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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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 Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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| ewlandon wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
Some of the issues and responses make rantings of the Muslim Brotherhood seem reasoned.
I seriously wonder if we haven't been drinking the crazy chemicals in our water back home.
"Armed Subway Guards" "Alpha Females" "Face Smashing" "Culture Shock of Cats"
Those aren't issues for discussing immigration, those are rock band names. That would be a pretty kick-azz concert. "Dude, Culture Shock of Cats is up next!"
I thought Dave's was starting to get to me for a bit, then I saw this thread... |
Cats play an important part of many peoples lives. They are probably a bigger part of your life than you even know.
Did you know that cats and humans have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotions. Cat's and humans brains are more closely related than humans and dogs. |
Uhm, I'm not really attacking the point that's being made, just how people are making it. It's like Alex Jones talking about gun control (a sensible issue) and throwing out terms like "Suicide Mass Murder Pills".
Sometimes people refer to NETs as economic refugees or think of themselves as immigrants or some such. I have a feeling that most refugees and immigrants around the world are more concerned with housing and employment than "Culture Shock of Cats"- just goes to show what a bizzarro and privileged world we live in. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Privateer wrote: |
| fustiancorduroy wrote: |
| I'm always curious about people who say "learning Korean greatly changed my perspectives of the country for the worse." Maybe they speak and understand Korean much better than I do, because when I'm out in public (not too often since I got a car), I've never really heard people saying negative things about me, that I could tell. Maybe these people are more prone to looking for things to criticize about Korea and her people. Or maybe it's because I'm a big man -- 6'4" and over 250 pounds -- who looks, from a Korean's perspective, pretty well into his 30s. |
Totally agree with that, but then I'm 6'4" and 220 pounds myself, and now over 40 too.
You're less likely to get bullied when you're male, you're big, and also if you're older. Just goes to show the bullies are cowards, don't it? |
It always hints towards the social hierarchy here - older male |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
Uhm, I'm not really attacking the point that's being made, just how people are making it. It's like Alex Jones talking about gun control (a sensible issue) and throwing out terms like "Suicide Mass Murder Pills".
Sometimes people refer to NETs as economic refugees or think of themselves as immigrants or some such. I have a feeling that most refugees and immigrants around the world are more concerned with housing and employment than "Culture Shock of Cats"- just goes to show what a bizzarro and privileged world we live in. |
You have failed at joke detection. -1 Internets. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Zyzyfer wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
Uhm, I'm not really attacking the point that's being made, just how people are making it. It's like Alex Jones talking about gun control (a sensible issue) and throwing out terms like "Suicide Mass Murder Pills".
Sometimes people refer to NETs as economic refugees or think of themselves as immigrants or some such. I have a feeling that most refugees and immigrants around the world are more concerned with housing and employment than "Culture Shock of Cats"- just goes to show what a bizzarro and privileged world we live in. |
You have failed at joke detection. -1 Internets. |
I really wish Dave's had a soundboard so I could play some sort of "fail" sound for my post.... |
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coratheexplorer
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
Some of the issues and responses make rantings of the Muslim Brotherhood seem reasoned.
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The Muslim Brotherhood makes some very good points at times. |
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coratheexplorer
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by coratheexplorer on Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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| abright1dea wrote: |
thanks for all the responses. To clear things up, I don't see why having a strong sense of self and identifying and prioritizing personal boundaries (as the example I gave- not willingly handing over money to some taxi driver who knew he was overcharging his passengers) makes me an "alpha female" or "combative" or whatever was said a few responses ago.
The only thing I absoModEditlutely refuse to put up with is sexual harassment by a boss. it's happened to me before and it was just really disgusting and awful. Any pearls of wisdom for this subject? Look for a female boss, perhaps?
I do have some questions- when you say, "dress well" does that just mean look nice? Since living in Europe I've stepped it up, as in, no sweatshirts or workout pants day-to-day. I typically wear jeans, sandals or boots and a top with a cardigan. It's not fancy but it looks put together. I wear a lot of dresses and skirts when the weather allows. I don't want to spend a ton of money on my wardrobe, so will this suffice?
Also, as I haven't started looking for a job yet I figure it wouldn't hurt to ask. I've read a few threads complaining about not being able to find jobs- I'm a blonde, athletic built American female with a BA in a non-English or teaching major. My boyfriend is an attractive, brunette, athletic male also with a non-English or education degree. We are both in our early 20's and NOT looking for couples positions. Please tell me we'll be able to find jobs pretty easily in Busan? |
I think you're worrying too much about some of the posts here.
