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itiswhatitis
Joined: 08 Aug 2011
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 Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:36 am Post subject: China or Korea??? |
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I have taught in Korea for 5 years and am thinking on making the move to China.
I'm enjoying Korean language study but I am starting to realize how long it will take to have proper working knowledge. Mandarin is a billion times more useful and I have made up my mind to become fluent in an Asian language.
I want to teach in either Beijing ot Shanghai.
I wonder:
1) Is getting magazines delivered from overseas a problem in China? Does the government restrict them? (I subscribe to The Economist, Men's Health, National Geographic (french edition) and Monde Diplomatique (french edition).
2) Is there usually going to be an OK gym nearby? All I need is a treadmill, bench press and a squat rack and some basic weigts.
3) Can you order from amazon?
4) Can you order from Iherb?
5) Is facebook and some e-mail (like gmail/hotmail) blocked?
Thanks!!! |
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lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 4:58 am Post subject: |
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Another one? lol
| itiswhatitis wrote: |
I wonder:
1) Is getting magazines delivered from overseas a problem in China? Does the government restrict them? (I subscribe to The Economist, Men's Health, National Geographic (french edition) and Monde Diplomatique (french edition).
2) Is there usually going to be an OK gym nearby? All I need is a treadmill, bench press and a squat rack and some basic weigts.
3) Can you order from amazon?
4) Can you order from Iherb?
5) Is facebook and some e-mail (like gmail/hotmail) blocked?
Thanks!!! |
1-No. If you are really worried have them mailed to a family house and just forwarded on with other junk people are sending from home.
Individual packages are rarely (if ever) checked.
2-There are many. Quite cheap, too. Some for as low as 300rmb/year. That's about 50 bucks.
3-Yes. There's even an Amazon.cn page.
4-Yes. Although depending what you want Chinese supermarkets are significantly more stocked with western type cooking materials than Korean supermarkets. You may find everything you need available locally. Certainly if not there's not really any huge need to order from outside the country. Just go via a site like taobao....get a Chinese friend or co-worker to help you.
5-Email generally isn't blocked. Some people occasionally cite having issues accessing gmail when there's a crackdown on google in process, but in general no huge issues. Facebook *is* blocked, but a simple free VPN will get you past that. When you arrive ask a foreign co-worker. They all are using them and they can just upload the VPN file to a USB or something for you to install. After that it's a non issue. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| lemak wrote: |
Another one? lol
| itiswhatitis wrote: |
I wonder:
1) Is getting magazines delivered from overseas a problem in China? Does the government restrict them? (I subscribe to The Economist, Men's Health, National Geographic (french edition) and Monde Diplomatique (french edition).
2) Is there usually going to be an OK gym nearby? All I need is a treadmill, bench press and a squat rack and some basic weigts.
3) Can you order from amazon?
4) Can you order from Iherb?
5) Is facebook and some e-mail (like gmail/hotmail) blocked?
Thanks!!! |
1-No. If you are really worried have them mailed to a family house and just forwarded on with other junk people are sending from home.
Individual packages are rarely (if ever) checked.
2-There are many. Quite cheap, too. Some for as low as 300rmb/year. That's about 50 bucks.
3-Yes. There's even an Amazon.cn page.
4-Yes. Although depending what you want Chinese supermarkets are significantly more stocked with western type cooking materials than Korean supermarkets. You may find everything you need available locally. Certainly if not there's not really any huge need to order from outside the country. Just go via a site like taobao....get a Chinese friend or co-worker to help you.
5-Email generally isn't blocked. Some people occasionally cite having issues accessing gmail when there's a crackdown on google in process, but in general no huge issues. Facebook *is* blocked, but a simple free VPN will get you past that. When you arrive ask a foreign co-worker. They all are using them and they can just upload the VPN file to a USB or something for you to install. After that it's a non issue. |
2. Just curious. How are they? I find most of the Korean ones to be quite lame. Same in China or bigger and more stocked. IE More cardio machines, more than one set of free weights, use of air con in summer, etc... |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:22 pm Post subject: Re: China or Korea??? |
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| itiswhatitis wrote: |
I have taught in Korea for 5 years and am thinking on making the move to China.
I'm enjoying Korean language study but I am starting to realize how long it will take to have proper working knowledge. Mandarin is a billion times more useful and I have made up my mind to become fluent in an Asian language. |
On the actual usefulness of Korean vs. Mandarin (and about a dozen others) there are quite a few good charts here:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29702&PN=0&TPN=1
Korean ends up being about as useful as Portuguese, which is about right. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Korean ends up being about as useful as Portuguese, which is about right. |
Really? you're talking about Brazil, the world's fifth largest country and sixth biggest economy plus Portugal itself and several other ex colonies. Plus knowledge of Portuguese would make it a lot easier to read Spanish. Plus Portugal and Brazil are actually pretty interesting places to go to on holiday. Sounds like a dodgy survey to me. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Quote: |
Korean ends up being about as useful as Portuguese, which is about right. |
Really? you're talking about Brazil, the world's fifth largest country and sixth biggest economy plus Portugal itself and several other ex colonies. Plus knowledge of Portuguese would make it a lot easier to read Spanish. Plus Portugal and Brazil are actually pretty interesting places to go to on holiday. Sounds like a dodgy survey to me. |
Portuguese (not taking into effect the partial mutual intelligibility with Spanish) is a bit more useful than Korean, while it should be way more useful considering the points you mentioned. There still needs to be a lot more improvement in ease of doing business, safety, corruption, etc. in every Portuguese-speaking country with the exception of Portugal and Macau. Portuguese is my favourite Romance language and very underrated compared to its usefulness (kind of the opposite of Italian, less useful and overrated) so I do wish it the best. |
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mike in brasil
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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Both languages have their merits.
