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I'm With You
Joined: 01 Sep 2011
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 Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 2:21 am Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| I'm With You wrote: |
| I found it really hard to adjust to life back home... |
Dude, all day I'm trying to adjust to the fact that I'm supposed to talk all the time (in the elevator to strangers, to the clerk in the grocery, in the office meeting, to random people in the hall at the office). |
Yes, that's one of the problems I had, too. For instance, at the supermarket back home, moving through the check out counter, and the woman working the till comments on items I'm purchasing - "Oh, these are so delicious!" I don't know what to say. That meaningless chit-chat is irritating as hell. Here, we can buy our condoms and KY jelly with our bread and milk and not have to worry about the clerk commenting on it.
The car culture that it is back home was too much for me also.
I'm a university EFL teacher. I work 10 - 12 hours a week 7 or 8 months a year. I came back and realized how much free time I had to read books I enjoy and do things that interest me. That was impossible back home working a 40 hour + work week.
For me, the following seems to be true: The longer you stay, the harder it is to go back. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 7:11 am Post subject: |
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| I'm With You wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
To the OP, don't be surprised if you want to come back. Many who returned home did come back to Korea or wish to.
Nothing wrong with coming back, though. |
I'm one who returned and came back. It was more difficult to return home than I had imagined it would be. Overall, a difficult transition after being away for so many years, which long-terms here shouldn't underestimate. I found it really hard to adjust to life back home and also didn't want to own and drive a car. |
We (korean wife and our 2 kids and I) moved to Canada (back to Canada for me) in 2008ish after I had been in Korea for 11 years. It was a tough adjustment and we made the transition successfully because we had planned for it and moved into a favorable situation (job, paid for property) and so on. It was still a rough ride for the first year or so.
The main reason I see for failing to successfully re-settle back home is people doing so without a clear plan or goal and then quickly burning through whatever savings they piled up while in Korea (or somewhere else abroad). Add to that that so many people fail to upgrade their qualifications and often they comeback home with nothing tangible to rely on, out of date qualifications and experience that may not be relevant to the job they want. That makes for a very difficult time. |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| I'm With You wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
To the OP, don't be surprised if you want to come back. Many who returned home did come back to Korea or wish to.
Nothing wrong with coming back, though. |
I'm one who returned and came back. It was more difficult to return home than I had imagined it would be. Overall, a difficult transition after being away for so many years, which long-terms here shouldn't underestimate. I found it really hard to adjust to life back home and also didn't want to own and drive a car. |
We (korean wife and our 2 kids and I) moved to Canada (back to Canada for me) in 2008ish after I had been in Korea for 11 years. It was a tough adjustment and we made the transition successfully because we had planned for it and moved into a favorable situation (job, paid for property) and so on. It was still a rough ride for the first year or so.
The main reason I see for failing to successfully re-settle back home is people doing so without a clear plan or goal and then quickly burning through whatever savings they piled up while in Korea (or somewhere else abroad). Add to that that so many people fail to upgrade their qualifications and often they comeback home with nothing tangible to rely on, out of date qualifications and experience that may not be relevant to the job they want. That makes for a very difficult time. |
Just out of curiosity -- which part of Canada did you move to? |
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toby99
Joined: 28 Aug 2009
Location: Dong-Incheon-by-the-sea, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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I'd be curious to know too^. I'd imagine an area with a large immigrant community, particularly Korean, would ease the burden somewhat. If it's rural, tobaccy-chewin', Milwaukee's Best drinkin' hilbilly country, well, things would likely be considerably different.
There are other factors too: sophistication of the immigrant spouse, education level, language ability, skill set(s), humor, and so forth. If you get the right stew of ingredients, it's easy to see how things can completely blow up in your face. |
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Who's Your Daddy?
Joined: 30 May 2010
Location: Victoria, Canada.
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| Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Speaking for Canada, we'll move back to southern BC - which is luckily my home province. I think my wife would have trouble with Canadian winters in the rest of the country. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 4:12 am Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| I'm With You wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
To the OP, don't be surprised if you want to come back. Many who returned home did come back to Korea or wish to.
