Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yawarakaijin]

Just curious folks. Why is it that the Korean board is so full of negative attitudes compared to say that of the Japan board?

Is the the kind of foreigners Korea attracts? I wouldn't seem to be the case. In Japan you have a working holiday system that let's just about any Canadian, Brit, Aussie or Kiwi in the country for a year. You don't even need to be a university graduate to get a working visa in Japan, 3 years experience is enough. You would think that the fact everyone teaching in Korea is a uni grad would ammeliorate the problem with problematic foreigners a little.

Is it the system? Japanese bureacracy can be just as brutal as the Korean one I believe. While things are pretty good on the surface here there are lots of thing for the expat community to complain about in Japan.

Is it the people? For the most part, while the Japanese are polite and friendly, I ALWAYS found it easier to "connect with" Koreans back home.

Is it just something in the water there?

[pidgin]

It's a fair question, I think there is just a higher sheer number, no?

And tho I have no strong complaints i can understand why some do....it is all a matter of experience, like all things.

Korea is heaven (culturally) compared to Saudi, and that's where I am coming from.

[Julius]

3 main reasons:

1) Korea attracts a lot of first-time teachers (because jobs for the inexperienced/ unqualified are easily come by here)- people who have no experience of adapting culturally.
2) While Japan and Taiwan may be just as xenophobic as Korea (but in different ways), the lifestyle is more active and social for the teachers there. There are also far fewer PC bangs to sit in and vent. By contrast, Korea lives more online.
3) People tend to write when they are angry. Happy people with active lives don't have time to tell everyone how good they're feeling.

[Fresh Prince]

In Korea if you have an E-2 visa, you can't quite your job and find a better one if you have a personality clash with your employer, or you don't find the accomodations or work schedule to be satisfactory. You'll need to spend a lot of money and time to go through a complicated system of red-tape, and reapply for a visa if you want a different job. In Japan, you can just quit and find a better one using your same visa.

The result is foreign teachers stuck at places where they don't get along with their coworkers or bosses, and venting on the internet.

[pidgin]

Nice avatar.

[pidgin]

Nice avatar.

[yawarakaijin]

Ok, I can see how just having the simple freedom to change your job/easily get out of a situation you dont like could make a big difference. Interesting explanation.

[tomato]

Hello, Yawaerakaijin!

It seems that happy and contented teachers are really the majority on this board.
Someone ran a poll and that is what the results indicated.
Unfortunately, though, there is a vociferous minority which has more than its share of the power.
This vociferous minority has inhibited the rest of us from posting anything favorable about Korea.
Those few of us who have made such a venture have invariably gotten responses like:

■ "If you see anything good about Korea, then you are not looking deeply enough under the surface. In fact, you are a naive, gullible, fool."

■ "You're a phony liberal. You're like a white person who shakes hands with every black person he sees."

■ "If you're better off here than you were in your own country, then you must have been a real loser in your own country."

■ "If you're loyal to Korea, then you're a traitor to your own country. You didn't give a hoot in hades WHAT happened on nine-eleven, do you!"

■ "So you like Koreans better than you like us, huh? All right, then, reject us! See if we care!"

■ "What right do you have to be happy when we are unhappy? Don't you know there is a Law of Conservation of Happiness?"

■ "Oh! So you're happier than we are! So you must think you're better than we are! Well, tooooouch you!"

■ "If you like Korea, if you like teaching, if you like kids--in short, if you like anything or anybody but Western entertainment, Western sports, and us, you're from Squaresville."

■ "You must be an agent from Korea Herald or someplace."

[yawarakaijin]

I wonder if it has something to do with the kind of people who simply came across daves. The Japan crowd tend to be those of us who have decided to make a life here. The other guys, the young, just paying off my debts guys, have way too many other things going on in and around tokyo to have time to mess around on a message board.

Japan isn't all good though. It probably beneficial to foreigners views on Japan that you would never know it even if your co-worker hated your friggin guts beyond all imagination. Open displeasure with someone is simply just not shown here for the most part.

[stevieg4ever]

The condition of English education here is in a state of chaos. As such I think working environment has to be factored in here somewhere. It can be very impersonal at times, certainly unprofessional and unorganised and dificult to take job satisfaction as well.

[Saxiif]

Ironically you probably get a lot more unhappy people here because you can save more money here teaching English with just a BA than other places (outside of Iraq ). If you're miserable in a place like Japan, China, Chile, Poland, etc. etc. there's no reason not to leave and come to Korea. But if you're miserable in Korea you might stay here anyway because you can save a good bit of money here, so in Korea there's a big reason for miserable people to stay that doesn't exist in most other EFL markets. This also means that a lot of people who suck at adjusting to foreign cultures and are just in EFL for the money end up here as well.

If average salaries dropped to 1.5 million there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the boards but after a few months most of the posts would be happy since no sane person would stick around Korea for 1.5 million/month unless they really liked it here.

[Saxiif]

[mikeyboy122]

Korea rocks! I'm staying as long as I can. Kinda crowded and polluted, but I can deal with that. Make the best of your situation. It sucks for some I know, I did the hagwons first time over and it sucked. In public school now and it's 180 degrees different. Enjoy

[MollyBloom]

I like Korea a lot too. I can't wait to get back and eat at my favorite galbi restaurant in Gangnam. I miss kimchi mandu and kimchi bokumbap, too. yumm. I just love Kim Bap Chun Guk in general.

[pugwall]