By It just seems like that this is going to take a decade long emphasis to change such ingrained Korean cultural habits in regards to what Westerners think being polite is and compared to what Koreans currently think. However if Korea wants to become a major tourism destination first impressions are important and being bumped for example without any acknowledgment of apology could leave a bad impression on western visitors:
Seoul needs an “After You” campaign to make foreign visitors feel more welcome, the city’s top tour promoter said Friday.
“Koreans are the most hospitable people in the world but they are shy of showing this to people they meet for the first time,” said Samuel Koo, CEO of the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO), in an interview The Korea Times.
Koo referred to the barrier that keeps Koreans from showing their true emotions to strangers as “thin ice.”
He mentioned the “After You” campaign that was staged in Shanghai in preparation for the World Expo 2010 with a great success.
“Please, thank you and excuse me are the three magic phrases they need to know,” Koo said as the theme of a campaign for Seoul and Korea.
Koo said that a “Be Kind to Visitors” campaign reflects what he felt after reading Korea’s ranking in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index compiled by the World Economic Forum.
Korea was ranked 31st overall, behind Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan in Asia, but performed poorly in travel and tourism, being ranked 114th among a total of 133 countries. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest of the interview at the link.
1:32 am on March 21st, 2010 1
Let the Korea bash begin again..
2:47 am on March 21st, 2010 2
"After you" sounds like a threat.
5:56 am on March 21st, 2010 3
You Koreans don't like it when the shoe's on the other foot do you?
You people have no problem putting others down. You've brought it all on yourselves, so take your long deserved medicine and shut up.
There's a reason why most people leave Korea hating the place and it's mostly not "white" expats as you people like to think either.
114th sounds about right. Probably more than they deserve. Don't like it Tom and others, go somewhere else.
7:04 am on March 21st, 2010 4
My eyes are more offended looking at that brown fuzzy rug on the head of a man hovering around his hwangap than by having doors shut in my face.
7:32 am on March 21st, 2010 5
Do they REALLY want to encourage Koreans to "show their true emotions to strangers"? OMG That sounds like a VERY bad idea. And the few HONEST Koreans and apologists who post here would agree.
7:35 am on March 21st, 2010 6
Ever see 10 ajummas fight over one seat on the subway? Ever see one ajumma reach the elevator first and shut the door on the others? Make no excuses here. Koreans are rude to each other, too.
8:27 am on March 21st, 2010 7
Exactly right. The chief complaint isn't that there's something wrong with Korea, there is something wrong with EVERY country and EVERY person, no one is perfect. The real difference is the ability to admit there's something wrong, and try to fix it.
The U.S. had drug problems, crime problems, racial issues, and a myriad of other crises. But, the Americans air it out and talk about it, not sweep it under the rug and declare 'we are perfect homo-genus society'.
9:33 am on March 21st, 2010 8
Maybe Korea isn't the perfect tourist destination. Koreans do many things very well. Perhaps tourism isn't one of them?
10:21 am on March 21st, 2010 9
The article mentions making Seoul a destination for medical tourism. Now that Korea is preparing to enforce its abortion laws they will lose the balance of trade in medical tourism to China or Japan.
5:38 pm on March 21st, 2010 10
Majority of folks I met who wanted to visit Korean are in South east Asia and usually don't have the money to make the trip….if they did, Korea would be mobbed with tourists….
There seems to be plenty of Japanese Tourists…..
I assume he means attracting Western tourists….the westerns tourists I've met here have all liked it a lot…it needs a way to distinguish it from it's tourist competitors next door rather than improving current tourist infrastructure. Nobody is coming for the hotels or nice people.
5:48 pm on March 21st, 2010 11
You are right it sure sounds like a threat to me.I don't want someone after me.whatever happened to the Korea sparkling thing? I wish people would talk about issues rather than "saving face" thing mentality and not sweeping under the rug.
7:48 pm on March 21st, 2010 12
Frankly speaking, I get the evil eye and the "weakukin-ida" comments often enough for me to know it's only the kind ones who are reserved.
