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silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
| Reverse culture shock is far worse in my opinion than culture shock. |
I think this is mostly true, but it's not as much "cultural" shock as "life change" shock. I think people who are in a position to return and pick up where they left off or are going on to a more meaningful life phase (to them) probably aren't affected by reverse cultural shock as people who return and still haven't figured out where they're going or how they're going to get there. (figuratively, not literally). |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:00 am Post subject: |
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Well, it's made me realise that I need to not be here for as long as I planned (almost 4 months).
The more I'm here, the more I spend my savings from the last year of working. And it will be spent on nothing. It'll just burn away. I need that money. Apparently I'm 25 Korean age since the New year, which is basically 50, and life is essentially over at 50, so I need to make a plan.
Well, I have a plan but I haven't sat down and worked it out thoroughly yet.
See, you can find System in any Chaos. Or construction in any destruction, or whatever. Silver cloud in every whirlpool, as they say. |
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Livewire
Joined: 27 Feb 2011
Location: BI-WINNING!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:50 am Post subject: |
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| Go to Andalucia, it's better than England. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| Globutron wrote: |
Well, it's made me realise that I need to not be here for as long as I planned (almost 4 months).
The more I'm here, the more I spend my savings from the last year of working. And it will be spent on nothing. It'll just burn away. I need that money. Apparently I'm 25 Korean age since the New year, which is basically 50, and life is essentially over at 50, so I need to make a plan.
Well, I have a plan but I haven't sat down and worked it out thoroughly yet.
See, you can find System in any Chaos. Or construction in any destruction, or whatever. Silver cloud in every whirlpool, as they say. |
4 months?? why?? I'd be depressed too if I had to stay in the USA (or UK) just hanging out and spending my savings. Uggh, no thanks! If you want to just be a bum for 4 months, at least do it in another part of the world that's also much cheaper (like SE Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America, etc etc etc). |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:59 am Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| Globutron wrote: |
Well, it's made me realise that I need to not be here for as long as I planned (almost 4 months).
The more I'm here, the more I spend my savings from the last year of working. And it will be spent on nothing. It'll just burn away. I need that money. Apparently I'm 25 Korean age since the New year, which is basically 50, and life is essentially over at 50, so I need to make a plan.
Well, I have a plan but I haven't sat down and worked it out thoroughly yet.
See, you can find System in any Chaos. Or construction in any destruction, or whatever. Silver cloud in every whirlpool, as they say. |
4 months?? why?? I'd be depressed too if I had to stay in the USA (or UK) just hanging out and spending my savings. Uggh, no thanks! If you want to just be a bum for 4 months, at least do it in another part of the world that's also much cheaper (like SE Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America, etc etc etc). |
Family, friends, europe travel. Plus I still feel i need the break, a year of no breaks and 6 days vacation does that to you.
plus the whole process of forms etc all over again will take quite a while indeed... |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| Globutron wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| Globutron wrote: |
Well, it's made me realise that I need to not be here for as long as I planned (almost 4 months).
The more I'm here, the more I spend my savings from the last year of working. And it will be spent on nothing. It'll just burn away. I need that money. Apparently I'm 25 Korean age since the New year, which is basically 50, and life is essentially over at 50, so I need to make a plan.
Well, I have a plan but I haven't sat down and worked it out thoroughly yet.
See, you can find System in any Chaos. Or construction in any destruction, or whatever. Silver cloud in every whirlpool, as they say. |
4 months?? why?? I'd be depressed too if I had to stay in the USA (or UK) just hanging out and spending my savings. Uggh, no thanks! If you want to just be a bum for 4 months, at least do it in another part of the world that's also much cheaper (like SE Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America, etc etc etc). |
Family, friends, europe travel. Plus I still feel i need the break, a year of no breaks and 6 days vacation does that to you.
plus the whole process of forms etc all over again will take quite a while indeed... |
It's not the 4 months part I don't understand, it is the 4 months in Europe I don't get.  |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:47 am Post subject: |
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Well if you round it all up as 'Europe'... There's a hell of a lot of places in there I would happily spend 4 months/a lifetime in.
I think the EU will pave the path of the future of living. Eventually. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:52 am Post subject: |
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| Globutron wrote: |
I think the EU will pave the path of the future of living. Eventually. |
Would that be disintegration and debt? That is the future! And there's no eventually about it. |
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Livewire
Joined: 27 Feb 2011
Location: BI-WINNING!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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You obviously have no REAL friends.
