Job Discussion Forums

[cha muir]

this is cha's wife. currently i am living in Vietnam, not teaching. i'm a stay at home mom. but i did teach in Korea before my new baby ('97 & '2002). my tattoos are visible. in my job photo they are not visible, and when i started classes i hid them at first. but then after time i let them leak out. i found no problems. i even went into bath houses. no rude glares. (though i don't wear my glasses in the bath) here in Vietnam i also have let them out after time. also, no problem. of course people say things that i don't understand. but, no one was rude. i would say they just touch them a bit, and sometimes that can be bothersome. in korea i also taught house wives. they saw them and i know they liked me and we got along well. i have very visible tattoos on my wrists and neck. in asia though i don't generally go around in shorts or tank tops. only, when i'm on vacation are they all visible. (like the beach).

cha here. my wife's tattoos are also lovely, black ink. well thought out.

as for me. i got my first tattoo in bangkok this summer while we were there for the birth of our daughter. its a large one that goes across my chest. now i wear a tie everyday because if my shirt is unbuttoned you can see the tattoo . went to class with it showing one time and didn't like the girls whispering and giggling nervously. i generally do not let it show around town. i like to keep to myself. i just hope when we go to japan that it won't prevent me from enjoying the hotsprings.


chao,

cha and lara

[paisleyavenger]

(keeping on topic - who cares about speling! god, some people in forums blabber on about the most ridiculous, irrelevant things.)

tattoos in korea are not looked on kindly. like japan, tattoos are associated with mafia or mobster types. and korea (socially) is a very conservative country.

westerners are given a little leeway, i have a few tattoos but they're small and easily hidden. however many gyms, saunas, swimming pools etc have signs up forbidding tattoos.

this would be more of a problem for a woman than a man (i'm not being sexist, i'm just telling you how koreans think).

also, this is the biggest worry for you, there would be problems if you didn't tell your boss about your tattoos. i think most employers would be angry that they didn't know ... not because they'd hate tattoos, but because this can create problems for them.

you need to remember that english education is a private industry. so people are paying their own money to learn. that means that people will complain quickly about something they don't like.

it could make your job complicated.

like i said, i have tattoos too ... and although they're not big, i have to be careful about them being seen in public and at work. if you choose to have tattoos, then you have to make allowances for the fact that others don't like them. not the other way around.

[khmerhit]

Are they paisley tattoos, paisleyavenger?