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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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ReeseDog
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Location: Classified
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 Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Cheonmunka wrote: |
I don't know about rats but I once saw underthe roadway kind of pipe thing when I was saving a kitten in between the houses, tens of huge cockroaches, as big as my hand, hanging upside down and making clicking eating or something noises. My face was inches away from them. Freaked me right out. I still see them very clearly in my mind's eye eight years on.
I've been up close to diamond back snakes, had leeches on my tummy and shoulders, had a poisonous spider next to my hand, nothing, I'll tell yah, prepared me for those cockroaches.
I'm not being facetious in any way. Damned scariest animal life I've ever seen. |
Scary perhaps, but are they nutritious? Aye, there's the thing... |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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*beep*, now there's an idea.
Good on yer, Mate. |
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ReeseDog
Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Location: Classified
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| You want scary? I once found myself flat on my arse in the Bavarian Alps with a black boar coming on at full tilt. With a little luck (and a little aid from a Forstmeister), the situation was cleared right up. Never did a pork roast taste so good. |
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luv2dance79
Joined: 01 Jun 2007
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| travelingfool wrote: |
The only thing I miss about Korea is the pizza. Yes, you heard that right, the pizza. Some of the best pizza I have ever had was in Korea. The toppings and combinations are outstanding. I know those are fighting words, but I seriously loved the pizza.
In terms of infrastructure Korea is great. The transportation system in Seoul is clean, cheap, and efficient. The health care is pretty good, at least in my experience. The problem is the mood of the place. It's just seems oppresive and miserable. Even though it has material wealth and modern amenities, the place just lacks a soul. Koreans treat one another much worse than they treat foreigners.
Some people on this board will say that if you hate Korea, you will hate everywhere you go or that you just can't hack living abroad. That is bull because I am proof that is not true. The locals in a foreign country are really what make the difference. Korea is just not a friendly place, overall. (of course there are some great Koreans, I met a few of them. I am just saying overall, an average, it is by far the least friendly country I have ever been to, and I have been to many) |
I agree with a lot of what you say...But....The pizza here sucks! I haven't eaten real New York style in a year and it's one of the things I miss the most. The closest I got was a pizza place on Osan air base...and it tasted more like a DiGiorno. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:29 am Post subject: |
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| PBRstreetgang21 wrote: |
Im going on my second year here with another one of my friends. Both of us just loved it the first go round. After Korea I went home, but he went to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Loas, India, Nepal, France and when it was all said and done all he could do when he was finished was think about getting back to Korea. Me Im not as well traveled so I cant compare. COMPARE being the operative word. My time in Korea has been the best. Really because of the people. Which is the only thing Korea has to offer. I love the people here. I met one of my best and closest friends (korean) here. Ive had so many wonderful experiences with the ajummas and ajosshis.
When I went home to the States I notice how distant people are from eachother. We try so hard to make OUR own space and our OWN way. Like the whole self-checkout, self-this and self-that. I love being in Korea because when I go out with Koreas there is a WE. In american there is a grouping of I. I also liek how dirty the place is. Just about everyone I know back home is way too saftey and health conscious. I love how my Korean friends just dont care. They are far more fun when we go out too. I mean....here I cant remember the amount of times just sitting in front of a Family mart drinking soju we've had K dudes come up and want to hang out with us or want to go to a noraebang. Drunken ajosshis who wanted to buy us tons of food at the pojangmatcha.
What amazes me about these forums isnt so much the negativity but just how often the experiences I read, that I and my foreign friends have never encountered |
This is an interesting post. I think there's a lot to what you said, and a lot that is not acknowledged by negative-on-Korea people. But, once you leave and go back home, most of these people tend to be the biggest haters of life back home. |
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mnhnhyouh
Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Location: The Middle Kingdom
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:42 am Post subject: |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
This is an interesting post. I think there's a lot to what you said, and a lot that is not acknowledged by negative-on-Korea people. But, once you leave and go back home, most of these people tend to be the biggest haters of life back home. |
And I suspect that many of them hated life at home before they came to Korea as well.
Maybe some of those will realize, when they go back home, that it is only a small black cloud over their heads, and that it doesnt really follow them around but comes from inside.
h |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:53 am Post subject: |
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I love Korea and I love teaching. I still do have my down days though. For all the negatives said here there a a lot of positives too. If you are one of the people that left this place with a negative vibe other than being skrewed by your job, I think you have a lot to learn about yourself.
Sure Korea isn't the "greatest" place on Earth, but if you set out to make money here, you probably made more than you expected you would before you boarded the plane.
If you stuck it out for 2 or more years and can only remember the rudeness or crap stuff, then you did not make the effort. IMHO |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| PBRstreetgang21 wrote: |
Im going on my second year here with another one of my friends. Both of us just loved it the first go round. After Korea I went home, but he went to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Loas, India, Nepal, France and when it was all said and done all he could do when he was finished was think about getting back to Korea. Me Im not as well traveled so I cant compare. COMPARE being the operative word. My time in Korea has been the best. Really because of the people. Which is the only thing Korea has to offer. I love the people here. I met one of my best and closest friends (korean) here. Ive had so many wonderful experiences with the ajummas and ajosshis.
When I went home to the States I notice how distant people are from eachother. We try so hard to make OUR own space and our OWN way. Like the whole self-checkout, self-this and self-that. I love being in Korea because when I go out with Koreas there is a WE. In american there is a grouping of I. I also liek how dirty the place is. Just about everyone I know back home is way too saftey and health conscious. I love how my Korean friends just dont care. They are far more fun when we go out too. I mean....here I cant remember the amount of times just sitting in front of a Family mart drinking soju we've had K dudes come up and want to hang out with us or want to go to a noraebang. Drunken ajosshis who wanted to buy us tons of food at the pojangmatcha.
