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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:09 am Post subject: |
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| Underwaterbob wrote: |
You know what non-Koreans in small Korean cities do? They say hello to you when you come across them in the street. Seoul long ago hit the point where you're just another face to be ignored unless I know you.
All this "life is hell in Korea outside of Seoul" nonsense comes from antisocial people who just don't know how to have fun. |
It depends on the cliques and the area. There are some smaller towns with groups that exclude others not from their country, race or gender. Males aren't usually too bad about this but some can be.
On the other hand, female South Africans, for example, can be exclusionary about including others in their group, especially based on race or age. For all of the complaining they do about the divisions in their home country you'd think they wouldn't bring those divisions with them but they do.
Being close to Seoul does give you more options but you do need to take advantage of them. No matter where you live you need to get out and make things happen. |
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| Find a gf/bf asap. It will make all of the difference in the world. |
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ibanezhomie
Joined: 07 Jun 2012
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| Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 6:27 am Post subject: Re: Living in a small town (is it fun?) |
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I live in Jinju and I don't think you have much to worry about as long as you don't find it too difficult to interact with new people. Any decent-sized city in Korea should have a Facebook page which will help out your social life immensely.
It will be easy for you to meet other foreigners if you make a decent effort and most Koreans find it exciting to meet a foreigner, so you should have no problems there. Just be wary of Koreans who are only interested in using you as a tool to improve their English (unless you don't mind that).
Unless you speak Korean well (which I assume you don't), dating will be more difficult here than back home, but it's not impossible. Dating foreigners is certainly an option but if you're dead-set on meeting a Korean guy/girl you will have to put in a little more effort and you'll probably have to meet them through your Korean friends or through a language exchange. Just be aware of the cultural differences and don't assume that someone likes you because Koreans tend to show their interest in different ways than westerners.
Overall, I don't think a mid-sized city is a bad place to start and you might enjoy it if you don't mind putting yourself out there in order to meet new people. Worst case scenario: you don't like it, tell your boss to find a replacement, tough it out for a month or two and go back home. |
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Janny
Joined: 02 Jul 2008
Location: all over the place
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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first of all, don't listen to janny. what a jaded person. she constantly posts about how awful life was here for her even after moving to china. she apparently had a lot of problems but it sounds like many of them probably stemmed from her negative attitude. plus from her complaining about the clothes and the staring i'd guess she might have been one of the larger unattractive gals that often come here.
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Why get so personal? I was giving my opinion based on my experiences in Korea. Isn't that what this forum is for?
And I don't "constantly post". Maybe you notice my infrequent posts more because I go into details fearlessly about my years in Seoul and my new life in Shanghai. You don't agree with my take, so you tell people to not listen to me.
Beauty school dropout, go back to high school. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:25 pm Post subject: Re: Living in a small town (is it fun?) |
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| ibanezhomie wrote: |
| Just be wary of Koreans who are only interested in using you as a tool to improve their English (unless you don't mind that) |
If they can get free talking for free they will never again pay 50,000 won an hour for private lessons. That's why I refuse to speak to annoying men pestering me on the subway to get in some English practice. If I were to acquiesce I'd be cheapening the value of the English language. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:44 pm Post subject: Re: Living in a small town (is it fun?) |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| ibanezhomie wrote: |
| Just be wary of Koreans who are only interested in using you as a tool to improve their English (unless you don't mind that) |
If they can get free talking for free they will never again pay 50,000 won an hour for private lessons. That's why I refuse to speak to annoying men pestering me on the subway to get in some English practice. If I were to acquiesce I'd be cheapening the value of the English language. |
Yep, whatever you do dont talk to Koreans unless they pay you. Leeches, all of them. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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I used to keep myself in awkward and uncomfortable situations because I thought I was a "guest in this country" and "ambassador from the West". I changed my mindset over time though. I'm not going to allow someone to take advantage of me, especially when the end result is it drives down the going rate for privates (which have been falling for a long time now). Should a go up to a Mexican person in America and demand they speak Spanish with me slowly because they are a "guest in the country"? Can I say the same to Koreans with a green card? Maybe if I see a foreign doctor walking down the street, I should demand he do medical diagnoses on me for free because he is a "guest in my country". Maybe I can corner a Korean immigrant on the bus or subway and continue talking to them mangled barely comprehensible Korean even though they look uncomfortable and are trying to get away.
