Things Koreans do that irks us

...a girl INSISTED on taking my dog's spot despite that there were 2 open seats elsewhere...

    Next time, make sure your dog and its carry case is on the seat and that it's the seat next to the window, not the aisle. People are far less likely to want to crawl over you to get to a seat, especially when you point out the empty ones elsewhere.
It's also a good way to make sure your pet doesn't annoy people too much. 

And as others have posted, if you buy 2 seats, then you get two seats. Heck, I've seen folk buy seats for their luggage -- presumably because they don't want bus drivers tossing it about during transfers etc.

I have been in Korea 2 months now, and only had really good experiences up until now. However, this weekend, I bought a bus ticket for my dog so I didn't have to hold her carrier in my lap the entire 4-hour trip from Seoul to Chungbuk, and a girl INSISTED on taking my dogs spot despite that there were 2 open seats elsewhere. She kind of stood in the aisle and just looked at me expectantly, and I showed her the 2 tickets I had bought, pointed to one ticket and at myself, then to the other ticket and to my dog in the other seat, and she still just stood there, waiting for me to move my dog. I was honestly, very pissed off. If it was a short bus ride, that's fine. But considering I paid 30,00 won for the bus fare so I could be comfortable instead of miserable for 4 hours straight, I was very upset. Then she has the audacity to close both the air vents completely, so I'm sweating my butt off the entire time. My dog got really antsy after about 3 hours, and started panting once she closed the vents, so I had to take her out of her crate and put her on my lap. Then, she had the audacity to look annoyed when my dog tried to get her attention and wagged her tail excitedly. I should have just stood my ground.

1) You paid for that seat. It's yours.

2) Leave the dogs at home and get a pet sitter. No one wants to be on a bus smelling and listening to your dog. People used to have the class to leave their pets at home, not anymore. What if someone on the bus has allergies?

People need to get a grip when it comes to their pets. It's a dog. It can handle you being away for 2 days.

She's a nasty, childish little git, resorting to little passive aggressive games out of spite. I'm surprised they let you take the dog out, but their policy seems to permit it and you paid for it so the seat is yours.

I have to agree with Mr.DeMartino, and as a pet owner, unless it's an emergency, leave the dog at home.
I'd be pretty pissed and consider you a selfish twit if I had to sit near your dog for 3hrs, trying to keep its fur off my clothes and tolerating the smell and potential noise.

Good lord

Yeah, my ex and I had a cat, and then two cats about a month before I ended it.

We'd go to Seoul and 6 hours later she'd day, "I hope the cat is ok."

It's a cat. I love cats, but he'll be fine for the 10 hours we'll be gone. Calm the f down.

You can literally leave a cat for 4 days if you leave enough shit out for it.

Also just a side thing...I live in Chungbuk and it's 1-2 hours from Seoul, What kinda bus were you on? 

We live in Anyang. She worries WAY TOO MUCH.

Edit: I think I get what you're asking. We never brought the cats, they stayed at home. I mean we'd be gone for 8 hours and she'd worry.

"I hope they're okay."

Jesus Christ, they're fine. They've been at home 7 hours without us, calm down.

I have been in Korea 2 months now, and only had really good experiences up until now. However, this weekend, I bought a bus ticket for my dog so I didn't have to hold her carrier in my lap the entire 4-hour trip from Seoul to Chungbuk, and a girl INSISTED on taking my dogs spot despite that there were 2 open seats elsewhere. She kind of stood in the aisle and just looked at me expectantly, and I showed her the 2 tickets I had bought, pointed to one ticket and at myself, then to the other ticket and to my dog in the other seat, and she still just stood there, waiting for me to move my dog. I was honestly, very pissed off. If it was a short bus ride, that's fine. But considering I paid 30,00 won for the bus fare so I could be comfortable instead of miserable for 4 hours straight, I was very upset. Then she has the audacity to close both the air vents completely, so I'm sweating my butt off the entire time. My dog got really antsy after about 3 hours, and started panting once she closed the vents, so I had to take her out of her crate and put her on my lap. Then, she had the audacity to look annoyed when my dog tried to get her attention and wagged her tail excitedly. I should have just stood my ground.

