Korean Job Discussion Forums

[northway]

[Mix1]

[Weigookin74]

Happiness is when you have the money to enjoy the finer things in life. If you have a good income to live a good life in Korea then life is good. If you have a good income or setup to live in the west, then life is better there. If an ESL teacher lives in Seoul, he will prob enjoy himself. If he lives in NYC on a similiar income, he will probably hate life. I assume these are some of the factors for Koreans too.

[Captain Corea]

I've been here long enough to have many of my students move overseas...and then return a few years later. Those that returned often didn't like it all that much (as opposed to this e who stayed), and would complain about the boredom. When asked to give more details about it, they would explain things like "my coworkers never went out after work together. They would always just go home." they often expected it to be like Korea in that forced outing culture.

[motiontodismiss]

[earthquakez]

Edited because a double post.

[earthquakez]

[Moondoggy]

I can't speak for other countries except for USA.
Immigration from Korea has drastically been reduced in the past few years.
Actually more Koreans moved back to Korea in 2011.

It means that Koreans no longer emigrate to USA just to get out of poverty or any other desperation.

[northway]

White flight isn't a phenomenon in the States either; it's not 1968.

[Julius]

[PatrickGHBusan]

My wife is what you would call a Korean expat. She is pretty happy in Canada but she has commented on a few issues.

First she does find it "boring" here. That's not to say she finds nothing to do, what she misses is the action from our neighborhood in Busan where everything was open all the time.

Second, she had to adapt to the absence or lesser presence of that community dynamic that is so prevalent in Korea. As a simple example, in Busan we knew most of our neighbors, where we live now, we do not. Its not the same and it took some getting used to.

Finally, professionally, she has had a tough time finding equivalent status in Canada. She has encountered the "immigrant applicant" wall more than once. While in Korea that wall is solid brick and there for all to see, in Canada it is a transparent membrane wrapped in PC politeness and in procedures that make employement difficult in many cases. If it was just her I would not consider it an issue but in our group of friends there are many mixed families and the trend is common.

Living in another country always comes with its share of good points and bad points.

[earthquakez]

Interesting post Patrick. Big countries like Canada, Australia, and the US have an enviable lifestyle in many ways including in housing with those vast suburban areas of houses with gardens and room for recreation, quality of living absent from cramped, no privacy Asian housing. However, living in Korea it's easy to understand why this would not suit many Koreans who enjoy the comforting presence of others and can go out their front door and find services and facilities a few minutes away. The Asian 'nosiness' also makes a safer environment.

Sorry to hear about the invisible but very much existent barriers against your Korean wife's desire to work in certain jobs. I've travelled a lot in Canada and I'm wondering if some of this has to do with the norms of Korean immigrants in Canada.

There seem to be a higher than usual number of Koreans in Canada (esp Vancouver) with obvious priorities of keeping to their own and with chips on the shoulder about whites. I am not at all suggesting your wife is the same - what I mean is possibly the defensive attitude of Koreans there might mean less non Koreans esp whites are willing to employ people who clearly want to live in their Canadian version of Korea and have their own Korean everything to avoid mixing with whitey. Your wife's experiences might be a by-product of this Korean insularity along the lines of 'The Koreans want to live on their own, they can employ their own.' I dunno, what do you think?

[PatrickGHBusan]

You make a valid point about ethnic regrouping when emigrating somewhere. That is a trend you see in "multi-cultural" Canada. It is diverse but in a lot of ways it is NOT integrated.

Chinese immgrants are a good example of this as they join their own support communities. This works for first generation immigrants but second gens tend to break away and perhaps integrate more. However, this is not part of this debate!

Your comments about Korean communities in Canada are interesting and some of what you say is true. Korean immigrants do tend to gravitate towards Korean communities and that to me is perfectly normal for 1st generation immigrants. In fact, it makes perfect sense to do so, much like you gravited towards the expat community when you arrived in Korea as a foreign worker.

On the "mixing with whitey" thing, your take reads somewhat one sided and the reality seems far more complex and full of nuances.

Finally, mixing in your community is not as easy as it sounds! Heck people here talk a good game when it comes to multi-culturalism but when the reality of this pops up, the reaction tends not to match the words spoken.

Multi-culturalism flows two ways: acceptance of host culture but also adaptable of host culture when immigration (not foreign workers) starts to represent a significant part of your demographics as is the case in Canada.

As for my wife, she had no problems "mixing with whithey" or "mixing with brownie" or whatever else....she did have culture shock and issues with adapting much like I did when I arrived in Korea.

[Soldier]

[TheUrbanMyth]