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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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 Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:28 am Post subject: program of traditional Korean culture in Gangwan province??? |
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I was doing some paperwork with my Korean handler yesterday and she hands me this GEPIK form about some "Program of traditional Korean culture for native FTs". then she says it's in a distant province.. 3 plus hours by bus.
I'm like... err.. can I get back to you on that one?
she did say "you don't have to go if you don't want"
but I think she's checking off her bureaucratic requirements by giving me the crap.
oh yeah.. and I'm supposed to be pay for it too LOL like 30K won
now.. if this so called "program" - takes up an ENTIRE WEEKEND!
is truly truly interesting and illustrative of Korean culture, I'll actually consider it.
but my Spidey senses are telling me otherwise.. and it will be a colossal waste of time.
has anyone actually gone to one of these things? |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject: |
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I know others who've been "invited" to this event.
Sounds like a sweaty day of riding a bus to nowhere then a lot of standing outside in the blazing sun while no one actually knows where to go or what to do. The Koreans who happily collected your money will disappear leaving you alone with a bunch of freaks and weirdos. No one will have a clue.
The food will be kimchee, kimchee, and more kimchee.
ALL toilets will be holes in the ground. 
Oh, and you also get to stay overnight- KOREAN style- sleepee on the floor with 10 others- prison style.
Lucky you- stuck hours from home with no way of getting back except to wait for the next bus to nowhere.
Don't think this will happen? Wanna make a bet this is EXACTLY how it goes down? |
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garykasparov
Joined: 27 May 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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Everyone has received the invitation. It is for public school teachers and hagwon teachers. No one seems to know who gave our information to a
Korean travel agancy. The "training seminars" sound like wastes of time and energy. It sounds like a hellish two days and one night in a part of Korea where no one wants to live or visit. I also understand many Canadians and South Africans will be attending. They have been told it's mandatory for them to keep their teaching visas. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject: |
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| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
As do I - on my own or with one or two friends. You know, the kind of experiences where you decide how much time you'll spend at a place, what exactly you will and won't bother seeing, what you'll eat, whether you'll sleep on a comfy bed or on the floor with five other guys, how much of what you'll drink for how long, etc.
Being herded, however, is one traditional aspect of Korean culture I can do without. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
Then what are the "training seminars"? |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
As do I - on my own or with one or two friends. You know, the kind of experiences where you decide how much time you'll spend at a place, what exactly you will and won't bother seeing, what you'll eat, whether you'll sleep on a comfy bed or on the floor with five other guys, how much of what you'll drink for how long, etc.
Being herded, however, is one traditional aspect of Korean culture I can do without. |
WELL PUT.
I am a renowned seeker of historical and cultural sites, I find such stuff to be fascinating, but I never ever ever go on any organized tours. I go alone and decide what I interests me, what doesn't, where to stay longer, what to skip after a short lookever, etc.
in other words, be master of my own destiny. That's always important to me.
this has all the markings of some old school tour for children or cheesy adult tour.
hence my Spidey senses went off immediately. |
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0916
Joined: 26 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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| bogey666 wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
As do I - on my own or with one or two friends. You know, the kind of experiences where you decide how much time you'll spend at a place, what exactly you will and won't bother seeing, what you'll eat, whether you'll sleep on a comfy bed or on the floor with five other guys, how much of what you'll drink for how long, etc.
Being herded, however, is one traditional aspect of Korean culture I can do without. |
WELL PUT.
I am a renowned seeker of historical and cultural sites, I find such stuff to be fascinating, but I never ever ever go on any organized tours. I go alone and decide what I interests me, what doesn't, where to stay longer, what to skip after a short lookever, etc.
in other words, be master of my own destiny. That's always important to me.
this has all the markings of some old school tour for children or cheesy adult tour.
hence my Spidey senses went off immediately. |
Most Korean cultural sites are shit compared to Japan or China so I won't be going... |
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aka Dave
Joined: 02 May 2008
Location: Down by the river
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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The University departments have something they call "Membership Training" or "MT".
This was pretty much mandatory for me, it was the first weekend of the semester. I actually had to go on a Thursday, so it was three days.
I figured there would be some sort of training, but there wasn't. All the students did (it was mostly for freshman and sophomorees, a few juniors came but no seniors) was play games like dodge ball.
There was also beauty pageant where the male students dressed in drag and acted like females (of course cause I'm male they all pretended to come on to me). The students howled at this.
Then, every night, they brought out tons of booze and they all got loaded, while the professors (myself included) went to bed.
I did have my own room. The place was a resort and fairly nice, the food was quite good. The last night we had a "meat party" i.e. 삼 겹 살.
The whole thing seemed like a collosal waste of time, but the students had fun. And there was no apparent training at all. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| bogey666 wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
As do I - on my own or with one or two friends. You know, the kind of experiences where you decide how much time you'll spend at a place, what exactly you will and won't bother seeing, what you'll eat, whether you'll sleep on a comfy bed or on the floor with five other guys, how much of what you'll drink for how long, etc.
Being herded, however, is one traditional aspect of Korean culture I can do without. |
WELL PUT.
I am a renowned seeker of historical and cultural sites, I find such stuff to be fascinating, but I never ever ever go on any organized tours. I go alone and decide what I interests me, what doesn't, where to stay longer, what to skip after a short lookever, etc.
in other words, be master of my own destiny. That's always important to me.
this has all the markings of some old school tour for children or cheesy adult tour.
hence my Spidey senses went off immediately. |
But then you miss out on all of the fun of wondering why no one seems to be in charge or has a f-ing clue!  |
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Otherside
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| schwa wrote: |
Its an invitation from Gangneung City to participate in a subsidized cultural tour of their annual Dano Festival & other sites of interest in the area. Its completely voluntary.
Some people outside the jaded confines of daves cafe actually enjoy experiencing traditional aspects of Korean culture. I glanced over the itinerary & it appears well thought out. The meal venues are also some of the nicest in Gangneung.
Theres very limited registration & for someone relatively new to the country who wants to see a bit of old Korea & make new acquaintances, it might be a fun opportunity. |
As do I - on my own or with one or two friends. You know, the kind of experiences where you decide how much time you'll spend at a place, what exactly you will and won't bother seeing, what you'll eat, whether you'll sleep on a comfy bed or on the floor with five other guys, how much of what you'll drink for how long, etc.
Being herded, however, is one traditional aspect of Korean culture I can do without. |
Your point is valid for someone who has been here for a while..
but for people who fall into the following category: someone relatively new to the country. The program has some merit.
An aside, when my CT mentioned this to me, she said the school would foot the bill.
And Gary, who is spreading those rumours about Safricans and Canadians having to attend in order to keep their visas? (I mean, there are only a total of 120 places over the 3 days...so are 500 odd teachers in the GEPIK system alone going to lose their visas come June 8.??) |
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mrsquirrel
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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The program looks ok.
It has a decent itinerary.
Even let's you choose your own accommodation if you want. However there is no mention of being able to bring one's spouse along. |
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