1) You paid for that seat. It's yours.

2) Leave the dogs at home and get a pet sitter. No one wants to be on a bus smelling and listening to your dog. People used to have the class to leave their pets at home, not anymore. What if someone on the bus has allergies?

People need to get a grip when it comes to their pets. It's a dog. It can handle you being away for 2 days.

She's a nasty, childish little git, resorting to little passive aggressive games out of spite. I'm surprised they let you take the dog out, but their policy seems to permit it and you paid for it so the seat is yours.

I have to agree with Mr.DeMartino, and as a pet owner, unless it's an emergency, leave the dog at home.
I'd be pretty pissed and consider you a selfish twit if I had to sit near your dog for 3hrs, trying to keep its fur off my clothes and tolerating the smell and potential noise.

Good lord

Yeah, my ex and I had a cat, and then two cats about a month before I ended it.

We'd go to Seoul and 6 hours later she'd day, "I hope the cat is ok."

It's a cat. I love cats, but he'll be fine for the 10 hours we'll be gone. Calm the f down.

You can literally leave a cat for 4 days if you leave enough shit out for it.

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Dogs on the other hand. Bloody hell, you've got to walk it multiple times a day, pick up it's crap, it needs space otherwise it gets miserable, and deal with the saliva. Why dogs are so popular (among Koreans and ESL teachers) is completely beyond me.

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Dogs on the other hand. Bloody hell, you've got to walk it multiple times a day, pick up it's crap, it needs space otherwise it gets miserable, and deal with the saliva. Why dogs are so popular (among Koreans and ESL teachers) is completely beyond me.

Because they don't give people the "Oh, this asshole again" look. xD

Dogs are more sociable. Make good companions for people who like sociable.

Also, cat allergies. Way more common than dog allergies.

Personally, I like both cats and dogs.

But I'm more of a dog person because I don't like the litterbox smell, don't like how cats touch everything after rubbing their shitty-paws in that damn litterbox, don't like how they rub against everything right after licking themselves, don't want to worry about my stuff getting scratched up, spraying (had a friend who adopted a cat with a spraying problem even though it had already been neutered -- not an easy habit to break once formed), and I hate how cat fur just magically finds and attaches itself to everything I own no matter what I do. At least they have a variety of dogs that are easy to train and have hair instead of fur (poodles are a personal favorite of mine). The trade-off is that they're higher maintenance, but the pros outweight the cons, and it works for me.

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Are your cats toilet trained?

If not, I'm curious about the litter box situation...what do you do (I can't imagine how 8 days without a cleaning would go down)?

Water change?

If your feeders fail/jam, what then?

Getting someone to stop by to make sure all is well wouldn't be a bad idea.

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Dogs on the other hand. Bloody hell, you've got to walk it multiple times a day, pick up it's crap, it needs space otherwise it gets miserable, and deal with the saliva. Why dogs are so popular (among Koreans and ESL teachers) is completely beyond me.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Are your cats toilet trained?

If not, I'm curious about the litter box situation...what do you do (I can't imagine how 8 days without a cleaning would go down)?

Water change?

If your feeders fail/jam, what then?

Getting someone to stop by to make sure all is well wouldn't be a bad idea.

Right, kind of wondered about all that myself. They've got water feeders/fountains for pets, too, so I thought maybe that was his setup for that.

Litter box... figured either he has cats that aren't too picky, or he has a cat genie or something.

