Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bithy75]

I hate to be so pessimistic, but I'm just having one of those weeks. I just keep thinking that I can't wait to leave this country. I'm looking at my calendar and counting the weeks...even the days...until my contract is up. Only 14.5 more weeks! It's still too long. I work for an online English company with about 40 employees and I'm the only foreigner. I'm so tired of sitting through meetings entirely in Korean where they turn to me and say "Do you want to say anything?" How the *bleep* can I say anything when I have no idea what they're talking about in the first place? I wish I could, but my level of Korean is only at the basic level. I love it even more when they mention my name a hundred times in the conversation and don't bother to tell me what they're talking about. I've tried so hard for the last 9 months to be flexible and patient and willing to learn, but in the end I'm always isolated from everyone else here. Most of the employees are totally freaked out about talking to me, even though I try to be as friendly, patient, encouraging as possible. I've tried going on all the company trips...everyone ignores me or giggles when I try to speak or when they try to speak to me. Result: no more company trips for me. It's just too much torture to stare at your fingernails for hours on end. Being the naive soul that I was before coming to Korea, I believed my boss when he said that everyone in the company spoke English and all the great things he told me about the responsibilities of my position in his company. Reality: I teach on the phone all day.

The worst part of all these feelings is that I had a lot of international experience before coming here, and I thought that would be good preparation for coming to Asia. I traveled, studied, and volunteered all over Europe and had friends from every country on the planet when I was in grad school in the USA - Koreans included. I taught English in a university to people from all over the world and got my MATESOL just before I came to Korea. I guess those experiences were easier because I had studied several European languages and could communicate well enough to hold a decent conversation. Anyway, so many people I met could speak English well enough, so communication was never much of a problem. I remember all those times as great experiences and felt like I made true friends. But now I'm questioning myself all the time. Am I a totally narrow-minded person? Am I not adaptable to another culture? I thought I was...but maybe I was wrong.

I just feel so empty here. I have more "friends" than I can count, but I don't feel that they're true friends. If anything, they just need me for English and nothing else. We might get together and have a few laughs, but I feel there's something missing. I don't want this to sound like a bunch of complaining about how terrible Korea is...but I just can't help feeling that I don't want to be here, and that I don't even really like this country. I don't want to waste any more time here.


Ahhh...feels so good to put it all into words!

[djsmnc]

Sounds a lot like my first job here...always had to have the Korean English teacher translate the "gist" of the meetings for me...and regardless of the fact that they mentioned my name a thousand times, I'd be told something like "It's not important, just keep doing what you're doing"

I just kept to myself and the friends I made outside of the job, and had a great time when I had nothing to do with work (though, students were fun)

Three months to go...just hold out, make your bonus and airfare and what-not, go home, then realize you wish you were in another country anyway...maybe not, but it happened to me, and my job now is great!

[jajdude]

Don't feel so bad. 14 weeks isn't so long. The language barrier is really heavy here, as you have realized. They often say many Koreans speak English just to attract you to the country or the job. Then you get there and find they don't and are nearly afraid to actually say hello. I've experienced this a few times. And then when I try to use my basic Korean they laugh for some reason. Well, hmmm, you don't speak English but you make me feel embarrassed trying Korean??? Very exclusive language and group of people.

[spliff]

How can I get part time phone gigs?

[Duder]

Hey, I feel the exact same way! I have 4 months to go and I am COUNTING down the days! I have also "travelled the world" after University, so I don't think I'm being close-minded about Korea. Although, teaching English is new to me.

There are 2 other foreign teachers at my school...one is my boyfriend and the other a new teacher who arrived 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately she is so different than us, we can barely hold more than a 2 minute conversation with her without wanting to rip each other's heads off! At least my boyfriend and I have each other.

As for the koreans at my school, they're nice enough but we get the exact same thing with the rambling on in Korean forever, and saying our names constantly, but then never actually telling us anything. They even hold meetings without us in the staff room and talk about us while were there, but don't allow us to participate in the meeting!

I guess I just feel that Korea has sone nothing for me other than helping with my student loans. I feel like I'm wasting away here and I literally think about going home every second that I'm not otherwise busy. I'm not sad or depressed, but I am desprately ready for a change.

Has anyone here been to Japan to teach? Unfortunately my loans are so big that I have to put in two years in Asia. We're gonna do the second year in Japan, hoping that it will be a little more stimulating there.

[Swiss James]

[rapier]

If you feel like you're wasting your time, then you probably are...

[OiGirl]

Traveling the world has very little relevance to settling down in Korea for a while. Or settling down for a while in any country.

It sounds like the OP needs to get some friends outside of work. I have lots of friends in Korea, Koreans and foreigners alike, but only one of my true friends did I ever work with! Go to English church services, Korean lessons, a KOTESOL meeting or something and see if you can meet someone you can communicate with.

[kangnam mafioso]

it sounds like most of your misery stems from your job situation and not necessarily korea, although many of the things that you speak of are characteristic of life here. what if you were teaching in another school and never had to really deal with korean staff and there were a lot of cool foreigners to hang with? what if you only had to teach a few hours everyday and had a lot of time off to hang out and go travel around southeast Asia? those jobs are out there -- you just have to look for them. you should be in a cushy university job right now and loving life with your degree. i taught in a uni and it was great; i know others who have worked in companies or even the business world and it sounds awful: company dinners every night, wearing suits, meetings all the time, 10 hour days, mandatory outings on the weekends, that can't leave until the big boss leaves mentality. i would never have traded my uni job for one of those gigs even if the pay was a lot better.

[humanuspneumos]

Wow- it's amazing you lasted as long as you did. You should be patting yourself on the back- really. I can't imagine going that long and having such an unfriendly atmosphere. The people I work with are a major part of teaching or doing anything. I just don't have an automaton button to become an emotionless android. Rapier mentioned some of the same feelings- so - you're in good company here. Sad that the next twelve weeks are isolationism. But- hey- you can begin to lose yourself in the next step in your life with internet research, phone calls, maps, applications, or whatever.

[bithy75]

Thanks for all the good advice. It's true that my job situation is what is making my time in Korea so difficult. When I'm not at the office chained to my computer, I have actually enjoyed some of my experiences here, even though I don't feel all my relationships with people are totally genuine. Whenever I talk to Koreans outside of my office about the situation here, they just can't understand it. They are amazed that a company that supposedly specializes in English education is full of people who can't speak English and who seem to have no desire to ever use it. This company exists to make money anyway, not to provide any sort of quality education. They are even more amazed that I was brought all the way over here just to talk on the phone all day. I was told that I would be doing materials development for their online courses.

It's not even just that...in the beginning my boss and his wife were basically "forcing" me to travel an hour and a half each way three times a week to tutor their daughter for 25,000 an hour (not inclusive of travel time or prep time), and actually had me believing that was a fair price. I was naive enough to believe it because his wife had been my "friend" in the USA before I came here. When I tried to tactfully renegotiate that arrangement, they "suddenly" decided it would be better to send her to a hagwon instead.

I guess I just really needed to vent and get all this stuff out of my system, and to see that I'm not totally crazy for feeling that I'm being screwed. I'm sure there are really good jobs here and I think I would actually like Korea if I had a decent job!