Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Donald Frost]

[Ukon]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[nicam]

OP, where are you from, or where do you live now? What are you used to?

Being from NYC and L.A. I am extremely unhappy living in a small town despite the fact that I've met a great group of foreigners here. The lack of sophistication and progressive liberal thinking drives me nuts. Not to mention the conservative religious factor, and general lack of things to see or do. But I may be a fool because I thought Seoul was going to be like that city in southern China where all of the Wal-mart factories are, and all 20 million people would be walking around in a post industrial poison cloud wearing SARS masks, so I chose a smaller coastal area. Seoul is a world-class city though, as a friend of mine pointed out, and I can't wait to get out of here and back into civilization.

However, there are plenty of foreigners here from small towns though who could never live in Seoul. They're not used to the congestion, etc. Maybe Busan, but not Seoul.

Be careful! Very careful.

[Xuanzang]

I visited a friend who was the only foreign teacher in her city. I can`t imagine how tough it must have been for her in a small mining city in Gangwon-do. I just know I couldnt do what she did. Just a Nonghyup mini corner shop and everything really did close at 7pm. Getting late night eating was fried chicken or samgak gimbap.

[Thewhiteyalbum]

[sojourner1]

Smalltown living is great for the minimalist guy or gal who likes to go home get on the computer and cook for themselves instead of eating out. There isn't much to spend money on that will interest you so you will save more than you ever would in living in a city that has international restaurants and bars serving great things like lasagna and German beer. I'm lucky to have a new gym within walking distance of my place and a good internet connection, because I'd really hate it without those 2 things. Some rural teachers don't have access to a gym and don't have internet. I know a young Irish woman who don't have internet nor talk about doing anything so I asked her what she does and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "I like it here, it grows on me." I think she has a boyfriend.

There are no bars and restaurants for me to go out to so I have to make my own experience nor is there much of a social life, but I know couple people. In warm weather, I do BBQ with a shoebox sized grill on a sandy river beach near my place. In the Winter, I bake things in my oven. The only thing is when I want something decent to drink, I have to take a bus 2 1/2 hours each way to buy it. Same for getting those little Emart hams for my ham and beans, because there're no stores with any selection of products my money is burning a hole in my pocket to buy. The litta stores have basic staples like potatoes, milk, flour, sugar, chicken, and water, but that's about it. If it wasn't for the 5 day street market, I don't know what I would do for things like broccoli, bell peppers, and beans as well as better fruit deals. You'll have to go to Africa to get a slimmer selection should you be a die hard minimalist and then you'll probably still find familiar things for sale intended for the affluent rich people. There are not very many rich people in my small town like there are in the city so the sorts of things we want are scarce if not absent due to it being mostly old poor people. I also download and watch a lot of movies too.

The Koreans I work with seem much more laid back and not as head game playing as those in the city. The standards are lower generally speaking. The skills, including English ability, are much lower. No one, but a few who came here from the cities to teach, speaks any English and those few are very poor at it. Few locals know ever a couple words of English. The locals are mostly old people who don't have a clue about you and do not seem to be warm and friendly, but are cold and bitter at heart.

Overall, if you choose to go small town in a rural area far from Seoul, you've chosin to tighten your belt and set living life on the back burner, but will get ahead in focusing more on developing the quality of your health and finances more so than simply focusing on how to have a good time at a bar or western restaurant that will just consume 50% or more of a days pay each night after work. Thanks for reading the worlds longest sentence.

[McGenghis]

I moved from Gyeonggi to a small seaside village of about 15000. I love it here. I suppose that might have something to do with the fact that my own home town swells to about 30 souls in the summer, but I digest...

I'm closer with the foreigners here than I was back in Gyeonggi. We sort of have a 'we gotta stick together' thing going on I guess.

Things I can do here: watch ajummas try to sell me fish guts, dates, real dates, and bark from some medicinal tree. I never buy it, but still it's fun to take a walk through the little market. The guy on the chicken scooter always waves when he goes by, the high school kids practice their English on the sidewalk (hey, pucking you! sonobabitchi!) and the taxi drivers are just as surly and memorable as they are in Gangnam.

Things I can't do without getting on the bus for an hour: see a movie, buy anything remotely Western (aside from chicken or pija) or have a bottle of beer in a western bar.

[IAMAROBOT]

Man, I think I've got it the worst. People talk about rural being around or slightly less than 20,000, but I'm way way below that. I'm not in a town, I'm in a village. There are about 30,000 people in my county, but I'm not even in the main eup, but a myeon about 40 minutes away. I'm guessing there are less than 1,000 people in my village. My village is about two hours from Daegu and about an hour away from the nearest small city.