8:37 pm on March 21st, 2010 13
There are some things Koreans may not be able to do away with. Some of it has to do with the fact that Korea is still a very class and status based society.
Even though I have been in Korea many years, as a westerner, I can't help but wince sometime when I observe how Koreans interact with each other. It is off-putting to me to see how senior people treat junior people in professional of social settings. The tone and attitude is often sharp and harsh. In America, when someone treats anyone that way, no matter their status, they are considered to be an a$$hole. In Korea its customary role playing.
It also bothers me to see office women hop to the subservient coffee or tea fetching role at the mere glance from one of their male colleges when I walk in a office, irregardless of the woman's professional position.
I'm not saying those things are absolutely wrong. It is part of Korean cultural identity. I am just saying that the tourist minister must understand that there are some things about Korea he can't ask to change that may still offend some foreigners.
9:07 pm on March 21st, 2010 14
As you can see, Westerners get offended very easily and a lot because the world isn't the same as where they come from. They demand the world to be like the West. If it isn't, they get offended and angered. I don't know what this Korean minister is thinking, worried so much about what these people think about Korea. Who cares what white countries think about Korea.
9:27 pm on March 21st, 2010 15
Let me fix that for you and see how it works:
As you can see, Koreans get offended very easily and a lot because the world isn’t the same as where they come from. They demand the world to be like Korea. If it isn’t, they get offended and angered. I don’t know what this Canadian minister is thinking, worried so much about what these people think about Canada. Who cares what Koreans think about Canada.
Hmmm, very interesting result.
12:32 am on March 22nd, 2010 16
Korea without bumping ajuma isn't Korea Period.
And I find Korean to be really polite, especialy in services. It's a plesure to go through customs in Korea, because the officers are really respectuful. Same thing with supermarket, stores etc… You always get freebies as a tourist. Free drinks etc…
3:53 am on March 22nd, 2010 17
The question is, does any of these posters have right to criticize Korea? I bet most of these people are LBHs.(loser back home) Also, the article is talking about attracting TOURISTS, not some hill billies from Kansas like most of these LBHs are.
7:35 am on March 22nd, 2010 18
Tom, time for a REALITY check. Read the article. It's Korea that wants more tourism. Tourists come to see the sites that Korea is proud of. Tourism = money. But Koreans can't be even civil with each other in public, let alone around those awful foreigners who happen to be tourists. So,even with A LOT of money on the line, and the chance that foreigners could see famous Korean national sites, Koreans STILL can't be decent in public. They still feel the need to get drunk and pass out all over the place around Insa-Dong and the general vicinity. Ajummas still gotta knock people around all over Seoul. Glare, point, and yell at tourists and treat them like crap and they won't come back. Word will get around. You'll see.
7:36 am on March 22nd, 2010 19
Great attitude about tourism. Maybe it's time for you to look in the mirror?
7:38 am on March 22nd, 2010 20
So, you actually ENJOY it when ajummas knock you around? Some kind of masochist?
7:39 am on March 22nd, 2010 21
Where are these "freebies"? Never heard of that one. Usually it's the (much higher) "foreigner price" if they can get away with it.
8:10 am on March 22nd, 2010 22
When I shop at the local 7-11 and buy certain items, they would give me a free kiddie snack sized, 6 oz. box carton of a fruit punch drink with the included punch-through straw. The one time I drank it, it gave me the goose squirts, so since then I've declined.
I've only been offered those 'freebies' at the 7-11.
8:18 am on March 22nd, 2010 23
That happened to me the other day at 7-11 as well. In Dongducheon of all places. The guy said it was "service," of course, and I was really curious as to what special I had triggered with my purchase: two of those "sausage" things on a stick, an orange juice and a pack of Marlboro Ultra Lights.
Fortunately my stool remained intact.
11:08 am on March 22nd, 2010 24
Not to mention the frequent fist fights by the Korean politicians with no decorum in the general assembly.and these are the fellows who are supposed to enact the laws.
