If you hate Korea so much, why don't you just leave?
This is a profoundly stupid question.
I've seen it not only on my blog, but hundreds of times over on Dave's ESL Forums. Every time that I see this question, my brain swells in horror. Everybody that I've ever been involved with purposely pops their collar; I was already quite dumb enough, thanks. The students and business folk of Busan are counting on Barbie to have a functioning brain. The further that you lower her intelligence by asking questions such as this, the less likely she is to remember her native tongue. Given that she already struggles to spell "ambulance" correctly and regularly speaks in the third person, this is problematic.
This question is stupid for at least two reasons (and probably many more, but I have an ice pack and The Office waiting for me):
First of all, with very few exceptions, Korea does not make people miserable. Occasionally miserable folk come to Korea, where they remain miserable. Korea is not a magic misery removing elixir. Arriving at Incheon airport doesn't suddenly make you a more interesting, better looking, jovial individual with killer wit. Conversely, awesome people don't suddenly become less awesome because they started eating kimchi. If you sucked prior to Korea, there is a good chance that you're going to suck here, too. To ask why these people don't just leave Korea is to miss the entire fucking point.
Second, being critical about the place that you live is not the same thing as hating it. It pains me to think that there are actually people older than 8 can't distinguish between the two. Criticism is healthy. Lacking the ability to handle criticism with grace is not. Disagreeing with criticism is healthy. Curling up into fetal position and screaming loudly, without bothering to directly address said criticism, is neither healthy nor productive.
Once again: it's not always about you, Korea. Really, it's not. Chill out.
5 comments:
man, you are getting annoying,
Not wanting to leave the house for fear of meeting someone "gross" and coming out only to buy water doesn't sound like criticism. Are you sure YOU know the difference? Your blog really just sounds like a lot of non-constructive whingeing to me.
Damn. And I was trying so hard to be constructive.
We all complain about where we live. In Korea, you rarely have a chance to valve it. Hence, a lot more ranting on blogs and message boards. I expand upon this in Joe's podcast blog:
http://www.seoulpodcast.com/archives/429
If not constructive, how about "productive", as you fault those criticised (Korea) for failing to be? If you can just spout off without the need to offer constructive criticism, why do you then fault Korea for failing to take your criticism in a "productive" spirit? I smell a whiny little hypocrite.
"Curling up into fetal position and screaming loudly, without bothering to directly address said criticism, is neither healthy nor productive."
No, but curling up in an apartment for fear of meeting a gross person and whingeing about it on a blog is both healthy and productive?
Korea, you have been criticised. Now man up and stop being gross. It's not Barbie's job to deal with it, it's your job to take her admittedly non-constructive whingeing to heart, acknowledge your many flaws and change.
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