AFAIC, Portuguese speakers are just more fun to be around. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:55 am Post subject: |
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Portugese can be learned in about one fourth the amount of time it takes to learn Korean, which is worth considering.
But both languages are cool and can be uber life changingly useful I think. |
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PRagic
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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Man, how the world has changed. When I moved overseas over 20 years ago, people actually had to mainstream it pretty quickly if they wanted to have a shot at sticking it out. Now people ask whether or not they can order off of Amazon? Find a gym? Get international publications? What ever happened to a sense of adventure and the challenge of immersing oneself in a foreign culture. Guess not any more.
Times change, I know, so whatever floats your boat.... |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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Just checked exchange rates today. 12,000 Remimbi $1959.00 (CDN) and 2,000,000 Won is $1795.00 (CDN). Don't know how much cheaper the cost of living is in Shanghai or Beijing compared to Korea. I've got good raises through regional EPIK. I'm in a decent situation, though it could be better. But if I were left scrambling for a new job, would I take a big pay cut and go to 2.0 or 2.1 million job or do a 12 K remimbi with overtime possible? I know which one I'd choose.
You can go where you want, but Korean vets aren't saying go to China to avoid competition. The numbers are there backing this up. I make much more than these paltry amounts, enough to keep me here. Otherwise, I'd be gone. I'd love to live in Seoul but would hate to take the paycut even. (On a side note, I know GEPIK's payscale sucks, but what about SMOE nowadays? Just curious.) |
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mayorhaggar
Joined: 01 Jan 2013
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| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, Korean is useful in Korea...I think it depends on where you want to be long-term. If you want to spend your future in China then go for it. If you like Korea then keep learning Korean. If you want to bounce around that's cool. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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Where is creeper1? I thought making a thread with this title would be like saying his name three times and having him appear like Beetlejuice.
| creeper1 wrote: |
The air pollution is awful. Absolutely awful.
But that is just part of the poisonous environment.
The water is also very polluted including bottled water.
The food is poisonous. The food is really unhealthy.
Don't even come near China. |
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ifa79
Joined: 29 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:54 am Post subject: |
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Chinese may not be more useful than Korean. Chinese is much harder to learn than Korean and takes more time to learn. It is a full time pursuit so you must make a cost-benefit analysis in terms of time and energy.
Chinese people don't expect you to know Chinese and are never offended if you have a limited grasp of the language. I find this different than when I lived in Korea and felt expected to know decent Korean. The Chinese aren't as insecure about their culture.
Korean is useful because they are gaining a stronger global influence and most Koreans can't communicate in English. Knowing Korean can help gain inroads into Korean companies while know Chinese may not be necessary. Middle-class Chinese people seem to be learning English better than Koreans.
There are many dialects of Chinese so your listening skills will be tested as the average Chinese won't think to talk to you in Putonghua (Mandarin). They will understand your Putonghua as it is standard.
Also, Gmail and all google sites are getting more and more blocked. But VPNs will fix everything. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 6:02 am Post subject: |
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| ifa79 wrote: |
| Chinese may not be more useful than Korean. Chinese is much harder to learn than Korean and takes more time to learn. It is a full time pursuit so you must make a cost-benefit analysis in terms of time and energy. |
So false.
| Quote: |
| The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the U.S. Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages for their professional staff (native English speakers who generally already know other languages). Of the 63 languages analyzed, the five most difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking and reading, requiring 88 weeks (2200 class hours), are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. The National Virtual Translation Center notes that Japanese is typically more difficult to learn than other languages in this group,[87] while the Foreign Service Institute makes this statement about Korean.[88] |
Korean takes a long time to learn. It is at least at difficult as Chinese (though a lot less useful).
| ifa79 wrote: |
| Korean is useful because they are gaining a stronger global influence and most Koreans can't communicate in English. Knowing Korean can help gain inroads into Korean companies while know Chinese may not be necessary. |
The Chinese economy is growing at a faster rate than the Korean economy.
There are loads of Korean Americans who are bilingual (way more than Chinese Americans, especially as percentage of their respective countries' populations).
Also, Korea spends more per captia on English as a foreign language education than any other country. Koreans are getting better and better at English fast. (Also, with the low birthrate, the population is declining.)
Supply and demand friend.
| Quote: |
| If you decide to take up Korean, you should have a love for Korea and all things Korean. Then the language will bring its own reward by providing a unique window into this fascinating culture. But if you want to learn it for monetary reasons, Chinese is probably a better investment. |
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/korean/index.html |
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