What the ... rejection ?!?!?

Damn I have really stopped writing and posting. There are things I started writing months ago and never finished or posted. What can I say, life keeps me busy. The following is something I wrote and never got around to posting.

*********

Uh oh ... I guess the news hasn't hit Korea yet. I wonder how the netizens will over-react if it does? The LAPD has REJECTED using Jindos as police dogs.

A google search I ended after 10 pages only turned up a link to Korea Sentry that talked about the "issue". Nothing from Korean papers or sites. At least not in English.

I couldn't help but laugh and think of my time in South Korea when I read the following.

They pretty much mastered the task, but once they got out of the training environment, they got distracted in the real world.... A leaf would blow, and they'd go chase it.

It reminded me of ... Koreans. I can't remember how many times Stig and I would comment on how easily distracted Koreans are. A kid wears a short sleeve shirt in the spring? Class is disrupted until they calm down. Someone draws a pile of dung on the board? Total distraction. Korean is walking down the street and sees a foreigner ... distraction.

What Would A Fucktard Do?

I was looking through my photos and my photo albums for any pictures I could use for a Mook Of The Week story, but alas, I have no more that I can use.
So I will have to describe the mookish behaviour that Flint and I experienced.
One of the things that mooks and fucktards in Korea do when they see a foreigner is to stare like a slack-jawed yokel. I can't tell you how many times I have seen some old ajussi or ajumma stop in their tracks, let their mouth hang open and stare, like they see something green, or you're a martian, or you've got a point on your head.
Even the children do this. I've even seen infants stare at me with a completely blank expression on their face. Their bodies go completely still as they stop whatever they're doing. The Koreans have a group mentality, and it seems to me to be something akin to a hive mind, like bees, or ants, or the Borg.
I always think that someone who stops and stares like this has blown a fuse, and they're communing with the group mind to retrieve any information about the strange apparition before them.
It must be so confusing for them to see a person of another colour, without black hair or eyes. You would think they'd be used to it by now, but the primitive and xenophobic bile spewed out by fucktards like Herr KKKonsoleman at KKKorean Sentry shows that they have a long way to go.
But it does have an amusing side.
I remember one time when Flint and I were dining at a galbi restaurant near his place. It had a glass front, and we could see new customers as they approached. But this one mook could not see us apparently, because it wasn't until he opened the door that he realized who and what we were. He stood there like a typical SJY, holding the door open.
Flint and I could see his wife coming along behind him at a respectful distance.
As she got to the door, her mook of a husband finally came to life. He let go of the door, shutting it in her face.
What would a fucktard do?
Amuse us greatly, for one thing.

What the ... hypocritical mook?!?!?

I was reading the latest post on Blackchild when I saw a link to one of his previous posts I had missed. Back then I was subscribed to a blog run by someone that tended to make a lot of inane posts. Thus causing a lot of spam and I would miss posts by others. But I digress.

Mike's post was about some of the BS foreigners face in South Korea. It was a good post, funny in parts. Especially how he dealt with the old mook on the bus.

In the comment section an Anonymous poster made some comments that had me writing a reply too lengthy for a comment section. So I am putting it here.

The anonymous Mook said

"ur so lucky that people pay attention to u. "

Evidently someone doesn't know the difference between good and bad attention. Pointing, staring, and harassing someoen isn't considered good attention by most people. From later comments of yours YOU didn't appreciate it.

Mr. Anonymous also seems to have missed the fact that when assistance was needed Koreans DIDN'T pay any attention.

"as an asian living in states i didnt have my native language conveniently posted everywhere or people try to speak my native tongue."

Be happy you didn't have hordes of people saying hello to you seemingly at random in the States. Shouting it repeatedly. Or people stopping you to practice their English by asking the same stupid questions the last 20 idiots asked and the next 20 will ask.

As for English being posted everywhere ... thanks for the laugh. Yes, there is a lot of English out there. However, there is a lot of BAD English out there too.

" people in states look at u funny automatically judge u bc dont speak perfect english."

Sounds like Koreans dealing with non-Koreans. I would guess you didn't appreciate that behaviour in the states so why should foreigners in Korea like it? When it comes to using Korean I have found a lot of Koreans do NOT want to speak Korean with you, they want to practice their English.

