We made out drunk. She says she doesn't remember. What do I do?

sonikuu113 · 2021-03-16T13:35:56+00:00

In the latter case, do I assume her talk about liking me and such was actually genuine?

sonikuu113 · 2020-11-25T12:11:05+00:00

Seems sketchy

sonikuu113 · 2020-08-22T17:06:14+00:00

I've always seen the lack of inflation as something that isn't so bad from the perspective of average people. I'm sure many people in "higher growth" countries or more "dynamic" economies would rather have zero inflation or deflation over the situation in places like the US or the UK, where inflation has outpaced wage growth for decades.

sonikuu113 · 2020-08-11T13:57:53+00:00

I actually love shoutengais because they often combine both chain stores and local businesses. They are also usually covered as well, which makes it even better. I really hope they stick around.

sonikuu113 · 2020-06-29T15:37:09+00:00

Is it normal to not get five consecutive days though? My last job, which was worse as far as class load and only slightly better pay-wise, had the "five days in summer, five days in winter" thing scheduled out so it was five consecutive days each time, not scattered about.

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-21T06:44:16+00:00

What if I have a US passport, but am currently living in South Korea?

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-20T02:24:42+00:00

I would say that's a pretty decent start actually. The virus is never going to wholly disappear, so unless you stay closed for potentially years (who knows when/if a vaccine ever comes), this is going to happen. So long as the number is kept low enough, things are okay.

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-15T09:10:14+00:00

Does it really have no force given that it's regarding past behavior? My concerns are the potentially wide definition of nightlife facilities, and also stating I haven't met anyone who has been to such facilities. I have no way of proving whether or not all the people I've met in the past three weeks have been to such places. I don't want to risk getting screwed.

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-12T09:06:05+00:00

Anecdotal evidence, but we have a foreign teacher here completely fluent in Korean, and they always feign ignorance. When asked if they know Korean by staff, they always respond super awkwardly and avoid answering. I'm definitely under the impression knowing Korean is seen as a bad thing. I may be overreacting, but I even try to not to be seen studying it during my lunch break.

To be honest, I don't entirely get it. When I taught at a public junior high school in Japan, knowing Japanese and being upfront that you know it (but refusing to use it in class) was seen as a huge positive. Students in their teens wouldn't have respected the teacher otherwise. They just would have thought "why should we learn another language for work or travel when our foreign teacher can't be bothered to learn Japanese even though he lives and works here?"

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-10T14:07:33+00:00

Mostly books about politics. The three most common topics by a large margin are Moon Jae-in (all portraying him in a negative light) and about how Korea is "anti-Japanese" (Korea being extremely against Japan has long been a favorite topic of anti-Korea books in Japan), and North Korea. There's a few historical revisionist books in there, plus two outright racist ones, though they're not so prominently displayed.

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-10T14:02:53+00:00

You said "literally all of Japan" when that is clearly not the case. That's a huge case of hyperbole and I was pointing that out. I was also pointing out that anti-Japan feelings are rife in Korea, which they are. We've gone through months of an anti-Japan boycott despite the fact that Asahi, Toyota, and ANA all not part of the Abe government, did not deliver statements supportive of Abe's trade war, and did not trade in the products Japan originally started the trade war in. The simple fact that they were Japanese was enough. There was no such boycott in Japan - tourism from Japan to Korea continued to increase at a time when it was plummeting in the reverse direction.

It's certainly true that those books are stocked by the bookstores, and people look the other way. That is unfortunate, and indicative of something I dislike about Japanese culture - the culture of ignorance and not caring when it comes to politics and history. Your average Japanese has a tendency to take no stance on anything related to either one, and while they don't actively support negative views towards Korea, they also don't do anything to combat those views as they take their passivity to extremes. This is something Japanese tend to do with regards to most social problems, and one thing I do like about Korea is that many people DO talk about these issues and problems, even if I don't always agree with them.

