Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vermouth]

I've been here one year. And I really like it here.


I'm not soul crushingly impoverished like I was in university. My work days aren't anywhere near as bad as a lot of the jobs i did in the years between high school and college. going from having forty bucks a week to spend on food and anything else I wanted to making good money was nice.

And the day to day is pretty okay. My students and co-workers seem to like me. I work hard at getting better at teaching and I enjoy the workday. I've got friends, I've had some dates and a little bit of a relationship. I've been able to buy nice things. Basically life is pretty rad.

And yet...

Everyone I meet who's been here a long time is completely miserable and has long rants about how horrible Koreans are and how much they seem to hate everything about it.


When does it go from everything is sort of okay.... to everything is terrible? I mean I've got problems but who doesn't? Back in America I'd probably be unemployed or working a shitty service job just like before I went to university.

[computermichael]

It's only been two years for me, so I'm not a long timer, nor do I ever plan on being one. However, I'm pretty mother effing bitter lately, and it basically comes down to this.

1. Being ripped off in some form by every place I've worked at (three now).
2. Living in a place that's dirty and crowded for too long.
3. Being lied to too often by my hagwon bosses.

I really liked Korea a lot until a few months ago, but then one day some kind of Korea hate bomb exploded within me, sending poop and guts everywhere. I contemplated pulling a runner as soon as I got paid, and I probably would if I had more money saved up, but then I thought things out and decided that it would be better to finish my contract for obvious reasons.

I used to think that I couldn't get a job in the US, but I researched it a bit and know that I was wrong. There's obviously nothing going on in the podunk craphole that I'm from, but there are actually labor shortages in some parts of the country. Also, I'm not stupid and dysfunctional like half of the people who come to Korea to teach English, so I think that I'll at least be able to find some kind of menial job until I get something more desirable.

[Old fat expat]

Both are true.

easily solved.

You must be ... (insert snide remark to feed the thread).

[exit86]

Ummmmm, all my buddies who've been here a decade or longer
aren't bitter as you describe.

Speaking for myself (ten years), I have learned to scratch the surface with everything (South) Korean. Skepticism is a very important personality trait which folks learn to develop and nurture.
After going through the honeymoon months/years, lotsa folks realize
the disparity between what is advertised in this culture and what actually
exists. It takes time to see this clearly.

This is not bitterness though; it is wisdom and experience.


My advice to you sir:

Scratch the surface.
(and keep having fun!)

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

I've only been here about 10 months, so take my opinion for what it's worth. I really love it in Korea, and my quality of life is much better as far as entertainment, new experiences, financial security, etc.

However, there are two things that I have grown somewhat bitter about since I first got here:

#1, I've really poured myself into studying Korean. I'm barely a beginner, but I do know enough now to understand the general topics of conversation going on around me and to communicate on a day-to-day basis with cashiers, taxi drivers, and the like. This has opened up a lot of wonderful doors for me, but also a few cans of worms. For example, I now know when people are talking about me in public, which happens a lot more than I would like it to, and has made me self-conscious. Secondly, and more importantly, I now have to deal with some Koreans' ignorance about talking to a non-native speaker. I get spoken to in banmal nearly every day - from convenience store clerks, McDonald's cashiers, taxi drivers...in short, people who would NEVER speak banmal to a Korean stranger my age. I still don't know if they think it's easier for me to understand (when actually the opposite is true, since all my study materials are in jondaenmal) or if it's just because they don't respect me or think I fit into their politeness hierarchy. I also get a lot of people insisting on speaking to me in broken English when I'm speaking to them in perfectly acceptable Korean, and people who refuse to help me or acknowledge my existence. I could handle that when I couldn't speak Korean - I figured it was a communication breakdown - but when I'm clearly speaking Korean and someone is still ignoring me, blowing me off, or whatever, it's a new ballpark. Luckily this is fairly infrequent, but it adds up over time.

2. In a related issue, I've grown to realize that most people here will never accept me as 'one of them', no matter how adept at the language and customs I am, and this is almost exclusively due to ignorance and racism. Having never really been a minority before, this is something I'm struggling to adapt to. A lot of guys treat me with much less respect than they would afford a Korean girl in similar circumstances (only wanting to meet in the late evening, or dating me while secretly having a Korean girlfriend, etc.). And some people are still shocked that I can eat with chopsticks or say hello in their language. Even people that have known me and seen me almost every day for the 10 months I've been here. Again, it's a minor annoyance, but it adds up.

[Devil's Harvest]

In my experience, long timers aren't bitter at all. The vast majority of long-timers are here because they like it, have made a great network of friends, and are often married or in a serious long term relationship here. Long-timers do get frustrated on occasion, but are very unlikely to start a topic about their problems on Dave's. They do sometimes respond to other's frustrated posts, to refute or to commiserate.

Bitterness is far more likely to be spewed from the keyboards of ESL teachers who have been here less than two years, are well past the honeymoon period and haven't yet learned how to roll with the punches, how to turn the ineptitude of the Korean management style to their advantage, or how to find joy in life here beyond getting smashed until 8am on the weekends and hounding girls (or guys) in Hongdae.

Speaking from experience here. Had my bitter period, got over it, quite happy with life here now.

[redaxe]

Because they start getting older in Korea, and then they realize that they have nothing to go back home to, so suddenly they're over 40 and still in Korea doing the same job teaching the same Korean brats for the same pay (actually less due to the exchange rate), still married to their K-wives who they can barely communicate with, raising their own half-Korean brats, and their only meaningful social interaction is their weekly gripe session with the other waegooks at the local watering hole.

And they think about what life might have been, had they gone back home years ago... but it's too late now.

[Devil's Harvest]

[Privateer]

Big mystery: why does everyone complain about Korea when it's so great here? a.) Because sooner or later the culture shock hits everyone, and you realise no matter how much you tell yourself things shouldn't bother you, they do in undeniable fact bother you. b.) Because there are a lot of things to complain about. There's a reason people complain about Korea, and it's not because thousands of people who come here all, coincidentally, have the same character defect. No smoke without fire.

[tideout]

[Privateer]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[bluelake]

Hmmm... I've been here for the past twenty-two years straight (and lived here also a few years before that), so I guess I qualify as a long timer

I love living in Korea and feel no bitterness. Do I ever have complaints? Sure I do. However, I generally keep them private.

Most other long timers I know here in Korea are pretty much the same as me.

[sojusucks]

Most of the bitter teachers I've met are that way because of bad experiences with schools. That's not just longtimers, though. It's a mix of old and new.

[zappadelta]