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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Smithington wrote: |
| OP, age is a factor here but is only one. I know teachers in Korea who are older than you. The trick is to request a school in a rural area. It's the best place to work in my opinion, but most Westerners here want to work in a city (for reasons I can't fathom). I currently work in a rural area, with lovely hills and clean air, and I can still get into Seoul in under an hour. The public transportation system here is excellent so it's not as if you'll be stranded in the boonies. As for grey hair, I'd probably color it for the photo (Koreans are obsessed with the superficiality of appearance). When I apply for a new job I color it (I've some grey also) then let it grow out once I start the job. |
Agreed, rural Korean is splendid. |
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jillmarie
Joined: 09 Feb 2014
Location: Seattle WA
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, wanthony, I can not only turn a cartwheel, but touch my toes and kick as high as my head, so maybe I have a chance. Thanks, everyone, for the feedback and encouraging words. I'd much rather work in the country than in a big city, so maybe that's the approach to take. I could even color my hair again, temporarily, although I just quit, have been getting lots of compliments, and don't miss messing with dyes. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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I live in Seoul for the work opportunities (and the wife's family is here and so she wants to be close to them) and I like it okay, but I wouldn't mind living in a rural area for a change. I've lived in cities basically all my life.
Maybe I'd go crazy in a month, I dunno, but I'd like to give it a try someday. Whether or not it would be for me, I can understand why some like it. Korea can be dingy and depressing at times or very beautiful at others - sometimes almost simultaneously (my experience).
Retirement plan: buy some land and be a poor farmer  |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Smithington wrote: |
| OP, age is a factor here but is only one. I know teachers in Korea who are older than you. The trick is to request a school in a rural area. It's the best place to work in my opinion, but most Westerners here want to work in a city (for reasons I can't fathom). I currently work in a rural area, with lovely hills and clean air, and I can still get into Seoul in under an hour. The public transportation system here is excellent so it's not as if you'll be stranded in the boonies. As for grey hair, I'd probably color it for the photo (Koreans are obsessed with the superficiality of appearance). When I apply for a new job I color it (I've some grey also) then let it grow out once I start the job. |
Agreed, rural Korean is splendid. |
It's beautiful, and the sad thing is most Westerners here never see it. During the spring, summer and fall the countryside is beautiful. The hills, rivers, rice patties, flowers and trees are really lovely. OP get a public school job in the countryside, buy a bicycle and enjoy the best part of Korea - nature. The hills are also great for hiking when it's not too hot.
And as I said, that's where you're likely to have the most success in your job search. You might also want to a word search on Dave's for "age discrimination" or "older teachers". I'm sure this isn't the first thread started on this topic. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Rockhard wrote: |
| Yeah, Korea is not a nanny state. They don't have the luxury of legacy wealth or natural resources, so they actually have to have competitive businesses to stay strong. That means they can't be weakening their economy with vote-buying strategies that give the weak and incompetent jobs. Stay in whatever Western country you are in because the system isn't going to get anymore skewed in your favour. |
What are you smoking? Will you share it? I need a good trip man!
Korea interferes way more in it's economy than Canada does. But Canada interferes in a good way (no racism, no sexism, no ageism, unfair dismisal, etc.) But what Canada doesn't do is tell private companies how to operate in the market place and constantly audit them. Korea and Asian countries in general are more of nanny states in the sense that there are so many rules everywhere you go. Though they only provide minimal social protections (small pension and some health care).
Canadian businesses are way more competitive, especially small and medium sized businesses. Difference is night and day. Ageism is also illegal, there. My boomer parents are still working in their 60's man. No mandatory retirement. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Rockhard wrote: |
| Yeah, Korea is not a nanny state. They don't have the luxury of legacy wealth or natural resources, so they actually have to have competitive businesses to stay strong. That means they can't be weakening their economy with vote-buying strategies that give the weak and incompetent jobs. Stay in whatever Western country you are in because the system isn't going to get anymore skewed in your favour. |
What are you smoking? Will you share it? I need a good trip man!
Korea interferes way more in it's economy than Canada does. But Canada interferes in a good way (no racism, no sexism, no ageism, unfair dismisal, etc.) But what Canada doesn't do is tell private companies how to operate in the market place and constantly audit them. Korea and Asian countries in general are more of nanny states in the sense that there are so many rules everywhere you go. Though they only provide minimal social protections (small pension and some health care).