When you do use your Korea, no matter how good or bad your accent is many don't seem to understand you. I remember going to the corner store to get some bug spray. A Korean friend told me that all I have to do is ask for "combat", or as he said it "com bat uh". So I did. I asked about 20 times and the guy still didn't understand. So I called my friend who said exactly what I said but this time the guy understood. Or taxi drivers that don't understand when you say left or right in Korean. But if you say "leftuh" or "rightuh" they understand.

"dont expect koreans to adapt to ur ways. if your going to stay in korea u should learn their culture and language."

It is always funny to hear a Korean lecture about that. When in doubt blame the foreigner for not understanding Korean culture. What always made me laugh was when students went to study abroad and only left the Korean community to go to class. Which meant the only time they had to use English was in class. When they came back and would make comments like yours, how important it is for foreigners to learn the Korean Culture and language I would laugh at them.

For the most part foreigners aren't even asking Koreans to adapt to their ways. They want to be treated as a human being, not an animal in the zoo. They want to be treated politely. According to any Korean I asked it is rude to point at people in Korea. It is rude to stare. Yet, if you are a foreigner it happens all the time but it is ok because you aren't Korean. Like I told my students if it is rude to do it to another Korean it is rude to do it to anyone.

I love history and learning about other cultures. So I made a point of learning about Korean culture. Of course whenever anything came up I would be told "you don't understand Korean culture". Even when you were right.

As for learning the language, I learned enough to get by. However, the more I learned Korean the more I realized just how fucking rude so many of them were when they didn't think we understood them. (And to the apologists yes, Westerners do this too ... and when they do it around me I tend to tell them off. Two wrongs don't make a right.)

For a while this led me to actively stop learning Korean. Mike's reasoning was pretty close to mine. I wasn't out to learn Korean just to get in a woman's pants. Nor was I impressed with the way so many Koreans would not want to use Korean but insist on English, a lot of the time it felt like they just expected a free English lesson. More than a few times it was actually expressed that way ... "I practice Englishee on you."

So, Mr. Anonymous, your comments were kind of disjointed bordering on hypocritical. You complained because you were treated badly in the US but expect foreigners to just suck it up when in Korea. You sir are a fucking mook.

Shit Foreigners Say ... about Replies.

Why are they ignoring me?

They must have me on ignore.

They have me on ignore! That's not nice!

Ok, this COULD be something Koreans say too but I have heard it from more than a few foreigners. (One person did those so much it drove me crazy.) It happens when they send someone a text message, call and get no answer, or call and leave a message. If the person doesn't reply right away, let's say within 5-20 minutes, the whining starts.

What REALLY irks me about these kind of idiots is that they are hypocrites. They will take their time replying to messages, not reply at all, or even ignore an incoming call because they don't want to talk to the person. That is ok because it is them doing it, but when it happens to them (whether it really happened or they are just so paranoid they think it happened) the bitching starts.

What the ... slip and fall?!?!?

We had a bit of a flash freeze here last night and the city didn't salt the sidewalks. Needless to say walking the dog was an exercise in pain and frustration. It reminded me of slipping in Korea in the winter.

What made the slips different in Korea is that a lot of them weren't because of mother nature. Instead they were the result of morons.

There was a 24 hour pharmacy on a corner near Ivy school. Everyday they washed the floors inside, and the steps around 7-8AM. Then they would dump the water down the steps onto the sidewalk. Of course this would result in some nasty ice during the winter. Walking to work you would round a corner and immediately be on ice. This caused a lot of people, including me, to slip and fall. bloody mooks.

Then you have the adjummas that clean the stairs in buildings. They would do it regardless of the temperature. Leaving some bars in Cheongju was a survival test. I lost count of how many people I saw slip and fall on the first floor of the building Road King is in. You had to cling to the hand rail going down the stairs then brave the icy ramp. A few people ended up slipping and then sliding into piles of not quite frozen puke.

Ahhhh ... memories.

Mook of the Week

Another common type of Mook encountered in South Korea is the Milling Mook.

Milling Mooks are the kind that just stand around blocking the way, oblivious to what is going on around them. You can encounter them any where, at any time, in any weather. It can be an individual Milling Mook, a couple of them, or even a whole gaggle of them.

They come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. Sitting at the Dunkin Donuts patio Stig and I got to see lots of different mooks. They block the sidewalk. They even block the entrance to Dunkin Donuts.

Some of them will mill about on the street. The ones you see below milling about in the street beside the truck actually parked the truck there, helping to turn the street into an obstacle course. I guess that makes them double or triple Mooks.

