Korean Job Discussion Forums

Homer · Guest

Indeed butterfly...its exit stage left in those cases.... Laughing

wylde · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

tsgarp · Joined: 01 Dec 2003

Wylde is exactly why I posted what I did. Everything is a Korea bash. It's so freaking tiresome.
BTW, the whole kimchee stops Sars thing actually started in China. A Chinese newspaper originally speculated that perhaps the reason Korea didn't have any cases when a lot of other neighboring countries did could be due to kimchee. Exports indeed did pick up significantly so some Korean reporters just went with it. I told my girlfriend about it and she said she hadn't even heard about it. I wonder just how pervasive this is and whether or not things like this are not largely a case of people repeating things to themselves until they are true. As for anyone Korean or otherwise stating that Korea is bigger than Canada either that was tongue in cheek or CM made it up.

wylde · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

garp is exactly why i posted what i did. he just blindly thinks everything is a korea bash.
korea bashes me first with everything they do and say is better or correct.. like all foreigners are stupid and this is what is right..
if china started the kimchi thing and the korean reporters just went with it, are koreans nothing more than sheep by blindly following it or to they just follow the suitable ideas to increase their self esteem? give me some scientific evidence that kimchi is a wonder cure and i will apologise.

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea

You know, if I was forced to spend 2 1/2 years doing a job I hate (army) and probably getting a beating every couple of days during it, also setting back my professional life 2 1/2 years, and studying for 13 hours since I was 8 years old, it would destroy my personaility too.

That's not my excuse. I destroyed it by being a slave to the hagwon business. Very Happy

tsgarp · Joined: 01 Dec 2003

wylde, it's been said so many times in so many ways but for you it bears repeating. Get out of Korea. If it bashes you so much you need to be someplace warmer and fuzzier. Even if you're a masochist it's no good being somewhere that beats you down so much.
wylde:

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

When I arrived here I didn't know anyone. I feel very fourtante to have met some really good people here, both korean and others. The key is that they are cool people, we go to the movies, to the bars, performances. We do stuff. I think that it's very easy to get sucked into the work and get drunk in the same place cycle and thus part of the problem is sheer boredom. You complain because your doing the same thing week in week out. And that's if things are going well.

I will freely admit that sometimes I come across as a moaning waygook. It can be a frustrating experience living here, when simple things like going to the doctor etc, turn into a major drama because you don't know the lingo. Yes I realise that korea isn't New Zealand and I try not to idealise my home country, but sometimes I just need get stuff off my chest.

Oddly I don't tend to complain about how korea is going to my family and friends back home. I don't know why, I think it's because there is no real understanding of whats going here and also I don't want them them to worry.

I do admire people who have made their peace with living here, but I think it's a long process. The job will have a lot to do with whether you can adapt here. As will making friends, etc. But it's a bumpy ride. I'm sure even those who have gone through the process must remember those days where everything seems against them and they wonder what the hell they are doing here.

Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

I think its easy to complain when you have several different reference points to compare things with.

There are also doldrums that people get into as well. If you were back in the West, you just say 'my job is so boring' or other stuff. But you can't talk endlessly about it because there isn't anything to compare it to. Or you get sick of traffic, but its the extent of it. You can't launch into 'back there' the traffic isn't like that. Etc.

A lot of complaining is just filling up conversation gaps lulls and finding some common reference points with other people to communicate and express feelings enough to make sense of a place and figure out where you are, what you're doing, and how its different than before.

At a certain point, its no longer interesting to compare (and possibly complain about it anymore). You've worked it through.. and then you're in some other realm of trying to progress your conversation topics to another place.

rawiri · Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.

i cant !@#$en stand whingers,
"ohh my boss made me work 10 minutes overtime and didnt pay me", "they changed the timetable twice in the last month, why cant it be set so i can go out and do my own thing during the day", "oh koreans have such an arrogant attitude".

Ive been here for almost 7 months, im coming on 30 and henceforth have probably seen and done a bit more than your typical college grad fresh out of school, WHICH MAKES ME REALISE HOW SWEET THINGS ARE TEACHING IN THE R.O.K, honestly it makes me sick to the teeth when people start whinging about really trivial stuff, (note i said trivial) if things are getting a little annoying, i remember back to the days when i was busting my arse for little over minimum wage, things like unloading fishing boats full of 30 kg boxes of fish from an onboard freezer aint fun peoples.

wylde,
why do you care so much about what koreans believe, who gives a stuff?, how is it offensive to you personally?. get over it and just smile or whatever when they say these things to you, its pretty stupid that you would feel offended because koreans think kimchee cures sars, WGAF?.

unfortunatley i got stuck with two roomies that seem to permenantly be whining at me about things that they are having problems with, and i now give them a wide berth.

i know there are a whole lot better jobs and places to live out there, but i also know that there are a god damn whole lot worse and aside from a couple of minor glitches im a pretty happy camper.

Butterfly · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Kuwait

wylde · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

Gwangjuboy · Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Location: England

[quote="Tiger Beer"]She's from Colombia[quote]

I think I am working in the wrong country!

Cedar · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 3:12 am Post subject:

After I lived in Korea for about 3 years I could stand to be around bitching Westerners without their negative attitudes coloring my own perceptions, because by that time I was well set in my thinking. Before then, if I started to hear someone bitch I more or less wanted to book on out of there immediately. A couple times i didn't, and then immediately started noticing the "truth" in what they were saying. Now, I have made up my own mind about things Korean. There are good, bad and neutral aspects to life in Korea and the Korean people. However, I now know your foreign friends will leave you and go "home" but your Korean friends won't, so I rarely bother to pour a lot of energy into some foreigner who'll just be leaving in nine months.

Crois · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:06 am Post subject:

It depends what you define as westerners? Would you say that South Africans are westerners? They are some of the coolest people i know in Korea. Two people called Neil and Annette were the first people who looked after me. They taught me everything. Then there was Russel and Janine who are just as cool.

As for knowing any Koreans it is hard because i work in Naju which is hard to make any Korean friends because there arent as many people speaking English. The ones we do know are a bit weird.

As for westerners making my view a bad one? I dont think its the case. I met a very nice Girl or Woman or lady in Seoul. Lets call her J. There is the view that Americans would be ass holes and that the canadians would be fun. Apparently its the other way around. But i am still yet to find this out. All the Americans and Canadians i have met are cool.

It just depends who you are and what you are after? I tend to stick to more westernised people because they have a similar attitude like me. Really couldnt give a feck if they were Korean or not.

If you want to gety to know Korean people and abuse Westerners for what they do, dont come here and expect me to say i am sorry. I try and fit in with the way of like but i still like to bring some culture from back home that might interest the Koreans i teach.

Maybe this topic is more for people living in Seoul because Seoul is a completely different place compared to the rest of Korea.