Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grotto]

I would never take a contract with shared accomodation again. I took one my first year in Korea in Suwon. I am 40 and male they put me in an apartment with 2 women ..one 50ish(very nice lady) and one 21 year old fresh out of college B.I.T.C.H. Her idea of fun would be to go out after school 6 or 7 nights a week get so stinking drunk she would stagger in grab the trashcan out of the washroom pass out in her room and 'ralph' the night away.

Music, loud, rap, ghetto crap. Not my musical taste at all.

Watching TV, I would come in and she would be watching Drew Carey...cool I like the show I would sit down and she would start channel surfing non stop just to piss me off.

Had a dinner party with some Korean friends, made spaghetti, garlic toast had a couple of teachers from the school american and korean and a couple of korean friends of the other roommate. The biatch came in, we all said 'Hi' she ignored all of us stormed into her room and proceeed to play her music at full blast....we tried to ignore it...couple minutes later she storms back out grabs her coat and leaves...stereo still pumping out full volume. Not being one to violate anothers living space I went to the circuit breaker and did a quick click cutting the power and turning off the stereo. Our korean friends were quite upset asking if they had done something wrong to upset her. They never returned to the apartment as they felt too uncomfortable. Next day at work she is telling all the other teachers how I go into her room steal her stuff, money and many other lies. Luckily the two other teachers that were at the party witnessed the whole thing and told everybody it wasnt true.

I put up with 6 months of rudeness, disrespect and antagonism before management finally decided to go for single accomodations.

The school has had many problems with other shared living quarters not just my situation. Some much worse.

If you are going to travel half way around the world to teach you dont want to share your space with strangers. It would be different if you knew them prior to coming over.

[discostar23]

I am living in a shared accomindation at the moment but I live with my girlfriend. Unfortuneately it is a three bedroom apartment and they are planning on putting another person in with us.

This poses lots of problems for us.

1. We are gay and not out to our school or our co-workers. Actually we are pretty much not out in korea at all. So we don't know if the new roommate will be able to "keep our secret" so to speak

2. We have a cat and what if our roommate is allergic. We are totally not willing to give up our cat.

3. We are slobs. I know this is easily fixed but when you are working 10 hours a aday last thing you want to do is clean up your apartment.

We totally thought shared accomindations were the way to go for us but now we wait with baited breath to see who we are going to get stuck with.

[riverboy]

Roomates are one of those things that one can never tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing. I have had roomate problems in the past but I have had great roomates as well. I was very fortunate to have great roomates when I first came here, but now I have my own spot and like the privacy.
The one thing I had to learn, was that it is important to try to be mellow. I learned that with my bad roomates, in the past, I often would get a little too upset for things they did. Later, I learned that doing your roomates dishes when they rarely do them won't hurt. I think it is a combination of patience and assertiveness that allows for people to live together.
Of course, Grotto, on the other hand, sounds like you got the shitty end of the stick there bud.

[Mr. Pink]

I have shared feelings about roommates.

My first year here I had one. I felt sorry for the guy cause he didn't want one, but in all honesty without that guy's help I probably wouldn't have lasted here more than a year. He is the only roomie I've had that I still talk to too.

I think in your early 20s, having 1 roommate who is the same sex isn't so bad. But only if you are compatible...which seems like a rare thing.

My other roommates were all "okay" but did things that pissed me off. Now I am married, and as we all know, family is easier to put up with than total strangers.

[crazylemongirl]

I am in shared accomdation after a year of being by myself and before that I lived at home during varsity. The biggest thing that I will have to learn is that I can not have my way all time, I haven't done the shared living thing before so this is defintly a new thing.

[Wishmaster]

Yes, like most of the vets here in Korea, I did the apartment sharing thing. Hated it. It is positive hell when you have to work and live with someone. I will certainly never do it again. The guy was a complete whiner and bitched incessantly about the classes. Lesson learned. Now, I have a nice apartment and love living alone. I don't have to put up with blaring music, someone controlling the television or dirty dishes. I would recommend to all people coming to Korea that you do your homework and demand single housing. A year in Korea is difficult enough. A roommate might make it seem like a thousand years.

[Ghostinthemachine]

[just because]

I've had 2 girl roommares(both fantastic) and 1 guy(not so fantastic)

[ryleeys]

I have never had a roommate (in four years of college) that I could even remotely stand.

The first guy smoked pot.
The second guy did E.
The third guy was an alcoholic that liked to "mother" me.
The fourth guy did E, listend to rave music nonstop, and dated a skank.
I then moved off campus and lived with two friends (we had more arguments in that year than the previous two years combined) and one of their fiances. The fiance was a Brazillian that was born in a diplomat's family and was raised by her three personal maids. You think Korean girls are princesses, this girl trumps REAL princesses.

Example, I had to go out of town overnight one time. I had cooked dinner, but as she and her fiance had trashed the kitchen, I had nowhere to wash my dishes without cleaning half their crap, and I am most definitely not their maid. I left my dishes in a small pile in the corner with a note saying I would return tomorrow and wash them. When I got back, she had piled the dishes (dripping sauce and skanky water that I had used to soak them) on my BED! I was furious and used every single foul expression I know in the ensuing fight.

[Kim Jong Jordan]

I'll probably have a roommate when I go to Korea and in many ways think it could be a positive thing as initially they could help show me around town. But yeah, there is the chance that they could be total maggots and try to ruin everything. Luckily I'm good at making friends quickly and in such a case would probably just ignore them in my own F#@K You kind of way.

[Mr. Pink]

[Kristsoy]

i had a roommate when i worked at ECC and his idea of supper was 5 full soju bottles ewwwww. so one night he thinks it would be funny to play fight with me, ended up going through my patio glass door when he pushed me through it, so when i got up, i beat on him til he was not conscience, he had to have 10 stitches over his eye, slept outside that night becasue i locked him out.

Went to school the next day and they wanted me to pay for the door, I said hell no you'll fire me first. He got fired the next week because all the teachers thought he was drunk at school

[ryleeys]

Her name was on the lease...

[Toby]

[Toby]

Been lucky thus far - pretty much all of my life apart from my first months at university. PIGS. Dismembering a motorbike in the living room etc.

Korea? Had good roomates all round. Just divorced my last roomate after two years in a 8 pyeong two bed flat. Dam good fun for two years.

Waiting for the fiance to move in after the big day now.