Then you have the Drunken Milling Mooks They will block sidewalks and entrances to buildings while assing around. These four were actually part of a bigger group of Mooks. I believe it was a herd of 10-12. They spent about 30 minutes hanging around there, providing entertainment for Stig and I and frustration for pedestrians.

South Korea. Land of the Morning Calm and many varieties of Mooks. Whatever the type of Mook they all share the common Mook characteristics. A complete lack of common courtesy, an abundance of stupidity, and an over abundance of obliviousness. Which is why they act so surprised when you end up having to force your way through them.

Mook Of The Week

This week's mook is the woman standing in the middle of the intersection. I was stopped at a railway crossing, waiting for the train to pass when I spotted her.
There is a bus stop at this intersection, but passengers usually wait back where the truck is, just behind her. And of course, it's out of the street.
There's also a crosswalk, but it's a little further along the main road that I was on. Traffic was stopped, so she could have crossed any time she wanted. But she just stood there, staring off into space.
You can see another vehicle behind her, approaching the main road. It had to edge around her and past the truck in order to join the main flow. I don't know why the driver didn't give her a blast of his horn to get her to move. Maybe he was in a fog, too.
Fucking mooks.

My First Korean Con-Apt

Jisan-dong in Daegu, where I lived for the first six months of my first teaching contract.
Following are pictures of the first con-apt I lived in while teaching English in South Korea. It was a two-bedroom apartment, the only one I ever had. The rest of my time there, I was by myself in a "one-room." I must say I preferred to be alone. I shared the apartment with two different room-mates. The second was okay. He was a good guy, friendly, and as eager to explore Korea as I was.
My first room-mate, on the other hand was... well, picture the saddest, angriest, most paranoid individual you have ever met. Then double it. Imagine a guy who walked around with his own private raincloud perpetually lowered over his countenance, ready and willing to spread doom and gloom wherever he went. That was my first room-mate. He was to make my introduction to Korea a very bad experience, and a definite low point in my career as an English teacher. I had to live with this mook for a month that proved to be one of the longest of my life.
Why I didn't kill him, I don't know. I still fantasize about a dark alley, a sharp knife, and...
Well, back to the apartment.
The school paid the rent, and I was responsible for the utilities (gas, electricity, TV, etc.). We were provided with a television, hooked up to a basic cable package. There were about 70-odd channels, most of them Korean. A few movie channels showed English language programs, and Arirang showed Korean programs with English subtitles so that you could get an idea of what Korean TV was like. If you were lucky enough to be in a city with an American military base (like Daegu) you had access to the Armed Forces Network, that had a variety of U.S. programming.
There was also provided furniture, of the cheapest value that could be gotten. Most bedrooms had a bed, chair, wardrobe (there were no built-in closets in any apt. I lived in) and a desk/table. The kitchen had a table and chairs, and there was a couch in the "living room."
As I had just arrived, I had the smaller of the two bedrooms. There was just enough room to make comfortable arrangement of the furniture completely impossible, but I coped as best I could.

This is the road in front of my apartment building. A very narrow street, as you can see. It's going downhill, towards the main part of the neighbourhood where my hagwon was situated. If you turned around, you could see at the end of a street a rather large hill, which took about an hour to climb, offering quite a view of the city.

This is the main entrance to the building. The larger door was so that a vehicle could drive in and park in the courtyard, but that never happened while I was living there. The smaller door was the security door, which could be buzzed open from the apt. It never worked, and everybody usually came and went through the gate.

This is the entrance to the apt. The door is on the right, and the shoe cupboard is on the left. This is the only apt. I lived in where the shoe cupboard was built-in. The one-rooms usually had a smaller one next to the door. The entranceway featured a tiled area where everyone entering the apt. was supposed to leave their shoes. Custom dictated that nobody should wear their shoes in the house because it was considered "dirty." A Korean would goggle and gasp like they were having a heart attack if they ever caught a foreigner wearing their shoes in the house.

This is the kitchen area, just to the right of the main door. The hagwon supplied the fridge. This one was about the average size, though I have had a few that were bigger. A couple of times I have had hagwons try to get away with supplying what I would call a "beer fridge." These usually didn't last any longer than it took to replace them. One of my directors was astonished that I would need a regular sized fridge.
Foreigners constantly surprise them by acting like regular human beings.
Just on the right of the picture is the plastic garbage pail that I bought for myself. Hagwon owners don't supply these, apparently, and my first romm-mate just had a big 100-litre bag sitting on the floor.
What a mook.

