discussion. We were all so different in how we approached politics, but of course for the public admin guys, they were so ambitious, but I couldn't understand their motivation, because they seemed like scum suckers to me lol. But they loved the political process and believed in the system or in their ability to manipulate it.
The short of it is, if your motivation for doing politics is doing good, its not really the most straightforward path, if its because you love the political system, the thrill of it and you think you can make an influence, go for it. But, I'd rather make a couple of billion dollars and use it to create my own charitable organizations that help people the way I'd like to with immediate effect and purpose. I'm not saying I would do a better job, but at least I could immediately act on my decision in how I wanted to help rather than wait for sign off etc.
^^
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 10:52 FakePlasticLove wrote: Is military service a waste of 2 years, especially to your education and youth?
Difficult question for me, when I was born in Montreal, my father was still a citizen of Korea, but he never wrote my name on the family Korean national registry. But when I came to Korean in 2002, they gov't wouldn't issue me an overseas Korean visa, only a student one or else I would have to go to the army. The reason why it wasn't automatic was because my father hadn't bother to report me back to the Korean gov't when I was born, if he had, well I would have been shipped.
But I did go in and inquire, I can't say applied, but I went to the university army office and asked and they told me, the office told me, 'listen, at your age, its better not to pursue this, if you want to do good for the country continue to study and contribute to its economic health'
I have a number of friends who have gone, while holding Canadian citizenship, and the two years went by quickly and I have a few friends who did not go and are virtually exiled from Korea, only coming in 6 months of the year or so.
But military service is a primary reason why Korea was able to industrialize so quickly as men learned to follow process and orders, so its not a bad thing for the country, plus we do have the NK threat (although it will be the regular army and the US air craft carriers who will do the major work).
But as an individual and a young man, 2 years seems like a hellva long time, but when you get older you realize that 2 years is really nothing, but for most Koreans I can't see them spending their time in a better way and I can't see it as a negative over all. I will send both by sons to the army, the only thing I feel uneasy about is that the Korean army is hit and miss in terms of safety. Many army suicides are actually military accidents and covered up as such so there wouldn't be a liability issue; now this isn't common, but its a risk. Also it depends where you are stationed, my father who served for 4.5 years was an army lawyer while my best friend was in the army band playing tuba, but my rugby juniors were all in the marines.
While it is constantly getting shorter the time span for service, its still there, and I don't think it is a waste because most Korean men at a young age have no idea what they are doing and its a good skill set to learn and in Korea, the army service is considered real job experience and will automatically be added to your career experience consideration (some stupid women complain about this, but whatever). so short answer, even with the choice to go or not, I think it is well worth the experience as I won't block my sons from going to the army and I myself as a rugby player have lived a regular physical routine lifestyle anyways. But if you think about it, it will make you nuts, just get it over with as soon as you can is what I'd recommend.
|
Sorry if i'm wrong in my assumptions, but based on what i've read of you (and i'd want to read more if your old blogs were still up T_T) you seem to have traveled quite a bit. One of the things I am always interested in hearing from people who have done this are their opinions on different food around the world.
So if I am correct in my assumptions please share your opinions about food around the world and what foods you like, with perhaps, for my interest, your opinion on Western food and also your opinion on other food from around southeast Asia (China, Vietnam, Japan, etc.).
|
Atom-hyung I want to learn Korean. How should I start? How long will it take me if I am dedicated? I live in California and I am relatively good at learning Indo-European languages, but I have never learned anything else other than how to count to 10 in Japanese.
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 17:21 Renoir_scII wrote: Sorry if i'm wrong in my assumptions, but based on what i've read of you (and i'd want to read more if your old blogs were still up T_T) you seem to have traveled quite a bit. One of the things I am always interested in hearing from people who have done this are their opinions on different food around the world.
So if I am correct in my assumptions please share your opinions about food around the world and what foods you like, with perhaps, for my interest, your opinion on Western food and also your opinion on other food from around southeast Asia (China, Vietnam, Japan, etc.).
I think when it comes to food, its about one's personal adventureness. I only travel for business, if it were up to me, I'd just stay home and eat Korean food all the time, but I love a good steak.
