The one set of Koreans who all seem to speak English perfectly are the Jehovah's Witnesses. If you get stopped in the street, in a shop or on the bus and the person's English is fantastic, it's a Jehovah's witness. They worm their way into your conversation with very polite and engaging questions about where you are from, your life, etc and then finish it off with a pamphlet and invitation to come to a meeting or church. Saying you are Jewish or any other religion has absolutely no effect. The best thing to do is take the pamphlet and run. I have no idea who is teaching the Jehovah's Witnesses English but if their language program got made public, I think all of the expats would quickly be out of work. This is my favorite comic ever by Luke Martin over at ROKetship. Go look. No really, go now.
Okay, now that you've read the comic: This has actually happened to people I know in Korea, where they find out where you live and harass you constantly trying to get you to go to church with them. It borders on stalking/harassment. I have heard about many a person hiding in their apartment with all of the lights turned off, trying to be quiet when they ring the doorbell.
People, this is why you never tell the friendly people where you live. Or even what neighborhood.
I'm off to go dancing with friends in Busan. I'm kind of tired but I love dancing. I was supposed to go last night but it was a terrible ankle day so we ended up just drinking and chatting. I also disillusioned Hooligan 1 who thought that Busan and Pusan were two different cities...instead of the same one with 2 different spellings. It was highly amusing. I laughed at the Hooligan's expense for a good 10 minutes.
Hooligan 1: Yeah I live near Busan.
Other people: Pusan?
Hooligan 1: No, BUsan, not Pusan. It's nearby.
...Me: This is why you need to learn the Korean alphabet buddy. :-p All in good fun though and I do have the Hooligan's permission to mock things like this mercilessly in a public forum. After all, Hooligan 1 isn't really an easy to guess moniker.
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