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Chaparrastique
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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 Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:50 am Post subject: |
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| LPKSA wrote: |
| I came into contact with a lot of fresh faces who were white, thinking that they would be respected because they were white, as if being white equals superiority. It's the classic case of colonialism which I didn't see in NES who weren't white. It wears off really fast when these 'colonialists' realize that the people whom they have come to work for, don't care about them or what they contribute to the societ. |
Westerners have a group-stereotype of Asia from too many Vietnam movies and returning Patpong holidaymakers.
The idea of being worshipped as a white god by dark-skinned natives has a long history in Asia (Philippe Gauguin has a lot to answer for) but it simply does not apply to Korea. |
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krnpowr
Joined: 08 Dec 2011
Location: Midwest, USA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:39 am Post subject: Re: Korea is the Worst! |
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| maitaidads wrote: |
I've lived in 16 different countries doing missionary and teaching work, and I must say that Korea is the worst Third World country to be in. Chad, Cameroon, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Georgia, Appalachia, Haiti, Cuba, and Bolivia were all much more pleasant to work/live in than Korea.
All the people were happier, all the food was better, and civil/worker rights were more advanced than Korea.
Don't fool yourself that banking $800 a month, going to the CGV, drinking and smoking on the cheap, and laying an average looking local is worth it. Korea is a disgusting society and living in it is destroying your moral fabric. Get out if you can and stop wasting your life in the world's gutter. Take a step back and examine your value to Koreans and how awful these people truly are. What a bunch of mindless, hive-minded toads. Yuck |
civil/worker rights in Liberia, Haiti? Do they even know what civil rights are? The food in Appalachia is better? You probably couldn't save $800/month in the rest of the places you listed combined, but yet you call Korea a third world country?
According to the UN, Korea has the 15th highest standard of living in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index . So if Korea is 3rd world, most of Europe is also 3rd world. |
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krnpowr
Joined: 08 Dec 2011
Location: Midwest, USA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:45 am Post subject: |
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| MedellinHeel wrote: |
Korea is a miserable country when you factor in the xenophobia, shallowness, and all the other poor qualities abound.
If it wasnt for the convenience, travel opportunities, and money I sure wouldnt be here. |
You must've fallen on real hard and desperate times financially if you're staying in Korea for the money despite how miserable you claim it is, because ESL teachers don't make that much money. But then again, considering how low-skilled most NETs in Korea are, the money they make in Korea typically is a lot more than what they would get at home with their dire prospects of finding meaningful employment back in their home countries. |
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Old Painless
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| krnpowr wrote: |
| MedellinHeel wrote: |
Korea is a miserable country when you factor in the xenophobia, shallowness, and all the other poor qualities abound.
If it wasnt for the convenience, travel opportunities, and money I sure wouldnt be here. |
You must've fallen on real hard and desperate times financially if you're staying in Korea for the money despite how miserable you claim it is, because ESL teachers don't make that much money. But then again, considering how low-skilled most NETs in Korea are, the money they make in Korea typically is a lot more than what they would get at home with their dire prospects of finding meaningful employment back in their home countries. |
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/009/855/35xyux.jpg |
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cmxc
Joined: 19 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 4:48 pm Post subject: It just doesn't matter |
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I hate on Korea a lot.
I've been thinking and I am going to change my outlook.
Am I getting paid here? Yes.
Am I getting laid here? Yes.
The rest just doesn't matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9mf3Bypyk8 |
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Old Painless
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject: Re: It just doesn't matter |
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| cmxc wrote: |
I hate on Korea a lot.
I've been thinking and I am going to change my outlook.
Am I getting paid here? Yes.
Am I getting laid here? Yes.
The rest just doesn't matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9mf3Bypyk8 |
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things
Ecclesiastes 10:19 |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| krnpowr wrote: |
| MedellinHeel wrote: |
Korea is a miserable country when you factor in the xenophobia, shallowness, and all the other poor qualities abound.
If it wasnt for the convenience, travel opportunities, and money I sure wouldnt be here. |
You must've fallen on real hard and desperate times financially if you're staying in Korea for the money despite how miserable you claim it is, because ESL teachers don't make that much money. But then again, considering how low-skilled most NETs in Korea are, the money they make in Korea typically is a lot more than what they would get at home with their dire prospects of finding meaningful employment back in their home countries. |
Well, actually, Korea was good money up until 2009. The living cost was cheap and the exchange rate was really good. Salaries were rising each year too, until the flooded market broiught wages down and the bad US economy started pulling down other countries around the world, including Korea.