I think for all types of food, you need a local to show you around and then it depends are you more focused on meats or vegetables; I find that besides the signature dish of each country, that is what really dictates what your host will give to you.
Personally, I'm not very adventurous and for me a better question would be where is the best hotel buffet in each country. But if there is a Morton's steak house, I'll usually eat there over anything else, regardless of the country.
Just got back to Korea from a HK/Macau trip and i'll say that I do love Macanese food, a fusion of Chinese and Portuguese; but again, if you travel for fun, I'm sure you get exposed a lot more to the local foods. Sorry, just not an expert in this case as I'm usually drinking more than eating when it comes to business meetings.
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 03 2011 17:48 wherebugsgo wrote: Atom-hyung I want to learn Korean. How should I start? How long will it take me if I am dedicated? I live in California and I am relatively good at learning Indo-European languages, but I have never learned anything else other than how to count to 10 in Japanese.
This is a kinda embarrassing question for me, because I've never learned Korean formally, that is, in a school. While I fully understand conversational level Korean and have no problem getting around, eating, shopping, etc, ask me to write a letter to someone and I'll fail pretty hardcore. The problem with me is that I was born and raised speaking Korean until about kindergarten, then spoke French and English until high school. Also being in Korea, I have some extremely high level business vocabulary, but certain basic grammar structures are still stuck at a 4 year olds level. So I did get a private tutor for 2 weeks and they told me that in my case, it was a pain to learn Korean, because I never had any formal exposure, even the most easiest lesson plans are difficult because I don't know very basic things, while other higher level lesson plans make perfect sense because of my exposure.
But since you're not a Korean America, I assume, this is what I'd recommend. Just go through the lesson plans and take it as any language course, the biggest issue here is that you won't be able to draw on your experiences from other languages. So this will make it seem extremely harder, but its not.
The written text, you'll be able to pick up in about 2 hours, and then you need to memorize all the combination of characters, you don't need to, but sounding out the characters all the time will be a pain in the ass.
Get a couple of Korean dramas of high powered executives (no gangster dramas or high school dramas) with sub titles and try to repeat after them if you don't have anyone who is native really around to show you. I'd recommend 'Non-Stop' if you can find, it, its quite old sitcom about university students, but I personally loved the show.
How long will it take you, if you study about 30 mins every day, I'd say 3 months you could get by with the basics; if you are serious about learning intensively, then you'd want to come here and take the Korean language course at Yonsei university. I send my younger brother there when he came over last year and now is going to marry a nice Korean girl and take her back to America with her lol. But its a very very good program. I'd take it if I wasn't traveling all the time. While there are other program's Yonsei's is the best without any doubt. But Sogang's and Ewa Women's university ones are good as well.
Personally for me, I'm just going to read through a grammar book for an hour a day and just to correct my minor errors, I have a couple of months to brush up before this project begins. But take things step by step, there is no language that you can suddenly pick up and Korean is no exception.
|
Why do Korean girls tolerate Korean males behaviour towards them ?
(dont bring up the nice guy at home crap they all serve, Korean men are essentially rude to women)
|
Korea (South)17174 Posts
On March 04 2011 22:54 Boonbag wrote: Why do Korean girls tolerate Korean males behaviour towards them ?
(dont bring up the nice guy at home crap they all serve, Korean men are essentially rude to women)
|
ok edit: fucking insane edit2: next man to be rich will be the one to make louis vuitton condoms
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 04 2011 22:54 Boonbag wrote: Why do Korean girls tolerate Korean males behaviour towards them ?
(dont bring up the nice guy at home crap they all serve, Korean men are essentially rude to women)
lol, anyway, nowadays Korean women who don't tolerate literally leave the country to settle outside, whether it is living as a visa student or marrying a foreigner. The number #1 choice is a rich guy from Hong Kong who treats them like goddesses.
This really depends on the class level of the families. Naturally the man holds a dominate position over the women, but for the lower class males it used to dominate the woman, but for the higher class man it is for protecting and providing for the family.
