Comments on: You Are Getting Fat!

By: biff

biff — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 10:03:32 +0000

Korean people call each other fat all the time, too. They like stating the obvious, like, “Hey you’re really tall/short/ugly/beautiful/handsome/skinny..etc.”

By: snicker-snack

snicker-snack — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:32:33 +0000

I really think most of them are just speaking without thinking of how it comes across. When speaking a second language, your usual sociolinguistic skills don’t always transfer automatically

I would tend to agree yet… here in Japan it would be hard to imagine comments of this sort. People are always so focused on what the reaction of others might be (except I suppose in the case of politicians talking about territorial disputes with Korea)

By: scott

scott — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 06:40:57 +0000

I’ve heard Koreans say much worse to foreigners, and then appear shocked when they realize what they said was insulting. I really think most of them are just speaking without thinking of how it comes across. When speaking a second language, your usual sociolinguistic skills don’t always transfer automatically (though most of them are probably jerks when speaking their mother tongue as well).

By: Nomad

Nomad — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 19:21:53 +0000

And we all know that there are no fat Koreans.

By: Jeff in Korea

Jeff in Korea — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:14:35 +0000

The person I was speaking with is not malnourished with ribs showing, scapula wings, and collar bones jutting out, but she is FAR from fat…actually quite thin and very healthy… I would never dare to hazard a guess a dress size and risk wrath, but I would assume that it is in the low single digits.