11:19 am on March 22nd, 2010 25
The Koreans I know personally are among the best of people I know. I think once a Korean gets to know you they treat you a lot better with respect and dignity(of course a little patronizing).My bad experiences here has been canceled out by the good I see in my many Korean friends But why can't these extend to the random strangers aka wae gu kins? How do you switch of that goodness in you like a tap of water?
2:00 pm on March 22nd, 2010 26
Suggested Dialogs to Study "After You" in Korea
—
"That crane lifting wobbly I-beams from the truck to the construction site over the sidewalk with nobody blocking pedestrians looks kinda dangerous, don't you think? Are you sure we should keep walking?"
"After You."
(Are you really, really sure?)
—
"O.K., class, where is the letter 'M' in the alphabet?"
"After U."
(facepalm)
—
"The taxi driver right on my tail looks so mad. I know he wants to get around me but I'm already speeding and everything is bumper-to-bumper so I can't get out of his way. I guess he just hates being…"
"After You."
(Shyt. Now he's honking.)
—
"Ah, dude, drug tests for foreign English teachers are like so unnecessary. It's like totally against my human rights and stuff to be tested… uh… tested… uh…"
"After use?"
(Yeah… yeah, that's what I was gonna to say. Man, now I need another joint to help reduce the stress of worrying about getting busted.)
—
"The girls in the glass houses don't want anything to do with me. I guess they won't be satisfied with local customers… uh…"
"After you?"
(Yeah… I was just trying to put it delicately. It probably has something to do with my cochu being more like a moo.)
—
"All these English teachers from New Zealand and Pakistani factory workers creep me out. I suspect they are…"
"After ewe."
('cause if I was a local girl, I certainly wouldn't want someone who talked incomprehensibly or smelled like fish heads and dog poo stuffed into a used gym sock, sprinkled with cuman and left for a week in the damp tissue bin at a dirty book store.)
—
"There is a totally hot girl in my English class. I know it's going to make me, my country and the hogwon look bad… but I don't look at it as a job. It's more like sex tourism with a paycheck. I think I'll openly chase…"
"After Yu."
('cause Kim, Park and Lee avoid me like the plague before and after class.)
—
"What's your favorite James Cameron movie, Mr. Kang?"
"Abatar, you?"
(Uh… I guess the first Terminator was pretty good.)
—
"Why does the creepy guy from Anti-English Spectrum keep following me? Is he…"
"After You."
(I wonder what would happen if I walked through a dark and lonely area after hiring someone to lie in wait with a hammer?)
9:41 pm on March 22nd, 2010 27
It's part of Korea. When you decide to go to Korea, and you buy a Guide book, between Kimchi and Mass Weddings you have Bumping Ajuma. So tourist being surprise because people bump into them without saying sorry is really not justified.
And even though I read about it in the Guide it didn't happen to me, and if it did, it was all the time because of I was in crowded areas. If it happen to you in New York or Paris, everybody will laugh at you when you says people should be more polite say sorry when they bump into you.
After You have old people cuting the lines, well that's something to do with older people having more privileges. But it's another story.
The freebies I'm talking about is for exemple, a free drink in a restaurent. Some times a free drink in a bar. In a museum in Jeju we had a free tour because there wasn't many people.
I really think service are great in Korea and a nice contry to visit. Not crowded by tourist.
9:57 pm on March 22nd, 2010 28
They still feel the need to get drunk and pass out all over the place around Insa-Dong and the general vicinity. Ajummas still gotta knock people around all over Seoul.
Must be hard to leave Pleasantville.
8:56 am on July 18th, 2010 29
this site seems like a korea-hate site. it feels like there are a bunch tea-baggers here. angry undereducated rednecks. if you dont like korea, simply get out. leave. but there's the rub, people like you complain wherever you go because you are totally uninteresting and full of fear.
9:31 am on July 18th, 2010 30
V: Please tell us of your experiences. Your nationality? How long and where you have lived in Korea?
10:54 pm on July 18th, 2010 31
The old ROK Drop is a Korean hate site accusation. This posting is old but still a useful reply to the people that make such a stupid accusation.