Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bronski]

My favorite posts on here are ones about the old days. I've only been here for 3 years, and by the time I arrived in 2006, foreigners were already pretty well established in Korea, at least as English teachers. I'd like to hear from those posters who have been here for a long time, since the 90s, or even earlier. I think other people would also be interested to hear about your experiences, if you care to share.

My questions:

What has changed the most in Korea since you were first here? Overall, is it better or worse?

Have you noticed any significant changes in regards to the perception of foreigners? How do you feel about the newbies coming in droves?

Where do you see Korea going?

I know these questions are really vague, so answer them as you like, if you like.

Thanks in advance.

[mssinmymind]

I want to "bump" this thread because I'd love to hear others comments...if you're willing.

[Jane]

I was talking to someone yesterday who has been here since 1980. He said he got a teaching gig in Suwon in 1985, and they paid him 1,800,000won per month. A little food for thought for all hogwan workers.

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

I was in Korea on-off between 2000 and 2007 and quite frankly I found any differences through that time to be minimal.

-Availability of western stuff barely changed. I could get Polska vodka for 6K in 2000 from carrefour, 2007 I could pick up a few bottles of Lowenbrau or Hoegaarden. Same-same. Olive oil and broccoli became common. Whoop-de-doo.

-95% of Koreans were indifferent about my presence. The 5% of the population that are ModEdit have always been Mod Edit, always will be ModEdits.

-My visa changed from E2 to F2 so I could do whatever work I wanted...but people always chanced that and invariably got away with it.

-Girls showing a little more skin. Still over-protective of their cleavage. Meh. Nothing to see out in the open.

-Soju steadily decreased from 24% to 20% alcohol.

-Beef became a little cheaper and more available.

-Student attitudes....about the same. Still pre-occupied with obscure grammar points and ask stuff out of the blue. Teacher. To or for? I dunno. When...why...where...? Still treat whitey like a driving instructor, still complaining to admin at the drop of a hat. More student training I guess. Maybe TOEIC has less of a stranglehold now? Probably not.

-Pollution-same

-Film, exhibitions-about the same though Samsung Museum of Art was a big step. Films are still whatever drek from the west is flavour of the month. ModEdit off with the Harry Potter already.

-Kids-we play computer game. About as depressing as before.

-Ajosshis-still making that move from Beta to Alpha male. Often failing. Often unhappy.

-Little man of asia complex....that was always there.

This probably sounds overall quite negative. So be it.

[rchristo10]

Been here on and off since 1996. First visited Korea in 1996. Went from Pusan to Seoul. Music was blasting from the stores (mostly lee seung hwan songs), people were polite and generally foreign-friendly. I remember distinctly having people physically pull me into stores with the widest grins and expressions of general curiosity and appreciation.

I came back to Korea again in 1999 and went to a women's univeristy and the girls were striving to achieve professional levels of honor and respect in society. They would wear conservative dresses and even two-piece suits to class. Most of the professors were males and often the girls would play semi-secretaries to the professors, preparing coffee and donuts and sitting them on the desk before the professor would arrive. The music and general feel of Korea was about the same (replaced by Seotaji and Jo sung Mo). People were generally friendly to foreign-looking people, but because Japan was considering bumping their budget spending on "defense" from 9% to 12, South Koreans became distinctly anti-Japanese. This was christened once by a student who had the class stay afterward to damn the Japanese students in the class. The teacher didn't interfere and one of the Japanese students started crying. I found out later it was because they were tormenting her in the girls' dorm.

I later did a degree here and noticed a rapid change in things. It started in 2000. And it was all related to the World Cup. Prior to the games, Korean kids and society never mentioned soccer/ football. It was like talking about cricket in the US. However, suddenly everyone had been playing since they were very young. T.V. programs would profess the country's hidden talent and speak of how these young football/ soccer proteges had been ignored. The country went ballistic. It decided to change it's name from Korea to Corea (in old-fashion style) so that it's name would appear before Japan's in the joint-hosted games logo--Japan/ Korea World Cup to Corea/ Japan World Cup. The people became very "unified" which often teemed with the need to be more unruly than European-hosted World Cups. People were hanging from lamp posts and jumping up and down on buses in Apgujeong (which was considered the richest place in Korea at the time) after having won their first game in the series. I was in a bar with my friends watching the games and a girl pulled me to her table which sat her boyfriend and two other guys. When Korea scored, she grabbed my head and gave me a juicy kiss. Her boyfriend (though he could likely have killed me...I'm not very big) moved to another table and sulked.

