I have noticed that KATUSAS tend to be slightly nerdy and unfriendly. I pass them many times on post and I nod to them but they ignore me. Are they treated badly by US Army personnel or they don't like acknowledging strangers? I thought KATUSAS chose their job so they could interact with US military people. I have had many postitive experiences with Korean Soldiers/Airman that were not KATUSAS but I have yet to meet a friendly KATUSA. What the hell is going on???????? Do KATUSAS hate US military?

I do not even know if this is worth replying to..but a Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) IS a Korean Soldier. All Korean men are entered into the military, what happens after that is a ROK Soldier or a KATUSA. They both must do a 2 years in the Korean Army.

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CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

Well, let me write a comment about KATUSA based on my own experience back in 90s.

First of all, many KATUSAs are geeky looking (majority of them are wearing glasses.) because they are/used be elite in Korean society. Majority of them are sophomores or juniors in the universities in Korean Ivy leaque and many studied abroad. Some are from very wealthy family so they could become KATUSA instead of serving in ROK Army (majority of ROK Soldiers are infantry). They could look ignorant because of where they came from; they could be spoiled rich kids. That's probably why some KATUSAs look unkind and rude to Americans.

Nevertheless, there should be other reasons. From my experience, in general, Koreans are not friendly to strangers. It takes time to build rapport and relationship before they open their mind. It is uncommon to greet to strangers on the street regardless they are Americans or Koreans. Before we define them as rude people, we have to understand their culture. Bowing is much more common for Koreans than nodding and handshake. To old Korean people nodding could be mean gesture.

Again, this comment is totally based on my experience and from my own opinion.

One suggestion, why don't we greet in Korean to them instead of nodding? Ahn-Nyong-Ha-Se-Yo.

The Air Force has the friendly KATUSAs.

Katusas, like Airmen and Soldiers, come in various types. USANATO seems to have a pretty good description if we could generalize. But we should not generalize, as we all know. Each person is an individual and deserves to be judged on his own merits.
Working with Army Katusas often, I find that many are disappointed after becoming attached to the Army. They do not all get jobs where they can move freely among Americans and hone their English skills as much as they had hoped. Sometimes they get placed in a supply room or orderly room doing menial admin jobs and answering the phone. Some of this is due to poor supervision, some is due to their lack of fluency in English. The ones with more dynamic personalities, and ability to express their desire to speak English as much as possible, usually enjoy their two years. I believe the U.S. Military should utilize their skills better and encourage them by putting them in more responsible positions whenever possible. How many of us would enjoy working in an office where Korean was spoken exclusively? What if no one befriended you or actually tried to help? To understand the difficulty, you must put yourself in their position.
Smile and greet them in their language, Befriend them and help them practice English at every opportunity. Katchi Kapshida!

I found that if you take the offensive and hold them to a few sentences, things begin to loosen up very quickly. Starting with a joke of some kind usually worked well for me. All of my KATUSA's were pretty competitive so I would make a crack about one to one or more of the others and everything after that was gravy.

Well, I didn't mean to generalize whole KATUSA things, even though it sounded like. I was trying to give little bit background of KATUSA to those newbies in Korea who are not familiar with Korean culture and custom.

Based on Mr. Joe's comments, there are not many things have changed on the way KATUSAs are managed in USFK since 90s. Many of them have been utilized as admin clerks/answering machine or supply clerks for a long time. I guess that's the easiest way we get to use their manpower in less demanding positions; I am not putting down those jobs since I have Human Resources background.

As more Korean students study abroad, we will receive more KATUSAs fluent in English. We must utilize the program to be beneficial for both, USFK and KATUSAs. KATUSAs are the good way for American Gis to learn Korean culture.

USANATO, if you'll look for biff's post he has started you will see that he is kinda like mr song. He tries to get reactions out of us, so he can have some amusement in his life.

As for KATUSA's, ours are great. They not only handle all our paperwork that goes through our orderly room and gets delivered to S-1, they also type memo's that are signed by our Commander and do alot of reserach for us and in our unit they are our NBC personnel. We do have strict rules with them, while they are in there place of duty they cannot speak Korean, unless dealing with another non-military Korean.

USANATO, their is a reason I attached the image in my first post.

__________________
CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

When I worked at AFN I had some great Katusas. They were all mostly rich kids. They had to speak really good English to get assigned to AFN. But they were all a great bunch of guys...except one...but there is always one.

Chucksnee shut up. I'm not always trying to get people riled up. I honestly almost never receive a positive response when I say hi or nod to a KATUSA at Yongsan. Personally I feel disrespected when they ignore me when I say hi. I don't care what their social status is or where they are from. I will continue to dislike KATUSAS till they prove me wrong. However, I love the hell out of ROK AF Army and Marines. I've met lotsa cool guys in the REAL Korean military....