Nothing wrong with coming back, though. |
I'm one who returned and came back. It was more difficult to return home than I had imagined it would be. Overall, a difficult transition after being away for so many years, which long-terms here shouldn't underestimate. I found it really hard to adjust to life back home and also didn't want to own and drive a car. |
We (korean wife and our 2 kids and I) moved to Canada (back to Canada for me) in 2008ish after I had been in Korea for 11 years. It was a tough adjustment and we made the transition successfully because we had planned for it and moved into a favorable situation (job, paid for property) and so on. It was still a rough ride for the first year or so.
The main reason I see for failing to successfully re-settle back home is people doing so without a clear plan or goal and then quickly burning through whatever savings they piled up while in Korea (or somewhere else abroad). Add to that that so many people fail to upgrade their qualifications and often they comeback home with nothing tangible to rely on, out of date qualifications and experience that may not be relevant to the job they want. That makes for a very difficult time. |
Just out of curiosity -- which part of Canada did you move to? |
Ontario. |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 9:07 am Post subject: |
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| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| I'm With You wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
To the OP, don't be surprised if you want to come back. Many who returned home did come back to Korea or wish to.
Nothing wrong with coming back, though. |
I'm one who returned and came back. It was more difficult to return home than I had imagined it would be. Overall, a difficult transition after being away for so many years, which long-terms here shouldn't underestimate. I found it really hard to adjust to life back home and also didn't want to own and drive a car. |
We (korean wife and our 2 kids and I) moved to Canada (back to Canada for me) in 2008ish after I had been in Korea for 11 years. It was a tough adjustment and we made the transition successfully because we had planned for it and moved into a favorable situation (job, paid for property) and so on. It was still a rough ride for the first year or so.
The main reason I see for failing to successfully re-settle back home is people doing so without a clear plan or goal and then quickly burning through whatever savings they piled up while in Korea (or somewhere else abroad). Add to that that so many people fail to upgrade their qualifications and often they comeback home with nothing tangible to rely on, out of date qualifications and experience that may not be relevant to the job they want. That makes for a very difficult time. |
Just out of curiosity -- which part of Canada did you move to? |
Ontario. |
That's interesting. I'm from Ottawa and I have to say the job prospects for teacher (especially ESL teachers) are extremely grim... After my stint in Korea and HK, I want to return to either Ottawa or Montreal but it's a bit depressing looking at the job market for teachers.
Any advice? |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 9:15 am Post subject: |
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You'll need to broaden your horizons.
If you want to stay teaching, you will need to do something besides ESL.
(in Canada anyway)
You may decide that getting out of teaching altogether is for you. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| I'm With You wrote: |
| Yaya wrote: |
To the OP, don't be surprised if you want to come back. Many who returned home did come back to Korea or wish to.
Nothing wrong with coming back, though. |
I'm one who returned and came back. It was more difficult to return home than I had imagined it would be. Overall, a difficult transition after being away for so many years, which long-terms here shouldn't underestimate. I found it really hard to adjust to life back home and also didn't want to own and drive a car. |
We (korean wife and our 2 kids and I) moved to Canada (back to Canada for me) in 2008ish after I had been in Korea for 11 years. It was a tough adjustment and we made the transition successfully because we had planned for it and moved into a favorable situation (job, paid for property) and so on. It was still a rough ride for the first year or so.
The main reason I see for failing to successfully re-settle back home is people doing so without a clear plan or goal and then quickly burning through whatever savings they piled up while in Korea (or somewhere else abroad). Add to that that so many people fail to upgrade their qualifications and often they comeback home with nothing tangible to rely on, out of date qualifications and experience that may not be relevant to the job they want. That makes for a very difficult time. |
Just out of curiosity -- which part of Canada did you move to? |
Ontario. |
That's interesting. I'm from Ottawa and I have to say the job prospects for teacher (especially ESL teachers) are extremely grim... After my stint in Korea and HK, I want to return to either Ottawa or Montreal but it's a bit depressing looking at the job market for teachers.
Any advice? |
It depends!
(sorry this may be a long read)
It depends on your qualifications and experience and aim.