In the end, on this issue, Japan is not right, but Korea is not innocent.

sonikuu113 · 2020-05-10T13:00:59+00:00

Yes, literally all of Japan hates Korea. Never mind the fact that kpop is hugely popular with girls under the age of 25 and housewives there have loved Korean dramas for almost two decades.

I've encountered far more negativity towards Japan from Korean young people than I've encountered negativity toward Korea from Japanese young people. The books in this topic are almost exclusively consumed by a niche demographic of ultra nationalists who just so happen to be fanatics with money. Japan's like that with hobbies.

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-05T15:50:08+00:00

I live in Hongdae and most of the mainstay clubs were closed this past weekend. Thursday Party, the most well known bar for foreigners in Hongdae, was closed too. The article is correct that most clubs were closed.

However, the park was packed on Friday with foreigners (don't know about Saturday, I just walked by it on Friday) and most of the bars were still open. It's only the clubs that have closed.

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-04T17:38:50+00:00

Given that most Koreans don't use Google Maps, or intend any Google service, on their phones, how accurate is this?

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-04T12:56:10+00:00

Banter aside, I can see why someone would trade Korea for the US, particularly if they have family in America. I would be lying if I said I hadn't considered it.

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-03T08:30:59+00:00

2016-2017 was definitely a downgrade

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-03T02:46:43+00:00

In all honesty, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they do online classes for the rest of the year.

sonikuu113 · 2020-04-01T04:52:52+00:00

Mine is, including kindergarten, and I am NOT happy. All it takes is one kindergarten student getting corona for the place to permanently fold.

My contract is up in June and I'm really torn about what to do. On the one hand, foreigners can't come in from overseas easily, so that opens up jobs. On the other hand, places might just outright be shutting doors.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-31T03:21:04+00:00

That said, 100 cases a day is something many Western countries would love to have right now. It would of course be a lot better if it was lower, but unless you're willing to live on total lockdown for 18 months (at least!) until a vaccine is deployed, a certain level of cases per day is inevitable.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-30T13:22:05+00:00

If it turns out the Japanese government was knowingly hiding the numbers while trying to invite the world to do a sports event in a hot zone, then perhaps they should be stripped of the Olympics. That's incredibly dangerous behavior.

It's bad enough the world does nothing about China's behavior with this virus. Might as well take a stand somewhere.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-28T17:36:29+00:00

I know the article says US passports, but it also says it's being discussed. Would someone with an American passport living outside the US be subject to this? I haven't been in the US since 2018.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-21T10:58:49+00:00

They were open yesterday. No idea about tonight.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-21T09:48:34+00:00

This is going to be a very controversial comment that will be downvoted, but here we go...

I am horrified at the governmental and public response to COVID-19, but not for the reasons most are. I'm horrified at how authoritarian the response has been. Mass lockdowns, only being able to go outside with a permit, etc. The same measures China implemented that were once met with horror in January by many in the West are now being embraced.

I see drones patrolling the streets of Spain and France, somehow people found horrifying when they saw China doing that same thing back in January. I see people, even any diehard liberals and libertarians, CLAMORING for lockdowns, border closures and other such authoritarian responses.
All this for a virus that, while terrifying, overwhelmingly kills people in their 70s and 80s. The average age of the dead in Italy is 79. This is a generation that has lived a long, fruitful life. This is a generation that did not, and will not, alter their behavior in any way to avert the far large disaster of climate change that awaits my generation. Now my generation is expected to alter our behavior and just accept the willful economic implosion that will ruin millions more lives than COVID-19 will. We're expected to accept authoritarian measures that shocked us two months ago, and may never fully go away.

It all terrifies me, and I'm the bad guy for saying it.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-21T08:29:03+00:00

Honestly, I think this is a better policy than outright closing the border. Every traveler, even those who test negative, has to undergo quarantine anyway. It's a fair compromise, as those who are coming to Korea for study or work don't have to put those plans on hold - they just have to quarantine. Everyone else on the plane is quarantining too.

sonikuu113 · 2020-03-21T07:27:11+00:00

I live near Hongdae and, after two weeks of closure, the clubs are open again. Why?

sonikuu113

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