This is the bathroom. Toilet, sink, and shower head attached to the wall. I've never had an apt. with a tub or separate bathing area. The water from the shower splashed on the floor and went down the drain in the middle. The bathroom had a raised threshold so the water didn't flow into the apt. After I'd been there a while, I purchased plastic slippers so I could walk on the floor without getting my feet wet, and a bathmat, so I could wipe my feet after coming out of the bathroom.
My first room-mate hadn't thought to supply these basic necessities even for himself.
What a mook.
If you look closely to the left of the sink, you can see two shower heads and a water heater attached to the wall. This was because that fucking mook hadn't figured out how to heat the water for his shower, and the hagwon hadn't seen fit to instruct him in its proper use. They did spring for this extra water heater, which kept the water hot enough for you to get wet, and then turned cold.
Very bracing!
I must say that I wasn't smart enough to figure out something was wrong until I got my second room-mate. He figured out how to get the regular shower working properly.
Why the hagwon couldn't have figured that out before paying for the extra heater is beyond me. Laying out any more money than they have to is anathema to them.
The way it was set up was pretty fucked up, too. The gas line came in through the bathroom window (Heh. In-joke for Beatles fans), which consequently could not close all the way during one of the coldest winters in Korean history. Nice engineering, eh? Typical of the makeshift that characterized all Korean engineering.
So that was the basic arrangement that I was introduced to when I first met my first room-mate and co-worker in Korea.
More about that fucking idiot soon.

Costco Mooks

I went to Costco today to pick up the usual load of groceries, and had to deal with the usual load of mooks. It's my own fault for not getting up earlier. Flint and I would always show up at 10 when they opened in order to be in and out before the place was overrun.
There was plenty of parking spaces at that time, too. There was also plenty of parking spaces when we left, but damned if the mooks weren't parked anywhere and everywhere. Especially in the travel lanes, making them as narrow as they possibly could. What did they care, the fucking mooks?
I remember one time we went there in the middle of the day. I was surprised we got out of there with as little pain as we did. And we didn't have to kill hardly anyone!
Today there were a couple of Koreans ahead of me in the checkout line. The girl was a typically useless Korean female, who had a purse hanging from one arm, rendering it useless for moving the groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt. She would try and grab something and move it, but all she could do was sort of push or pull at it vaguely until the guy picked it up for her. I suppose she could've put the bag down and used two arms, but... I don't know, it didn't seem to occur to her.
Then there was the guy and his wife that I kept meeting coming the other way. You know when you're going up and down the aisles and you constantly meet someone going in the opposite direction? It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't constantly park their cart in front of the exact thing I wanted every single damn time!
These mooks topped off my experience just as I was leaving. I was coming back to my car after dropping off my cart, and there they were, in between my car and theirs, loading stuff into their side door. I got into my car, started the engine, and waited for them to get out of the way. They unloaded half their stuff, finally "noticed" me, and waved at me to go. Without moving themselves or their cart from in between the vehicles.
What the kimchi?
Since when is that safe practice? I shook my head. I eventually had to wait for them to finish unloading everything and get out of the way before I could move.
Fucking mooks.

Shit Koreans Do... At The Theatre

I was at the movies today. I went to see the new "Harry Potter" film. I quite enjoy the books and the movies. I wasn't aware of Harry Potter until I went to Korea in 2000. I started to see stories on the news about kids lined up to buy each new book as it came out, and dismissed it as something that I was too old for.
But during my first year in Korea, I became desperate for things to read. I picked up the first Potter book and I never looked back.
Watching the latest film, I became aware of a family of mooks sitting behind me. The little girl asked questions about what was happening every five minutes, which her mom did her best to answer. Neither one of her parents asked her to be quiet, and her persistent whispering went on and on. The dad was not impressed with the film at all, and complained loudly as soon as the end credits started to roll. Things like "garbage" and "waste of time" and so on. The little girl seemed like she enjoyed the films; I wondered what she thought of what her dad had to say.
The rest of the audience was pretty well behaved. There weren't any other talkers and nobody fiddled with their cell phones at all. There were a couple of times when some kids left to go to the bathroom, but they returned to their seats with little hullabaloo.
How different from a Korean movie theatre!
The amount of mookish behaviour that goes in there has to be seen to be believed. People coming in late, people going in and out all through the film, kids running up and down the aisles, people talking, people talking/texting on their cell phones - it was no wonder Flint and I went to fewer and fewer films as time went by.
Once, when we went to see "Miami Vice," it was like we were surrounded by mooks who came to the movie expressly to talk to their friends on the phone. Silly Flint and I had actually come to see the film, and nothing else.
I was sitting next to a woman who just would not leave her phone alone. I finally leaned over and started yakking in her ear, "Who is it? Is is for me? If it's for me, I'll talk."
She shut the phone off, but she was not happy. Her big plan to get back at me was to wait until I took a swig from my drink, and then fill the cup holder on the armrest between us with her own bottle of water.
I chucked it on the floor.
She started chattering away at me, and I said something like, "I'm trying to watch the film!" I kept expecting her boyfriend to do something about me. What I didn't realize was that he had made a motion to put me in my place, but Flint had loomed up behind me. The boyfriend scuttled back into his seat like a turtle retreating into his shell.
There's nothing so frightening as Flint when he looms... or smiles.
Well, that was the "high point" of our theatre-going experience in the Land of Morning Calm and Afternoon Difficulty.
After Flint left Korea, I did go to a couple of movies with our mutual friend Spock, and whenever the usual mookish behaviour began, I took to throwing popcorn at the offending mook.
The look on their faces... still convulses me with howls of derisive laughter!

