Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

C'mon.. you have 'em!! What are some of the off-the-wall but deadly serious questions you have had from folks back at home regarding your life in Korea?

[wylde]

i use msn gaming zone too much for playing spades... people often ask, where are you? i say, korea...

ready for it...... they then ask.. north or south?




i have had heaps from my friends & family..

best 1...

if they get hungry, do they go out and eat their dog?

[Tiger Beer]

[osangrl]

Ive gotten:

Do you live in a hut?


and


Do you have indoor plumbing?

[Mr. Pink]

The first time I went home and was telling relatives I am teaching in Korea, they always asked north or south. It started to tick me off how ignorant people are.

The next thing people always assume that the north is going to invade at anytime.

[Real Reality]

osangrl,
Do you live in a hut?
Some foreigners might prefer living in a hut as long as the hut was for one foreigner (no shared huts). However, a Korean boss might charge extra for living in a hut because it is also a special "hotel accomodation." (One or two foreigners per hut or igloo.)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200312/30/200312300158413479900090409041.html

http://news.joins.com/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/200312/htm_2003123001582290009040-001.JPG

Do you have indoor plumbing?
Of course, there is indoor plumbing. But someone forgot to inform the toilets. Why do they so often stop up (or develop a blockage)? And, everyone has clear, clean water, right? The water is so good for washing delicates. The water temperature is just right; the hot and cold work so well, right?

[peppergirl]

Every time I tell people back home I married a Korean they will ask if he's from North or South Korea... And they all seem relieved when I tell them South...

Not about Korea, but in Nara (Japan) I met this scientist woman, originally from US but now living in France. It was her first time in Asia and she was surprised how 'un-asian' Japan looked?!? She was surprised to see they also had high concrete buildings and cars and the cities in Japan look like any other big world cities... duh! What did she expect?!? I guess she would have said the same thing about Seoul.

[helly]

No questions but quite a few declarations.

"There's no electricity in Korea." My uncle.

"There's no water in the Han River." My uncle.

"They filled it up for the picture." My uncle, after we took a picture and sent it to him.

"Ohhhh, Korea is a terrible place." Family friend when I told her I was going to Korea.

Oop, just remembered one question....

"Can you bring me back a 6 foot, redheaded Korean girl?" Good friend. Not exactly sure where that one came from (probably from his clubbing experiences in New York and San Francisco) but I thought it too funny to leave out.

[katydid]

Have nothing new to add, because I only was asked about whether I taught in North or South Korea and endured jokes (too many) about dog eating.

I did teach one woman I met on a bus how to pronounce Pyeongyang correctly. You know how it's sometimes spelled P'yeongyang? She was saying it like that: "Pee-young-yang" Kind of funny....

[Tiger Beer]

Unfortunately most people don't know much more to ask then if you're in South or North Korea.

I did meet one person who said 'you must be pretty sick of eating rice everyday'.

Generally though I kind of get the impression that people have this vague concept that you're teaching out in the middle of a rice field to impoverished kids or something. No one has ever said that or asked that. But sometimes I get that impression they would if they had any clue or concept of what to say or ask.

[ryleeys]

Ryan to friend: "So, I'm moving to Korea to be an English teacher next month."

Friend to Ryan: "Really? That's so cool... what're you gonna teach?"

Ryan to friend: "Spanish... definately Spanish."

[schwa]

That we get snow shocks a lot of people. East Asia in a lot of folks' minds equates automatically with tropics & jungles.

I think a lot of westerners think theres a lot of bicycles & oxcarts here. Shortly after I got here there was some pretty serious flooding in some southern province & a friend promptly wrote offering to send me blankets & canned food. Mother of a colleague here once sent over a huge box of used dolls to give out to all the poor kids.

[Howard Roark]

"They speak Chinese there, don't they?"

Actually, I'm from Newfoundland so it goes more like this:

"Dey speaks Chinese over deer, don't dey?"

[crazylemongirl]

from my grandfather "you going over to teach them gooks english? you better teach em some manners too"

[ryleeys]

I have a question... where does the derogatory term "gook" come from? Someone said that to me one time and I was like... "um, gook? That's Korean for country..."