This is going to be a tough practice to change:
The name tags would help avoid the common practice of soldiers addressing South Korean base workers as “ajoshi†(uncle) or “ajuma†(aunt). Several South Korean employees had come forward with badge designs since the proposal was made, Newton said.
Kang Hyung-do, the USFK Korean Employee Union’s Uijeongbu chapter president, said he understands U.S. soldier’s use the words to be friendly with base employees, but that long-term workers — and younger employees — find the terms offensive.
“We think Col. Newton’s proposal is really great, affirmative and encouraging for us,†Kang said. “We hope this … can help to improve the human rights of our Korean employees.â€
I didn’t know I was committing human rights violations by calling the taxi driver ajushi. We better start putting these soldiers on trial in the Hague for daily human rights violations.
But seriously this is going to be a tough practice to change because everyone thinks that ajushi/ajuma is what the Koreans are supposed to be called in their language. Name tags will help to an extent because if I can see a person name I will use it. Many AAFES workers already wear name tages. Taxi drivers and bus drivers you can’t see their names when their driving. We’ll just have to see how this plays out but hopefully it doesn’t get blown out of proportion.
The Marmot has more on this on his site.
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Those who accepted called ajoshi and ajuma, they will be executed because they will be tabulated in another collaborator list.
“Ajushi”, or uncle, is a polite title used for older men
I have always been taught by various Koreans that this is the proper term to refer to an older, or married man in Korea.
I can understand not liking the ebonic ’shi and ‘ma… I don’t like it either, especially the tone usually taken. So, perhaps USFK is overreacting. Instead of correcting the perpetrators (which would in and of itself be politically incorrect) we get this crap.
I don’t get it. I don’t know where this came from. It smacks of some sort of agenda, can’t put my finger on what they are trying to get. Or, who’s tring to get it, and what “it” is.
Signed
- Call me Ajushi!
Also, it’s quite rude to call a Korean stranger by theri given name, which will inevitably happen with these badges.
Sure, but then those names would be used surname-plus-title, which I’m guessing most soldiers don’t know, even if they could sound out the name. I’ve found that sonsaeng-nim as a form of address works wonders in conversation with any (male) stranger whose name I don’t know, an yangban as a third-party pronoun where the third party is present.
It might help things if soldiers were firmly reminded by their chain of command that Koreans aren’t colonial subjects, and if the Korean staff of the base would not be so rude, lazy, corrupt and worthy of contempt. Good luck to both sides with that effort!
As long as you correctly say Adjushi or Adjuma with a respectful tone and don’t shorten it or make it sound as if you are talking down to a person, I believe it is not viewed as demeaning or disrespectful.
If you know their last name, then call them Mr. Kim or Ms. Park. They do that in Korean corporate environment.
That is why I have always advocated on this blog to change the ville culture. Once the ville culture is changed than attitudes of soldiers will change as well. Leaders can talk all day about how great Korea is but these soldiers are going to spend 75% of their free time in Korea in the ville and that is going to influence attitudes about Korea more than anything else.
The USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys is an excellent opportunity to change the ville culture.
Now, how are they going to skim the take in a nice, orderly, clean, corruption-free, prostitution-free, human trafficking-free ville?
How can they play the Off-limits Game, the Human Trafficking Protection Game, the We Don’t See the Prostitution Game, the Golf Access Game, the Black Marketing Game, the Slot Machine Game, etc, Etc, ETC?
I know things change a lot faster over there than they do in the English language so maybe they are phasing it out, but there’s no question that ajushi was the polite word for a man you don’t know then (96/97).