Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big Pun Lives]

[jkelly80]

^
Yeah but quoting a crappy Luke Perry movie is the height of sophistication.

[No_hite_pls]

[Adventurer]

[madoka]

[Sophomorik]

[jkelly80]

[nero]

To the OP:
There is no escape from the treadmill we have created. Wherever you go in America or Korea you will see department stores with mannequins dressed like princesses, the glitter and paint, the baubles, the gadgets, the luxuries.
What you are seeing is what goes along with filling our empty holes of cultures - the bitterness of heart, the emptiness, the cynicism, the hopelessness in being judged on everything that doesn't matter.

There is no 'manning up' that needs to be done. That you have seen there is something terribly wrong with the world and attempting to face it is being more of a man than sitting back and saying "well, things could be worse". The best part of your day should not be that interest rates are going up or taxes are being lowered.

You have become a victim of progress: a man sitting in a chair surrounded by luxury but paralysed by fear and anxiety.

What you must do now is plan the best escape. What job would make you happy? Where could you live the life you want?
Do your research and plan. There si no point being flung around like a cork in an ocean. Plan what you have to do and make your escape.

[Suwon4AGT]

When I read posts like this (no disrespect intended to the OP), I can't help but think to myself thank God I'm not that idealist in my 20s anymore. I've learned the hard way that the grass is always greener and that work is definitely a four-letter word for a reason.

I think most of us expats share a common type of frustration and that its not always easy to differentiate personal frustrations from ones specific about living in a foreign country. At least that is my take on it.

[Adventurer]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

It's a little odd that all throughout the last part of high school and university it seemed like the greatest thing in the world to nurture this really anti-social anti-consumerist attitude, completely at odds with the world we came from and will inevitably enter into-- because hanging onto it will get you absolutely nowhere.

This kind of attitude might win you cred with the liberal arts uni crowd, but in the real world it gets you absolutely nowhere, and right off the bat you're pretty much forced to drop it if you want to progress to the point where you're able to get some unadjusted-for-inflation-wages equivalent of the lifestyle your parents had.

To tell the truth, now is the time to start figuring out exactly what's important and what you are capable of before you get stuck in some life where you absolutely can't get out. You're definitely better off than someone who's trapped in a horrible marriage with really young kids or something. There aren't too many options left for those people.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say Korea is the place to come when you want to be inspired, or find a direction. I don't understand the people who say that it's a 'backpacker' place, because the only people I've met here have been really grounded, somewhat dull, middle-of-the-road-type people who are anything but the free spirits I associate with backpacking. I can see them as oblivious tourists or drunks in a bar, but not as people who are all that curious or spiritual, or who care about discovering the world if it doesn't provide them with some kind of 'traveller's social cred'.

Actually, one of the things that hits hardest about this place is its absolute lack of freespiritedness. It's all job, money, job, work, job, drink, study, etc... everyone seems bound by a sense of duty and tradition that prevents them from actually enjoying anything on their own terms, and alienates them from the urge to discover anything for themselves. I know it's probably not true, but I sometimes get the sense that nobody really has any exciting stories to tell... dodgy, nasty stories yes, but exciting stories, no.

[jajdude]

Unhappiness touches us all. You want to alleviate that because it feels painful. Can you take a good look at it? Not try to run from it? We all run from it. We get drunk or something else. We want more than we have. We want self-expansion, and an arena in which to feel we matter. We want others to fill us up.

I'm not sure about all this social comparing. Everybody's saying, well, blah blah blah, you could be dying with cancer. You could be on top of the world too. There's no end to that.

If it isn't a serious condition, like a clinical thing, perhaps you can move forward out of a funk with some different ideas, or some new outlook. Some relocation might help. I know I have enjoyed some locations and hated others.

Meanwhile, there may just be a point to your current sorrow. It can be a good, even beautiful thing. You've got to study it a bit. Find out who you are. Find out where you want to be, what you want to do.

All right, enough nonsense from me. I'm a bit drunk. I'm often unhappy too.

[dporter]

Be the change you want in the world.

Or better yet, stop bitching and start a revolution.

[mises]

[mises]