Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itaewonguy]

jesus thats like saying you owe a country becuase you work here ..
dude if you moved to mexico you would have found work and a wife.. so you owe mexico?? do you owe the country where you were educated., raised?? if anything you owe your parents everything..

[rusty1983]

[Sadebugo1]

[Ilsanman]

I owe it nothing. Just like Korea owes me nothing.

[Uncle Kevin]

Ask not what South Korea can do for you, ask what you can do for South Korea.

[teachergirltoo]

I am thankful to Korea for lowering the stress in my life. When I first arrived in Korea as a teacher from the West, I was armed to the teeth with books, and lesson plans for every hour of the day, and extra curriculum plans and syllabuses, and then was totally surprised when my job was explained to me in detail. I was like, "you want me to do what? That's not much. Are you sure you don't want me assigning homework? Really? And I can teach whatever I want? " At first all the extra time was really uncomfortable, but then I started filling it up with doing things that I enjoy. Not marking papers etc. in the evenings. My life is lower stress here for sure. Even with the unavoidable bumps that come up at times, compared to the workload, politics, and power trips of the West working environment, Korea has increased my work satisfaction incredibly.

[PRagic]

I agree with the posters who disagree with the idea that we 'owe' the country anything.

We found opportunity here, and we paid for it. Most of us paid for it by working under immigration laws that coupled us to one employer, by being made to feel grateful for just getting paid on time, by living in substandard housing, and by having a glass ceiling imposed on us from day one here.

But that's what makes for an overseas experience. Think how funny it is now when you here someone spout off about their exchange student experience. What have they really experienced by comparison?

Many have made Korea work for them by staying flexible and capitalizing on unique opportunities that have come their way. Some have prospered by force of will alone.

When I ask myself if I really 'owe Korea' anything, I ask myself this: 'Over the past 20 years, how many people have I heard say that they can't wait to retire in Korea?' Can't say that I've ever heard one, my Korean wife and myself included. I've also never met a Korean working abroad successfully who was looking forward to returning to Korea to work out the remainder of their career. Too much to deal with. Sad but true. I can't feel indebted to a country where I can't see myself and my family achieving prolonged, sustainable quality of life.

[PRagic]

'here someone' - 'HEAR someone'...but, hey, it's not even 9:00 yet.

[Mithrae]

We owe Korea absolutely nothing. We provide a service for a paycheck. Besides, without Western science, technology etc. Korea wouldn't have an economy. It's because of the 10,000 things that Westerners have invented, and freely transferred to Korea, that Korea has anything that remotely resembles modernity.

Modern Korea is a Western creation. They had 5000 to get it together and couldn't even come up with the bicycle. Only when Westerners brought over science, modern education, liberalism etc. did Korea begin to get on it's feet.

Without us, Korea would still be in the iron age. Korea owes us.

[Steelrails]

[Pwillig]

I think Korea and I are pretty even. They pay me 2.1 a month, and I get this seat so warm it'd make an Ajumma blush.

Well, if she sat on it.