Job Discussion Forums

[Gordon]

[konyoku]

[AndyH]

Ah! I think I walked past that place once. I'm glad to hear it was good. I'll have to give it a try.
Thanks for letting me know!

[Glenski]

[sushi]

Hey you have to read my post. I said hogwons and academies never. I was in the public school system and in an institute at some point in time. Unless you have thouroughly checked out the Institute you are applying to give it a miss.

Public schools and universities are the only way to go in Korea. Payment for your public school work comes to you directly from the ministry of education, and there are a lot of perks to working in the system as well.

In Korea they seem to do everything on a hit an miss basis in the public school system. you are hired and left to do your own thing. Unless of course you have serious problems and word eventually filters back to the administrators. Those that like it and eventually work out how to organize and teach their lessons stay. They dont kick you out. I think they just grit their teeth or in many places close their eyes. The bad ones find their place after while either by not getting rehired or by quiting on their own or by staying on, because they picked up some other interest on the side. There seems to be a lot more tolerance in the Korean public system than maybe there is in the Japanese system.

Sushi I like, but that seems to be the only descent dish they have in Japan. The portions you get of it in Japan are kinda meager compared to what you get for the same price in Korea.

[poof]

Japan - world's most delicious food; better mountainside; more interesting culture; nicer temple architecture and garden design; more cutting-edge design and fashion; easier to learn judo; bigger, better, more, most....

Korea - cheaper everything; easier to teach at a uni; easier to learn to read Korean script; kids not as psychotic; not so rigidly formal; easier to learn taekwondo...

[ironopolis]

On the subject of food, I'm not surprised at the reaction to sushi's initial comment about it in the earlier post. And I'd agree with AndyH that if non-local food is your priority, you'll do a lot better in Japan than in Korea. That advantage is slightly offset, however, by the number of places in Japan that purport to give you (insert other country)'s food, but actually give you a version of it bastardised beyond belief to suit local tastes. Italian food, especially, suffers in this regard.

However, if we're talking not about imported cuisines, but the local stuff then I can well empathize with sushi's (or anyone's) disappointment when they came to Japan. For me, as someone who's overall fairly happy in Japan, the local food has been the most disappointing factor; particularly so given (a) how much the Japanese themselves go on and on about the general wonderfulness of their cuisine and (b) its fairly strong international reputation. There are a few things I quite like here, but so much of Japan's food seems to have way too much salt, sugar, and don't even get me started on mayonnaise! An awful lot of stuff is fried, I see little in the way of fresh vegetables in many dishes and even the fruit is way too sweet.
Obviously this is completely a matter of taste and if you like all these things, then good luck to you. Just make sure you bring some toothpaste from your home country


On comparisons between the 2 countries generally, I've spent quite a lot of time in both, have my own clear preference, but when advising anyone else always try to stress that whilst undoubtedly sometimes people can fare badly in another culture through little fault of their own, so much still depends on the individual; and that it's quite possible to have either a good or bad experience in either country. In my opinion, it's a shame when you get people who themselves had a bad experience in another country, who seem absolutely adamant that their experience is accepted as the definitive one. This kind of "no! my opinion is the correct one!" attitude says as much about the person themsleves as about the country they didn't like, and is probably one of the reasons they failed to adapt.
So be very wary of anybody telling you about any country, Korea, Japan or anywhere else for that matter, that it's an impossibility or near it to be happy there.

[D.O.S.]

[sushi]

I miss the general noisiness of Korean restaurants and coffee shops. People in Korea seem to enjoy themselves more when they go out to eat or when they go to coffee shops. They at least talk. They might even talk to the foreigener or invite him or her to join them. In Japan even if they are shocked that you are a foreigener they say and do nothing. (All Robot like). In Korea they will at least be honest about it and look or gawk at you.

I have to say that walking into a Japanese coffee shop is sometimes akin to walking into a morgue with a bunch of stiffs seated in the chairs.

[AndyH]

I'll agree with you on that, Sushi.

[Cshannon]

[Jon Taylor]

Korean food is much nicer than Japanese food.

There are more and more Korean restaurants opening up in Japan and the ones in my area are ALWAYS full.

There is so much more variety.

I could name 20 delicious Korean dishes and if you would like I would be more than happy to list them.

I struggle to name more than 3 or 4 delicious Japanese dishes.

Let's face it....On the subject of Japanese food it's always the same answer....sushi, sushi, sushi and erm.........sashemi.

[Cshannon]

[movinaround]

Having lived in Japan for two years (and China for one) and now living in Korea, both have good food. To say either has almost no good food is just crazy and I suggest leaving the McDonald's you must obviously live in Both have tons of really good food (and both have some absolutely horrible food too though...)

[sushi]

Hey a lot of that stuff in your list is junk man

Noodles are noodles everywhere and it's a sad state of affairs that you put them in your list. Every bus stop in korea makes their own noodles at least as good as if not better than the Osaka crud.

Soups Koreans would never brag about, because every restaurant offers the same version of what you have in your soup list. "Miso soup" my god. thats a junk option for almost every meal.

We got the rice dishes too. Curry rice,rice omelete, omorice and the korean equivalents of the others aren't things that are advertised in Korea again because they are so common.

Tofu is tofu and you can't vary the way it's served across international boundaries. The stuff is in one of ones side dishes that come with your main meals in Korea

Your meat dishes I am not familiar with, but I have had shabu shabu and it wouldn't make the menu in Korea. Boiling beef in water. Gimme a break

I have dined with a lot of Japanese and they openly admit that Japanese meat dishes do not compare with Korean meat dishes.

They dont pull any punches when they talk about the shite quality of their food compared to that of Korea

I have had teriyaki, but not in Japan. (In Hawaii actually), and that I'll admit is delicious. You probably gotta paye through the nose for it though, and then it probably takes you ten years to locate decent restaurants that cook the stuff.(Like with a lotta the stuff on your list) Albeit may be the only decent one in japan is in Yokohama while you live in Fukuhoka.