Also, while my neighbor was on vacation, I had to go clean her cat's litterbox out everyday or else that cat would shit on the couch.

anti-Japanism

I wonder if Mr. Kelly would be so adored here after his BBC video went viral if they knew he was writing stuff like this

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-south-korea-so-obsessed-japan

I hate when people stop in the middle of the sidewalk when it's crowded to talk/look at their phone, or stop in the middle of the sidewalk when it's crowded and abruptly change directions without first looking to see who's behind them, thus slamming into you. Or when people walk 3-4 deep across the sidewalk without caring if people are trying to get past. And when they are walking towards you and so deep into staring at their phone they don't look up until right before they walk into you and then they do the little gasp when they look up surprised to see you right in front of them. 

I used to move out of the way of the last type of folks but these days it's so annoying that I just keep going and when they get close enough I say "앞에 보세요!" loudly to startle them. Makes me feel better. Lol!

last week i was at a bus terminal and this woman stopped to check something on her phone literally right in front of the glass exit door to the terminal. like, 2 inches away from it, completely blocking the exit.

how can you be so oblivious to everything around you that you stop right in front of a door?

i've also had people stop at the bottom of the escalators, completely blocking the way for anyone trying to go up.

last week i was at a bus terminal and this woman stopped to check something on her phone literally right in front of the glass exit door to the terminal. like, 2 inches away from it, completely blocking the exit.

how can you be so oblivious to everything around you that you stop right in front of a door?

i've also had people stop at the bottom of the escalators, completely blocking the way for anyone trying to go up.

At the CU on Namsan (the one where the buses go) I was next in line and an old Chinese man just came up and went in front of me.

"LINE. LINE. LINNEEEEEE." (points behind me sternly)

  什么？什么是一条线？ (walks away)

F'in hell.

Get my shit, go to leave. There's a Chinese mother and her kid. In the double doors, one each. IN THE DOORWAY. Eating ice cream. They look like pigs in shit.

Here's where I get to exercise my Chinese prowess with one of two words I know.

"门! 门! 门~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!"

  哦，这是一扇门吗？我以为这是冰淇淋区。

MOVE LADY.

FFS

anti-Japanism

I wonder if Mr. Kelly would be so adored here after his BBC video went viral if they knew he was writing stuff like this

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-south-korea-so-obsessed-japan

woah didn't know the pledge of allegiance in korea was to the minjok race and not to the democratic state up until 2011. that's pretty humbling

last week i was at a bus terminal and this woman stopped to check something on her phone literally right in front of the glass exit door to the terminal. like, 2 inches away from it, completely blocking the exit.

how can you be so oblivious to everything around you that you stop right in front of a door?

i've also had people stop at the bottom of the escalators, completely blocking the way for anyone trying to go up.

At the CU on Namsan (the one where the buses go) I was next in line and an old Chinese man just came up and went in front of me.

"LINE. LINE. LINNEEEEEE." (points behind me sternly)

  什么？什么是一条线？ (walks away)

F'in hell.

Get my shit, go to leave. There's a Chinese mother and her kid. In the double doors, one each. IN THE DOORWAY. Eating ice cream. They look like pigs in shit.

Here's where I get to exercise my Chinese prowess with one of two words I know.

"门! 门! 门~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!"

  哦，这是一扇门吗？我以为这是冰淇淋区。

MOVE LADY.

FFS

Oh! Do you know some Chinese?

Oh! Do you know some Chinese?

Just 문 and 산. hahahaha

People need to get a grip when it comes to pets. The whole thing is out of control, especially the emotional neediness. For goodness sakes, makes me want to join the Animal Liberation Front or something.

Dog piss everywhere on the streets. Pets in restaurants. Dogs in cramped little apartments. Dogs yapping all the time. Dogs on buses. Dogs on planes. People treating pets like some sort of right. People who can't spend a year in another country without having a pet because they have emotional loneliness issues. People stopping every half a block to pet a dog like its something magical. People who think pets are people. People who think their pets have the same emotional fragility as them.

Enough!

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Are your cats toilet trained?

If not, I'm curious about the litter box situation...what do you do (I can't imagine how 8 days without a cleaning would go down)?

Water change?

