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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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 Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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Korea is STRESSFUL but NEVER BORING. you just have to make an effort to go out and talk to strangers (foriegn and Korean) or join clubs etc. I've been here 5 years and have made plenty of reliable good friends.
Alos I know for a fact that i never had a 2 bedroom apt for working 5 hrs a day in London and was never able to afford ataxi to work every day and eat out 3 times a day and still save mor ethan 50% of my salary. nothing boring about that!
Japan - repressed sexuality??? Sex is bloody everywhere in Japan and they all love it. Awesome. |
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Johnny_Bravo
Joined: 27 May 2009
Location: R.O.K.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| samcheokguy wrote: |
-The biggest problem for me, is the cultural difference between a 20 something western male and a 20 something Korean male are HUGE.
-I don't smoke
-I don't like competitive computer games
-I don't like K-hookers. I'm not even allowed to
-I don't live with my family
-I don't care about being a 'flower boy' nor am I a gym rat either
-I drink, but too much soju is just a massive attack hangover
-I don't do ANYTHING most of them do.
-Those who argue saying I need to find some cool people are missing the point. The soul of a country is determined by the majority not the minority. Hanging out with some tattooed, English speaking, can't wait to get to LA, stoner of a Korean ethnicity is not the REAL Korea.
-I insist the real Korea is getting a bottle thrown at you by a group of stupid high school boys, or asked by a college girl if "you know drug!" Hanging out with 'special' Koreans is like looking for a kind person in the Waffen SS. Are they any? Hell yes. The majority? No way
-In conclusion I'd like to say ALL problems I have had with Koreans have been with people who were either really drunk or in my age group. Adjummas and Adjoshis. No problem. Principals and teachers? No problem. 20 something males and females have treated me like ****. So I've decided to return the favor. |
if someone treats you like ddong, by all means return the favor, but do it individually, rather than model your behavior to the group that way in advance.
actually, if you really think about it, even stateside it's hard to find good friends whose interests and activities almost completely match yours.
So, what you do is hang out with certain people for certain things and with others for others.. participating and abstaining if/when you decide.
my best friend stateside is actually someone who doesn't share a lot of my interests, but he's my best friend because we go way back and I know no matter what he'd be there for me.
you never mentioned what your main interests/passions are, but surely there have to be Koreans somewhere whose interests match yours, at least to a certain extent.
that said.. I really do know where you're coming from - though getting a bottle thrown at by highschoolers?
that'd never happen - unless they did it from a passing car, knowing I couldn't catch them  |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
As said before, Korean society is based on being part of a group. A family, a company, a church, a school. That's who you spend your free time with.
If you're not in any kind of group, you probably will find Korea boring.
As well as that, Koreans spend about 90% of their time working and sleeping. When they do get some time off, they have obligations to whatever group they're in. Usually family.
It's almost unthinkable for Koreans to do things on their own. There must always be a group. So single foreigners will find it really hard to find things to do, because this country doesn't have a structure for you. |
I met few of my korean friends through any "group" aside from one teacher at my school.
Far as I know, I'm not any member of any korean group..nor any language exchange clubs...I'm part of groups with plenty of kyopos through facebook...
Koreans seem to have little problem just coming up to me and being friendly...groups my ass...
Are you cool? Yes, No
| Quote: |
-The biggest problem for me, is the cultural difference between a 20 something western male and a 20 something Korean male are HUGE.
-I don't smoke
-I don't like competitive computer games
-I don't like K-hookers. I'm not even allowed to
-I don't live with my family
-I don't care about being a 'flower boy' nor am I a gym rat either
-I drink, but too much soju is just a massive attack hangover
-I don't do ANYTHING most of them do.
-Those who argue saying I need to find some cool people are missing the point. The soul of a country is determined by the majority not the minority. Hanging out with some tattooed, English speaking, can't wait to get to LA, stoner of a Korean ethnicity is not the REAL Korea.
-I insist the real Korea is getting a bottle thrown at you by a group of stupid high school boys, or asked by a college girl if "you know drug!" Hanging out with 'special' Koreans is like looking for a kind person in the Waffen SS. Are they any? Hell yes. The majority? No way
-In conclusion I'd like to say ALL problems I have had with Koreans have been with people who were either really drunk or in my age group. Adjummas and Adjoshis. No problem. Principals and teachers? No problem. 20 something males and females have treated me like ****. So I've decided to return the favor. |
Name a country where the soul is determined by the minority....
