How to Avoid Being Beaten Up in Korea

Ahhhh...You want to go to Korea. You want to go there ever since you started watching their melodramatic soap operas. You save money and have finished all the necessary documents. But before jumping into that country here are some tips that will be useful if you are in Korea.

I read so many blog entries commenting about Koreans being xenophobic but this blog article really disturbed me. It seems foreigners could get randomly beaten up in Korea! Yes, even when you are just sightseeing - someone might not like your race and physically assault you. Worse if you fight back the Korean police will arrest you instead of the perpetrators! Unbelievable.

Here's the article from the Metropolitician:

I'm serious. I've had enough experience with this, as have my many foreign friends, with being verbally and physically assaulted in Korea without provocation. To help those new to Korea, especially non-Korean Americans, I've compiled a list of little things to do to help reduce your chance of being attacked.

Because the police will likely not help you, since you are a foreigner, and might even arrest YOU if any Korean simply accuses you of being the instigator, even if you were the victim. And also included are some tips to avoid sexual harrassment and attacks on foreign women as well, at least from what I have seen and heard as a man.

There will necessarily be generalizations made here, not so much about people, but about probabilities that things will happen. But I think it's like wearing a seatbelt: it only helps if you do it consistently, not once-in-a-while. So, in order to prevent bad things from occurring, you have to just avoid doing certain things, or condition yourself to behave in slightly different ways in certain situations.

"HIGH-RISK" FOR BEING HARASSED OR ASSAULTED
--- Foreign men, specifically men who do not look like they may be migrant or factory workers. Those people are generally socially invisible, which is another problem and issue, but not what we're discussing here.
--- If you are or look like an American GI.
--- If you are part of a foreign male/Korean female couple. If you and/or your female companion would be considered more attractive than usual by Korean standards, you have an even higher likelihood of being harrassed.
--- If you are in a group of foreigners, especially speaking English loudly.
--- In certain areas, just being foreign.

View the full post here

So, you could get beaten up even if you're not dating Korean women. The only foreigners less likely to get assaulted are the physically imposing which shows you the nature of the attackers - cowards. Getting attacked or physically assaulted could happen to any foreigner in any country so it pays to be careful and mindful of your surroundings whenever you are abroad.

NORTH KOREAN BEAUTIES: WAITRESS OR PLEASURE BRIGADE "GIMPPEUMJO"

A North Korean waitress who sparked comments such as these:

Why do I like North Korean girls? Because you get to see what a hot Korean girl looks like WITHOUT any plastic surgery.
Wangkon936 from Youtube

She really looks like Kim Tae Hee. Even the skin tone and the hair style. If an average waistress is this much, imagine what the real one would be like.
Synergymaster

In the Korean peninsula, they have a saying that the "ultimate women are in the north..." Intrigued by the saying I searched the net for some collaboration. I mean the Korean women we usually see on TV are beautiful but they are from the South...if the saying is true then the North Korean women should be better looking! (At the investigation of South Korean fans themselves, several of their beautiful female actresses were later discredited as man-made beauties).

dancing waitresses

Since its suicide going to North Korea and their citizens are tightly controlled by their government, the only way to get a glimpse of these alleged beauties is to go to various DPRK restaurants proliferating in South East Asia. Rumor has it the waitresses were carefully culled from the population. Only beautiful women were selected and judging from the videos, I reckon the tale has some basis.



I think the North Korean girls would rather sing in restaurants abroad than be part of Kim Jong Il's pleasure brigade (Gimppeumjo) or modern day kisaengs made famous here by Hwang Jin-yi. It's just too bad for these North Korean beauties. Their state exploits them either as overseas-based waitress or pleasure ladies.





Update:
When Asian Guys Get The Girls

FINALLY A FILIPINO SERIES IN KOREA

I have covered this before but I'm glad I got a confirmation

Boys Nxt Door is a defunct GMA teen-oriented show that was screened in Korea. It was shown on KBS Drama (a cable channel) at 1:20 AM every Sunday (as confirmed by this sked).Based on the schedule, the show's last episode aired on July 6, 2008.

Just like in Taiwan, Korean television companies want to broaden their perspective, welcoming TV shows from other countries beside traditional powers China, Japan and the United States.

If you can read Hangul, this is the report and the English news from Junior Herald:

There are many foreign dramas and sitcoms airing on Korean television networks, entertaining and capturing the eyes of many Koreans. Although there are just so many of them playing in various channels, there is not enough variety in terms of their *origin. This is because they usually are from the U.S., Japan, and China. Therefore, it seems like we are not getting enough *diversity because those three large drama exporters are obviously not the only foreign countries that have fun, interesting dramas.

However, good news for foreign drama lovers, the first Philippine drama began airing on KBSN, a cable channel, on May 11. Called Boys Nxt Door,the drama is an award-winning sitcom and one of the most loved sitcoms for youth. It first *premiered on Jun. 24, 2007 in the Philippines and ended on Jan. 13, 2008.


It is still an achievement for a Philippine network to export series to a more developed country. This phenomenon is rare as in most cases, it is the other way around (rich countries' cultural content sold to poor ones).

The series isn't really that great so I didn't bother to watch it. Most likely it is full of cliches and other superficial stuff common in Manila teen shows. I wonder if GMA could make another sale after this. Hopefully, it could. Why did I say that? Well, the series most likely flopped after all no Korean teenager would stay up that late - but I hope I'm wrong.

Congratulations though to GMA Marketing for successfully selling this series abroad (it is also aired in Malaysia).

Korea, Korea

Originally written January 22, 2008

My admiration towards this Korean actress rekindled my interest in everything Korean again. Yup, I learned a lot about Korea including some disturbing facts as well. The most disturbing is this one by a Dutch navigator who got shipwrecked in Korea sometime in the 17^th century. His name escapes me but most Koreans probably know him as a proof of their wretched behavior.

He and his crew were traveling from Japan to Taiwan when they met some weather disturbance and found themselves in a strange country they had no idea with (Korea was still closed to outsiders that time and most probably Europeans don’t have any idea what this country was). The King of Joseon refused to let them leave so that his country would still remain unknown to the rest of the world. Upon his orders, no help was provided to the crew and they were treated like dirt. The sailors were forced to beg in order to survive for thirteen years until they successfully escaped to Japan where they were treated more humanely. I think only eight sailors including the Dutch captain survived (but knowing how the Dutch treated the Indonesians in the past and being the notorious slave-traders I don’t pity those sailors). It is an ugly scar in Korean history.