IF you are certified to teach in Ontario, have referenced experience and want to teach elementary school as a male teacher, your odds may be decent outside of the larger cities. However, the market for teachers is still slow and demanding right now.
If you have a BA in basket weaving, un referenced experience then you will have a very hard time finding a teaching job outside of private language school where the pay can be pretty low.
If you can speak french AND you have the package I mentionned initially, then you can find work a lot easier with the french school board.
You may have to upgrade your qualifications (if you have not done so already).
If you are willing to look outside of teaching, and have acquire an asian language proficiency (a decent level) then you can look to the private sector.
If you are qualified (cert) and experienced, you can put yourself on the supply list. You will get to sub classes for absent teachers and after a while may be bumped up on the availability list. Note that schoolboards and schools run most of their recruiting drives (if any) in the late summer so you would have to be there to attend any interviews.
At any rate, it is very hard for me to answer your questions or provide useful advice without more information, sorry. If you want to ask more questions and perhaps provide a bit more info, feel free to pm me.
As for me, you should know I no longer teach. I moved from that field in 2008 after accepting a job offer for the public sector. Initially that job was supposed to be in Seoul but due to personnal and unforseen circumstances (an accident) I had to postbone that job and that led to another offer but in Ottawa. I have since worked in asia-related affairs for the public sector.
I had also started a reasonably successful consulting agency in Korea and I still manage it now. It has nothing to do with ESL however. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 10:40 am Post subject: |
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One other thing I'm noticing back home; waaaay excess safetly/security!
This morning the hotel smoke detector goes off while cooking breakfast. Just a little smoke from my steak and eggs, jezus. It's of course loud as hell, because this is Amerika. I try to turn it off but there is no way, and they have fixed it so you can't remove the batteries. You can't open the windows either because they have them rigged with saftey mechanisms so they can't be opened more than 1". You can't prop the door open because they have fixed that will a weighted mechanism. The front desk tells me they can't shut it off either, for safety reasons. It's all over fear of being sued.
So it blasts for 40min waking up everyone on the floor, nice. |
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augustine
Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Location: México
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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^Wait, you were cooking in a hotel room? Do you carry around your own cooking equipment? And it took the hotel 40 minutes to turn off a smoke alarm? Really? Isn't there a poster here who suspects this is really zackback? Hm.  |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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| newb wrote: |
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| Many of us will not be flipping burgers back home. |
Not me. I'll have several of you flipping burgers for me.  |
ESL teachers please, please go back to happier job hunting pastures, please hurry up and go back to the improving conditions in your home countries.  |
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Who's Your Daddy?
Joined: 30 May 2010
Location: Victoria, Canada.
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| Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 3:55 am Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
One other thing I'm noticing back home; waaaay excess safetly/security!
This morning the hotel smoke detector goes off while cooking breakfast.
So it blasts for 40min waking up everyone on the floor, nice. |
A little tape over the sensor should fix it:)
The one that gets me is booster seat requirements for a child up until they are 4'9". |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 7:36 am Post subject: |
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| augustine wrote: |
| ^Wait, you were cooking in a hotel room? Do you carry around your own cooking equipment? And it took the hotel 40 minutes to turn off a smoke alarm? Really? |
Yes and no, I always require the company to set me up in a hotel with a kitchen because I won't eat American food, and that kitchen is fully stocked with equipment.
Yes, the fact that it took 40 minutes to turn off a freakin' smoke detector was the topic of the post. The topic was over-security, which is an Amerikanism. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 7:47 am Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| augustine wrote: |
| ^Wait, you were cooking in a hotel room? Do you carry around your own cooking equipment? And it took the hotel 40 minutes to turn off a smoke alarm? Really? |
Yes and no, I always require the company to set me up in a hotel with a kitchen because I won't eat American food, and that kitchen is fully stocked with equipment.
Yes, the fact that it took 40 minutes to turn off a freakin' smoke detector was the topic of the post. The topic was over-security, which is an Amerikanism. |
You said you were cooking steak and eggs. That's an American breakfast.
Your story is setting off all kind of BS detectors. |
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