Shit Koreans Do

Well, Flint has had some good posts going, so I thought I'd expand on them. It's not that I don't have any examples of shit Koreans say. I have plenty, but I was thinking of the incident I'm about to relate, and thought I'd get it down while it was fresh in my memory.
One of the things Koreans do is touch your stuff. They're endlessly curious about foreigners, and don't feel any compunction about examining you and your things like you're one of those special exhibits in a museum.
My students do this, but they're kids. I teach them to be more polite (something their parents seem to neglect to do).
Flint has already talked about how people in supermarkets'll go through your cart, but this incident occured while we were drinking.
Once, when Flint and I were at Road King enjoying some cigars, a Korean friend of Flint's noticed my lighter. It was a Zippo I had picked up in Japan, featuring The Beatles' logo on the side.
He asked me if it was genuine, and I said that I assumed it was. Whether it was genuine wasn't really important to me, the fact that it had "The Beatles" on the side (and it worked okay) was more to the point, I thought.
But apparently the genuineness of the item in question was important to this mook.
I call him a mook even though he was a friend of Flint's, because he proceeded to take my lighter apart without so much as a "by your leave."
That's right. He took out a screwdriver and began to disassemble the lighter right then and there.
What the kimchi?!
I was too gobsmacked (and maybe a little TOO polite) to do what I should have done - smack him liberally about the head and shoulders.
Well, I got my lighter back okay, and Flint and I continued with our process of withdrawing from going to Road King because the people there were just getting too fucking weird.
That mook could never understand why I refused to drink with him from that point on.

Mook of the Week

Here is another tribute to Delivery Mooks.

They really do exemplify a good part of what makes a mook a mook. A complete disregard for others. They park where they want, when they want, regardless of how it may inconvenience others. Even when there are better spots to park that won't block things, or at least won't block them as much, they still take the path or most resistance.

This mook was making a delivery to a bar by the benches where Stig and I often had after dinner cigars and drinks. It is a very busy 2 lane street. Thanks to people parking wherever they want it often seems like a one lane street.

Along comes this delivery mook. He sort of double parks, blocks both lanes of traffic getting out and mooking about his truck. He actually spent more time mooking about his truck than in making his delivery. At first he blocked traffic getting shit out. He LEFT the door to the refrigerated trailer OPEN while he went in!

Then after making the delivery he fucked around the side of his truck again for a while before leaving.

Needless to say there was more than a bit of horn blowing and posturing going on from the other mooks this mook inconvenienced.

Aish! Delivery mooks!!! Ah shepal!!!

Mook Of The Week

When Koreans move house, it is quite a sight. There are two vehicles involved. One is the van with all the furniture, etc., and the other is a lift which can reach as high as the top of a 15-20 story apartment building. The movers load as much stuff as they can onto a platform that goes shooting up into the air, to be unloaded through the window into the "balcony."
I say "balcony," because most Korean apartments have a storage space/laundry room where you and I expect a balcony. It seems very strange to me to waste the area that would provide a view of the outside world.
But then most Koreans seem to close off their windows rather than open them up. Businesses cover them with signage, like my hagwon. Instead of a big window, my students and I get to look at the reverse side of "CIA."

But anyway, the mook that we're looking at this week is the driver of the moving van parked squarely in the only travel lane available to anyone who wanted to use this road. The driver and his two children were milling around in front of the truck, selfishly oblivious to the bottleneck they had thus provided.

