I’m an English teacher in South Korea, so I’m part of the 1% of people in South Korea who are not Korean. I guess I stand out a little bit because of this. Sometimes it’s nice and people ignore me more, but other times they talk to me more.
One day I was walking home after a day of work and I was one block from my apartment. A white car drove by me and pulled up in front of my building. This is perfectly normal, there are restaurants in the bottom and many people who live inside. However the driver did not get out of the car.
As I am walking up the sidewalk I noticed a “baby on board” sticker. It makes the car seem a lot less threatening. As I started to walk past the car I heard a man say, “Hello,” out the window. So I looked over to acknowledge that I heard him before walking on by. However when I looked over I noticed that he was masturbating…
I probably made some kind of disgusted face, I don’t really remember, but I just walked quickly away and into my building. (I took the stairs in case he followed me inside to see what floor the elevator went to.)
I felt quite a bit scared after that. I’ve had people cat call me since I was 13 or so and while it’s annoying it’s bearable. This was not OK. Not at all. I remember I was wearing a skirt that day so my legs were showing from the knee down, nothing crazy but it made me question how I dress and if it’s OK. I don’t think I should have to worry about wearing skirts because some perverted people might do this to me.
I think the worst part was that “Baby on Board” sticker on the car. Because that man is obviously a father.
– AKH
Location: Dongtan, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
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