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balzor
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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 Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:49 am Post subject: |
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| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
You asked what sucks so bad about Korea. They rarely talk to strangers and are very difficult to meet and get to know with pushing, cutting line, and aimlessly walking with tunnel vision being norm. They rarely act friendly like, "Hi, nice to see you again. How are you doing?" There are exceptions where college students are open minded and like to talk with foreigners, but if your town doesn't have a college or uni, you are missing the best part of socializing with Koreans as the older people are rarely friendly enough to say, "hi," and associate with you. Definitely go to a big city with schools to open yourself up to the pool of open minded Koreans not afraid to talk to you. In other Asian countries, people will just come up and talk to you in the streets, but Korea is very conservative in those regards. |
wait... you mean it's a different culture and a different way of living. You mean the things we are used to and consider normal behavior are not looked at the same way here. I know Westerners that complain at the slightest deviation of their work conditions, act obnoxious in public and say things like "Who cares, they can't understand me anyways" People who insist that things should be done the American way, because "it's better" Different does not mean better or worse, it just means different.
Gimme a break dude. You've been complaining ever since you got here. |
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goat
Joined: 23 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| Globutron wrote: |
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| once you get here, it aint all glitz and glamour. |
Sure, for the pessimists. For me, it was and still is all glitz and glamour. Sure not in the localised place I see every day. There's only so long something can glamourise a man. But then I just go down the road and see more glamour.
There's about 2 years worth of glamour here, I reckon.
My friend came here with two degrees, engineering and something else related, thermodynamics or something *looks at the complicated notes he left behind*. But people don't tend to get a degree in order to come here. They get a degree and then want to do something different before zoning in on their life long career.
Speaking for myself, anyway.
So basically your post was a little inane. But what do I know. Only been here 6 months. |
You have only been here 6 months so your opinion doesn't count. |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| goat wrote: |
| Globutron wrote: |
| Quote: |
| once you get here, it aint all glitz and glamour. |
Sure, for the pessimists. For me, it was and still is all glitz and glamour. Sure not in the localised place I see every day. There's only so long something can glamourise a man. But then I just go down the road and see more glamour.
There's about 2 years worth of glamour here, I reckon.
My friend came here with two degrees, engineering and something else related, thermodynamics or something *looks at the complicated notes he left behind*. But people don't tend to get a degree in order to come here. They get a degree and then want to do something different before zoning in on their life long career.
Speaking for myself, anyway.
So basically your post was a little inane. But what do I know. Only been here 6 months. |
You have only been here 6 months so your opinion doesn't count. |
Isn't this EXACTLY what I JUST implied?
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| So optimists consider getting forced to work overtime for no pay and being cheated out of pension and insurance to be glamorous? Wow. |
I was referring to Korea, not the work. Two years of glamor - things to do and see. I never mentioned and never planned on including work.
You could go to the most glamorous country in the world and have a shitty job, doesn't make the country less glamorous. |
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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:57 am Post subject: |
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| brickabrack wrote: |
| Do you include talking to the people (locals) in your travel plans? |
When I was young and traveling in a fried-out combie on a hippie trail, head full of zombie. I met a strange lady, and even thoughshe made me nervous - she took me in and gave me breakfast. |
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Pun
Joined: 03 Aug 2010
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:26 am Post subject: |
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If you are coming to Korea, do keep in mind that its going to be rough slightly the first 2 weeks, try and make more korean friends then foreign friend actually.
