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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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 Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:19 am Post subject: 880k Generation |
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I was having a chat with a friend of mine who told me about the 88만 세대 which translates to 880k Generation, meaning a group of Koreans who make about 880k per month out of school, taking really really low paying jobs because there's nothing else out there.
She's Chinese but studies int'l business here, and has lived here for 6 years and has a Korean bf so she knows a good deal about the business climate here. Her bf says this is a real common situation for young people and these days they rarely get a full time paying job until about age 30 (at least men, b/c of army, study abroad, and the 88만 thing). Even though Korea has made a huge bounce back compared to other OECD countries, these kinds of things paint a rather bleak picture for young people in this country.
Also she said the average retirement age is about 43 (!!!) which I don't know is true or not, but if so a 13 year average tenure sounds really crappy. Has anyone else heard about these numbers and are they true? |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:32 am Post subject: |
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| 88 is a lucky number to the Chinese, not so much to Koreans eh? |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:37 am Post subject: |
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| That sounds about right. One of my Korean friends is college educated and just got out of the army, and now he's moving boxes at Dongdaemun for about 880k a month. At least that's more than the army pays! 880k is not so bad if you live with your parents and don't have a girlfriend or a car. |
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ChaBaa
Joined: 04 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
I just read about this 880K thing at the weekend in a newspaper. It does seem that when these poor buggers graduate there aren't any jobs for them...so they have to take minimum wage-type positions and come out at the end of the month with about 880k won. Very depressing I should imagine, since they've got to pay off student loans from that. Also, you bust your balls for 4 years at college, thinking you'll have it made when you graduate, then poof, you don't. Soju-soaked weekends ahead!! |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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It's weird, I always wonder is it the girls are star-bucks are more fluent in English than the teachers at my school.
I guess they are too lazy to go out and be competitive to find "real" jobs or become English teachers or something.
But I wouldn't blame them. It's an easy good life to have. If you live with your family, no rent, food provided, etc.... 880k a month can be pretty comfortable
Most of them don't have huge debts. It's just straight, you can spend 200k every month on whatever the hell you want. I'm sure most of them don't give a rat's ass about savings in the bank either. |
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LuckyNomad
Joined: 28 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 12:22 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, this phenom is why so many students try their hardest "not" to graduate from college but to go abroad or just go right into graduate studies.
I went to McDonalds the other night and the cashier is some 20something girl who speaks perfect english with an American accent. Meanwhile I have never worked with nor met a public school english teacher with that ability. Mcdonalds??? Really now. |
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BigBuds
Joined: 15 Sep 2005
Location: Changwon
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| LuckyNomad wrote: |
Yeah, this phenom is why so many students try their hardest "not" to graduate from college but to go abroad or just go right into graduate studies.
I went to McDonalds the other night and the cashier is some 20something girl who speaks perfect english with an American accent. Meanwhile I have never worked with nor met a public school english teacher with that ability. Mcdonalds??? Really now. |
Doesn't surprise me in the least. I've worked with 'head' English teachers who couldn't even string a sentence together and had to communicate with me by writing on the whiteboard because that wa they could see the English and get it close to grammar perfect. Even written, they still screwed it up.
I've met so many Korean girls/women over the years who are just cruising through life till they find themselves a husband, and then it's easy street as a housewife the rest of their lives. And they freely admit this, too.
If this is their attitude, then why the hell would they get off their butts to acutally do something with their lives? Why bother using your actually decent level of English to get a job, which you'd acutally have to work at, when you can have it all handed to you. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| I guess this would appeal more to women than men, who are still presumably expected to foot the bill for mom and dad's slide into their dotage. |
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Jeonmunka
Joined: 05 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 12:07 pm Post subject: |
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First year kindergarten teachers, public or private, get 960.ooo won/month. That's for six days on.
Still, they are expected to go to 1.8 after ten years service.  |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeonmunka wrote: |
First year kindergarten teachers, public or private, get 960.ooo won/month. That's for six days on.
Still, they are expected to go to 1.8 after ten years service. |
So, the reason why the girl at McDonald's speaks better English than your co-teacher, is because McDonalds is the higher-paying job. Great. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeonmunka wrote: |
First year kindergarten teachers, public or private, get 960.ooo won/month. That's for six days on.
Still, they are expected to go to 1.8 after ten years service. |
I think all kindergartens in korea a private. It's more like a hagwon, but with a lot of government involvement. Most, if not all, kids are expected to know the basics of reading and writing (in Korean) before they hit elementary |
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Easter Clark
Joined: 18 Nov 2007
Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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| How can there be no jobs when the mandatory retirement age for company workers is set at 55? |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| Easter Clark wrote: |
| How can there be no jobs when the mandatory retirement age for company workers is set at 55? |
Is it really? Well I know that there are VP's at my company older than that, although I suppose they're all on a yearly contract basis so the company can force them to retire at the end of the year whenever it suits them. And the older senior execs seem to get kept on as paid "consultants" after they retire.
But basically the big companies here are really hard to get into, and once you get in it's really hard to get fired or laid off. There's just less turnover. They do seem to hire consistently in boom and bust years though. A lot of young people aren't willing, ready, or qualified to make that effort to get hired at a big company, so they take menial jobs in the meantime. |
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Chaucer
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:32 am Post subject: Martin Fry |
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Martin Fackler (lovely Martin Fack-er) of the IHT had an article about this a while back--how college grads are working in "Deadliest catch" style, but non-televised jobs. Interesting stuff and the article makes a decent lesson for high schoolers and above.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/world/asia/07pride.html |
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