Today I was driving back from Camp Humphrey’s and stopped in Yongsan to get some gas and proceeded to head up North to 2ID land. While stopped at a stop light in Seoul something I wish I could do happened.
A car in the lane to the left of me was stopped at the stop light and the driver a young male was bent over looking at something on his passenger chair obviously reading from it while talking on his cell phone. While doing this the stop light turned green and he continued to talk on the cell phone.
An older looking ajussi in the car behind this person must have finally had enough of driving in Seoul and cracked kind of like Michael Douglas in the movie “Falling Down”. He got out of his car and walked up to the car in front of him and leaned through the open window and slapped the younger guy in the back of the head! They started to yell at each other but since the ajussi was older the younger man gave in and just drove off.
By this time cars were honking at my vehicle to move but we rolled down our windows and gave ajussi a thumbs up and cheered him before we finally moved out. I’m sure ajussi was pretty satisfied with himself even though he sported the customary ajussi stern expression on his face.
I wish I could do something like that and get away with it. The number one thing I would like to do in Korea if I could get away with it is door one of the moped riders that cut through traffic. Wouldn’t that just be great? Can anyone think of anything more satisfying than that?
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10:00 am on December 24th, 2006 1
In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, when a line of cars is waiting at a stoplight, a cacophony of horns sounds immediately (within a nano-second) of the light changing — before anybody with normal human reflexes can conceivably get their foot off the brake and depress the gas pedal to move forward.
Sometimes horns will go off behind you while the light is still red. Presumably these are false starts by irritable Saudi males (a standard “public” persona, in stark contrast to their overflowing hospitality when encountered in a private setting of visiting at home or office). I think it unlikely that any of them would dare to hit each other over this though.
Can’t blame it on women drivers since women aren’t allowed to drive. We used to joke that the Saudis had their horns wired into the light-changing sequence.
Americans can be hard on themselves about their driving, but from what I’ve seen (Germany, Italy, KSA) and heard (Korea), many foreigners are far more aggressive and reckless in their POV driving.
Could be the “ajussi” (your phonetic transcription of the Korean word for an older, more senior man?) was a current/prior officer/NCO in the ROK Army. Korea tour veterans told me when I was active duty that the head slap is a standard correction method applied to EM’s by seniors in the ROKs.
Don’t do it to the moped’s, hoss. Bad examples are contagious even to the officer corps. After a couple years in Germany I got to like driving unlimited speed on the autobahn. When I came back to 55 mph America in 1980 it was hard as hell making myself slow down. Managed to do it without any expensive speeding tickets but it was an automatic reflex and I came close a few times to getting some.
10:02 am on December 24th, 2006 2
Don’t worry I’m not about to door any the annoying moped drivers but it sure would feel good to do it though. Also if you think driving 55mph is slow here we can’t drive faster than 25mph on the highway and 15mph in urban areas. When ever I get a ride in a taxi or a bus around here going 65mph feels like we are going at light speed. Having spent time in the middle east myself I agree the Arabs are horrible drivers too. And speaking of the ROK army, they often do the head slap thing and one time 4 years ago my platoon was doing joint training with a ROK platoon and one of the ROK soldiers was late for formation by about 10 seconds and his PSG slapped him across the face, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him. There are multiple other similar incidents I have seen happen when working with the ROK Army. They are a very disciplined army if anything else. One of my ROK Army friends I made while doing training together state side said the ROK Army perspective is to take a mountain by charging up the hill and killing the enemy which takes much discipline to accomplish. The American Army on the other hand will build a 2 billion dollar stealth bomber equipped with 5 million dollar smart bombs to destroy the mountain instead of taking it. Both effective just different styles. So they do what they got to do to keep their army effective and we do what we got to do to stay effective.
10:04 am on December 24th, 2006 3
Why door the moped riders? A lot of them are working class stiffs trying to hustle a living making deliveries. Ever notice how many of them are carrying something in one hand while driving, or have loaded up the back of their vehicles to the point of insanity? All for a few extra won. Better to give them a break. Not everyone has the luxury of a guaranteed salary. Ditto the taxi drivers. Yes, their driving habits are vexing, inciting occasional thoughts of mayhem, but these guys are more working stiffs trying to break into the middle class. Korea, as small as it is, is surely big enough for all of us.
10:04 am on December 24th, 2006 4
The problem is not with their jobs. Everybody needs to earn a living I understand that. But do they need to earn a living by recklessly cutting people off, driving through red lights, and driving at a high rate speed down the side walk and then get mad at you the pedestrian for not getting out of their way? Everytime I see them on the side walk I won’t move out of there way. It is just rude to drive at high rates of speed down the sidewalk and act like you have the right of way. That is my number one complaint with them. And I feel the same way about cars that drive on the side walk. I won’t get out of their way either.
10:04 am on December 24th, 2006 5
This makes me remember a true story. The reconstruction of the bridges on I-95 through Connecticut after the Mianus Bridge collapsed took an inordinately long time. One commuter fed up seeing “shovel-leaners” at every construction site retaliated by hitting one in the face with a full disposable diaper while shouting “Enough of this loafing shit! Get the damn road done and open!”