I had first seen this truck from the rear, at the far end of the street. As I approached I thought surely he must move before I got there, but no. He was still there by the time I had passed on up the street to my con-apt, about the same distance the other way as when I had first sighted the vehicle. The driver and his kids were still milling around, seemingly wothout a care in the world, and still selfishly oblivious to the world around them.
What a mook!

Mook of the Week

I was looking through the archives again and came across this mook who lived and parked near my apartment. That is about the only thing that makes him special. He is a common sort of mook who parks where and as he pleases regardless of how it affects others.

He would usually park just like this. Blocking 2 lanes instead of just one. Creating a bottle neck in the cross road.

His crappy parking jobs almost caused a few accidents. The roads he would block tended to have quite a bit of traffic. There is a corner store across from where he parked. This would cause other mooks to park blocking the rest of the street.

You would see the bus driver out on weekends washing the bus in that spot. His back to potential traffic. his mind, what he has that passes for one, focused on the bus. I almost ran into him with my scooter a few times when he was doing that. He would just blindly walk backwards into the part of the road he wasn't blocking. Then when you beep your horn and yell at him to watch out he would have the old slack jawed look. Then he would look at me like I just did something wrong and mutter. Even having his mookishness pointed out to him would never stop him from mooking it up the next time.

Just a garden variety mook in Korea.

What the ... rude hello?

Stig's comments, and 3gyupsal's in a previous thread, reminded me of something that never fails to irk me to some degree ... rude hello's. You are probably wondering what the kimchi a rude hello is.

A rude hello is when someone greets you in a rude manner. They shout it. Or shout it repeatedly. Or say something stupid instead of hello. Or do it when you are obviously busy, or talking with someone else. Or do it in passing. I think you get the idea.

Once, and this has happened many times, I was walking home from work in YongAm-dong. I was talking to a friend on the phone. I heard something behind me. It sounded like someone (middle school girls it turned out) saying "Nice to meet you. Where are you from?" Since I hadn't met anyone, and I was busy on the phone I ignored it and kept walking and talking. A few seconds later a girl starts screeching at the top of her lungs "Hello! Hello! I said hello!!!!" My friend could hear them loud and clearly on the phone. I turned around and yelled in Korea "Shut up! I am on the phone!" Then I told them they were very rude.

You will get some people (and it isn't always kids, adults do this a lot) who will shout hello out the window of a moving vehicle. Or better yet they shout "nice to meet you." We haven't met you moron. Shouting that out of a window is not meeting a person, nor is it saying hello.

Strangely enough this has ONLY happened in Korea with one exception. Once, when I was in China on vacation, a guy shouted hello from a passing van in a parking lot. Without thinking I replied back in Korean, saying hello. Then the guy started nattering on in Korean. "Oh. You speak Korean. I am from Korea!" What the kimchi?!? The only person stupid enough in China to shout hello like that ... was a Korean.

I would usually carried my Ipod with me when I walked to work. With the music turned up it was easier to ignore some of the stupidity around me. That still wouldn't stop people from screeching hello at me. Repeatedly. Or, as I mentioned elswehere, some would even jump in front of you screeching it.

Or you get Koreans who will just keep repeating a word or two at you. (Not necessarily to you but AT you.) For example I had a kid once that evidently was never taught hello. He followed me around a store saying "Wow." in a moronic way 5-6 times. Or the idiots walking down the street who, as they pass you by will look at you and say "Ok!" What the kimchi? What is ok? My clothes? You approve of my presence in your country?

Or the even stupider people who wait until they have passed you and say "hello" or worse "nice to meet you." I can't remember how many times that has happened. You know, if you have passed someone it is bye not hi. and if you never talked to them you didn't meet them.

It isn't just that they are rude. Acting like this makes the person look like a fricking moron. What else would you call a person who doesn't even know how to say hello politely?

When I teach I try to make sure my students will never act like this. I teach them that there is a proper time and place to approach someone. I also try to teach them to do it in a proper, respectful way. Now by respectful I don't mean "Hello Sir." I mean using proper manners.

I would always ask them if they would shout hello at Koreans they don't know. They would say no. Some would say "No, they might get angry." So ... why approach a foreigner like that? And why be surprised if they get angry when you do? If you wouldn't act that way with a Korean don't do it with a foreigner.

