Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tlord1986]

I have been thinking about joining the Peace Corps for a few years before I come to Korea. Has anyone served in the Peace Corps?

[Robot_Teacher]

I applied back in '05 and almost went to Botswana. I was approved and everything except I got hung up on letter of references and dealing with an incompetent beaurocracy with a bad attitude up in Washington D.C. I could had continued with the process and went, but decided that I didn't want to be in Africa flat broke depending on the D.C. office personal as my main liason to communicate with for materials, help, and resolving issues that will invariably need attention from over my head. After getting familiar with them from interviewing, asking questions, and calling them several times, I decided it would be kinda risky to put my life in a less than ideal situation and needing their help so I backed out.

I not only wanted to travel, but I wanted to get experience in my field, so taking the risk might offer you a start in either linguistics, agraculture or IT/business type of career track. Just don't expect pay, the ability to save up money for touring, and much of anything upon your safe return home. I understand volunteers used to always receive a good job in the executive branch upon return, but this is no longer routine like it once was. I understand it's quite routine vets return for grad school now days and often end up teaching college or directing an organization though nothing is guaranteed in todays job market.

Anyone else have any more info? Good topic. We need more career exploration topics. I would still reconsider if I knew the program was being ran well and that it would pan out to a good Fed or civilian professional job upon return.

[sugarloaf82]

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa from June 2006 - August 2008, just before I came to Korea. I loved my experience and would be more than happy to answer any questions about PC. I could write a lot here about it, but figure I'll wait and answer any specific questions if any arise.

[Demonicat]

I did it. I was Peace Corps Mali back in 2003. I left after 13 months on medical. Overall, it was good for me, and I matured alot.
You should know that if you are an idealist, it will crush you. The Peace Corps is not really a helpful thing for an under developed nation, as the government gives you neither supplies nor money- just well wishes.

I was sent to Mali as an agriculture volunteer. I am a cityboy from DC, so I have to say that I wasn't exactly qualified to teach farming to people who have farmed for the past 4000 years, but hey whatever. After I realized the futility of trying to teach them farming, and after I realized that me trying to help them farm was actualy slowing them down, I asked the people what they wanted. Their answer was simple, a water pump so that they could set up an irrigation system. I reported that to the Peace Corps. Their response was that I needed to do fund raising. The laughable thing about that, is that in Mali there are no phones or internet, and the postal service is pretty damn slow. In short, it was impossible.

If that didn't disuade you, I'd be happy to answer your questions.

[samcheokguy]

yeh, my friend was in it and said it was the drunkest, silliest, sexiest time of his life.

[Omkara]

I served in the Russian Far East, as an English teacher, in a tiny village of about 2000 people, in the Taiga, where the temperature dropped well below -40 C, where paved roads were not to be found but on post cards, where not a soul spoke a word of English, where vodka and samagon drowned your miserable lamentations, just over the hill from an old gulag, knowing that Stalin had built this village as a labor community for undesirables.

Ni-chyevo sebya!

I love that I can speak Russian now. I love that my world and mind are enriched--not in a bookish way, but in a Siberian Winter sort of way. But I was one miserable young man the whole way through.

'Twern't no romance. I did not wax poetic when the lights were turned off night after night, after Siberian winter night, and left to guess by candle light which hole the cat-sized rats would crawl out of just after I'd drifted to sleep; I did not wax poetic when the cock roaches would by the thousands invade the kitchen and crawl over my dishes and food; I did not wax poetic when thugs, called "ban-deet-ov," would roam the streets looking for any opportunity to get some cash, by scam, by fist, by knife.

I learned a lot.

I learned that Peace Corps was an office two days travel away which supplied me with nothing but a pat on the back. But then, my school gave me no supplies either.

I was young, with no teaching experience, thrown into a public school, given nothing but blank roll sheets and a curriculum written in Russian when I had only been studying Russian for three months, with no co-teacher. You think a hagwan can be difficult? The worst hagwan is Disneyland compared to a village with ubiquitous unemployment and alcoholism, where the grandparents of the children I was teaching were sent to the village as a punishment.

'Twas sweetness and light!

I learned about psychology, the depths of depression, mapped the darkest corners of my soul, had nightmares for a year after I got back.

But the insights and the empathy I gained.

Am I happy for the experience? Absolutely. Would I do it again? No way.

Granted, Peace Corps experiences are radically varied. It could be the best experience of your life. Or, you could wind up in the middle of nowhere wondering what the hell you got yourself into.

