Linh Duong asks,"Are there gang problems in Korea?"
Are they anything like what we see in the movies and dramas that we watch?
Interesting gangster related question which I'm slightly scared to answer.
Hopefully gangsters don't like Youtube that often
What? That sentence was not right.
I'm jet lagged!
Let me begin this TL;DR by saying that we don't have any direct experience with gangs,
we are not in any gangs.
I've sent in my application form 100 times
and they've never written back yet--
I don't think that I'm good material for gangs.
Also, what we're saying isn't widely documented stuff
because it's not like gangsters go out there and make documentaries about themselves.
So what we're gonna talk about is basically
what is commonly talked about on the Korean Internets.
and a little bit of our personal experience from
walking around Korea and what we might have observed.
If you're gonna call someone a gangster in Korean,
please make sure you don't mix up these two words which I have done before.
If you are a Korean American, you are a--?
Gyopoe!
But if you are a gangster, you are a--?
Joepok!
Don't mix that up because one time,
I introduced my friend to my Korean friend, and I'm like,
"This is my friend from California! He's a joepok!"
Didn't go over well. Everyone went AH! Dropped their glasses
So to begin with, there have been a lot of movies around lately about Korean gangsters.
Starting around 2000 or so, there's just been this string of people
making gangsters look like they're really cool
and like their life is really awesome which
I feel like happens in lots of parts of the world as well.
But they haven't really put out as many movies about how bad it can possibly get.
So the general opinion from Korean people is that
the movies aren't really a representation of what life would really be like in a gang.
Just like how any movie isn't a representation of anything really.
Or a Korean drama!
Actually, one of the most interesting things about gangs in Korea is that
you can't really identify them.
So Japan has the yakuza-- and when we went there, honestly guys,
You can pick out the yakuza.
If you see a yakuza, you're like "Yep. That's a yakuza right there."
Like, you will be walking down the street--
You can tell from their suit and their hair and they way they look that you're like,
"I'm not gonna piss that guy off." Right.
or if they cut in front of you in line, you're like
"You can cut in front of me in line."
Or if a blonde girl with a all yellow suit starts cutting off their heads, you know that it's probably yakuza.
Anyway the point we're getting at is that
You can walk around Korea and you just don't see somebody wearing a particular
suit or covered in tattoos or something.
Although--Yes! Yes! Except there was this one guy--
-we saw in Bucheon
And I remember he was walking around the restaurant area
He was a big guy.
He was like the Korean Mike Tyson
he had his head shaved, and he had tattoos on his face.
I didn't hear him talk, but I'm pretty sure if I did, he'd have a high voice and a lisp.
Okay, and you know what he was doing?
-He was handing out cards to a host club -Liars. Yep.
-and his hands were covered in tattoos. -Yeah.
-That was a pretty clear-- -I guess, you know, hey, maybe--mmm
Yeah, I think you might be one.
Supposedly, majority of the gangs are not acting out of Seoul,
But are actually in places like Bucheon, Incheon Busan, Jeolla-do, Daejeon
So apparently that's where a lot of the major hubs of gangster activity are from.
According to the stats that we've read,
there are supposedly 216 gangs in Korea with three major syndicates.
Yeah, and a syndicate is called 'pa', which, isn't that also onion in Korean?
-Yeah, anyways,-- -So they're the onions.
So the three major syndicates are the Chil-Sung-Pa,
Chil-Sung is also known as seven star
You might recognize Chilsung cider, which means you're drinking gangster juice.
There's also the Hwang-Song-Sung, which is really difficult for me to pronounce,
but it's also known as the H.S.S.
And lastly there's the Ssang Yong Pa, also known as the Double Dragon Syndicate
Also known as the video game that I used I play when I was a kid.
The rest of the 216 gangs have some really interesting names.
So there's the Texas gang.
There's the express bus terminal gang.
Is that the beoseu teomineol?
which is actually a real subway bus station
There's also the strawberry flavored seaweed gang which is my favorite name for a gang.
There's also the Paradise gang, Yep.
There's the Hot Spring gang and there's also the Renaissance gang and the World Cup gang.
Yes. I'm not sure how these names came about.
Maybe it's supposed to blend it in? I'm used to like--
I mean, it's pretty obvious. Yeah!
Whatever happened to scary gangs like Bloods and Crips and stuff like that.
Something that sounds more intimidating like Strawberry Flavored Seaweed sounds delicious.
But maybe they're the scariest of all
Yes Maybe that's--it's ironic.
I have no idea. Like you have a huge dog.
I don't know.
Now here's something that's really interesting about gang culture.
Supposedly, and this is like an unconfirmed, slightly confirmed, no one knows--
gang members will learn different dialects from different parts of Korea.
So for those of you who don't know what we mean, when you're living in Seoul,
there's a certain accent that people have. Right.
And if you live in Busan or you live in Jejudo or different parts--they have different accents.
and most people that come to Seoul try to lose their countryside accent.
to be like a cool Seoul person.
But people in gangs supposedly will even learn a dialect because it sounds tougher and harsher.
So people in the gang will talk a certain way Even if they're not naturally from that region--
they will try to adopt that dialect and try to seem more gangster.
What about tattoo culture when it comes to gangs?
