Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nukeday]

Well, Koreans are convinced everyone in England is very gentle. I suppose they'd assume chavs were quaint gentlemen.

[alistaircandlin]

I believe that the issue here is something that I also experienced after traveling abroad for a long time.

In 1995, when I was 21, I spend a few months in India, and experienced a kind of reverse culture shock on returning to England. Similar to the O.P., I felt like people were rude, wouldn't even make polite conversation, and many were clearly depressed. I felt like nobody had any energy, no-one could motivate themselves to do anything. Admittedly, this was mostly just the people I was hanging around with at the time.

It was as if being in another country gave me a new frame of reference, or a new lens through which to view England. So for the first time in my life I started to see England differently, and felt rather disillusioned with it.

I've been back and forth from Korea to England since I was 30, in 2004. I have to say that I don't experience the same thing anymore. Honestly, there are lots of things to appreciate about both countries, and I really feel it's better to take advantage of those things, rather than focusing on any perceived deficiencies.

For example, my wife and I lived in Peterborough from 2007- August 2010. It's not the most exciting place in the world. We did like going for walks in the Cambridgeshire countryside though - and we both realised that when we returned to Seoul, we would miss this about England - the parks, the greenery, and the open spaces. Also, I agree with the previous posters about food. We could eat a wider variety of things in England - we decided not to skimp on food, and we ate really well. Another big thing i miss is the libraries.

Seoul has a lot of positives too. Teaching here is far less stressful than teaching in the UK. My colleagues look happier and far less stressed out. There is good food available in Seoul: I think that often our problem as foreigners is of not knowing how to prepare and cook the different kinds of vegetables and produce that are available. I walk round the local market in Isu sometimes, and think: god, if those guys of masterchef were here, they'd be experimenting with all these different flavours.

The way you can walk to the mountains from Seoul is unique, in my experience. In the UK, we'd have to drive two hours, to get up to the lake district - I'm originally from Lancashire. I can be in the mountains within twenty minutes walk from my doorstep here.

My point is: logically speaking you are shooting yourself in the foot, if you insist on seeing places in a negative light. For our own benefit, at least, it's better to focus on the benefits of where we presently live. This is not to say, of course, that I don't want to move somewhere better!

[Yaya]

Yet another reason to love England.

The ultimate NHS indignity: Body of hospital patient left to die in corridor is ignored for hours... before staff simply drag him away

'He went to them for help and they left him out in the corridor to die', says Peter Thompson's daughter

Senior nurse claims it was 'the appropriate method of handling the situation'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2000824/NHS-indignity-Peter-Thompsons-body-ignored-hours-corridor-Edale-House-unit.html

[superbloke]

[alistaircandlin]

[alistaircandlin]

Edward - I apologise, I've just gone back and bothered to read the rest of your post, and you do make a distinction between people who are working class, and people from working class backgrounds.

However, there are still shades of snobbery about your post, don't you think? You talk about working class people in your first paragraph, but then your refer to characteristics of the underclasses, or the 'non-working,'classes in your second paragraph. The implication here is that you taint the working class with the same brush - as idiots who eat junk food, enjoy crap culture, spend all their money in the pub, and don't care about their children.

There are hints of a superior and condescending attitude here, which I take exception to. As we are all teachers here, I'll mention that this links to a endemic problem in British schools. Many British teachers, and English teachers in particular, systematically put down the white working classes, especially white working class boys, who have been alienated from our education system since it began. We consistently praise the attributes of the middle classes, and put down the working classes - we make them look stupid. Many white working class males have been turned off education for generations because of the patronising attitudes of pedagogues. This is a kind of cultural imperialism, and I think the thoughts implied in your post are nothing but a symptom of this.

If anyone has a genuine interest in education, I would suggest watching this programme on white underachievment, it is really quite eye-opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6uvKixSro

[bigclanger3]

the OP still hasn't bothered to tell us why they're complaining on this board.
does anyone else sniff a troll?

also...a LOT of the complaints being levelled at the UK right now...if being held in direct comparison to Korea are just silly!

and yes. the class system is stupid. and it's not as clear cut as it used to be but it's there and we all know it and we all feel it.

and chavss aren't necessarily poor people per se. I know plenty of low income families who aren't chavs.
but chavs are those who favour sportswear and cheap gold jewellery and SHIT hair. and swear and vandalise and hang around estates causing trouble and go to Yates'. in the venn diagram there will be some crossover between poor people and chavs...for sure. but chav is a lifestyle choice!

[alistaircandlin]

[edwardcatflap]

[alistaircandlin]

[Eddy24]

Thanks you posters for this entertaining read.

I've just got to Korea 3 weeks ago from the UK. I think for a lot of people it's only natural when you go abroad somewhere else that you open your eyes to the good things that are different about the new country and then you see your home country with a new set of eyes. There are many things about the UK I don't miss. It's one of the great things about travelling. I think it really can broaden the mind. However, Korea has its own problems just as the UK does. I think it's sometimes easy to ignore that as when living an ex-pat over here. But i don't want to dwell on that.

Nonetheless, I think my last visit here was a huge eye-opener and one of things that convinced me I would love to come to work in korea. I'm half Korean so I've visited Korea before to see family. The way I was treated by my family, their friends and people in general - the warmth and hospitality - was something that I would never have gotten back in the UK. I could pull out a ton of other reasons why i love Korea. The food, the weather (hey i'd been living in Edinburgh for the last 6 years), lowe taxes, amongst many other things.

[Julius]

[hwa jang shil]