[tlord1986]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. While they are interesting, and some are inspiring, I think I have decided that the bureaucratic process of coming to Korea is plenty difficult, and I do not want to add another difficult bureaucratic process by serving in the Peace Corps.

[mole]

Yes, waste to do both.
It'd be like taking a trip and visiting both Paris AND France.

[dannylelievre]

I served in samoa before I came here. Bureaucratic nightmare. The only people that got anything done were those who were super highly trained back home before arriving. i went as a water-resource developer and just became an english teacher after a month. If you could give up your dreams of saving the world, you could go live in some far-off country for 2 years though, learn their language, etc. Fun stuff.

[zeldalee13]

I never knew all this. Thanks to the experienced posters. What do you think the Peace Corps should do differently? Or do you think it is an outdated institution?

[The evil penguin]

I seriously considered doing the international equivalent of Peace Corp... Peace Corp being American and me not.

I looked into various british and australian IVO's and was keen to work in water resources fields as mentioned by a previous poster. But then i started to second guess myself. Why did i want to do volunteer work? To genuinely 'help' others or to make myself feel better by thinking i was helping others.... Would my efforts actually be useful or was I (and the VO's in host countries) operating under cultural arrogance? Ie.. did these countries and cultures which have been establisheed long before mine actually NEED some whitey with magical 'western powers'? Would it be better for western governments instead to sponser leaders or workers in developing countries (maybe support them for western university/engineering/sciences/medical training) and allow them to take these skills back home? In short, who best understands the culture than the people themselves.

In summary, I decided against the volunteer work and instead donate to specific aid organisations (ie those that train 'inhouse' without placing western volunteers) whenever i feel particularly altrusistic. Not intentionally bagging out the efforts of organisations such as Peace Corp, but i have my doubts as to what they actually achieve. I'm happy to listen to positive stories from the field.

[Omkara]

Yeah, those are important questions to ask.

For me, I got language in a very effective way. In one year, I could speak Russian. That was the greatest advantage. That has enriched my life a lot.

If you are going to do something like the Peace Corps, just drop any expectations of making much of a difference. You can help, just drop any illusions.

The Peace Corps helped me to drop many illusions. It was a shock to my soul. But I am stronger and wiser because of it.

Wisdom has a price and can't be got from a book, though a book can help prepare you to gain it.

Part of the wisdom which I gain was to recognize what my limitations are. I had to have my ego crushed, to come to recognize that line between what I can and cannot control.

I'm still learning that. Here, for example, I still bitch and moan over things I can't control. To that extent, I am an idiot, increase my suffering unnecessarily.

But that is off the subject.

Life is an adventure. No adventure is interesting without adversity. No adversity is without a strange beauty.

Something about my Peace Corps adventure was strangely beautiful. I have some interesting stories and perspectives now; and these I could have gotten in no other way.

[sugarloaf82]

Before I left for the PC in Togo in 2006 one of my professors, who had been a PCV back in the day, told me that if I went in with high expectations I�d be disappointed but if I went in with low expectations I�d come out very satisfied. And he was right on. I remember getting to my post after my three months of training, a decent sized down, being all ready to go (I had some good potential projects lined up, really liked my local counterparts, was being very well received, etc�.. ) and I was in go-mode, and after a couple weeks nothing was happening. So I ended up taking a step back, reevaluating my post, my position, what I could do and start over again. That�s a big issue with organizations like Peace Corps. People go in expecting to change their community and it isn�t going to happen. You�re dealing with cultures that have been doing things certain ways for generations. Who is this foreigner to come in and tell us that everything that we�ve been doing is wrong and can be improved/changed?

Looking back on my service now I recognize that some projects were very successful, and some not so much. I, as in all my fellow PCVs in country, had great days and horrible days. The people that really wanted to work with me and were very open to my ideas really got a lot of what I had to offer (I was a business development volunteer), and the people that didn�t really want to didn�t. And over time as I really got to know the community organizations and people in the community I started screening in a sense who I worked with. I focused on the people/organizations that really were wanted my advice and those projects ended up going over tremendously.

The Peace Corps is there to build sustainable development with very little funding, which is very difficult, but it�s possible. I think there is a lot of work that can be done in the bureaucratic side of things, but overall it�s a great organization with lots to offer. It all comes down to the work ethic of the people in the field.

I came out of it speaking French pretty much fluently, as well as some local languages, some great Togolese friends, as well as fellow PCV friends and I had some great work successes and amazing memories.