Went to the pool where I thought there was open swim at 12. There is. But it’s only women. So is 1 PM. So open swim for men (and women) is at 8 AM, 6 PM or 9 PM. I’ve gone to 9 PM several times in the spring. Here’s how people swim in Korea:
There are about 100 people in an 8 lane, 25M pool. About 12 people per lane, usually. Way too many. There is no “slow lanes” “int. lanes” and “fast lanes”. You just kinda get a in a lane. So every lane has a 65 year old woman. Koreans don’t just swim, either. They swim down to one end. Stop. Stand there. Then do a whole lap. Or that 65 year old woman will stop halfway through. So if you’re behind her, you have to stop too. Or you catch up to a person who started halfway behind you and have to stop. It’s poorly organized, and makes it impossible to swim for 20 minutes and be done. I think everyone there just plans on spending 1 hour in the pool. Not to mention getting one’s heart rate up consistently.
In Egypt, I got the separate gender stuff a little bit. The religion in many contexts called for it, and the men there are idiots. It’s the Middle East, and gender and sexual issues are rampant. But this is Korea. It’s the 21st century. Why do we need two hours of open swim that are women only? And why is that in the middle of the day? Oh, yeah, because women aren’t supposed to work. And are home at the day.
Am I missing something here? Should women have their own swimming session? I just feel like Korea needs to grow up. I couldn’t imagine this in the US.
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jaexqzit answered:
stfu
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jennykimonacliff answered:
WHEN IN ROME IS MY ANSWER.
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peaceshannon said:
its because many women are uncomfortable wearing a swimming suit in front of others, so it’s basically one way of them trying to convince female customers to still buy a membership~
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ambhyuk said:
I get frustrated with this stuff. Gender stuff in Korea is weird. Sometimes so progressive but other times I’m like, “Is it 1950 and someone forgot to tell me?” Plus they seem to create a lot of unnecessary awkwardness in many situations. /shrug/
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nateonseoul posted this
