Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rumdiary]

[schwa]

From a Gangwon perspective:

How green Korea is to the eye (well not right now but from april to october).
Highway infrastructure. Ambitious bridges & tunnels galore.
The pace of urban change. Buildings go up overnight, streetscapes constantly evolve, relentless modernization.
How disarmingly nice & welcoming most Koreans can be (& I'm not some naive newbie stating that). An innocence, a lack of jadedness.

[Bloopity Bloop]

Seoul:
- I was a bit surprised how few express trains there are in the subway system here. If you want to go somewhere far, you can't bypass virtually any stations in between unless you go somewhere on (or near) Line 9

- Cost of the subway system is great, though! Lived in Japan on a scholarship which covered much more than everything but recently went back on my own dime and finally realized how much it costs to travel there. Even a trip from Yokohama to Tokyo would be around ~10k won based on the current ex. rate--that's like a 15-20 min ride.

[Steelrails]

I was surprised at how unsurprising a lot of things were. It was like being at church everyday. Things didn't seem all that different.

Then came some shockers-

Being molested by my male co-teachers (I knew Ks were touchy-feely, but I didn't know they were that touchy-feely)

Live Octopus

Sweet Garlic Bread- Boo.

The prices.

Agree with the unspectacular Seoul skyline and lack of express service.

How nice and modern my classroom is- Touchscreen, Bluescreen, projectors, a full English library, real hardwood floors, Cold A/C, full glass doors, real nice place.

How my rural town wasn't THAT rural.

Funny things-
Ordering a Bagel and Cream Cheese and having it come all chopped up.

Trying to find loose-fitting boxer shorts.

How Chum Cha Rum Soju was nowhere to be found.

The first time I walked into a Family Mart the guy spoke good English.

The way the city "felt" the first two weeks, and how it "feels" now in terms of being oriented and knowing where things are.

[reactionary]

really? chum cha rum soju is everywhere in seoul. but isn't that product only about 3 or 4 years old? i didn't start seeing it until mid 2006. it was the smoothest soju around.

then jinro fresh came out and that stuff tastes like water. definitely worth sacrificing 1 or 2% alcohol percentage for that.

[pkang0202]

[Bucky]

I was surprised by how tightly packed the residential buildings in Seoul are. I expected a high-rise dominated city, building UPWARDS instead of being so close together that I can touch my neighbor's roof from my apartment window.

I was also surprised at how homogeneous Korea was. Coming from an extremely multicultural place like Vancouver, it was a jarring change, even though I knew about it beforehand. That sucked for food; in my area, the only place where you can get decent non-Korean food would be Itaewon (and you know how Itaewon can be).

The cost of food was a pleasant surprise after a while. Once I got to know some of the Korean food more, the costs of eating out suddenly started to plummet.

This winter, it was a bad surprise to find out that Korean homes don't seem to be well insulated, so no matter how much you turned up the heat, it's not gonna enough. My place is especially bad, since the area is windy and the heating's not efficient as it is.

The driving habits of Koreans were a surprise as well. I don't think I need to explain why.

I was pleasantly surprised by how safe Korea was. I often get crappy treatment from Koreans but at the same time, there is the flip side where you would meet a VERY nice Korean. I think I usually meet a nice Korean for about every 2 asinine Koreans.

Re: anti-American Canadians. I was a little surprised too. But then again, I'm one of the very pro-American Canadians out there. Half of my friends are American, so that might've played a role.

[curiousaboutkorea]

The ridiculous amount of (small) businesses. There's so many restaurants, corner stores, etc. I still can't quite get my head around how they (surely not all) stay in business. There's 3 convenience stores on my block (2 buildings), 2 on the next block (1 building) and so on.

[reactionary]

[Steelrails]

Here's one I forgot to add- The regular fly overs by combat jets. First week here I got buzzed by one at about 2000 feet. Hadn't seen a combat jet that low since Oshkosh. Most of the time they're above 10,000 feet and not visible but that time...I wish they did more.

Random thing- I miss the noise of a Harrier. That and an A-10's GAU- watching the puff of smoke, then hearing the rounds break the sound barrier, then hearing the gun fire. Cool.

[Mr. BlackCat]

-the moderness of Seoul

-the non-moderness of the countryside (after visiting the countryside after a couple of months in Seoul)

-The amount of English, not just spoken but on signs, music, etc.

-How decidedly unspicy the food was given the ample warnings I got

-Why is there a TGIFriday's/Outback/Benningans on every corner? For that matter, Dunk n Donuts, too.

-Like someone else said, the way kids run around here. I don't think they're necessarily 'rude', but there doesn't seem to be any sort of effort to control them by teachers or parents. This sounds nice until they're beating on each other or running into traffic.

-The wonderful public transportation system(s) here, especially the Seoul subway.

-How people just walk into and shove each other. I know it's controversial around here, but this is just my personal opinion and it really did strike me. Actually, it still does.

-I don't know if it 'surprised' me, but I did notice it right away: There seems to be only 3 colours for cars here. Black, white and grey. It's changing a bit, but not much. And it's a fair bet that the black car you see will do something highly illegal, selfish and dangerous in the next 4 seconds. (the white and grey cars usually take about 10 seconds to do these things).

-Koreans sleeping everywhere. Subway, work, bus, coffeshops, bars, anywhere.

-The heavy drinking and unapologetic public drunkeness.

[pkang0202]

[Steelrails]

You can have any color suit you want as long as its shiny.

[kinerry]

[Mr. BlackCat]

Y'know, I used to think no one could self-depreciate their country like a Canadian. That is, until I met a Brit, who in turn had nothing on the Irishmen I've come to know. And don't me started on the Kiwis. In fact, the only people that, in general, have a hard time laughing at their country are Americans. Probably not unrelatedly, Americans are the only folks running around with a persecution complex calling everyone anti-American or jealous. Maybe it's a sense of humour that's lacking. Just a thought.