If your feeders fail/jam, what then?

Getting someone to stop by to make sure all is well wouldn't be a bad idea.

I prefer not to burden anyone else, especially since my old apartment was quite out of the way.
I clean the litterbox every 3-4 days, so all I did was put an extra 2 boxes out.
Same with the water, I just used multiple bowls.

I have 2 cats and 2 automatic feeders.
I left them at home while I went on an 8 day holiday. Upon return, they casually strolled up, gave me a "Oh, this ass***e again." look and went off to scratch my couch.
Cat's are perfectly fine staying indoors and being alone.

Are your cats toilet trained?

If not, I'm curious about the litter box situation...what do you do (I can't imagine how 8 days without a cleaning would go down)?

Water change?

If your feeders fail/jam, what then?

Getting someone to stop by to make sure all is well wouldn't be a bad idea.

I prefer not to burden anyone else, especially since my old apartment was quite out of the way.
I clean the litterbox every 3-4 days, so all I did was put an extra 2 boxes out.
Same with the water, I just used multiple bowls.

I've a friend with a pair of pretty independent cats.  They were raised to be that way though.  If she goes on a trip, she'll just leave the faucet running slightly and I believe she had automatic feeders as well.  She would still ask a friend/neighbor to check in on them once in a while if she was away for more than a few days, just for peace of mind. 

People need to get a grip when it comes to children. The whole thing is out of control, especially the emotional neediness. For goodness sakes, makes me want to join the Children Liberation Front or something.

Children piss everywhere on the streets. Children in restaurants. Children in cramped little apartments. Children yapping all the time. Children on buses. Children on planes. People treating children like some sort of right. People who can't spend a year in another country without having a child because they have emotional loneliness issues. People stopping every half a block to pet a child like its something magical. People who think children are people. People who think their children have the same emotional fragility as them.

Enough!

 

People need to get a grip when it comes to pets. The whole thing is out of control, especially the emotional neediness. For goodness sakes, makes me want to join the Animal Liberation Front or something.

Dog piss everywhere on the streets. Pets in restaurants. Dogs in cramped little apartments. Dogs yapping all the time. Dogs on buses. Dogs on planes. People treating pets like some sort of right. People who can't spend a year in another country without having a pet because they have emotional loneliness issues. People stopping every half a block to pet a dog like its something magical. People who think pets are people. People who think their pets have the same emotional fragility as them.

Enough!

 
For the record, I have no problem with people getting whatever pet they want... ASSUMING, they handle the necessary responsibilities.

You have no business owning a dog if:

1 - You don't have a big yard.
2 - You don't have regular access to large field/park.
3 - You want to let unleash your dog to run around said park, which includes other people.
4 - When outside your home, you're unable to keep the dog out of people's personal and
     olfactory space.
5 - You don't have the income to provide proper nutrition and veterinary care
6 - You start fundraisers because your broke ass didn't anticipate that pets may
     need expensive emergency treatment.
7 - Your apartment isn't, at least, as big as Dr Frasier Crane's.
8 - You're always on the move
9 - You're not prepared to pay thousands of dollars to ship it home, at the end of your
     contract.
10 - A big motivation for getting a dog is to see how cute it will look in the little dog jersey
       you found... seriously, just die!

I've seen a lot of people (2) outside walking their terrified-and-obviously-not-enjoying-themselves housecats on leashes recently.




I'm irked.

I feel so validated after reading all these other posts about Koreans being in the way. I was so grumpy yesterday in Dongdaemun partly because of all the people that kept bumping into me, cutting me off, or blocking the way. I kept wondering if Koreans have any concept of spatial awareness, or if it was just confirmation bias. I was trying to leave the subway, and a guy abruptly stopped at the top of the stairs to check his phone. Really guy? You couldn't have walked forward another few steps so people could get out? I was so annoyed I just pushed right past him. I hope it taught him a lesson, but I may have come off as just a rude foreigner. Oh well.