What amazes me about these forums isnt so much the negativity but just how often the experiences I read, that I and my foreign friends have never encountered |
You experience sounds similar to blogs on Korea....they'll all pretty positive and liking the place....only on Dave's do I read all this negativity. I know this is the place when others come to whine or get help when in serious trouble, so I guess it makes sense. |
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SirFink
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:49 am Post subject: |
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| I was happy to leave but after a few months I began to miss some things about it: the easy money; easy public transportation; being able to go out and get drunk and take a $3 taxi ride home; $2.50/pack cigs; being able to smoke in a bar. Nothing major, but little things which apply to more than just Korea, I suppose. |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:29 am Post subject: Re: To the Korea survivors who made it out and never came ba |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
Please tell me where I can save $40 g a year working 23 hours a week, total, with 5.5 months vacation, and where I don't have to worry about Allah police watching my every move.
Anyway, wherever you are, there you are. It's not the place so much as it is you. That's my thinking. |
the only way I can imagine you saving 40K a year, working 23 hours and with half the year off is constantly doing privates at about $50hr
unless you are tapped into some teaching "opportunities" that the rest of us aren't aware of.
feel free to PM me, I'm ALL ears  |
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sunnyvale
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| I'm convinced that anyone who stays in Korea for more than a year is f'd up. Look around you, look in the mirror... All of you are escaping something back home. I don't buy the, "It's for adventure, I'm adventurous." Or "Living abroad is not for everyone". You people are for the most part, socially inadequate back home. |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: |
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| sunnyvale wrote: |
| I'm convinced that anyone who stays in Korea for more than a year is f'd up. Look around you, look in the mirror... All of you are escaping something back home. I don't buy the, "It's for adventure, I'm adventurous." Or "Living abroad is not for everyone". You people are for the most part, socially inadequate back home. |
I'm going to call bullshit on that one. We can compare social "adequacies" any time you'd like.
I don't like being in one place for any PROLONGED period of time.
I get excited when being in a different city/environment back in the US.
abroad the feeling is multiplied x 10.
(and I know why.. it's because I LIKE "being different", IMHO many more advantages than disadvantages)
no interest in being one of the SHEEPLE at home, especially now at my age, when my excoworkers and friends become domesticated, have babies and otherwise start living lives I cannot relate to, nor am I interested in. (at least for now... I view their lives as having kids, working and waiting to die, while doing FASCINATING things like going to see their little Johnny in a school play playing a TREE, the little Johnny grows up, goes to school and they're de facto geezers, ready to see the world with blue haired ladies in AARP tours.. that is assuming they can afford to, considering what they probably had to pay to get Little Johnny educated)
special. 
besides I've already decided if ever do want to "domesticate" myself, I'd like it to be in Latin America - problem is making a living/supporting a family.
we'll see how much I like Korea, but considering some of its advantages, I may stay there at least 2, maybe a couple of more years. |
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Scotticus
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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| sunnyvale wrote: |
| I'm convinced that anyone who stays in Korea for more than a year is f'd up. |
So it says you joined July 17th, 2006. This means one of two things:
1) You've been here more than a year, making you "f'd up."
2) You've left Korea and have so little of a life that you still frequent the message boards of a country that is "f'd up" and you left.
Either way, you're a winner. |
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Miles Rationis
Joined: 08 May 2007
Location: Just Say No To Korea!
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: Re: To the Korea survivors who made it out and never came ba |
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| crescent wrote: |
| Miles Rationis wrote: |
How did it feel initially? How does it feel now to have escaped this pollution infested rathole of a country?
Was it a feeling of exhilaration? of joy? Do anyone of you actually miss it? |
Trips home are always eye openers. You think Korea is polluted? The Great Lakes of North America have signs posted to warn against the dangers of swimming in them. These are the largest fresh water lakes in the world. Name a major city worldwide that doesn't have pollution problems. Streets and highways are littered. Park garbage bins overflow. Dog crap scattered about.
Rudeness? Heard plenty of it back home, too. General lack of consideration and road rage on city streets and highways. Exopensive, yet poor public transport. People putting their dirty feet on subway seats. That's a treat. Ever try getting about without a car back home? I'd rather not put up with the high cost of vehicle ownership.
One of the things that really gets my goat, is the High percentage of teenage mothers pushing a strolloer with one hand, holding a smoke in the other and cussing out bus drivers with choice language. Governernment welfare cheques are buying a lot of smokes these days.
Then there are the tax rates, and residential bylaws. Talk about 1984. I have to get a permit to build a toolshed in my back yard, or even hang a clothesline that is too large.
Miles, I think you carry an immature sense of entitlement with you. The only reason you can't cope here is because you're used to having it your way.
Take a good hard look at the things going on back home. I guess to do tha, you'd actually have to live there for a while. Your memory isi obviously fading.
Now, before you commit me to the apologist team, let me assure you, I am a strong critic of Korea. That doesn't mean it is far below the likes of other places, all things considered. |
I wasn't ever talking about the USA/Canada; screw them, you are right about them. I was talking aboout Europe in general and a few countries specifically. The USA is a bad place to live and I would possibly never live there. Montreal is nice but only because it has the Old City, which reminds me of a European city. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Scotticus wrote: |
| sunnyvale wrote: |
| I'm convinced that anyone who stays in Korea for more than a year is f'd up. |
So it says you joined July 17th, 2006. This means one of two things:
1) You've been here more than a year, making you "f'd up."
2) You've left Korea and have so little of a life that you still frequent the message boards of a country that is "f'd up" and you left.
Either way, you're a winner. |
Excellent post. Sunnyvale=hoist by his own petard. |
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