South Koreans are so stressed, they're forking out cash just to sit in a room....

I know everyone's busy. But can't they chill at home after work? Would something like this work here:

 

Turns out PT Barnum was right on the money.

And I thought bottled water was the biggest suckers thing going.

 

South Korean culture (especially anywhere near the big cities) is extremely competitive. Sort of like how Japan was just a few decades ago. People are under a lot of stress, a lot of self-imposed stress to be able to succeed. It's true South Korea is a country of "First World" standards of living where almost everyone is middle class but what I think a lot of outsiders have to understand is that South Koreans have to work extremely hard to maintain those living standards. If you switched South Koreans out with some people from another country and put them in that same situation, it would become a much more lower income country. The people have to struggle and strive to achieve what they have. In fact not too long ago South Korea was poor (the 1970s). South Korea in fact did not even surpass the per capita GDP of North Korea until 1973.

A South Korean man might be able to earn what a middle class American man earns, but he has to work longer hours and has to work harder.
Some of these business offices literally "work their employees to death", driving them to commit suicide.
Combine that with a socially collective culture where the individual does not feel free to express themself.

 

Truer words have never been spoken. Definitely a strange culture indeed.

 

A country where people work hard for what they get? Wow... what a concept! I understand the USA was once like that.

 

The men and women are literally working so hard that the reproductive rates are down. People complain they do not have the time to look for a marriage partner, though it is mostly a matter of energy, with them being exhausted after they get off work. Even the amount of sex couples are having has hit an all-time low.

It's also a country with high levels of wealth inequality, so people are vying for status, working hard to try to get ahead. No one wants to fall behind and be seen as poorer than their neighbors. If a man falls into the lower middle class, he will fear women will not want to marry him.

If South Koreans only worked as hard as Americans, their standard of living would be lower than it is in America.

 

It's no surprise they want a quiet place to just stare into the wall. Their minds are burnt out from working so long in the office.

It's a mental type of tiredness.

A lot of them are probably not ready to come home and deal with their families, or the responsibilities that await them at home.

 

There was rhe Pet Rock.

 

Cool... proof that women are golddiggers ALL OVER THE WORLD!

 

I wouldn't worry about that. Sth Koreans are 'stressed' because through hard work
they have created one of the wealthiest countries - and without hardly any natural
resource other than their labor.
Meanwhile NORTH KOREANS have been told they shouldn't be so demanding as
to want two meals a day - and there's of grass to eat outside the city limits.

 

Most Americans these days get stressed if dad throws them out of the basement at the age of 35.

 

You know a huge irony here is that it is very normal in Korea for adult children to continue living with the family.

It's even normal in the culture for the son's mother to go on the first date with her son, when he is trying to meet women for a prospective marriage partner. (or at least that's how it was in the 1990s. it has probably changed a little bit now)

It is an extremely family-oriented culture, or one should say family responsibility oriented culture. (Over in North Korea, families were even sometimes punished collectively for the crimes of one of its members)

 

It would be a total bust here, Americans MUST be entertained or distracted every waking moment, put 'em in a quiet room alone for 10-15 minutes and they'd be clawing the paint off the walls.

 

Just give them an iPhone and they'll stay happy forever. Americans often seem surgically attached to their iPhones. From restaurants to waiting rooms to almost everywhere, American get lost in the ether with their iPhones. My wife and I went out to dinner the other night and had to wait for a table. The reception gal asked our phone number. We said that neither one of us had our phones with us. From the look on her face you would have thought we just told her we abused our kids It was mix of disbelief, horror, incredulity and revulsion. We got to our table and their was a symbol on the table to scan to see the menu. We asked for printed menus and got that same look from the waitress.

 

Im guessing many of them live in multi-family homes where people are always there doing stuff. As one who needs time away from commotion, I can see the appeal of a quiet, empty room.

Sortof.

I would go find a forest to be in. But maybe they dont have one close enough to access between work and bed.

 

Looks relaxing.

 

True, true, true!!! I've often said the best torture an interrogator could employ nowadays, particularly with the young, is tie them securely to a chair and place their personal diddle-phone (what I call 'em) on a table in front of them.

 

Diet water takes the cake for me.

 

It's an illness, to feel the need to work so hard and not have time or energy to enjoy it.

 

Some people get off on fast cars. Some people like the fast pace of a stressful work life. Take away the money and the drive still remains.

Others have few valuable skills and so overwork themselves out of a reluctant necessity.

 

I can accomplish the same thing by spending time at the beach.

 

I didn’t want it to come to this. I’ll allow a rotation of the most stressed 18-24 SK woman to come to my peaceful residence to relax and unwind. 2-3 at a time, as I hate to see them so unhappy.

I won’t have time to post, try and make the best of it.

 

As if they didn't have enough to worry about. Now they have to squeeze in a hurry up and slow down session. The very idea makes me nervous. Asian efficiency is truly remarkable.

 

It's mostly extreme amounts of mental discipline and concentration.

These can come with a cost, however.

 

I spent 3 weeks at a Jesuit monastery in 2008 due to job stress ... I had to get away ... I had a small cold room in a 19th century building, ate very little and was pretty much left alone to walk the grounds or read all day if I wanted ... it changed my life ...

when I got home, I quit my job and started my own business where I could work at my pace ... it paid off in many ways ...