Unless you're an a...licker or of Korean ethnicity, most foreigners here 'clash' with Korean culture in ways minor or major. The trick is to not let the major differences be aired out in your workplace or in actions that cross boundaries.
I've known independent, individual foreign women who've done alright in Korea. They found some attitudes damn well idiotic - like double standards on dress.
As one of them who worked down in Jeollanam told me, Korean women teachers wear short skirts with no stockings so anybody can see up their skirt on the many staircases in the school and the students can see something during class if the teacher reaches up or bends over. Yet when she wore a long, slightly see thru skirt with stockings and t shirt tucked into her skirt pulled down so no hint of underwear could be seen, students and teachers alike made a big thing out of it. In other Korean workplaces everywhere, foreign teachers' light summer blouses have been accused of being 'underwear'.
At one hagwon I worked at, the Korean teachers were all female and all wore short shorts at one time or another, and skirts with high heels where the skirts were minis and the high heels were too high. To be honest this outfit looked no different from those worn by the prostitutes who were picked up at my officetel in a van to go off somewhere.
The overwhelming majority of Korean complaints about foreign female teachers' dress is just sniping and in some cases jealousy for the foreigners' ability to be outside the petty, spiteful domino heirarchy that even young Koreans set up when their amongst themselves.
I met an older female foreign teacher who had few problems working for some time in Korea. She didn't have the comfort of a long term partner or the benefits of an F visa.
Her attitude was that she was passing through as the E-2 visa is only one year at a time, she can't do other work that she's good at on the E-2 visa, and goodwill/generosity towards Koreans couldn't change the fact that Koreans are continually told in their education and society that they only owe anything to each other, and unmarried foreign women are very low on the totem pole.
So she didn't care about the negatives that much, why should she when Koreans wanted her to over-extend her adaptation to Korean culture while telling her she was only there for a limited time and would never play any genuine role there no matter how much she did as she is not Korean. That's the best attitude - they keep telling us we don't belong except to teach and then get out so keep your perspective. We being the foreigners with no status as we are not married to Koreans - and even then it's the luck of the draw.
Don't care so much about what Koreans think because honestly in general their confused logic undermines much of what they see as credibility and their own 'superiority'. Enjoy your teaching, talk more to decent Koreans and remember that much of their passive-aggressive behaviour is based on deep discontent with their own lives. |
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earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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| kyosuro wrote: |
I agree with Dodge 7. I am a white female and have lived and taught in Korean universities for the last four years. Last year I studied Korean language enough to be able to generally understand what a majority of Koreans around me are saying, and when the comprehension started clicking in my brain I was shocked by how much petty, disrespectful gossip there is in Korea. Every Korean doesn't speak like that, but as Dodge 7 explained, kind people won't stick up for you or tell rude people to be quiet. Everyone just looks the other way and hopes it won't come near them. Koreans are terrified of becoming victims of bullying.
If you stand up for yourself and refuse to be treated badly, then it is possible that a spiteful Korean will take your photo and put it on the Korean internet along with descriptions of how "bad" of a person you are, and then it will spread all over the city where you live, and a campaign of bullying will begin. It happened to me. Koreans think of themselves as one group, and non-Koreans are outside that group and therefore not worthy of the same respect. Also, if a Korean says that a foreigner in Korea did something "bad", a majority of Koreans will automatically believe it, and those who don't will be too scared to go against the majority, so they will be silent. |
Damn, that's bad, sorry to hear it. I'm a Brit male and while I get tired of the jealousy directed foreign men's way if we just talk to a Korean female and all the nasty pseudo journalism whipping up aggression against male foreigners teaching English, I think the females have it much harder.
Could you give us a bit more detail of what happened to you without giving your identity away? That was shocking but I'm not surprised as I stayed in a city south of Seoul last year for a holiday, got to know a nice female foreign teacher (friendship only!) over coffee in a cafe we both went to regularly.
She's a warmhearted person who made the mistake of helping (including financially) an unstable younger Korean co-worker. Those who honestly understand the way Koreans prioritise each other under nearly every circumstance will realise that there was no loyalty to her because she wasn't Korean.
Bottom line was when the co-worker decided being Korean was more important than being loyal to the foreigner who helped her when fellow Koreans didn't care less about her, she treated her like garbage. This was done publicly at work. No apologies, no thank you for the money, the support, the listening to the Korean co-worker's family problems.
Nasty freeloaders exist everywhere but in Korea it's coloured by Koreans bonding together and justifying it. Korean co-workers who speak good English and have lived abroad often are just as bad. That particular Korean sounds a real piece of work, an example of why native speaking English teachers need to keep their distance from Korean co workers. Let them do you favours, after all you are the guest here. |
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