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New Luck Toy
Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Location: Around the way.
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 Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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I have been asking myself this question a lot lately.
Honestly, I have been really shocked by the racism here. I heard that I would be stared at etc., but I didn't realize that I would be denied entry to certain places and be discriminated against in an institutionalized way.
I came here to meet Koreans and learn more about the culture, but now it seems that I will never really be welcome here. When I travelled in Europe I always hung out with local people and avoided hostels and foreign bars. It seems like in Korea I am left with no other choice but to hang out with other teachers/native English speakers almost exclusively. I didn't come here to live in some kind of foreigner bubble.
I am new, and hopefully this situation will improve along with my Korean language skills. Right now I am really wondering if I made the right decision in coming here.
Maybe I'm just a whiner. But hey, you asked! |
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Homer
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| You call yourself a consultant?? How about an insultant? |
What was that all about anyway?
I just suggested the the guy that since he was so unhappy here that he should move to a place that will fit better with his needs.
This has nothing to do with me being a consultant either.... 
As for an insultant...I was not insulting him at all. I was just saying that life is far too short to stay in place or situation that makes a person miserable. Especially if a person has viable choices (like moving).
The list you refer too was indeed focused on economics but that is manily because a lot of people come here to save money and pay off debts, not to teach. The system allows this.
So the list would lean that way.
As for xenophobia and racism...well it is alive and well here. I sure am aware of it. However, having lived in a couple of other countries it is not my first viriginal experience with racism...
That tends to put things in perspective.....
The Thai example is not hard to believe. Japan is another fine example of well conceiled xenophobia and racism.
I lived in France for a few years as a teenager and young adult and you want overt racism...go there buddy.
So once you have experienced a few places you start to discern what is and isn't racism and xenophobia and your reactions to differences and to these types of behaviours starts to become a bit more measured and informed. When on the other hand Korea is your first abroad experience and your first contact with a society that is not geared towards your white butt (if you are white) then the shock is greater and we all deal with this according to our own personalities and outlooks.
I think that if a person is miserable in a place and has the option to leave to a place that will make him/her happy then they should do it...life is far too short!
Last edited by Homer on Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ronald
Joined: 14 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:10 am Post subject: |
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Overall, yes. I am happy here. With my full time job and private, I'm bringing in about $33,000 per year with hardly any bills for only 26 working hours per week. That's more than most college graduates start off at back in the US. Am I getting rich? Hell no! However, I am getting to live in an interesting place and travel the world. I hardly do any real work here. I get a month vacation . i get to travel and see the world. I've met some nice girls. All in all, I get paid decent for very little work.
I will admit that it screwed me up a little when I went on vacation to Thailand. I was depressed to come back here. You just have to think about the money though.
Why did Thailand screw me up? I felt incredible alive and exuberant there. Granted, I was on vacation. I was in a completely different realm than what Korea has to offer. I was not drinking or using any drugs and I was only with one girl my whole 3 weeks in Thailand, but I cannot explain the high I felt being there and the down I felt when I returned here. I 'm healthy though, so life is good. It's good to be an expat!! |
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drkalbi
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:48 am Post subject: |
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| When I take my vitamin B pills and listen to my mp3 player, no problems. |
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MissSeoul
Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Location: Somewhere in America
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Ronald wrote: |
Why did Thailand screw me up? I felt incredible alive and exuberant there. Granted, I was on vacation. I was in a completely different realm than what Korea has to offer. I was not drinking or using any drugs and I was only with one girl my whole 3 weeks in Thailand, but I cannot explain the high I felt being there and the down I felt when I returned here. |
It's time to get a job in Thailand, isn't it ?
The pay for ESL teachers in Thailand is about $800 a month and I heard more than half of them are drug users and most of them don't have degree ( you can teach without degree in Thai ), it's well known internationally that Thailand is the country of the most weired/strangers/losers gathering place.
Plus almost 1 million HIV/AID infected people, one of highest in world. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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No.
But I can save money.
I was much happier in Mexico, but I could barely scrape by on what I was making. $300 a month doesn't go very far. But I loved the culture and
I cried when I left.
I was much happier in Korea before I got wind of these new visa regs.
It was too easy to work for a year, then take a few months off for vacation.
Now I HAVE to stay at my present job and give up any decent vacation plans
or
suffer the consequences and jump through all the hoops in order to change jobs.
It sucks  |
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Seoul_Star
Joined: 04 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:56 am Post subject: |
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I'm not really happy nor am I particularly bothered. I'm on the fence right now, sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it.
-My landlord is cool and nice
-My boss is an idiot, but I get paid on time and there is nothing missing from my check
-My co-workers are decent people, who don't annoy me
-The food is good
-My job is so-so, the hours are less than desirable
-I have a few good Korean friends, who are open minded
-I have no complaints about my extracurricular weekend/night time activities, there is lots of opportunity for fun here.
-I've grown tired of certain aspects of Korea and Koreans, but I've learned to block it out almost entirely.
-When I see Korean people doing illogical things, I am no longer bothered by it, I simply sit back and watch, almost like watching animals doing stupid things on the Discovery channel.