Oh, you may have a few old classmates from uni that put up with your sullen and sad presence out of pity, but no actual friends.
Otherwise, in my experience, you can be happy enough in any place (I have lived in 10 countires.)
You are obviously a sad young man (bet you're gutted after your Canadian gf dumped you, wonder what she's doing right now?  who has nothing to feed him on the inside, which is why he needs external things such as good weather, landscapes etc to fullfil him.
I go back to the UK and have a great time, despite the shite weather, lack of mountains etc - all of these things are external and shouldn't bother a confident man who is well emotionaly nurtured one single bit.
Last edited by Livewire on Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Livewire
Joined: 27 Feb 2011
Location: BI-WINNING!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:25 am Post subject: |
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just a bit of harmless, snarky ribbing
No need to take it seriously |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:37 am Post subject: |
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That's the spirit!
(A little incorrect, since I didn't actually provide any insults in your direction, but it's close enough) |
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scratchpiece
Joined: 24 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:06 am Post subject: |
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| ESL Milk "Everyday wrote: |
Going out with your friends from back home can be fun for some people, but it's not so fun when they're going on and on about things you haven't been a part of for a while and if they also can't relate to/don't really care about where you've been and what you've been doing.
But it's not just that, it's also the fact that all of these things that you used to take for granted are suddenly really apparent to you and it kind of freaks you out or at least causes anxiety... it's sort of like realizing that where you came from isn't what you thought it was-- and that applies to people most of all.
So yeah, it's not really as simple as just going out with friends, unless you have some really amazing and genuine friends (not just drinking buddies or whatever), which most people don't really have. So you sort of have to either force yourself to get through it in whatever way you can and re-adapt, or I guess you could give up and come back to Korea... but then if you plan on making a life in your home country, it will just get harder for you the longer you're away.
But I think that after a while, you will get to a state of mind where you just say 'okay, I'm not going to be torn between these two worlds anymore' and then you pick one and say 'this is it'... because going back and forth is what will drive you over. |
Great post ESL |
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TECO
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:54 am Post subject: |
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| ESL Milk "Everyday wrote: |
Going out with your friends from back home can be fun for some people, but it's not so fun when they're going on and on about things you haven't been a part of for a while and if they also can't relate to/don't really care about where you've been and what you've been doing.
But it's not just that, it's also the fact that all of these things that you used to take for granted are suddenly really apparent to you and it kind of freaks you out or at least causes anxiety... it's sort of like realizing that where you came from isn't what you thought it was-- and that applies to people most of all.
So yeah, it's not really as simple as just going out with friends, unless you have some really amazing and genuine friends (not just drinking buddies or whatever), which most people don't really have. So you sort of have to either force yourself to get through it in whatever way you can and re-adapt, or I guess you could give up and come back to Korea... but then if you plan on making a life in your home country, it will just get harder for you the longer you're away.
But I think that after a while, you will get to a state of mind where you just say 'okay, I'm not going to be torn between these two worlds anymore' and then you pick one and say 'this is it'... because going back and forth is what will drive you over. |
As already mentioned above, this is a good post in that I think it rings true for many people leading an ex-pat lifestyle who have tried to return home after years of living and working abroad. In all fairness, I suppose it is tough for people back home to understand or even care about the things we have seen or done while living overseas for many years. We change, they change. My perception of people and places back home is certainly different than what it was.
Yet the changes seemed to have occurred subtly. I feel like the same person but my attitudes and feelings about home and the people there are not the same. I've tried returning to a life and career back home in recent years and I found it a real challenge. In retrospect, I should have planned more. After returning, I found myself in a worse situation career-wise, financially, and in terms of my location. I'm now back to teaching EFL. I now have a good job teaching and I am happy with my work but I'm still considering a return at some point. However, when and if I do try going home again, I'm going to take greater care in planning my exit strategy.
To echo the above comment regarding going home or making a permanent career / life overseas, I also agree that people probably need to make a commitment at a certain point with respect to what they want to do. And just stick with it. However, one can never truly assimilate here. The cultures just do not allow for it. That being said, I also agree that the longer one stays, the harder it is to ever go back. |
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