I recommend going to "Uncle29" bar in Kangnam its near coffee bean. Great place to find koreans that are doing well socially and speak english. |
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Newbie
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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| interestedinhanguk wrote: |
So optimists consider getting forced to work overtime for no pay and being cheated out of pension and insurance to be glamorous? Wow. |
Cuz that happens to everyone, right�
Somehow I managed to do 6 years with none of that happening to me.... must have been the other Korea I was in. |
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Quack Addict
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Frenetic wrote: |
| brickabrack wrote: |
| Do you include talking to the people (locals) in your travel plans? |
When I was young and traveling in a fried-out combie on a hippie trail, head full of zombie. I met a strange lady, and even thoughshe made me nervous - she took me in and gave me breakfast. |
Fried-out combie on a hippie trail, head full of zombie.....what? Please explain. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Quack Addict wrote: |
| Frenetic wrote: |
| brickabrack wrote: |
| Do you include talking to the people (locals) in your travel plans? |
When I was young and traveling in a fried-out combie on a hippie trail, head full of zombie. I met a strange lady, and even thoughshe made me nervous - she took me in and gave me breakfast. |
Fried-out combie on a hippie trail, head full of zombie.....what? Please explain. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McsWKczU6wc |
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Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010
Location: Multiverse
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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I've read a few of Globutron's posts and I like the cut of his jib in general.
Glob - you susrisingly seem to have somehow pretty much used the data at hand, run the calculations and hit the magical 2 year formula pretty much spot on. I swear that is around when life here stopped feeling all 'Wow, I'm living in Asia' - you know that feelign right, I maybe get it once a year now - and just became normal life - though still somewhat a better more adventurous feeling than living back home. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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| balzor wrote: |
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
You asked what sucks so bad about Korea. They rarely talk to strangers and are very difficult to meet and get to know with pushing, cutting line, and aimlessly walking with tunnel vision being norm. They rarely act friendly like, "Hi, nice to see you again. How are you doing?" There are exceptions where college students are open minded and like to talk with foreigners, but if your town doesn't have a college or uni, you are missing the best part of socializing with Koreans as the older people are rarely friendly enough to say, "hi," and associate with you. Definitely go to a big city with schools to open yourself up to the pool of open minded Koreans not afraid to talk to you. In other Asian countries, people will just come up and talk to you in the streets, but Korea is very conservative in those regards. |
wait... you mean it's a different culture and a different way of living. You mean the things we are used to and consider normal behavior are not looked at the same way here. I know Westerners that complain at the slightest deviation of their work conditions, act obnoxious in public and say things like "Who cares, they can't understand me anyways" People who insist that things should be done the American way, because "it's better" Different does not mean better or worse, it just means different.
Gimme a break dude. You've been complaining ever since you got here. |
You are right that it's a different culture, but I know one thing. All across humanity, what is friendly and not friendly is universal in nature. You know the vibe people give off even though you don't speak their language. I'm not the one acting obnoxious in public nor complaining of slight deviations, but I do know when people are happy, angry, content, discontent, friendly, unfriendly, courageous, shy, open minded, closed minded, and such. It's not rocket science in any case. I don't expect them to be Americans, but I do expect them to embrace and warmly welcome the Westerners they invited to their country rather than being uncomfortably indifferent about the situation. I do understand the situation that the government says to learn English which involves bringing foreign English teachers in, but many people don't agree with this initiative even though they are financially supporting English education. While they are almost completely silent about their disagreement with it, it's obvious many older adults and less educated people are not embracing this change. This is much less pronounced in Seoul than elsewhere so you may not notice if you spend most or all of your time in Seoul.
Another thing I know is when someone flames a poster on a forum, they too are usually even more insecure about the situation at hand. You are extremely insecure feeling about this subject I brought up so you feel a need to be condescending towards me. |
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balzor
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
You asked what sucks so bad about Korea. They rarely talk to strangers and are very difficult to meet and get to know with pushing, cutting line, and aimlessly walking with tunnel vision being norm. They rarely act friendly like, "Hi, nice to see you again. How are you doing?" There are exceptions where college students are open minded and like to talk with foreigners, but if your town doesn't have a college or uni, you are missing the best part of socializing with Koreans as the older people are rarely friendly enough to say, "hi," and associate with you. Definitely go to a big city with schools to open yourself up to the pool of open minded Koreans not afraid to talk to you. In other Asian countries, people will just come up and talk to you in the streets, but Korea is very conservative in those regards. |
wait... you mean it's a different culture and a different way of living. You mean the things we are used to and consider normal behavior are not looked at the same way here. I know Westerners that complain at the slightest deviation of their work conditions, act obnoxious in public and say things like "Who cares, they can't understand me anyways" People who insist that things should be done the American way, because "it's better" Different does not mean better or worse, it just means different.
Gimme a break dude. You've been complaining ever since you got here. |
You are right that it's a different culture, but I know one thing. All across humanity, what is friendly and not friendly is universal in nature. You know the vibe people give off even though you don't speak their language. I'm not the one acting obnoxious in public nor complaining of slight deviations, but I do know when people are happy, angry, content, discontent, friendly, unfriendly, courageous, shy, open minded, closed minded, and such. It's not rocket science in any case. I don't expect them to be Americans, but I do expect them to embrace and warmly welcome the Westerners they invited to their country rather than being uncomfortably indifferent about the situation. I do understand the situation that the government says to learn English which involves bringing foreign English teachers in, but many people don't agree with this initiative. While they are silent about their disagreement with it, it's obvious many older adults and less educated are not embracing this change. This is much less pronounced in Seoul than elsewhere so you may not notice if you spend most or all of your time in Seoul.
Another thing I know is when someone flames a poster on a forum, they too are usually even more insecure about the situation at hand. You are extremely insecure feeling about this subject I brought up so you feel a need to be condescending towards me. |
Hardly, If i was bothered or insecure by Korea I would have left after my first year. I just have noticed that you complain so often on these board ever since you started your account. Don't try to deflect on me with some poor attempt at reverse psychology. I accept Korea for what it is and nothing more. Sure we would all love it if all Koreans started being super nice to foreigners and made a real effort to learn English and understand Western customs. That would be awesome right!
I'm not trying to flame you, but you exude a lot of negativity on these boards. |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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OP
Coming from someone that started playing Starcraft when it first came out (part 1 that is), are you really sure you can devote enough time to play competitively? How old are you?
Not a swipe, but the people playing are kids. I mean they are 16-20 and not much older than that (save Boxer)- they play for ten hours as practice with their league and they don't even get to play every match.
Watch the games on Youtube posted by HuskyStarcraft & Jon747. Those players don't mess around- they play for big stakes: like 60K a year +. When they lose, those tears are for real! 
Anyway, you are going to teach English, so that leaves little time for Starcraft practice. Even if you play on an Asia server now, you may not be on the level as some kids you will be teaching. That means you should just incorporate Starcraft & video games into your lesson to keep your class interested, and watch Starcraft TV or see the games live in Seoul on your weekends. Good luck!
PS- if anyone knows how to get those silly Starcraft jackets, let me know! They look damn good!  |
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tiger fancini
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: Testicles for Eyes
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| I don't expect them to be Americans, but I do expect them to embrace and warmly welcome the Westerners they invited to their country rather than being uncomfortably indifferent about the situation. I do understand the situation that the government says to learn English which involves bringing foreign English teachers in, but many people don't agree with this initiative even though they are financially supporting English education. |
They paid for you to come here, and will probably pay for you to leave. They pay for your accommodation here, and they also pay you a relatively decent salary. I'm sure you've been treated to various free dinners and drinking sessions by them too. (I'm guessing you're on an E2).
Perhaps you expected them to meet you at the airport with a marching band, and feel they should scatter rose petals on your path whenever you go anywhere? |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 1:27 am Post subject: |
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| tiger fancini wrote: |
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| I don't expect them to be Americans, but I do expect them to embrace and warmly welcome the Westerners they invited to their country rather than being uncomfortably indifferent about the situation. I do understand the situation that the government says to learn English which involves bringing foreign English teachers in, but many people don't agree with this initiative even though they are financially supporting English education. |
They paid for you to come here, and will probably pay for you to leave. They pay for your accommodation here, and they also pay you a relatively decent salary. I'm sure you've been treated to various free dinners and drinking sessions by them too. (I'm guessing you're on an E2).