There are ups and downs for everyone. |
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bluelake
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| Yes, I'm pretty happy here. I have been involved with the country over half my life (I'm 46) and lived here most of that time. There will always be challenges living here, but that's nothing new... |
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anyway
Joined: 22 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| Homer wrote: |
| Quote: |
| You call yourself a consultant?? How about an insultant? |
What was that all about anyway?
I just suggested the the guy that since he was so unhappy here that he should move to a place that will fit better with his needs.
This has nothing to do with me being a consultant either.... |
So you weren't offering the guy some unsolicited advice? He didn't start the thread to get your advice. He just threw in his opinion. Then you felt obliged to point out his options. At least for me, that is insulting as it implies he couldn't see them for himself.
| Homer wrote: |
I also think (like it was stated in here..if I understood it correctly) that to be happy here (or anywhere else) you need to free yourself of pre-conceptions and assumptions and learn to see beyond the first level of things. You also need to put things in perspective and realize that for the most part you control your happiness. |
This was your post just before the bloke spilled his guts. What happened to those gems of wisdom? He controls his happiness by moving to another country? Aren't you suggesting below that he would have trouble in other countries with racism, etc.? Seems to me that you are the one making assumptions (about his background and probably mine), but of course you've been and seen and done more than the rest, eh?
| Homer wrote: |
As for an insultant...I was not insulting him at all. I was just saying that life is far too short to stay in place or situation that makes a person miserable.
That tends to put things in perspective.....
I lived in France for a few years as a teenager and young adult and you want overt racism...go there buddy.
So once you have experienced a few places you start to discern what is and isn't racism and xenophobia and your reactions to differences and to these types of behaviours starts to become a bit more measured and informed. When on the other hand Korea is your first abroad experience and your first contact with a society that is not geared towards your white butt (if you are white) then the shock is greater and we all deal with this according to our own personalities and outlooks.
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So why are you advising him according to your own outlook? See my point? Why take offense? I guess that shoe don't fit so good on the other foot. All I was saying is the dude's message was 'I am not enjoying it' per the title of this thread. Why do you feel the need to advise him of his option to leave? Cause you think you know something he doesn't, I guess. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:50 am Post subject: |
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I'm sorry to inform so many people but Happiness is a choice.
It isn't something that happens to you, without your consent. At least on the level we are speaking about (I do agree there are external circumstances which bring pain/suffering and thus - a lack of reciprocal and temporary happiness.
If you are unhappy in Korea, you'll be unhappy in Kennebunkport or Karachi.
I'm happy wherever I am. My choice. If you do want to blow with the wind, you are welcome to it -- I prefer to have a well chinked house of which I'm at home.
DD
www.eflclassroom.com |
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Homer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:13 am Post subject: |
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| I'm sorry to inform so many people but Happiness is a choice. |
Precisely.
anyway,
I was just reacting to the rant from the guy. He seems genuinely miserable here so I suggest he should move to a place that will not make him so miserable...
For the record, I do think that changing places will most likely not work for him. I think we generally are the artisans of our own misery and that if there is one constant in life, one thing that we always take with us...it is well..ourself. Changing that requires being able to look at yourself honestly and to make tough choices.
So if you took my advice as insulting or presumptuous I apologize (even if it was not aimed at you).
I have not done more than anyone else anyway...I have done what I have done and make my choices according to this. I just believe we make the bed we lie in and that many people seem to fail or not want to recognize that basic fact of life, most likely because it is far easier to try and blame others for ones problems.
So I am not looking for a fight here anyway...just participating in the discussion. I think ddeubel has said it better and far more concisely than I did and I completely agree with his outlook. It is dead on target. |
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chachee99
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
Location: Seoul Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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| [side note: Cambodians, at least in Siem Reap hate Koreans, citing their rudeness and completely insular mode of travel. While visiting the Angkor temples they herd together, stay in Korean-owned hotels, use K-owned buses, eat in K-owned restaurants, buy souvenirs in K-owned shops, basically contributing as little as possible to the local economy] |
Not to mention that they smoke in the temples. Throw their garbage on ground. Use the Buddha sashes as towels. Destroy the property. Steal artifacts, such as rocks, from the temples. Hog all the picture time from other tourists because they need take 50 group photographs. Walk around talking in a bullhorn. Use the locals as servants.
Yes Cambodians cannot stand Koreans. I visited Siem Reap last year and the Koreans were completely rude to the locals and disrespected their property and history. Their behaviour sickened me. I even got in a few arguments with them because I just couldn't take it anymore. Honestly, if a foreigner treated their temples the same way they treated Ankor Wat, they would probably ask them to leave.
In short, Koreans thought they were "the sh!t" in Siem Reap, but in reality they just made @ssholes of themselves. |
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Nick Adams
Joined: 26 May 2005
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| Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:56 am Post subject: |
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| When I take my vitamin B pills and listen to my mp3 player, no problems. |
Classic. |
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Nick Adams
Joined: 26 May 2005
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| Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:59 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like some of you have year-round seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:04 am Post subject: |
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| After seven years here, I am happy. Had my ups and downs, but in the end one just has to make a choice; either let life get to you, or make your own luck. I went the latter route and was able to do quite well for myself in Korea. Sure, it's not without its hassles, but I've found that exercise is a wonderful way to relieve stress. |
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