Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cedar]

Half Pint, think of it this way: You have the internet. When I hit that tough time, and I did go through it, too--- well, I wrote a lot of letters home and waited expectantly for the mailman everyday. (Thanks Be for my Mom! Always good for a letter a week!).

I would suggest you do what I did at that tough time. Get active with Koreans. Join a hiking/biking/hapkido/dance/drumming or whatever group and start having something to look forward everyday that includes Koreans. It'll help you feel more positively about being here, and break up the monotony of life in your small town.

Culture shock passes. And it's 8 a.m. and I just finished eating home-made dwenjangchigae for breakfast.

You'll learn to ignore the staring or you'll end up leaving, one or the other. I was fairly self-conscious before i came to Korea. The staring has helped me get over that.

And that guy who said Chinese food is good is on something.

[narsty dog]

sorry to pish on your fire half pint but take some of the advice you get on here with a pinch of salt. mine too , if you so judge - BUT > the fact is you are you and they is they. what irks you in five years might be THE SAME as what irks you now. i hated korean food for 6 months , all of it. then i had years of loving it. then about 2 years ago i went back to 'restaurant stuff's great' but home stuff ( i lived with koreans for a lonnng time) 'kimchi , kimchi , and a bit of fish now and again' will make you strannnnnnnge-ee.
and the notion of 'culture shock ' i dont find helpful, either. it assumes a one way process whereby you fit into 'the culture'. as you know, this 'fitting in' is the problem. 'culture' is a fluid concept, it changes as social values change- it s constantly changing.

however as you may find, learning the language, reading the cultural symbols in korea, things that might make you a smooth operator elsewere don't enable you for membership of the 'life on easy street in korea club'. staring will be there in 5 years time as will the locals ethnocentricity and insecure nationalism and attitude to outsiders. if you can handle that good luck to you.

enjoy.

dont forget korea for the masochists and misfits and japan's for the shallow. china's for the materialists with no money and asia in gerneral is the place to 'unlearn' all the values, concepts and intutitions you inherited in western culture from the enlightenment.
this is where wife beating becomes justifiable , as does ripping people off, and blaming others in national newspapers for your problems. for this see last year's general elections. the same person who benefitted the most is now trying to shut the media down in korea. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh............
the smell of chardonnay, danish blue, cheesecake, fresh bread.
Jjigae for tea again is it ??

and before the 'ooh wife beating goes on in europe/ US, etc. - ripping off occurs elsewhere' gang start kicking off, the point i m making is that koreans have no universal notions of right and wrong / good and bad/ universal notions of liberalism and the rights of the individual that underpins western thinking. They are bound by confucianist notions of hierarchy/ filial 'piety'/ factionalism in the EXTREME .
Thus the subway incident you describe . Shocking to you because you 're world view is underpinned by an idea that all people are equal and a stranger needs help. But Koreans dont think like this. If anyone disagrees please explain your experience in detail and showe me an example how Koreans IN PUBLIC behave in western ways. I d be very interested to hear empirical examples.

If you think I m wrong about this , then look at the daegu fire and ask yourself why the driver ran off with the key ????!!!
was he 'evil'???

Again , when I refer to 'western values' I mean in terms of world view and acceptable levels of discourse in the academy, media, classroom etc. NOT as we westerners are represented by those stooges in 'representative democratic' govt. who 'represent' the interests of disgusting rich people like themsleves rather than the people.

I am sorry but if i had a pound for every time i ve heard the 'join a hiking club' brigade story or ' if you dont like it you know where the airport is'.....

getting 'in' with some 'koreans' doesn't mean you're in with KOREA.
I could say 'never forget that son, they is words of wisdom' ....but I dont need to . Why ? because the KOREANS will never let you forget that.

[ishiii]

Well;
I am not trying to disagree with anyone, but in the three months I have been here I have found Koreans to be very helpful. The few times we (gf and I) have tryed to get derections we had no rpoblem. I was shocked the first time I stoped some one (with a map in my hand) asking for directions. They spoke no english so they stoped the next person, and then the next. Before it was said and done we had 8 Koreans standing there trying to help. We did get the info we were looking for, btw.
Haveing said that, I got to say the puke on the street and the spitting and what not is nasty. I am not haveing a hard time being here, but the gf is. She hates the stares, I just stare back.
Havent seen any wife beating yet, but we did see a child getten the crap kicked out of him by his dad, my attidue was he probably deserved it, the gf did not agree with this thou.
Oh well we will see what the next 9 months has in store for us. Everyday is an adventure.

[narsty dog]

ishii , you said it boy .


" every day is an adventure "


THATS THE TRUEST WISDOM EVER WRITTEN ON HERE

and the only reason to stay there. drugs are dearer.

[Cabbit]

[Zyzyfer]

half_pint: It's been oft-discussed that culture shock has a tendency to hit at the 3rd-4th month. Sure, it's there the whole time, but that's when it's strongest.

During the 8th month, people who are dissatisfied tend to start counting the days very closely.

[rapier]

Your story really makes you wonder what would anybody do, if anyone of us foreigners needed emergency medical help on the subway.No korean would touch you with a barge pole.

[Alias]

I'm not tired of Korea at all. I'm tired of working 40 hours a week. What happened to my working vacation! Just got 5 months left. Going to stay but I want to land a job with less hours. Money is not a big concern.

[half_pint]

[crazylemongirl]

Great to hear your feeling better half pint!

I view being in korea as one giant case of PMS, one minute I'm top of the world looking down on creation, and the next I want to lock myself in my room and ball my eyes out, the next I want to inflict GBH on the next kindergarten kid (or drunk guy) who makes a beeline to my chest with his hand.

Thus my cure for the korea blues is (and I reallly loath to admit this) chocolate and a romantic comedy... probably not your cup of tea but this is my happy place. Hope you find yours (although it's probably at the pub judging by your handle)

CLG

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

[sparkx]

Fonzi,

No matter what way you slice it you simply can't rationalize reaction and feelings here. Quite honestly I am sick and tired of people saying, "but no Korea is great because..... and ........" This place rests on a foundation of ambiguity (especially for foreigners) so it's quite difficult to simply dig in and piss in the snow like one can do in other countries.

I agree with much of what Narsty said and it reminds me of a thread from the old board asking whether you live in Korea or just commute. I think at around the 3-4 month mark you pretty much have to make a decision whether you want to struggle to innundate yourself in Korea (learn the language, make Korean friends, etc. etc. etc.) or simply swallow this place in small, managable, bite sized pieces -- ie. Do your own thing (internet, cable tv, reading, hanging with other foreigners, watching hockey playoffs, etc, etc, etc.) I made the conscious decision to do the latter and am quite comfortable right now...

Oh but BTW, I am 4 months, 12 days 6 hours and 13 minutes from when my contract is finished and I can get the hell outta here.

[Homer]

I think its a both more complex and simpler than you put it sparkx.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[quote="Arthur Fonzerelli"][quote="narsty dog"]
Those rich elite Koreans may not be to your liking, but they built Modern day Korea after the war and maintain the quality/stability of life you enjoy here. [quote]



Umm. Narsty doesn't live here anymore Fonz. Why do you think he's so bitter anyway? .

[sparkx]

Homer wrote: