My personal experience with Korean tourists as a Việt Kiều 🇻🇳🇰🇷
Average single 40-year-old single losers with a god complex.
I went to see my girlfriend for the first time, and we decided to do a city bus tour around HCMC for our first date since she also hasn’t done the bus tour before. I paid for the tickets, went upstairs on the bus, and got seated with her.
After that, two middle-aged Korean guys — probably around 40 — came up with two Vietnamese women. I’m not sure who the women were, maybe random girls from Japan Street or people they met on Tinder, because they kept calling them “Oppa, Oppa” with heavy viet accent.
From the beginning, the Korean guys were loud as hell. The girls even tried to tell them, “Oppa, please be quiet,” in a cute Konglish way, but the Koreans didn’t listen and kept shouting things like, “Wow, this bus looks so average compared to the ones in Korea,” along with other disrespectful comments. You can probably imagine the kind of obnoxious stuff they kept saying after that.
The ride finally started, but the Koreans in the back were still loud. About 15 minutes later, they were somehow even louder than the music playing on the bus. I looked around and could clearly see that a lot of people were getting annoyed by their behavior.
Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I turned around and said, “Hey, can you guys speak a bit more quietly, please?” I also said the same thing to the girls in Vietnamese, but in a nicer way since they obviously didn’t want any trouble.
After that, I heard them whispering something in Korean. I’m guessing curse words like “shibal” or “geobjaeng-i,” probably thinking I was beneath them because I look vietnamese and must have no money compared to them. Funny thing is, I come from Europe, so my salary is probably three times higher than what the average Korean makes.
I was already getting pissed off, but my girlfriend tried to calm me down and said, “It’s not a big deal, we can just go again another time.”
Eventually, I backed down and tried to enjoy the rest of the tour, but I was still pissed since it was our first date and it ended up being ruined by these almost middle-aged Korean guys with beer bellies and fanny packs.
The Koreans did get quieter after that, although they kept muttering stuff under their breath every now and then. Still, I ended up enjoying the tour and the rest of my time in Vietnam especially the food and the genuinely nice Vietnamese people.
We also went to a nice restaurant after the tour so the date was kinda saved hehe :)
TL;DR: Went on a bus tour in HCMC with my girlfriend and ended up sitting near two loud Korean dudes acting obnoxious the entire ride while making disrespectful comments. Told them to quiet down after everyone on the bus got annoyed. They kept muttering stuff afterward, but eventually calmed down. Still enjoyed Vietnam, the food, and the Vietnamese people.