I have no problems with strangers saying hello in a polite way. I always return it and if I am in the mood will exchange pleasantries. It is the morons who approach me in a rude or disrespectful way I have no time for.

Mook Of The Week

This week's mook is whoever put the sidewalk in across the street from the elementary/middle school in Oksan. The street that runs past my hagwon runs another block south before ending in a T-intersection at the school. The sidewalk was installed running east and west from that intersection. Railings were put in place to separate the sidewalk from the street, and the usual signage about looking out for kids was added. There're speed bumps on the road as well, encouraging everyone to take it slow where children are apt to be crossing the street. Not that it slows the mooks down very much. I mean, if you're a stupid shit-for-brains moron with no more brains than God gave a tree stump, why would you slow down for a speed bump, or a sign, or a child in the middle of a crosswalk?
That's why the sidewalk was a great idea. It gives the kids a kind of a refuge from the mooks going past.
Except...
the sidewalk (east and west) STOPS in the middle of the block, forcing whoever is using it back out onto the street.
What the kimchi?!
Who installs half a sidewalk?
A mook, that's who!

Mook of the Week

I dug into my archives for this weeks mook. This one involves stupid parking AND driving through a crosswalk.

I was sitting inside the Dunkin Donut's near work, it has no patio :(, watching the mooks go by. I noticed an SUV parked ON the sidewalk in front of the bank.

After about 15 minutes I noticed a guy walk between it and the bank. It was hard to tell if he was putting something in the passengers side or stopping to have a whizz. He did look very mookish so I wondered if it was the SUV driver. I was right, he came around and hopped in the drivers side.

Then he proceeded to back up while people were using the sidewalk, and standing around the crosswalk waiting for the light to cross. (I didn't get pictures of that as I was shooting video of it.)

Of course he only had one way of getting off the sidewalk without driving over the curb. That was by driving through the crosswalk.

Being a mook he didn't bother looking to see where pedestrians were when he started backing down the sidewalk. Nor did he pat much attention to the cars on the street when he pulled out into the crosswalk and onto the road.

Sadly, this type of behaviour was fairly common. The stupid parking and not paying attention can all be seen on a normal day in South Korea. The driving through crosswalks I saw at LEAST once a month.

A sense of entitlement, horrible driving skills, and oblivious to those around you. You sir are a classic mook.

What the ... attitude 2?!?!?

All that talk about rude Expats and the banter with Mr. Anonymous got me thinking. Who were some of the rudest Expats I encountered in South Korea? What nationality were they?

Some of the rudest, most obnoxious, arrogant Expats I had the bad luck to encounter in South Korea were ... Mormon missionaries. Some were yanks. Some were Canucks. Some were supposedly from Europe. Which goes to show that mookishness knows no boundaries.

The first school I worked at was nicknamed "The Mormon School." The owners were Mormon. The morning desk staff were Mormon. If you walked in during the AM you would hear the front desk singing hymns. Mormon Missionaries would drop in all the time. And the Missionaries seemed to be the worst of the crop.

You would be having a conversation with a co-worker or student and the missionaries would feel the need to interject. Regardless of the topic. Without so much as an excuse me. Or even introducing themselves. That is when they weren't hogging the ONE computer we had for staff and students to use.

One time a co-worker and I were talking in the staff room. One of the missionaries let himself in. I was telling Matt how I learned what "do you want to die" was in Korean. This mookanary felt the need to chime in and lecture us on how no one should be teaching us words like that. He was given some prime examples of other words he didn't like ... and told that since he didn't work at the school he could get the fuck out of the STAFF room.

Several missionaries felt the need to inform me, and friends, that they don't care about us. By "don't care about you" they meant they didn't care what we did in South Korea or what our religion was I assume. Or maybe they meant they literally didn't give a shit about foreigners at all. And that is the wording some of the used ... "we don't care about you". They were in South korea to "save the heathens". Nice attitude. Great way to make introduce yourself. "Hi, I am Elder Asshole. I don't care what you are doing in Korea. I am here to save the heathens. Hoo Rah!"

Then you had the ones that insisted you use their title "Elder". Imagine some snot nosed little shit 10 years or more your junior insisting that you call them Elder.

Some of them even fell into the "sense of entitlement" category I discussed in a previous thread. I remember one day when I was hurrying to work. I had a couple of minutes to go or I would be late. Two Moron ... errr Mormon missionaries ... were coming up the sidewalk. It was a huge sidewalk, 4 Expats could walk side by side on it. At the last second these two cut in front of me. I had to stop or plow into them. Unfortunately, I chose to be polite and stopped.