It's the same with all cultures where the lower the socio-economic standing, the higher the rate of domestic abuse, etc, but in Korea is worse because the man is already placed into a dominate position over the woman.
To say a woman is a virtual slave in the home is wrong as well. In many families, it is the woman that handles the household finances as they are in charge of paying for the primary expense which is the budgeting for the children's expenses. So in many respects, the man is under constant pressure to meet the financial demands of his wife.
The problem with foreigners coming to Korea is that they are usually only exposed to one socio-economic group or area because they are not working in an actual Korean company or have not graduated from a school. Thus, their friends will all be from a certain area or where they go for entertainment. If all you did was hang out in Gangnam with rich guys, then you'd think that every single Korean man is a cheater. If you came to Seoul and joined a church in Myongdong, then you'd think that all Korean men are virgins. And if you did hang out with women, as a foreigner, they would bombard you with a disproportionate amount of stories how crappy Korean men are, because that is the one of the reasons why they are hanging out with you, to get away from them.
Now I'm not going to defend, us as Korean men, saying that we treat our women with equality or that we don't impose our will on women. We do. But the degree of how we do it differs greatly from the lower to the higher class; as in to dominate or to protect/provide, because in our cultural structure, the man must be given the initial right to simply make the decision.
But to get to the point why Korean women tolerate this system is, for some women its a great life. Korea is one of the few places in the world where there wasn't a feminist movement. Korea women were just given the vote, they didn't' have to fight for it. Korean women have never mass demonstrated to join in the conscription for the Army. Korean women expect that the men will pay for everything, will provide for them.
Even the Korean women who date foreigners, they don't realize that they have the same expectations of every Korean women, but simply don't like the structure. In many respects, the foreign white guy gets the worst of both worlds (although, compared to many white women, the rebelling Korean woman likely serves her man a lot better).
So its a good question, why do Korean women tolerate it? Ultimately, its because men make them tolerate it. We wouldn't accept our women to be conscripted into the army, to be in harms way; a man will be lazy at home every day, but when he needs to drive for 10 hours straight and work 3 days straight to provide money on the table for his family, he will. The wife will cook every day, but the man will carry the groceries as far as it is necessary not allowing the woman to even carry one bag. When the woman says, this is necessary for the family; the man will provide, and if they don't they will live with the shame and the nagging and the complaining for the wives every single day until they do so. Every Korean man, if they could make enough money, would want their wives to stay at home and relax and be the best mother they could be and it's not because they don't want their wives to have a career, rather, its a luxury nowadays. Most young couples expect the wives to have job because of the high costs of living nowadays, to live in a good area of Seoul and be a young housewife is to be the envy of your friends.
Now, I've met a lot of western women and Korean American/Canadian women, who will automatically attack me for being a Korean man, and I won't deny that we are dominate, but for some of us, we are dominate with purpose.
Once a few of years ago I was with the head of a UK public relations agency and she was all about the equality. We spent a week together, where I paid the bills, protected her from horny drunk guys at the dance clubs and made sure she got to hotel room without any issues. Just being a gentleman, nothing special there, but more than a gentleman, she knew that I wasn't there to tell her what to do, but I was there to protect and take care of her, whether she wanted it or not. And she fought me paying for the bill, she tried to be fearless when a bunch of guys were constantly trying to approach her and she tried to keep her composure always when drinking. But in the end, she stop fight with me about the bill, she'd dance closer to me and let herself get as drunk as she wanted around me. I don't thing I'm atypical from the background I have as all my hyungs would do the same. The last thing she said to me as she went back to UK was that in the UK, you got guys who are like bulldogs, they are the most chauvinistic bastards out there, slugging back beers at the pub, vulgar as hell, but they will protect their women and would never hit a woman, no matter how wrong a woman was. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and say that I was her 'Korean Bulldog' and I said baby,'I'm no bulldog, I'm just a man'
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 04 2011 23:12 Rekrul wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2011 22:54 Boonbag wrote: Why do Korean girls tolerate Korean males behaviour towards them ?
(dont bring up the nice guy at home crap they all serve, Korean men are essentially rude to women)
lol +1 best answer
|
|
|
|
|