[Psyche81]

This post is for all the female soompiers out there who are currently working and living in Korea. I've read numerous posts online about foreign women who had experienced some form of sexual harassment while working in Korea. I have never been to Korea before and I am not familiar with the Korean culture. So I am curious, do you feel that sexual harassment against women is a common problem in Korea? Do you feel safe working in Korea? What is Korean society like?

Thank you for your replies. ^^

[blue703]

This post is for all the female soompiers out there who are currently working and living in Korea. I've read numerous posts online about foreign women who had experienced some form of sexual harassment while working in Korea. I have never been to Korea before and I am not familiar with the Korean culture. So I am curious, do you feel that sexual harassment against women is a common problem in Korea? Do you feel safe working in Korea? What is Korean society like?

Thank you for your replies. ^^

I'm not female, but I can tell you some things I picked up from a recent visit to Korea. People there can usually tell if you are a foreigner right away. I've encountered some places that tried to rip me off because they knew I wasn't a native. Regarding sexual harassment, I don't think it's a big problem as long as you

• have a native friend with you
• don't go out at night by yourself
• don't surround yourself in a crowd where alcohol is present

[fairytaIe]

I'm not female, but I can tell you some things I picked up from a recent visit to Korea. People there can usually tell if you are a foreigner right away. I've encountered some places that tried to rip me off because they knew I wasn't a native. Regarding sexual harassment, I don't think it's a big problem as long as you

• have a native friend with you
• don't go out at night by yourself
  
• don't surround yourself in a crowd where alcohol is present

Why?

[blue703]

Why?

I think this is okay as long as you know the people you are with. I was thinking of tight places like night clubs where you may get the occasional grope.

[Psyche81]

Thank you blue703 for your reply ^^

I guess it is a good thing that there may not be anyone on soompi whom had been harassed. ^^ Perhaps I should change the question to all the female soompiers out there: do you know of or have you read about sexual harassment against women in Korean newspapers?

[erure]

I never had a problem with being sexually harassed, but then again, I'm not a foreigner so maybe I don't count in your question. Me and my cousin were outside around midnight, going to a noraebang where our parents were at and some middle aged drunk man was following us. We freaked out and walked REALLY FAST. That's about it :I

[mikomi]

I have all the possible weirdo experiences you can get. I have one from Korea too. So, late one night I was going back to my dorm, and my school had a super strict curfew so it wasnt even that late, a couple minutes before 11pm. A guy follows me off the metro and onto the street facing my school. He stops me halfway down and starts babbling disgusting confessions of how he fell in love at first sight, blah blah. He then asks me for my number, but I tried to tell him I didnt have one. I decided that I was going to say that I'm from Japan ( which isnt a complete lie) and that I didnt have a korean number to give out. Then he asked for my e-mail..so I tried to play that off too, like, what's 'email?' ....10 minutes later he is really really reluctant to let me go so when I start moving, he grabbed my arm. Keep in mind that Koreans suck at helping others so people passing by ignored my cry for help. I pushed him off and ran for the gate, where the gate keeper man is standing. I screamed profanities and babbled on in three languages- korean english and japanese until he opened the gate but by that time the creepy dude was right behind me..so the security guy comes out and threatens the creepy guy who then gets into an arguement with the security guard. While all this is happening, I escaped into the school and proceeded to walk the 2 mile walk it takes to get to the dorms and didnt make it in time for curfew.

I have another story. Right outside the school are 'dating' service bars where guys will sit and literally pick girls out from the crowd and have them sent over. The problem for them is that they ahve many guys, and not enough girls. So, they send people out to grab and drag girls in. I've been grabbed one too many times to count and ended up punching a guy in the face the first time it happened...you'll be suprised some of them speak english and some of them speak japanese. It was ..horrible.

[HSuke]

I have all the possible weirdo experiences you can get. I have one from Korea too. So, late one night I was going back to my dorm, and my school had a super strict curfew so it wasnt even that late, a couple minutes before 11pm. A guy follows me off the metro and onto the street facing my school. He stops me halfway down and starts babbling disgusting confessions of how he fell in love at first sight, blah blah. He then asks me for my number, but I tried to tell him I didnt have one. I decided that I was going to say that I'm from Japan ( which isnt a complete lie) and that I didnt have a korean number to give out. Then he asked for my e-mail..so I tried to play that off too, like, what's 'email?' ....10 minutes later he is really really reluctant to let me go so when I start moving, he grabbed my arm. Keep in mind that Koreans suck at helping others so people passing by ignored my cry for help. I pushed him off and ran for the gate ...

You should've had mace. It would have made my day. ^__^

[derrek]

I would follow mikomi around with a bat to protect her. That sounds terrible.

[mikomi]

I would follow mikomi around with a bat to protect her. That sounds terrible.

haha aww, where were YOU when I was being harassed! Actually, I must be wearing a neon sign because I have so many frekking harassment stories- I even have one for the corporate office worker. I don't underdress and I don't ask for it or talk to random people or lead them on or talk to them outside of the proper field so I have NO idea why this happens to me ALL THE FREAKIN time.

