Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

Ghost is heading for Korea for a job as a teacher trainer in April, 2007, and is concerned about all the negative press the place (Korea) gets on these boards.

What are some of the things you actually like about living in Korea?

Ghost spent a school year in Taiwan last year (2005-2006) and did not like the country very much, but still acknowledged that some of the things in Taiwan were positive, such as:

1. Very low crime in Taiwan, and safe place to live (aside from the danger riding scooters)

2. Generally courteous people....in Taiwan

3. Low cost of living in relation to the salary.....(e.g. $20/hour goes a lot further in Taiwan than it did in Canada)

4. Ghost also liked the fact that Taiwanese never exercise between 12-2pm in the afternoon, meaning that it had the whole local swimming pool to itself during those hours...when ghost asked the Taiwanese why they never did exercise during their lunch break they said.....``that time is for eating only.``

5. Relatively easy (little stress) teaching adults in Taiwan....(kids teaching did not suit ghost)...although ghost found a lot of apathy.

6. Decent place to study Mandarin Chinese at a quite low cost.

7. Easy travel connection to Philippines, where ghost travelled to 4 times in the space of 8 months.....only 1.5-2 hours by plance from Taipei to Manila

Ok, so what are the things which Korean ESL teachers can stay about Korea, in a similar vein to ghost?

ghost

[dalpengi]

Why does ghost speak in the third person?

The following thread may provide you with some positives:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=72817

Here are my comments:

1. Yes, just like Taiwan, Korea has a very low crime rate. However, Hogwon directors probably make up the most significant class of criminals in this country, which is not good for your average English teacher. That said, things don�t seems as bad as they used to be.
2. It would be difficult to describe most Koreans as being courteous but there are quite a few acts of random kindness in this country (purely because you are foreigner). Most of the time however, expect to be pushed out of the way, elbow in the face etc. in most public places (though this will have nothing to do with your nationality � it�s how things are done).
3. Low cost of living � it depends where you live and what your habits are. I do find quite a lot of items cheaper than home.
4. No idea.
5. Illegal to teach adults outside of the designated place of employment.
6. Wrong country.
7. Well, you�ll be quite close to Japan, if that�s your sort of thing. Taiwan does win out when proximity to attractive locations is concerned.

I think if you make the effort to learn some Korean and not to interpret everything that they do as having anti-western agenda then the positives here should outnumber the negatives.

[MissSeoul]

[ilovebdt]

[JongnoGuru]

[RACETRAITOR]

[Fresh Prince]

[tiger fancini]

Tiger Fancini, of course, would never do something so silly as refer to himself in the third person. He finds such practices bizarre, to say the least....

[MissSeoul]

[Fresh Prince]

Good things about Korea. I don't know about Taiwan but I can compare it to living in the U.S. (Yes, I know Canada is better off economically and in many other ways than the U.S. but a lot of things are similar )

OK, most of the people here on Dave's are probably middle class, relatively young and not aware of the working conditions of the poorer people in their home country, so they post a lot of complaints. It's not that bad though.

The bosses I've had in the U.S. were just as bad as the those here in Korea. The bosses in the U.S. swore at me, lied to me, made mistakes in pay, played political games, cracked racist jokes, etc. It's no different here. In fact, I've been given food, given expensive gifts and had people go out of their way to make my life easier here while I've never experienced that in the U.S.. This includes not only the lower-class jobs that I've had in the U.S. but also the upper-middle class jobs as well.

In a professional job in the U.S. you are not going to be paid hourly but by a monthly salary. These industries expect you to get the job done no matter what it takes. That includes coming in on the weekends and working 12 + hours a day without extra compensation. In Korea, I've almost never had to spend extra time at work without getting paid but have occasionaly, in the U.S., I did that regularly.

Sure there is some pushing and cutting in line at the stores and on the street, but it doesn't bother me. I had a friend walk down the street in NY and she got maced by some random thug. That does bother me. Nothing like that happens here. Compared to the U.S. the crime rate is low.

If I'm lost in Korea and I ask for directions, someone will help me out. I've had people go out of their way to walk me to my destination. In many places in the U.S., nobody will help you and they certainly won't take the time to walk with you.

Korean women actually do like western guys. I'm far from being a Brad Pitt but I've had a lot of decent Korean women ask me out. If your actually interested in Korean culture, they will pick up on it. If your not, they will pick up on that too.

Korean is a difficult language to learn but the good thing is, you don't need to be perfectly fluent to get by. It is similar to Mandarin and Japanese in many ways. If you know one or the other it will help out a lot. I think Mandarin is much easier to learn aside from the characters though. If you had a tough time learning Mandarin then you probably won't be able to learn Korean.

Money: If you live a western lifestyle you can save a decent amount of money. If you live a Korean lifestyle, you can save a lot of money. I had a coporate job in the U.S. where I was paid pretty well but I can actually save more here since the cost of living is much lower.

My thoughts are Korea is pretty good.

[Smee]

1. Low crime. I feel pretty safe.
2. Money does seem to go further here. It's easy to save half your paycheck without even trying.
3. Public transportation. I hate having to drive places, so being able to use a bus or subway blows my mind. And it's easy to get from any city to any other city or town.

[captain kirk]

Tons of things are great about Korea. I recall a post in a thread about 'Korean nature' and the gist of it seemed to be Korea HAS NO nature. A post in that thread by a woman who said she (and her partner), coming from Africa, knew what nature was and though they'd spent 'much time and money searching for nature in Korea' they 'didn't find any'.

That's just one post that I can recall in the history of Dave's where the opportunity to complain about Korea allows rampant absurdity. What was she talking about? No nature? Maybe she meant a lack of big game, such as elephants and so on. Well, yeah, no elephants!

People complain because this forum IS HERE. To transform stress into negative vitality, cranky creative writing! Dave's School of CRANKY Creative Writing, project Korea!

A book called, 'How to transform Korean stress into vitality' is needed!

[Qinella]

Boring thread.

What do you like about Korea?

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HOT GIRLS!!

Okay great.

[4 months left]

[stevemcgarrett]

The food, the food, the food.

Absolutely tantalizing. Every last morsel.

(Surprised you didn't mention liking food in Taiwan. )

I've heard the women here are hot but I wouldn't know since I can't see through all that paste of makeup.