Perhaps you expected them to meet you at the airport with a marching band, and feel they should scatter rose petals on your path whenever you go anywhere? |
Well, just fuel Balzor's bigoted parade like you do to side into one of those cliques back in high school and college. Why don't you? You are right on one thing, but wrong otherwise. They are paying money to bring foreign teachers here. No, I didn't get invited to free dinners and drinking sessions. I also did not expect a marching band with rose petals gliding through the air as I stepped off of a business class jet with red carpet rolled out. You are probably referring to when I wrote about a lying recruiter who told me he was picking me up at Incheon one cold Winters day last February, but was a no show who had me ride a bus into Seoul only to stay in some filthy grimey over priced love motel at my expense, because he said he didn't have time to drive me due to having too many inbound public school recruits at one time. I wasn't the only one to get lied to about airport pickup by that recruiter who should had hired a driver to take people from the airport to their schools, but was taking more profit instead of delivering on his promises. My point is it's not about expecting special treatment, it's reasonable to expect what is promised in a dealing. It's not overly negative to complain in this case, but this has nothing to do with the discussion nor thread. And to be mature about it, I didn't even name any names, I just said, "a recruiter in Seoul," nor have I ever gotten overly judgmental and bigoted like some of you do.
As for some of you guys negative offensive attitudes, I'll have to live and let live as this is just a text message forum. It wouldn't even ever come down to this much conflict in real life here as we're more stoic in person than this. How many times do you see anyone acting out in real life outside of bars like on this website? Maybe it happens in Itaewon and Hongdae on occasion, but is very uncommon. |
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balzor
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:55 am Post subject: |
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| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| tiger fancini wrote: |
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| I don't expect them to be Americans, but I do expect them to embrace and warmly welcome the Westerners they invited to their country rather than being uncomfortably indifferent about the situation. I do understand the situation that the government says to learn English which involves bringing foreign English teachers in, but many people don't agree with this initiative even though they are financially supporting English education. |
They paid for you to come here, and will probably pay for you to leave. They pay for your accommodation here, and they also pay you a relatively decent salary. I'm sure you've been treated to various free dinners and drinking sessions by them too. (I'm guessing you're on an E2).
Perhaps you expected them to meet you at the airport with a marching band, and feel they should scatter rose petals on your path whenever you go anywhere? |
Well, just fuel Balzor's bigoted parade like you do to side into one of those cliques back in high school and college. Why don't you? You are right on one thing, but wrong otherwise. They are paying money to bring foreign teachers here. No, I didn't get invited to free dinners and drinking sessions. I also did not expect a marching band with rose petals gliding through the air as I stepped off of a business class jet with red carpet rolled out. You are probably referring to when I wrote about a lying recruiter who told me he was picking me up at Incheon one cold Winters day last February, but was a no show who had me ride a bus into Seoul only to stay in some filthy grimey over priced love motel at my expense, because he said he didn't have time to drive me due to having too many inbound public school recruits at one time. I wasn't the only one to get lied to about airport pickup by that recruiter who should had hired a driver to take people from the airport to their schools, but was taking more profit instead of delivering on his promises. My point is it's not about expecting special treatment, it's reasonable to expect what is promised in a dealing. It's not overly negative to complain in this case, but this has nothing to do with the discussion nor thread. And to be mature about it, I didn't even name any names, I just said, "a recruiter in Seoul," nor have I ever gotten overly judgmental and bigoted like some of you do.
As for some of you guys negative offensive attitudes, I'll have to live and let live as this is just a text message forum. It wouldn't even ever come down to this much conflict in real life here as we're more stoic in person than this. How many times do you see anyone acting out in real life outside of bars like on this website? Maybe it happens in Itaewon and Hongdae on occasion, but is very uncommon. |
I had to get a 120,000won taxi ride at 11:30pm on a Wed when they thought I was coming in on Friday or so they say. I think a lot of us have this nonsense happen.
I'm not sure I understand the bigot shot on me. Can't think where I said anything racist. I am pro Korea and anti a-hole.
Just to answer the last question. everytime I'm in Itaewon I see stupid people doing stupid things, but it's no different from anywhere else in this world when people drink. I,myself, have been a idiot a time or two when drunk. |
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