Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I'm With You]

I had to return tot he U.S. recently and, although it was only for a week, I just hated it. I think if I were to go back permanently, I'd need some sort of counselling or something to be re-socialized. I absolutely hate it.

I know of one Canadian friend and colleague who has mentioned having similar feelings when he has returned home for short periods - everyone walking around with Vancouver Canucks T-shirts on and holding Tim Horton's coffee cups and talking like Canadians do and the inane chit-chat at the check-out in the supermarkets, etc.

I'm just curious if others have the same feelings when they go back home. I'm hoping this will be my last trip. I do not like it at all - the TV, the Walmart culture, the obesity, twenty-dumbthings with their tattoos, the MMA culture, the news, the attitudes of people, the guns, the car culture, giant pick up trucks, etc., etc.

I just despise everything about it.

[yodanole]

All those things that you listed and many more sometimes make "back in the world" seem like an episode of the "Walking Dead", or worse. It's nice to visit for very short periods of time very infrequently. Aside from any familial obligations, free time is better spent finding new places to complain about.

[World Traveler]

Maybe you were hanging out with the wrong people. There are good and bad people everywhere (just as there are smart and dumb people everywhere...and just as there are slender and obese people everywhere) yet places have drastically different percentages depending on geographic location. Where in the U.S. were you? (I'm guessing it wasn't San Francisco or New York City.)

[Seoulman69]

I enjoy going back because I don't have to put up with the inanity of a job and routine. I wake up when I like and usually have a couple of ales. My dad's retired so I piss about with him or nip down to my grans for a bacon, tattie scone, and tomato sauce roll. It takes like heaven.
Basically I just sit around doing *beep* all. I meet the lads and have a night out, but we're all getting a bit old for anything too mental. Everyone avoided a drug habit, which is a result where I'm from. Some of them have kids, some got married.
I get paid over the vacation months, (i'm really lucky), so that's a result. It's nice to come back to Korea though. After a while back home starts doing my head in.

[joelove]

Oh, I've been back in Canada for over a year now, after some time in China. I was in Montreal for a while, and I liked it enough, but there were personal problems as my brother there came down with a lifelong condition. It was heartbreaking. I had some problems there too. Then I came back to my small hometown in Newfoundland. I've had a bit of culture shock. It is my first visit back in nearly 16 years, to my hometown that is. We're all just older. It's not a very interesting place at all, but to me it still holds some fascination in a strange way. I got to spend a long time in Asia. This has shaped my outlook more than I knew. Everything is guided by culture, and all the houses and lawns are the same. It's quite strange. If you make OK money you can have a nice life. It's just different as a middle aged man. The ideas of success or not being a loser mean nothing to me, almost. I've seen young people perish, family die and suffer young. I've been darkened. Most days are boring but really everything is simple enough. I got some crappy job now that is no envy of anybody. I'm not complaining. Really, there has just been too much pain for me to even bother. Now if I can I might get a go into another country, or maybe just visit St John's. That's a nice town.

[byrddogs]

I definitely don't hate going back home. I don't do it often enough if anything. I'd even considered a 5 year plan to go back recently, but truth be told my wife and I are probably better off staying where we are. We will just take more and longer trips back instead.

[12ax7]

Wait and see. I used to say the same thing. Over time, I've come to change opinion. I'm sick and tired of the noise and the smog. I also hate how a trip to the grocery store is more stressful than necessary: the sheer number of shoppers, the resulting noise, and the lack of variety (an aisle of ramen and another for dried fish...Need I say more?). I'm also tired of the glass ceiling at work, how experience and additional qualifications are only rewarded with a new title, but never with a considerable raise, other than our yearly 3%.

But, what's sealed the deal for us is how our kids is so much happier when we're visiting Canada. He's not considered a foreigner there despite the fact he's got citizenship. He's just another kid.

We've begun undertaking the process of moving to Canada. We're doing it the smart way, we're not rushing into it. Our plan is to have a combined income equal or greater to the one we have now after we move. I've already had job offers and my wife is working on getting her professional certification in Canada.

[Zyzyfer]

Mainly just hate the cost and length of the flight to my hometown. Cost of ticket, car rental that is practically a necessity, nights out with the lads, it ends up costing a fair bit.

As far as getting annoyed by people, one friend tends to drag me out with him to cast parties or other drinking sessions among his theater friends, it tends to be a very large group and my bud has to balance his time between me and everyone else, so it intensifies the awkwardness since I no longer know most of the faces in that crowd.

It's kind of nice to be on vacation but not have the stress of being somewhere new to deal with.

[Drew345]

Nice post...
When my family asks what I like so much about Korea I never know what to say and usually just pick some random thing. Once I said "you don't have to do that inane chit-chat at the check out counter". Never thought I hear any one else mention that, thanks.
The amount of garbage created is also a turn-off. And I just went back this summer and the tipping thing has gotten totally out of control. It seems like a country of beggars now (America).

[Threequalseven]

[cj1976]

I don't hate it but I am quickly reminded why I left. It is okay for a week or two but I am glad when it is time to leave again.

[young_clinton]

When I first saw the title on this thread, I thought the appropriate responses were going to be more like, the missions because you can't afford to get an apartment, the temp agencies that used to contact you after a couple of weeks and now don't bother calling at all, and finally the taxi companies that say you have to be a resident and get a driver's license. Ah but then there may be a few returning teachers that do the "over the road trucking employment method" after signing an agreement to pay back the training. A lucky few will have the money and incentive to go to a college and learn computer science or something where there probably are jobs available.

[World Traveler]

Are you guys kidding me? I had a blast the last time I was in America (and I was there for a year). Things that ruled: seeing old friends (some of whom were hot babes) then hanging out and developing a deeper friendship daily over a j or three. Things that happened on a daily basis in the U.S. that never happen to me in Korea- socializing with the most beautiful, most glamorous women of the city. Going to afterparties with them then back to one of their apartments to burn green. Never once in Korea was I with a group of women and then one said hey let's all go to my house to drink more wine and smoke more weed.

(The reason I came back to Korea: I was a "loser back home"- economically, not socially)

[optik404]

Love going back home. Usually go months at a time. Driving, food, Chipotle, supermarkets, friends, moms home cooking.

[NohopeSeriously]

I might move to Tajikistan as a church worker in 5-7 years. This means that going back to Canada is a moot point for me.