One of the mooks said "Hi. are you in a hurry?"

Biting my tongue I said "Yes, I am almost late for work."

He said "oh" and then started asking some inane question. I ended up shouldering them aside and hurrying to work. Made it with seconds to spare.

I know friends who had ok encounters with Moromon missionaries. I know those who had encounters like mine. Unfortunately all of my encounters with them were bad in some way. They just came off as too full of themselves and too mookish.

Mook Of The Week

Well, my time in Korea is just about up. I haven't had any responses to my applications, and nothing appealing has appeared on my radar.
But, Flint and I have many photos of many mooks to expose, so let's get to this week's idiot.
Flint and I used to spend our Sundays on the patio at Dunkin Donuts. It was a busy intersection. There were a lot of opportunities to see ritual idioting behaviour, as well as a never-ending parade of Korean hotties to shamelessly ogle.
Tap, tap.
There was a taxi queue next to the building, as it was just down the block from the bus terminal. The queue would stretch around the block, and the taxi drivers would often take up room in a travel lane, in a crosswalk, and generally slow traffic down. But god help anyone who did the same thing! The cab drivers would beep their horns and swear at the offender for doing the same thing they just did, and are about to do.
There aren't any back alleys, and not a lot of loading docks for Korean businesses, unless it's a major concern like a department store. Delivery trucks stop at the curb in front of whatever business, and bring in the supplies across the sidewalk, blocking traffic. Sometimes they'll park on the sidewalk and block pedestrian traffic.
Now, one afternoon, Flint and I witnessed the delivery to end all deliveries, perpretrated by this week's mook. He was bringing supplies to Dunkin's, and leaving it by their front door. But he wasn't piling it near the door, he was piling it in front of the door.

Your average mook will always do it. it never fails. They'll go to the narrowest point of any lane of traffic and stop there, blocking up the works for everyone else. There's been many times that Flint and I have seen this entrance blocked by mooks milling around, seemingly without any other purpose.
But this... This was a guy working for a business, and not even thinking about the business, and how someone might want to get in and spend their hard earned dollar.
You sir, are a mook!

Mook Of The Week

Last week, I finished my TESOL course, courtesy of Juseong University in Cheongju.
We had our graduation ceremony on Friday, which is where I ran into this week's mook.
The hallmark of any mook, as I have said, is the complete inability to use common sense. Even the simplest of snags or snafus can completely buffalo mooks and derail their entire day. The problem is, they usually take someone with them.
While I and my fellow students were busy getting our certificates, and being congratulated for finishing the course, we had left our cameras with a couple of assistants, who were asked to please take photos of the group, and the ceremony, and the handing over of the certificates, etc.
By the way, the certificate I was given mispelled my name. The mook in charge of making sure all the names were properly spelt texted me a few days before to make sure he got it right. When I pointed out that he got it WRONG, he checked the text on his phone, which sure enough had the right spelling.
D'oh!
But he's not the mook this week. He's the bonus mook, I guess.
No, this week's mook was one of the assistants handling our cameras and taking photos.
Now, I have a digital camera, just like most people these days. One of the things I like to do is shut the screen off when I'm not going to immediately be using the camera, as it saves the battery. I should have re-activated the screen before handing it over, but I neglected to do so in all the excitement.
The mook in question was completely baffled by the absence of a picture on the screen when he picked up my camera. I could see him milling around in the back, holding it this way and that, trying to see if the picture would show up from a different angle. Meanwhile, group shots were being posed, and individuals were taking their place next to the instructors, and all the while this mook is trying to figure out how he can take a picture without any preview available on the screen.
You and I both know that all anybody has to do is look through the viewfinder, and voila, the picture is there, ready for framing.
Do mooks understand about viewfinders? Does anybody use the viewfinder anymore?
I like the viewfinder. It makes for a better shot, I think.
Anyway, judge for yourself.
Here is the group, students and instructors, all together.

Here are the instructors: Daniel, Nick, and Dr. Kim.

And this is a shot of myself with Daniel and Nick.

These are the best of the photos the mook took, so I'll let you imagine the rest of them.
Sometimes, people remark that a really intelligent person can "think outside the box."
Mooks are not only happy inside the box, they cannot conceive of an outside, let alone imagine navigating their way through such treacherous waters. I hope the mook who took these photos is happy inside the box that I left him in, because he's going to be there for a looonnnggg time.