Aside from the touching and the fact they call you alot, I can't say they're that different... |
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shifter2009
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Location: wisconsin
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| digsydinner wrote: |
| shifter2009 wrote: |
| digsydinner wrote: |
| shifter2009 wrote: |
But your hear cause your a winner ? Right? Over half are loser but you are in the minority of awesome people here who could make it anywhere but have been beguiled by the magic of Korean culture and do this because its what you love. I salute you for your life choices and look to you as a role model. |
shifter2009..."your hear cause your a winner"?? are you serious?... case in point, category 1...unqualified to hold a professional teaching job. you just proved my point... learn your native language before you try to teach it...rather than staying home and wanking off to the star wars trilogy.
bunch of morons... |
Says the guy with no capital letters. If your going to insult my grammar use a shift key. |
even my korean 1st graders know the difference between "hear" and "here"...as well as "your" and "you're". where'd you get your degree from, a cracker jack box?
are you going to comment on the font i use as well? reply when you have something material to say...perhaps you might want to grammar check it next time or attend an english hogwan yourself.
and you wonder/complain why koreans are concerned about the quality of english teachers teaching their kids...prime example here.
shifter2009, you're just an embarrassment... |
There is a difference between font and proper capitalization. Which is part of English grammar. If you can't work that out for yourself then your really not in an position to be insulting others. Perhaps you got your degree out of the same Cracker Jack box I did? Shift key, use it. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:13 am Post subject: |
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Good question OP.
There are so many threads debating whether people are right or wrong to criticize Korea, but in the end you've got to ask yourself why so many people from so many different places so consistently find things to complain about in Korea. No smoke without fire. |
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digsydinner
Joined: 24 May 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:40 am Post subject: |
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| shifter2009 wrote: |
| digsydinner wrote: |
| shifter2009 wrote: |
| digsydinner wrote: |
| shifter2009 wrote: |
But your hear cause your a winner ? Right? Over half are loser but you are in the minority of awesome people here who could make it anywhere but have been beguiled by the magic of Korean culture and do this because its what you love. I salute you for your life choices and look to you as a role model. |
shifter2009..."your hear cause your a winner"?? are you serious?... case in point, category 1...unqualified to hold a professional teaching job. you just proved my point... learn your native language before you try to teach it...rather than staying home and wanking off to the star wars trilogy.
bunch of morons... |
Says the guy with no capital letters. If your going to insult my grammar use a shift key. |
even my korean 1st graders know the difference between "hear" and "here"...as well as "your" and "you're". where'd you get your degree from, a cracker jack box?
are you going to comment on the font i use as well? reply when you have something material to say...perhaps you might want to grammar check it next time or attend an english hogwan yourself.
and you wonder/complain why koreans are concerned about the quality of english teachers teaching their kids...prime example here.
shifter2009, you're just an embarrassment... |
There is a difference between font and proper capitalization. Which is part of English grammar. If you can't work that out for yourself then your really not in an position to be insulting others. Perhaps you got your degree out of the same Cracker Jack box I did? Shift key, use it. |
you're a complete moron...your lack of grammar skills is utterly inexcusable...whereas my lack of capitilization is obviously intentional. for you to even take a stab at that just shows you really don't have much to defend yourself with. don't try to hide the fact you don't qualify at all to be teaching here. you just dissed yourself pretty badly on this thread...if i were you, i'd save further embarrassment and not post until you take some grammar lessons. i could ask some of my 1st graders if they have some open slots for you. |
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Chambertin
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: Gunsan
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:22 am Post subject: |
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As the tpoic is migrating to how to make friends outside fo the group I have a quick comment.
A. as stated by Bravo, its not easy to make friends at home either.
B. I made my best friend in Japan walking out of a convience store half-drunk and saying "holy sh** cool car." in english. He smiled, waved me over and dispite the language troubles we have stayed friends for years. I doubt I'd be able to speak more than a few words in that language if it wernt for struggling over them together.
Basic point is that sometimes the best encounters happen when you just be yourself and have fun being you. |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| ...if i were you, i'd save further embarrassment and not post until you take some grammar lessons. i |
'If I were you, I'd save further embarrassment and not post until I had taken some grammar lessons.'
I fixed that for you. One knows that we cannot change the subject within the predicate.
I'm kind of fooling with you, as I do agree with your sentiments; obvious and frequent words such as 'you're', 'their' should not, in any circumstances, be miss-spelled by English teachers.
Just showing that in haste you also made a grammatical boo boo. |
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Jati
Joined: 13 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| benji1422 wrote: |
English teachers and expats, are initially the out group and feel "xenophobia" ... but many times it's because they lack a certain kind of empathy in dealing with asian people and just their demeanor seems so offensive to many Koreans off the street. ......
Sorry to repeat a cliche, but if you feel like people are phony, too polite, excluding you... you need to make more an effort to adapt your personality to gain trust of the group and that means changing the whole way you think about yourself and how you're perceived to others.
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Benji1422,
Hi, this is Jati just passing through, in Malaysia. This is an excellent point that you make and one that should be taken into consideration by all who live in Asian/SE Asian countries and read these threads.
