Korean Job Discussion Forums

offtheoche · Joined: 21 Mar 2007

To the op....speak for yourself about how much money YOU make. Rolling Eyes

JFuller317 · Joined: 10 Oct 2008

If you buy Korean products, you're not making the equivalent of $1500, you're making 2.x won. It's only $1500 if you're sending money home or buying all imported products.

Also, you have to consider work environment. Working in any retail job that isn't a high-end store, you'll have to put up with rude, impatient customers hassling you non-stop and being condescending pricks because they think you're below them. You'll be on your feet for almost an entire eight hours. You'll get two ten minute breaks and a half hour lunch. You'll come home dead-tired and possibly smelling like fast-food or cardboard. Your shifts will vary each week, making it impossible to really have a set schedule outside of work. You'll be required to come in at some ungodly hour like 4:30am periodically to take part in a truck-unloading shift.

And it's not like we're Japanese people trying to live in Nanking in 1946. The environment isn't THAT bad. Sure, I get the occasional ajoshi glare, but people are generally quite polite in my experience.

Another benefit is that you're getting to really expand your horizons. Millions of people in the U.S. will live and die without ever leaving the country. You get to live in a foreign country for a year.

There's no way I'd take a McDonald's job over this, even if the exchange rate dropped to 1800 to 1.

sojourner1 · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

You can have that awful stress of a low paying McJob. That's no way to live and enjoy life. It's pitiful what we've reduced ourselves down to at home.

JFuller317 · Joined: 10 Oct 2008

Exactly. Here I come in for about 7 hours a day. I'm not even teaching for about half that time. I'm supposed to be planning lessons, but after awhile that takes like five minutes. I have many hours each week to write a novel, practice music, expand my cinematic knowledge by downloading and watching moves, or whatever else I want to do.

I was in a management training program for a retail chain before I came here. They said I could be making $45k within 2-3 years, but there was no way I was going to waste years of my life rising up the retail chain for pay that isn't even that good. The work environment there was an absolute nightmare. If the worst I have to deal with here is disrespectful children, that's a huge improvement over customers who treat you like a slave and having to lift heavy boxes constantly.

Ukon · Joined: 29 Jan 2008

Funny, a similar situation happened to my work friend...

I had a nice job working summers at a grocery drug store... a little boring, but the pay was alright and the costumers were nice. My co-worker graduated about 2 years earlier than me for college...spent a year in journalism, came back and became supervisor....she intended to go back to school to become a pilot eventually since a journalism degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

I told her about my plans for ESL and she had friends that did it...didn't express interest at all.

Fast forward two years, she's still a supervisor, lives at home, and the only additional educational she's gotten is waitressing becuase she has two jobs now. I still get automatic facebook updates about horrible late night shifts and early morning hours from her.

So I sent her a PM asking how everyone is at work and telling her I'm having a great time teaching here....She hasn't replied back at all suffice to say...that's some bitterness!

40+ hour split shifts,(two jobs) living at home, next to no vacation, and little to no respect at work. I'll take Korea please.

JFuller317 · Joined: 10 Oct 2008

Journalism is going through a tough time because everything is moving away from print and towards online publishing. There was a time when journalists could make a decent middle-class salary. Not so much these days unless you rise up to an editing position.