So it is actually popular among gangs.
There are a lot of dragons, roses and carps? Yeah.
By carps, I think they mean those giant-- Big fish.
I wanted to say Magikarp--
which-- Magikarp! No, they don't draw Pokemons on their body.
In Japan, if you try to go to a hot spring, it actually explicitly says that tattoos are banned
and we have friends in Japan say that even a small, cute butterfly as a girl,
they won't let you in, or you have to cover it up.
In Korea, you don't get banned, but there are some parts outside of Seoul,
I heard in Daejeon now, they're starting to charge more if you have tattoos and you try to get in.
Yeah. Supposedly they charge people 50 bucks because they had a lot of tattoos on their body.
As a girl who uses the jimdaeban and mogiteung in Korea,
I've actually never seen a Korean girl with a tattoo. No.
But I have seen-- Martina's the most gangster girl she's ever met.
I am.
With your cupcakes and your Wolverine and your Scottish fold kitten and your dog with your rainbow
Listen! You're so tough!
Ahjummas actually-- I'm totally buck naked, scrubbing my body and an Ahjumma will be like,
"Oh~ Yapunda!"
and touch my arm and we'll have a whole chat about my tattoos so,
No intimidation there. Not really intimidating.
So what do gangs actually do in Korea?
Mostly it's money laundering, extortion, prostitution, and gambling,
But that's pretty much similar in most gangs around the world isn't it?
Yeah. I would say the difference though is that there is a lot of drug trafficking in other gangs
There's not really a big drug culture in Korea. Not that big here.
While prostitution culture is HUGE here in Korea. Very big.
and, it's illegal at the same time, but there's billions of dollars going into prostitution,
majority of that is handled through gangs.
Also gambling is very illegal in Korea and a lot of--
I'm sure you've seen this in Reply nights '94 and '97
the Go-Stop games--
We did a video on it as well. It was those little cards.
That is usually where a lot of gambling happens
and those gambling houses where people go are run by the gangs as well.
Yeah. So you can actually come to Korea as a foreigner and go to a casino,
but Korean people are actually forbidden from gambling.
So they'll go to these underground houses-- it's not like an advertised place--
and you might join this gambling ring and you think that you're doing really well
Don't join them. They are going to hustle you.
That whole house is in there to try to hustle you, make you feel comfortable and make you lose more money.
and then you owe them money
and so then that becomes you having to owe them and pay it back at a crazy rate.
So I actually know somebody whose brother got into it and--
has been in debt ever since so-- Ruined his life.
Recently though, gangsters have started to get smarter and they're not just doing that kind of crime.
They're starting to invest more money in other things.
Mainly, the entertainment industry.
There are some companies that have affiliations with gangs in Korea.
I'm not going to name those names
because we kind of have a close relationship with entertainment companies,
but a lot of Korean netizens know what I am talking about.
I'm not gonna say you can easily find it online if you just do a little bit of googling.
The last thing I want to say about this is that I don't want you to feel terrified of Korea
as a result just because we mentioned gangs.
Gangs exist everywhere in the world and really
Korea is one of the safest places that we have ever been to in our lives.
So any parents that are watching this right now thinking,
"My little daughter can't go to Korea anymore."
Don't feel that way. I'm telling you, it's really really safer here than most places.
You know why I feel like it is that way?
It's because if you look at gang culture, they're dealing with gambling or companies,
It's not like they're standing on a street corner where-- Yeah. It's not overt, it's really like subculturally
We're gonna talk more about gangs in our blog post, namely what about student gangs?
What do students do when it comes to these gangs?
So make sure you click on the link here if you want to read more about it.
So here's our question to you: In your country, are gangs obvious?
Would you be able to walk down the street and say,
'I don't go down that area' or 'I don't visit this neighborhood because this is what a gang looks like--
and I know it, and it's scary.'
Let us know in the comment section below. I'm very curious to hear about it.
For our last TL;DR about moving apartments in Korea, Caramelito2006
was really amazed that we only paid $700 for our move while they did so in Germany,
and paid over €2500 to have people move for them.
That is obscene!
We'd be like, "I guess we're not moving"
"No, I guess I'm leaving my stuff in my old apartment."
I know, or "Let's take the transit there" Woah--Yeah.
Amouroussparkle said that in Denmark it's around $90 per hour
and they said the meter start running as soon as they start loading things into the car.
and they don't help you pack, they don't help you take cushions off your couch, nothing
so she said that most people just use their friends to move.
Which is what we did in Canada too. Just about. Yeah.
It's only in Korea that we started using moving companies.
Yeah. "I promise to pay you in pizza!"
and lastly, on our website samsn85 left a really interesting comment how--
a famous hostess in Venezuela, whenever somebody insulted her in a traffic jam,
instead of swearing at them or something, she would say,
"I HOPE YOU WOULD MOVE VERY SOON!"
Apparently that's how bad it is. Which is a very evil, evil curse.
Can I do that from now on?
I HOPE THAT YOU MOVE AND THAT YOU GET THE HEMORRHOID AT THE SAME TIME!
AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I HOPE THAT YOU STUB YOUR TOE!
Something a mom would say to someone.
My mom usually just goes, "You turkey!" "YOU TURKEY!"