Korean Job Discussion Forums

tanklor1 · Joined: 13 Jun 2006

I was asked back in '08 how long I see myself living here. I replied by saying: "As long as it feels right."

I feel as if I'm about to move on lately. Like a four year journey is going to come to an end next year. I just have the feeling like I'm done.

I've heard and lived by the saying "Tale it one year at a time." and I feel like this could in fact be my last year. For a while at least. I've learned too much about the inner workings of Korean offices to completely turn my back on it.

To the old sages out there who have been here over four years. Have you ever felt like your finished with Korea?

I'm asking a question becuase I'm considering the fact that this feeling that I have now could be in passing. So, let me know your thoughts.

byrddogs · Joined: 19 Jun 2009 Location: Shanghai

Stalin84 · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Location: Haebangchon, Seoul

I did a bit more than 2.5 years in Korea and then left. I started making preparations to leave as soon as I realized that I was "done" with Korea.

I recommend leaving if you don't feel like you should be there anymore. Overstaying will make you feel like crap. It's really sad to see people who are on their 8th year who obviously should've left on their 4th.

I do miss Korea though, it will always have a place in my heart!

BringTheRain · Joined: 26 Apr 2010

After almost 6 years, as soon as I knew it was really time to go I started to get ready to leave...

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

When I first returned to Korea (in '89, after having first lived here in '84), it was with the understanding with my wife that it was only going to be for a year. Well, that was twenty-one years ago--every once in a while I ask her if my year is up yet... Wink

tanklor1 · Joined: 13 Jun 2006

byrddogs · Joined: 19 Jun 2009 Location: Shanghai

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

caniff · Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map

It's supposed to be you're.

Anyway, good luck.

Janny · Joined: 02 Jul 2008 Location: all over the place

It's my sixth year (not consecutive) and I feel as I'm always in a state of "being done". What keeps me here is sheer laziness.

However, the time has come for me to get my azz in gear and get a new life going. Korea's been good to me in terms of getting me out of debt. But I can't say I've liked it that much. I really liked having a nice apartment I didn't have to pay rent for. I liked the challenge of living as a foreigner (the separateness..finding a product from home by surprise..that kind of thing...learning to appreciate the little things).

I didn't like the attitude I got from Korean people (their discomfort / awkwardness around me). I also have the feeling that I'm getting too old to waste my years teaching in a place I was never meant to be (I have always pictured my future being a regular teacher in Canada, and that is certainly where I will end up dammit). So now the bad outweighs the good and I have one month left.

Will I come back? Maybe. But not if I can help it (ie. the stars align in my favor) and I can avoid all the bad things that made me come back to Korea, in desperation, before. I like to think I have my wits about me this time. this time...this time..this time....

Both times I have decided to come back to Korea, I've been...indisposed, in a matter of speaking. Korea always offered me the best deal for the least amount of effort at the time (ie. the best offers with the best terms, plus there was nothing new to learn since I'd been there before). I feel this time I will do the legwork, research and sober thinking required to get a good job elsewhere.

nomad-ish · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 3:08 pm Post subject:

i've been here about 2.5 years now, and i'm definitely feeling "finished" lately too. right now i have a great school, by far the best i've had in korea, but this whole lifestyle has just become too much of a pattern for me. i'll be gone by february.

brento1138 · Joined: 17 Nov 2004

For me, the financial benefit of being in Korea has sort of worn off. With the won going down and the Canadian dollar rising, the future does seem a bit bleak financially speaking. Plus, at age 28, I'm at the age where if I stay in Korea one or two more years, I'll be 30 soon. I think around age 30 one should probably focus on settling down and getting 'established' in life. Not everyone should do so of course, but personally, that's what I've always thought I'd do. Get married around 32 after finding a successful career.

But if I stay here, I dunno. I feel a lot of us are in the same boat. We came here in our younger 20s as excited adventurers not knowing how Korea would eventually "suck us in" and suddenly... we look back to our homes in North America or wherever, and realize we may be 'missing the boat' in life back home.

We see Korean parents who obviously earn lots of money paying a small percentage to us... and their scraps are our income. Then we wonder, "what if I was like that Korean parent, but living back home..."

Let's face it. We'd all love a bit of money. In 2005 I was happy to see my 1.9 million turn into $2300 Canadian dollars. Now my "average" salary turns into a number less than $2300 Canadian dollars. It's depressing to think that after 5 years, my pay has actually gone DOWN. I only have myself to blame. But I suppose I should not measure myself in money.

If we stick it out in Korea, and decide to stay here, as some of my friends have, we could find great success as they have. One of my friends made a nice $14,000 in ONE month living here in Korea, due to his home-based business. He and his wife bought a nice brand-new car after two months of earnings. It compliments their amazing, gigantic apartment... So, it's possible to do very very well here. Maybe easier... But in many ways, it is NOT easy to make your home Korea, and I think we all know the many reasons as to why.

Anyways, lots of thinking to do for all of us.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

In my 5th and final year. I've already told my school I won't be resigning (I knew that in my first 3 weeks at this school).

I have a long way to go yet (8 months), and I can't say it will be easy. However, I want to leave feeling tired and unsatisfied, that way there's no chance of me wanting to return to relive my happier moments in Korea.

I sure don't want to be one of those guys who still post on Korea Forums long after they've left Korea (how sad is that?).

azzwell · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:22 pm Post subject:

Four years and five months done in 18 days. Felt it was time to end late last year, started sending out resumes and got a job for my wife and I at an international school in another Asian country. It has been good here, the money, wow, three months in Europe, Laos twice, the Phils twice, Thailand twice, Hong Kong, Tawain, Vietnam, credit card debt free but it is time to go. The sheer incompantence of this place just has gotten to me. I am so angry all the time with the filth, nationalism, ajossi's, education system, desperate children begging for rest and attention. Just cannot do it anymore.

jomiro · Joined: 10 Jan 2010

ive been here for almost 2 years now and lately ive also felt that its time to move on.
korea has been good to me and everything i wanted to accomplish i was able to do so in korea, but yet, something is missing. and im also longing for a change.
i dont want to go back home, but i do think its time to go somewhere else.
i think the longer you live here, the more you start disliking the system. everything you are able to overlook in the first few years will then get to you and annoy the hell out of you.

for china it took me 1.5 years, korea needed half a year longer. theres just so many little things that bother me now and the pure fact that its korea and one is being tolerated here, but not accepted.

i guess thats the main reason for me to leave... which i might do at the end of the year...