It says nothing of the sort. One of the man’s sons says “they picked him out”, which is obviously untrue since they were running a jaywalking sting at that intersection. Anyway, it still doesn’t have anything to do with this story except that it involves an Asian person.
Just to pick up on the cultural thing, here are the notes I collected after reading the thread:
Wow, I can’t believe people are still lumping everything into “Asian” culture like it’s one single mess of 3 billion people. Korean culture is not the same as Chinese culture (and “Chinese” culture itself is dozens of individual cultures anyway).
No, there’s no cultural thing in Korea that should have these seniors thinking they had rights to loiter all day. Sure, in Korea, they probably wouldn’t have been asked explicitly to leave. But part of the social contract would be that they picked themselves up and eventually left anyway or that somebody very politely asked them to accommodate other guests. That part is no different than here.
It’s possible they took umbrage that their age didn’t accord them more respect from the local staff and they’re being stubborn and that they’re overly sensitive at being in a new country. It seems some of these people have only been here a couple years and might not be culturally assimilated at all.
As for expectations of staying at home or not, there’s no real expectation that Korean seniors leave the home to socialize or anything. It’s not unusual for seniors to stay at home all day, most days, nor is it unusual to go out regularly and socialize, either. But if it was me, I probably wouldn’t want to be cooped up all day.
Why is the community is backing them? It’s probably a lot to do with age. Everybody knows these guys aren’t in the right, but Korea culture is to respect older people, sometimes even if they are being dicks. They’re probably a bit stuck in the corner - having to justify behavior they know is wrong but at the same time not wanting to violate cultural taboos by telling these men to knock it off. If the men were just 1 or 2 decades younger, the reaction would almost certainly be vastly different.
Exactly.
The lists of free things to do in NYC is never ending. www.nycgovparks.org has a daily calender of events at city parks, and most events are free. Free times at the world’s best museums, zoos, exhibits, the NYPL, you name it are well published. Their Metrocard is their ticket to unlimited action.
These people don’t want “something to do”. They want to sit on their rear ends.
Apparently there’s been a Korean Armistice Agreement.
So, in short, Korean people tend to afford special respect to the elderly. For cultural reasons.
Well, now non-Koreans are telling them to knock it off and being ignored.
They’re a bunch of old assholes with entitlement issues.
Maybe McDonalds can offer a Bulogi Mac.
To a point, as in many East Asian cultures and, to a different extent around the world.
In this case, the local community is taking things further than normal. There’s almost certainly a lot of “us vs them” mentality going on with Koreans trying to protect their own, rather than purely respecting their elders.
You wouldn’t get this level of pigheaded stubbornness in Korea itself or among Koreans who have been here longer in areas with a lower overall Korean presence who had a chance to be more assimilated.
They do, in Korea and Japan.
Pretty much.
20 mins to finish food in a restaurant?
And if I buy a tea/coffee/soft drink in a restaurant that says I get free refills I expect them to refill my cup all day long no matter how long I stay there. So long as I leave at closing time I’ve done nothing to breach the contract they’re offering.
Hilarious. I’d like to see you sue McDonald’s for “breach of contract” when they kick you out after you buy one coffee and then loiter for the next 10 hours. No, really. I think you should try this.
If they’re offering free refills after I buy 1 cup then expect me to finish all my free refills in 20 mins then who’s breaching their contract?
Absolutely.
I want one of those!
I think people are focusing too much on the 20 minutes figure - if you’re not an entitled old asshole who camps there all day, every day, they’re not going to kick you out if you take 25 minutes to finish your burger and coke. The idea is that in general, they don’t want people using a tiny little McDonald’s location as their living room.
So there are different rules for different people? I’m not comfortable with restaurants deciding that the desirables can linger, while the undesirables get kicked out.
I’m fine with restaurants having rules about how long people can stay, but I think those rules should be applied consistantly.
I guess only their lawyer can answer that! Let us know what he says.
I don’t go to McDonald’s lol. Just saying what I believe the terms of their contract are. I think if someone took it up with them they’d win.
The person would win. Not McDonald’s.
And here is the attitude that creates that 20 minute limit in the first place.
A reasonable person stays a reasonable time to eat their food and then leaves; these customers are not being reasonable, which is why McDonald’s is having to resort to strictly enforcing a 20 minute limit.
You try doing what these entitled old assholes do at a small local restaurant, and see how long it is until you get a 20 minute time limit enforced on you, too.
If this were a group of teenagers hanging out in McDonalds all day, buying one coffee or one order of fries and then staying hours, monopolizing the tables so other customers leave without buying anything, I’ve no doubt **sven **and other supporters in this thread would have no problem whatsoever with McDonald’s telling them to leave.
But because they are old, and Korean, in some people’s minds that gives them a free pass to be assholes.