It's awful. I don't really get the stares because I'm Asian, so that's good. Also, there are a few mail-order brides here, so non-Koreans aren't completely alien. But everyone knows my business. The houses are pretty dilapidated. My home is the top floor of a house. My landlord, who lives below me, raises dogs, for eating I think, but they don't get killed here.

Socially, it's also awful. First I hung around the other male Korean co-teachers that are my age. It seems like young teachers fresh out of university who don't test so high get put out here. It was OK in the beginning, but the amount of togetherness that's required to hang out with Korean males is maddening. I mean hours and hours every evening of them speaking in Korean to each other and me being out of the loop, except when they wanted to use me for English practice. They couldn't understand why I stopped wanting to hang out with them. Yeah, the prospect of being used as an English speaking Real Doll for hours every evening for free is really appealing.

I visited my friends in the city pretty often in the beginning but I found that when I visited my friends in the city later on, they had already established stronger connections amongst themselves, so it was a struggle to join in on their conversations, as I often felt like a third wheel. I'd say something, then they'd comment on it, and then they'd talk about something amongst themselves. I kind of gave up on meeting people after that. I felt abandoned.

The amount of support I got in the beginning was also terrible. I was the first NET they got, so they didn't have a place for me to stay yet. They put me in a yeogwan, but they didn't want to keep me there, so they moved me to live with four other new Korean teachers in the sa-tek in front of the school. Four men. In one room. I had no mat, so I had to sleep on a down blanket I brought from home. The accommodation they managed to scrounge up for me looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. It needed new flooring, new wallpaper and a Western toilet to be installed. Through an awkward exchange about my plumbing, they told me that "feces, maybe impossible" after consulting their cell phone dictionaries. I wanted to cry. Luckily, feces was possible after they installed a sit down toilet. I will never take modern plumbing for granted ever again. Even then, they didn't have the furnishings, so I had to sleep on the floor in my new "apartment" until the bed arrived. I arrived in March when it was still cold, and I hadn't figured out the ondol, so I'd go to sleep and wake up shivering and cursing my school and the Korean countryside. One chore I really hate here is having to go to the local gas station and fill up a jug of kerosene to fill my boiler. Kerosene is fucking heavy and some of it always ends up on your hands. It's even worse when I have to get it in cold weather like now.

In terms of the work situation, you have to work more schools. I work four elementary schools and a lot of my kids aren't too bright, though there are a few gems. At first I really tried to do my best in spite of my crappy living situation. I busted my balls to do what I could for the students, but when it came time to teach the teachers and found that hardly any of THEM gave a damn, I just decided to not care that much from then on. Actually, that's not true. One school I really like and prepare for, but that's pretty much the only one. Also the co-teacher for that school is fluent in English and preps the students during the week so they're somewhat ready when I come once a week.

Sometimes I'm concerned for my mental health. When I attended a workshop with a bunch of other NETs, it was really the first time I saw a bunch of non-Koreans in one place and I noticed my interactions with them changed. I wasn't my normal self. I just felt like I forgot how to interact with people in a normal way in my native language. I wouldn't be surprised if a psychiatric evaluation yielded some really fucked up results.

[Xuanzang]

[cruisemonkey]

IAMAROBOT,

You need a psychiatric evaluation for not having pulled a runner!

CM

[yeremy]

I live in a city in Gyoungbuk. Yep, if you want western-style "progressive thinking, you're largely out of luck. Is Seoul the answer? That depends upon you. I used to live in Seoul and I'm happy I don't anymore. Where I live is really quiet after 9 pm, like a Seattle suburb, which suits me fine. If you move to a rural area, it will help greatly if you also get a car. Those I know who have cars and do live in rural areas seem to be happier, but that's just my opinion.

[IAMAROBOT]

[ajuma]

My first job was in a small town...maybe 10,000 or less. I was the only foreigner in town. It was one solid month before I saw or talked to another foreigner. To get to the nearest city was a 45 minutes bus ride and the buses ran only about every 45 minutes.



IAMAROBOT: Good for you for finishing out your contract. Teaching in that kind of situation is pretty tough, but you'll learn a lot about yourself in how you cope with difficult situations. And just think! You'll have better stories to tell when you get back in the main-stream!

I live in a rural area now BUT there are 50+ teachers in the same town. I think the availability of other foreigners makes a big difference!


sojourner1: Why in the world doesn't that Irish girl have internet? Choice? I can't believe there is ANYWHERE in Korea that isn't wired.

[xingyiman]

Basically my experience is this. The farther you get from Seoul the more racist and xenophobic people get.
If you wanna rural it for a while you can forget about foreign eats, dating or any much of a social life altogether for that matter, and you are basically treated like a space visitor who just stepped off a flying saucer for your entire tour at that place.