C'mon apologistman schwa. I never said all Koreans are leeches. I just said talking to them in English drives down the going rate for privates (which it does). I am under no obligation to converse with them at length. I'm not going to (do something unpleasant and) work for free. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Maybe I can corner a Korean immigrant on the bus or subway and continue talking to them mangled barely comprehensible Korean even though they look uncomfortable and are trying to get away. |
hahaha
I know a guy that moved back to Canada and does exactly that. He's horrible in Korean, yet he thinks they love it. lol |
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El Bandito
Joined: 07 Oct 2013
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
| World Traveler wrote: |
| Maybe I can corner a Korean immigrant on the bus or subway and continue talking to them mangled barely comprehensible Korean even though they look uncomfortable and are trying to get away. |
hahaha
I know a guy that moved back to Canada and does exactly that. He's horrible in Korean, yet he thinks they love it. lol |
A friend of mine does/did that here. He thought he spoke Korean really well and when he would say something, people would look at me and I would have to translate his Korean to my Korean. |
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skookum
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| I lived in a city of around 40,000 people. Not bad - of course I came with someone - woulda been very different otherwise. It was close to the mountains - I could get on the trail in 15 minutes walking from my door. People were reasonably friendly - except the foreigners - none of them seemed to want to get together. There were only 3or 4 others all together. But I enjoyed being there - course I like Korean food and people. |
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wishfullthinkng
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Janny wrote: |
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first of all, don't listen to janny. what a jaded person. she constantly posts about how awful life was here for her even after moving to china. she apparently had a lot of problems but it sounds like many of them probably stemmed from her negative attitude. plus from her complaining about the clothes and the staring i'd guess she might have been one of the larger unattractive gals that often come here.
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Why get so personal? I was giving my opinion based on my experiences in Korea. Isn't that what this forum is for?
And I don't "constantly post". Maybe you notice my infrequent posts more because I go into details fearlessly about my years in Seoul and my new life in Shanghai. You don't agree with my take, so you tell people to not listen to me.
Beauty school dropout, go back to high school. |
personal? lol. don't kid yourself. i don't care about you and never will. i was just giving the op advice to not listen to you because you rant on and on about how you hated it here, most likely due to the reasons i already mentioned.
who knows what this forum is for? what it most likely isn't for is for someone who ran away to another country because they couldn't hack it in korea to scare away people who are interested in coming to the country.
clown school dropout, go back to high school.
that said, op i hope you make a good decision and there are many on the boards who actually were able to enjoy their time here that would be willing to give you positive constructive advice. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| . I just said talking to them in English drives down the going rate for privates (which it does). . |
So you talk to someone once...and then that person who may have been paying for a private stops and so do the majority of people who are doing this?
Wow, I had no idea you were such a brilliant teacher that ONE five minute conversation with a person one time drives down the going rate for privates everywhere. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Rarity increases value. Diamonds are expensive because they are rare. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| skookum wrote: |
| I lived in a city of around 40,000 people. Not bad - of course I came with someone - woulda been very different otherwise. It was close to the mountains - I could get on the trail in 15 minutes walking from my door. People were reasonably friendly - except the foreigners - none of them seemed to want to get together. There were only 3or 4 others all together. But I enjoyed being there - course I like Korean food and people. |
Small town Koreans do like you better if you bring someone. If you came here alone and had a Korean partner, I bet you'd see those reactions change.  |
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wishfullthinkng
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Rarity increases value. Diamonds are expensive because they are rare. |
not to derail the thread but diamonds are hardly rare. they are made to be in limited supply however by the diamond cartels controlling their rates of release. in fact diamonds can be artificially created at will these days using modern production methods.
if you really want rare check out minerals like bentonite or painite. |
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