[sillymeboy]

Speaking of all this sexual harrasement reminds me of middle and high school. The ones I go to guys get away with smacking/grabbing girls ass if and when they wanted.The worst that could happen is you get detention or sent to the principal office and he does mini cooper cause he is super nice to state it another way a punk lol.
Oh thats pretty mess up that nobody help you when you scream mikomi. I believe most guys would play hero if they saw a girl in that situation.It would help if the girl is cute and the other guy is a midget lol

[W-K]

I have another story. Right outside the school are 'dating' service bars where guys will sit and literally pick girls out from the crowd and have them sent over. The problem for them is that they ahve many guys, and not enough girls. So, they send people out to grab and drag girls in. I've been grabbed one too many times to count and ended up punching a guy in the face the first time it happened...you'll be suprised some of them speak english and some of them speak japanese. It was ..horrible.

Realllllyyyyy....... that sounds fun!

[masturyan]

haha aww, where were YOU when I was being harassed! Actually, I must be wearing a neon sign because I have so many frekking harassment stories- I even have one for the corporate office worker. I don't underdress and I don't ask for it or talk to random people or lead them on or talk to them outside of the proper field so I have NO idea why this happens to me ALL THE FREAKIN time.

Maybe it's just because you are hot.

[motheritried]

Sexual harassment happens everywhere. I was working at a Greek restaurant over the summer and my boss kept telling me I was "beautiful." Initially, I thought that was just what Greek people said, but that changed the day he molested my hand and told me I was "cute" and suggested ways to improve upon my cuteness, and then asked me out. On a date. He was married and a grandfather. Ha man. Could be a millionaire if I sued the dude. Rolling in that cash money.

[joychin89]

Wow.....in korea? I'm surprised O_O.

[little mixed girl]

i never got anything when i was in korea.
what you should remember is that if you're reading something in english about "foreigners" in asia, 90% of the time it's something written by white people for white people.

if you're white, and especially if you're super white (blonde, blue-eyed) you stand out a lot more in asia.

i remember during my study abroad in korea, this one blonde girl in our group had middle aged men ask her out/tell her she was beautiful/etc. and the rest of us in the group got nothing!

not that there's NO sexual harassement, but if you stand out you might get more frequent incounters than if you didn't...

[mikomi]

Maybe it's just because you are hot.

=D I would like to think myself as attractive! Hahahaha, but seriously, I doubt models get harrassed as much as I do and they are 100x hotter. I hear that I stick out in a crowd alot though- I dont know why cuz i'm short! (lol)

[masturyan]

=D I would like to think myself as attractive! Hahahaha, but seriously, I doubt models get harrassed as much as I do and they are 100x hotter. I hear that I stick out in a crowd alot though- I dont know why cuz i'm short! (lol)

Maybe that's why - because models are usually really hot, yet quite tall, but since you're short, guys feel less intimidated.

[Yubumsuk]

The only people in Korea who've groped me who weren't ajeoshi drinking mates or bargirls have been an American, a South African, and a drunken ajumma who invited herself to our table at a hof. Of course, I’m a guy.

Like Little Mixed Girl said, the real question is are you white? If you're white, and especially blond, you'll get a lot more stares. As for sexual harassment, like with anywhere it's a crapshoot. If you're white and walking around in certain areas at night you could get a lot of unwanted attention from certain drunken fools. When my (white, blond) sister came to visit me we didn't get a block away from the bus terminal where we met up before an idiot drunk wanted to know how much for her - who the hell did he think I was, her Russian pimp?

In terms of situations involving people I've known well, I've known two westerners who were seriously affected by it. One was working in an office and quit suddenly on no notice because of sexual harassment including touching from her supervisor. She was in her mid-20s, blond, and fairly attractive (to some Korean men fairly attractive blond = most beautiful woman they've ever laid their eyes on).

The other one was a high school English teacher who was getting constant unwanted attention by the head English teacher. He's just over 50 and she was 45, blond, and would still be considered attractive by many guys in their 30s (and I'd be one to know). It was extremely awkward because he was the guy appointed by the school to take care her of personal problems like her housing situation, paperwork, and whatnot. He'd invite her to things that were supposedly staff functions and then find out that it was really just him taking her out to dinner. I didn't hear of him actually doing anything sexually but at one point she was about ready to pull the plug and get on the next flight to NZ. The sad part is that I know this teacher a bit, have hung out with him, and he's great guy to be around if it's all male. When I found out what kind of things he was pulling with this Kiwi woman what am I supposed to do, phone him up and say 'Um, excuse me Mr Kim, but I can guarantee you're not going to win the blond trophy by trying harder so would you mind not being such a creep'?

One of the biggest problems in the cases of the two foreign women I knew is that there's almost no structure in place to deal with sexual harassment, especially if there's also a language barrier. In the case of the latter she was one of only three female teachers at her school, the other two being quite young and timid, and the head English teacher was the only one who could speak English (barely; the other English teacher at her school can speak less than a number of my high school students). In both their cases it was a matter of put up with it or quit their jobs, which one did.

Of course the majority of western women I know who've come to Korea have only had to put up with stares and comments and their over-all experiences range from loving Korea to hating it, all for a variety of reasons.

[suki_*]

Sexual harassment happens everywhere in the world, there's nothing different about it, just take the same precautions, don't walk alone, always with a friend and be aware when you're in quiet areas.

Dress properly i'm very sure they would be attracted to skank attire.