Canadian businesses are way more competitive, especially small and medium sized businesses. Difference is night and day. Ageism is also illegal, there. My boomer parents are still working in their 60's man. No mandatory retirement. |
Canada's ranking - 2nd most friendly business climate in the world. Hardly a nanny state. (But that doesn't mean extreme social Darwinism has to be practiced either.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2014-01-21/best-countries-for-business-2014.html#slide1 |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
I live in Seoul for the work opportunities (and the wife's family is here and so she wants to be close to them) and I like it okay, but I wouldn't mind living in a rural area for a change. I've lived in cities basically all my life.
Maybe I'd go crazy in a month, I dunno, but I'd like to give it a try someday. Whether or not it would be for me, I can understand why some like it. Korea can be dingy and depressing at times or very beautiful at others - sometimes almost simultaneously (my experience).
Retirement plan: buy some land and be a poor farmer |
I agree. Long tiems of the year where it's cloudy and gloomy or sun shines, but sky isn't clear with a whitish color to it or has a mix of smog/fog in the air obscuring distances and mountains.
But, when you get some nice days with blue skies and clear air, it can be really beautiful here with the mountains in full view. From September 25th to mid or late October is the best time of year with the view of clear sunshine and golden rice fields ready for harvesting. You will get the odd nice day through Spring and Summer. (There are a couple of nice weeks in early May as an exception to this rule.) I would say Autumn and Winter have the highest amount of clear or clearer days. But, you won't get blue skies and puffy clouds as often as you will back in North America by any means. East Asia seems to be covered in this type of fog or smog or something.
That said, a rural area can have it's charms and be nice if you live in a really nice apartment or house. But, most of the housing out there is quite old and not always up to developed country standards. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| Retirement plan: buy some land and be a poor farmer |
You're doing it wrong, caniff. In Korea, the retiree doesn't buy land and farm it, he finds tiny patches of unused dirt scattered around the village and farms them. Seriously, there's all these little micro-gardens surrounding my place up here, cultivated by the old folks who live nearby. Outside the "Independent Living Center" (which I guess is a kind of senior center?) there was a patch of land maybe a few yards long and a few feet wide with a sign in it asking people not to farm it, and even threatening fines if anyone did. Not too long later, the sign had vanished and the dirt had been cultivated. |
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Lucas
Joined: 11 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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| there was a small patch of land with a sign in it asking people not to farm it, and even threatening fines if anyone did. Not too long later, the sign had vanished and the dirt had been cultivated |
That's how it should be!
I love growing my herbs on other peoples land.  |
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Rockhard
Joined: 11 Dec 2013
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| Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:16 am Post subject: |
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On the gender/racial makeup of Apple, Google, Oracle, Yahoo, Applied Materials, arguably the US's most innovative companies.
"By 2005, only about 2,200 of the 30,000 Silicon Valley-based workers at those 10 companies were black or Hispanic.
In addition, among the roughly 5,900 managers at those companies in 2005, about 300 were either black or Hispanic -- a 20 percent dip from five years earlier. Women slipped to 26 percent of managers in 2005, from 28 percent in 2000."
Moral: Successful companies don't follow quotas in hiring. They hire who they need care little if it upsets liberals.
"The 111th Congress, which took office in 2009, was the oldest in U.S. history, with an average age of 57 in the House and 63 in the Senate."
Congress, which is easily the most incompetent institution in the world, just happens to resemble a retirement home.
Am I wrong? |
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happiness
Joined: 04 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:12 am Post subject: |
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I know a guy who is 70, yes, 70 and hes working in a kindie owned by my friend. Why I dont know? Yes 70.
I knew a woman in her 60s but she was a licensed teacher, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Im 41 and I have gray hair, and when I was hired I was not in the best shape. Dont give up |
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happiness
Joined: 04 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:15 am Post subject: |
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I know a guy who is 70, yes, 70 and hes working in a kindie owned by my friend. Why I dont know? Yes 70.
I knew a woman in her 60s but she was a licensed teacher, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Im 41 and I have gray hair, and when I was hired I was not in the best shape. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 8:20 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| caniff wrote: |
| Retirement plan: buy some land and be a poor farmer |
You're doing it wrong, caniff. In Korea, the retiree doesn't buy land and farm it, he finds tiny patches of unused dirt scattered around the village and farms them. Seriously, there's all these little micro-gardens surrounding my place up here, cultivated by the old folks who live nearby. Outside the "Independent Living Center" (which I guess is a kind of senior center?) there was a patch of land maybe a few yards long and a few feet wide with a sign in it asking people not to farm it, and even threatening fines if anyone did. Not too long later, the sign had vanished and the dirt had been cultivated. |
Living next to Bukhansan (northern Seoul), I see the same thing all around the base of the mountains when I'm out hiking and airing myself out.
I could just imagine the fallout of getting into a turf war with the local adjumma/halmoni brigade if I ever tried to muscle in with some seeds. |
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