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Listerine
Joined: 15 Jun 2014
Posts: 340
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 Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 2:59 am Post subject: |
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8 year Korea vet.
Things I don't miss about Korea.
-The people are overworked, miserable and stressed. You'd see arguments every day, road rage all the time, could go days without seeing anyone smile. A truly glum people.
-Pretty horrific cases racism and justification of it. "Oh we are one people and want to protect our pure blood!" Almost nazi-esque. Seems like half the country's culture is based around grievances caused by some foreign country 500 years ago. Big whoop - you got invaded a couple of times...which country didn't? There was the case a month or so of the bar in Itaewon of all places which put up a sign saying "Africans won't be served due to Ebola risk". They take the "dirty foreigners" thing to a new level.
-Bland mono-culture. Everyone wants to dress the same, look the same, eat the same food, same hairstyles, same brand phone, same apartment, same car, same name, same thought process. Felt like the people had been mass made in a factory production line at times. "Insert App Korean Personality 3.0"
Things I do miss about Korea (compared to China).
-Koreans were shit drivers, but the Chinese take it to a whole new level of crappiness. I read something once that 50% of Chinese only got their license in the past 4 years meaning they're essentially just provisional license drivers - comparable to my driving skills when I was 21 or 22, which frankly speaking (lol) were crap. Throw in semi-blindness and straight up stoopidz for the trifecta.
-Worrying about what you're eating. Granted the food variety in China and freshness of produce is miles ahead of the ROK, but it does get tiresome to wonder all the time what you're eating / drinking. Pay extra to buy a filter for this, a filter for that, pollution free this, organic that.
-Medical services - Even the smallest village in Korea has well qualified doctors, clean, largely first world medical care. Some "hospitals" I've seen in China could just about be confused with the public WC for all the level of hygiene which exist.
There's heaps more on both sides, but I want to make napskis.
If I had to pick I'd choose China in a flash - not to say I'll *never* go back to Korea to work / live, but I'd prefer not to. |
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water rat
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Insert App Korean Personality 3.0 |
You're hilarious, Listerman. But when I moved to Korea, some years after spending three years in Japan, I found the Koreans to be recognizable human beings, at least. They bought flowers, walked in parks with their children, showed emotions! They did so much else than sit on trains reading.
This:
| Quote: |
| Bland mono-culture. Everyone wants to dress the same, look the same, eat the same food, same hairstyles, same brand phone, same apartment, same car, same name, same thought process. Felt like the people had been mass made in a factory production line at times. |
And this:
| Quote: |
| -The people are overworked, miserable and stressed... could go days without seeing anyone smile. A truly glum people. |
Could be said with just as much or more truth about the Japanese. Notice I omitted your line about road rage and arguments? That's because there is so little emotion. Just suicides.
Sure, Koreans are racists, but I think they admit to being the same race as us homo sapiens sapiens. The Japanese won't even admit that!
However, I am getting off topic in my own thread. It's not about the Japanese. I don't want johnson007 reporting me! 
'However' (number the second) I wonder if my titling this thread 'Why prefer China to Korea' did not unintentionally bias it toward China (?). Likewise, what if I had posted in the Korea Forum 'Why prefer Korea to China'? Would I have got a very different set of responses?
I don't want to join the Kore Forum just to find out. Can any one tell me if there is a parallel thread there such as I have described?Could you provide a link? Maybe the Mod Team could assist? Thank you |
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Alien abductee
Joined: 08 Jun 2014
Posts: 527
Location: Kuala Lumpur
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| water rat wrote: |
'However' (number the second) I wonder if my titling this thread 'Why prefer China to Korea' did not unintentionally bias it toward China (?). Likewise, what if I had posted in the Korea Forum 'Why prefer Korea to China'? Would I have got a very different set of responses?
I don't want to join the Kore Forum just to find out. Can any one tell me if there is a parallel thread there such as I have described?Could you provide a link? Maybe the Mod Team could assist? Thank you |
You don't have to join that forum to look at it. |
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water rat
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| Alien abductee wrote: |
| water rat wrote: |
'However' (number the second) I wonder if my titling this thread 'Why prefer China to Korea' did not unintentionally bias it toward China (?). Likewise, what if I had posted in the Korea Forum 'Why prefer Korea to China'? Would I have got a very different set of responses?
I don't want to join the Kore Forum just to find out. Can any one tell me if there is a parallel thread there such as I have described?Could you provide a link? Maybe the Mod Team could assist? Thank you |
You don't have to join that forum to look at it. |
Good to know. I seem to remember otherwise. Still, I'm awfully lazy and the search function here is awful. What do you propose we do about that? |
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Listerine
Joined: 15 Jun 2014
Posts: 340
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:54 am Post subject: |
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| water rat wrote: |
| I don't want to join the Kore Forum just to find out. Can any one tell me if there is a parallel thread there such as I have described? |
Yeah - there's been a bunch. At one point over there it seemed to be a near weekly topic. The general consensus was China is preferable. In fact consistently the only people who suggested they liked Korea better were those who later admitted they'd either never been to the PRC or those who were married into the place and developed some kind of Stockholm Syndrome.
I meet foreigners all the time here who did a stint first in Korea and say they'll never go back. You never read on here people saying "I'm in China and want to go to Korea next." In contrast the Korean forums are filled with people asking about moving to China, and I get facebook messages all the time from friends in the ROK asking about jobs here. Seems people are deciding with their feet as to which is best.
*edit* try this thread....
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=219814 |
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water rat
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:17 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks, Listerine. I appreciate it. |
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direshark
Joined: 12 Apr 2014
Posts: 90
Location: Qingdao, China
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:23 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand, I've heard rumors that a university position in Korea is, in terms of pay and time off, one of the best occupations you can have anywhere in any industry. |
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Listerine
Joined: 15 Jun 2014
Posts: 340
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:52 am Post subject: |
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| direshark wrote: |
| On the other hand, I've heard rumors that a university position in Korea is, in terms of pay and time off, one of the best occupations you can have anywhere in any industry. |
Circa 2005. sure. Korea is largely an employer's market now, and the Uni gigs definitely are. They're not the golden goose they once were. |
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JamesD
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
Posts: 934
Location: "As far as I'm concerned bacon comes from a magical happy place."
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:04 am Post subject: |
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| Listerine wrote: |
.......
I meet foreigners all the time here who did a stint first in Korea and say they'll never go back............. |
Put me on that list. What a miserable place full of xenophobic, hypocritical, lying, .........well, you get the idea. The one advantage is that the Korean alphabet is easy to read. Guess they had to make it simple. |
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water rat
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica
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| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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If anyone's interested here's a Dave's thread where our fellow members compare Korea to Japan:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=107815&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
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