Too often the mistake is made of never attempting to view ourselves the way the locals view us. My experience is that what I might label as aloof or dis-interest is simply shyness on their part. |
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Jati
Joined: 13 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Ukon wrote: |
| Name a country where the soul is determined by the minority.... |
The USA. Urban black hip-hop rap culture seems to have taken over youth culture quite quickly. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:10 am Post subject: |
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| Jati wrote: |
| Ukon wrote: |
| Name a country where the soul is determined by the minority.... |
The USA. Urban black hip-hop rap culture seems to have taken over youth culture quite quickly. |
Ummm....as a black man from the USA, I can assure you....the vast majority of the population is not taken over culturally by hip hop culture....
They like the music and it for the most part ends there for the majority of people. |
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NightSky
Joined: 19 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:18 am Post subject: |
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| digsydinner wrote: |
| even my korean 1st graders know the difference between "hear" and "here"...as well as "your" and "you're". where'd you get your degree from, a cracker jack box? |
wow, you must be super teacher. my second graders know how to pick their noses and recite the alphabet song. on a good day they can figure out the difference between "chicken" and "kitchen". I bow to you. clearly you must have graduated from a better university than I. |
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digsydinner
Joined: 24 May 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| NightSky wrote: |
| digsydinner wrote: |
| even my korean 1st graders know the difference between "hear" and "here"...as well as "your" and "you're". where'd you get your degree from, a cracker jack box? |
wow, you must be super teacher. my second graders know how to pick their noses and recite the alphabet song. on a good day they can figure out the difference between "chicken" and "kitchen". I bow to you. clearly you must have graduated from a better university than I. |
nah..i just graduated from a real university...and didn't pay for a fake online one as you probably did. |
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littlelisa
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:12 am Post subject: |
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| Ukon wrote: |
| jdog2050 wrote: |
if I could add something here, I'd like to say that the vast majority of Koreans are just...boring.
I don't even mean that in the pejorative sense. They are, as a matter of fact, boring. After working in quite a few different places I can count on my hands the number of times my coworkers have had HOBBIES of any sort. At most, they'd go out drinking; but as for what they did at home? They may as well have been Roombas going into their cradles to recharge.
I think we can all admit that even the most boring of people we know back home has a hobby or something. Korea is the first place I've been to where they just don't.
"What's the point of learning English if we have nothing to say?"
I forgot where that quote is from, but it's by a Korean ESL professor when he was talking about the ineffeciency of the system here. I can't agree more. |
Do you have any korean friends? All the folks I know have plenty of hobbies....my guess is they don't tell you.
And I fail to see how this place is boring...I can think of ways to make it more fun....but boring? C'mon.... |
I agree with Ukon. Just off the top of my head, I have Korean friends whose hobbies are usually a mixture of several of these: swing dancing (includes balboa, lindyhop, blues, etc), bowling, drawing, learning to play the guitar, yoga, mask dance, mahjong, cooking, tai chi, hiking, and who knows what else. My coteacher even used to be into drawing, but doesn't have time for it now with her kid, though she plans to get back into it soon. So I don't know any Korean, I think, without a single hobby. |
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digsydinner
Joined: 24 May 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| littlelisa wrote: |
| Ukon wrote: |
| jdog2050 wrote: |
if I could add something here, I'd like to say that the vast majority of Koreans are just...boring.
I don't even mean that in the pejorative sense. They are, as a matter of fact, boring. After working in quite a few different places I can count on my hands the number of times my coworkers have had HOBBIES of any sort. At most, they'd go out drinking; but as for what they did at home? They may as well have been Roombas going into their cradles to recharge.
I think we can all admit that even the most boring of people we know back home has a hobby or something. Korea is the first place I've been to where they just don't.
"What's the point of learning English if we have nothing to say?"
I forgot where that quote is from, but it's by a Korean ESL professor when he was talking about the ineffeciency of the system here. I can't agree more. |
Do you have any korean friends? All the folks I know have plenty of hobbies....my guess is they don't tell you.
And I fail to see how this place is boring...I can think of ways to make it more fun....but boring? C'mon.... |
I agree with Ukon. Just off the top of my head, I have Korean friends whose hobbies are usually a mixture of several of these: swing dancing (includes balboa, lindyhop, blues, etc), bowling, drawing, learning to play the guitar, yoga, mask dance, mahjong, cooking, tai chi, hiking, and who knows what else. My coteacher even used to be into drawing, but doesn't have time for it now with her kid, though she plans to get back into it soon. So I don't know any Korean, I think, without a single hobby. |
it's mostly the socially inept people on this board who only have exposure to 1 or 2 koreans who make the generalization the whole culture has no hobbies... |
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