Is this normal?

[JABU NXAU]

I got a call recently from a korean chap and when I asked him whether he could speak english he simply hung up! Is this normal, ie did this happen to you before?

[kshirley2]

This has happened to me several times. I signed up for some sort of savings card with my cell phone and I guess that means I got put on a lot of marketing company's lists because I get lots of calls and texts now! I usually try to ignore the number if it's not mine.

[madison79]

I got a call recently from a korean chap and when I asked him whether he could speak english he simply hung up! Is this normal, ie did this happen to you before?

Yup. 

[taeyang]

my general rule of thumb: never answer the phone unless the number has an id. i.e: you've already entered the number in your phone!  :D

[Andyroo]

I actually got a shock the other day when I answered a random number (I usualy just cancel) and it was someone I knew who had changed numbers.

There was also that time immigration rang me ...

So for unknown numbers the score is

2 real calls vs 543 spam calls

[lita]

Totally normal and I prefer that over the other choice, of them screaming more and more Korean at you (like the delivery man who had the wrong number did). Take no offense to it.

[WorkingTitle3484]

When this usually happens, I see it as a chance to practice my Korean...or embark on a super-sonic speed dating session if you will.  Regardless of what sales pitch they throw, I ask them "What's your hobby?" or "What do you think about tofu stew?".  After doing this for 2 years, I realize men and women in Korea would pound that red buzzer and dunk me into a vat of sticky rejection...which I'm OK with.  I do the same thing in the States when tele-marketers called.  To answer your Q, it happens often and capitalism never discriminates.

Also, if you're not interested, K salespeople hang up faster when from the other end they hear "I'm not Korean/외국입니다"

[Ben-Ja-Meen]

Haha... I get wrong numbers constantly.  Typically the Korean on the other end has a tough time accepting that they've dialed the wrong number.  I tell them (in Korean) that I'm a foreigner and that I don't speak Korean.  Instead of simply hanging up, or more appropriately, apologizing and then hanging up...they usually just keep on talking.  Eventually I hang up.  But it doesn't end there.  Most of the time they call back and I just have to ignore the phone.

If it happened every once in a while I'd laugh it off, but when it happens more than twice a week I get irritated.  If I called my buddy and a Mexican guy answered and and told me he couldn't speak English, I'd assume I dialed the wrong number.  I'd say sorry and hang up.  I wouldn't keep blathering on in English and then call back after the poor hombre hung up.   ???

[madison79]

Haha... I get wrong numbers constantly.  Typically the Korean on the other end has a tough time accepting that they've dialed the wrong number.  I tell them (in Korean) that I'm a foreigner and that I don't speak Korean.  Instead of simply hanging up, or more appropriately, apologizing and then hanging up...they usually just keep on talking.  Eventually I hang up.  But it doesn't end there.  Most of the time they call back and I just have to ignore the phone.

If it happened every once in a while I'd laugh it off, but when it happens more than twice a week I get irritated.  If I called my buddy and a Mexican guy answered and and told me he couldn't speak English, I'd assume I dialed the wrong number.  I'd say sorry and hang up.  I wouldn't keep blathering on in English and then call back after the poor hombre hung up.   ???

I've had people call me back 5 times to make sure they didn't mess up.  Never know since "We"  cause all the problems in Korea