Language also changed. Koreans used to commonly refer to their country as 한국 Hanguk. This changed also in 2000 when the country realized that they were being out done by countries yelling names with three syllables instead of only two. Then the whole 대한민국 movement started. I remember having seen a newscaster even explain the history of the word and how it was the first name of Korea and part of the national anthem. Also, as later that moved to explaining everything from businesses and families to the country with 우리 and we now have the 우리나라...what I'd like to see as the 우리 운동.

I left Korea and came back in 2003 or so after studying in China. Korea was substantially different now. The music had died out a bit. The new hype was who looks good. Looks had replaced substance in music and in pretty much every area. This is probably what I would call the rise of the Rain era (Bi). It was also the era of Gwan Sang Woo. Asia began noticing Korean men and this led to a major backlashing from the world. Korean men were considered good-looking but for those who were averse, Korean men had been deemed homosexual. Women followed suit women who'd done all kinds of surgery being accused of shallow self-centeredness. Famous ones like Jeon Ji yun, BoA, and Yoon-ah were judged only on their looks and not their singing.

Recently there was a big movement to change this image in Korea and this was led in part by the Green/ Health/ Gym Movement. I was working to get a magazine started in Korea that ate up on this new market. Koreans started to buff up and work out. Going to the gym, like playing soccer, became a normal part of life--one that they'd somehow always done. I'd met many guys from the military, but it was never known for having buffed them up in Korea as it has been claimed to fame for burly Singaporians. Korean Army duty used to be a place where a guy "learned to smoke" or occassionally shoot his foot off using a gun to open a cola bottle.

Now it seems that things are vastly different. Movements, that were sorta mid-size media stimulated, have become reactionary movements based on U.S. Hollywood and it's pretty blatant these days. The Devil Wears Prada led to a major magazine movement followed by a LV totebag, Prada phone frenzy. Music is all but meaningless now. And sex seems to have take the frontline. Men's good looks and women's plastic surgery has led to a breaking of any remote notion of Confucianism and led to blatant sex orgies. Prior to 2000 the brothels (for Koreans) were confined to red light districts (588). When the government officially ended that (without any social safety nets) the poor women were forced to move to the PC rooms. Net cafes became the new brothel--and they're still winning the fight against government. Now sex is a normal part of the 20-somethings' life whereas before in 1999 men would swear up and down that they've never ever done anything with a girl before and would often act like they're still in puberty.

Sorry I could write more, but I have work to do. And there's many positive changes as well these days that I haven't mentioned yet. There's now more than the dichotomous opinion shaping that used to exist before. Koreans are becoming more multilateral in their assertions....but still very reactionary...see E-2 visa policy, FDI, Suicide...

[Bronski]

Wow. That's a lot more than I expected to hear. Really interesting stuff. Thanks.

I wonder if Korea's interest in soccer will remain if they fail to make it out of the first round in 2010 and Park Jisung gets old. I had thought baseball was the national sport, but the only game I've been to was less than half full. I've heard other people have had similar experiences.

[Forward Observer]

OP, there have been a few threads on this subject over the years. If you want more perspective than what you've seen so far, you could try the google search engine created for Dave's. There are at least four long threads on this that I can remember off the top of my head. The only problem is, I can't remember the thread titles. Maybe others can help with this, good luck.

Search with this tool:

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006359271486458796786%3A_ooozypbm6u

[Forward Observer]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=132463&highlight=IMF

Here's one

[Forward Observer]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=105373&highlight=IMF


Here's another one.

Tip: I used the search term "IMF" because it's always used in these kinds of threads.

[Forward Observer]

And another one!


http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=121239&highlight=IMF

[Forward Observer]

This will keep you busy reading for a while!


http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=120467&highlight=IMF

[Bronski]

Egads! Thanks!

[Forward Observer]

Another one!

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=45373&highlight=IMF

[Forward Observer]

IMF is a really GOOD search term for this subject!


http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=49360&highlight=IMF

[Forward Observer]

THIS is the one I was looking for! Had to go back 15 pages in the search results to find it...


http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=6180&highlight=IMF