If you made a 2.1 million salary ten years ago, you could keep less money in Korea because things were cheaper and you would get more on the exchange. Assume deductions were 100,000 (because we weren't deducted for all of our salary and benefits back then). That leaves 2.0 million. You could live quite comfortably on 600,000 to get through the month. That left 1.4 to send home. A Canadian could get $1600 a month in his bank account back home. Higher paying jobs in Canada did not give that savings and debt repayment potential.
Enter the financial crash and say one or two years ago, a 2.1 salary did not go as far. One thing, deductions are on your whole salary and other perks, not just some of it. Deductions are still lower than back in Canada by far. But, you'd be closer to 200,000 won a month. That left 1.9 million won. Things cost more here, so you leave yourself 800,000 won. So, you have 1.1 million to send home. The exchange rate had been awful for 5 or 6 years. So, then let's say you end up on a good day with $950.00 in your bank account each month.
Going from 1600 a month in your bank account back home to 950 is a sharp drop. You can understand why vets were drawn here by word of mouth of good money and equally pissed by the way things have gone. Personally, it slowed my debt repayment plans signifigantly. Sadly, I got here a year to a year and a half before the crash. I spent my first 6 months repaying short term debts and bills I was severly behind on. Then, it was time to start tackling student loans and credit card debt.
Yes, the exchange rate has gotten better recently and it may improve even more over the next few months. Also, I didn't change jobs every year. I kept the same and accumulated raises. With the rising exchange rate as of late, I'm now back to where I was when I first arrived in terms of the dollars arriving in my bank account each month. But, certaintly would not be if I were doing a 2.1 or 2.2 job. I've certaintly, a couple of years into this recession, had to make sacrifices and resort to extreme belt tightening to try and compensate.
Needless to say, Korea is better than 2 or 3 years ago. But it still has a long way to go to get back to where it was pre 2009. Korea was a great out for many a poor Maritimer who was educated, at the time. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Chaparrastique wrote: |
| LPKSA wrote: |
| I came into contact with a lot of fresh faces who were white, thinking that they would be respected because they were white, as if being white equals superiority. It's the classic case of colonialism which I didn't see in NES who weren't white. It wears off really fast when these 'colonialists' realize that the people whom they have come to work for, don't care about them or what they contribute to the societ. |
Westerners have a group-stereotype of Asia from too many Vietnam movies and returning Patpong holidaymakers.
The idea of being worshipped as a white god by dark-skinned natives has a long history in Asia (Philippe Gauguin has a lot to answer for) but it simply does not apply to Korea. |
This was true up until the late 90's or 2000's. Longer term vets told me English teachers had some respect when they first started coming here in the 1990's because they made more money or a comparible amount to a salary man. Previously, the only westerners that Koreans met were diplomats and businessmen. So, they viewed us rich and powerful. Korea was still poor although developing quickly. Of course there was racism. Needless to say, a lot of women viewed white as rich though a lot of the women who chased white guys ended up in Itaewon or trying to date you in secret.
The only whites criticised in the media at that time was the US Army. I'm told that by 2002, the media turned on English teachers and lumped us in with US Army. English teachers and US Army were considered bad and the media would paint us both negatively with yellow journalism stories. This seemed to have mostly stopped by 2010 - 2011ish.
Folks were pretty racist and would really harass any Korean woman who openly dated a westerner. But some didn't care as white equaled rich and these were mostly the gold digging types. By the late 90's, Korean men were starting to make more working for Samsung and they started getting more girls. Then the Asian crash flipped it back to English teachers. Then by the early 2000's, it flipped back to Samsung workers. After this, you weren't a real foriegner if you weren't a banker or lawyer working for some company.
You not only had c blocking and social pressure, but you also had lots of lies intensified about us as being all pedofiles and losers who couldn't get a job back home. Also, there were segments of the Korean population who were making more money than us for the first time.
After this decade started, Korean attitudes began to shift. More folks speak English, have travelled abroad, and have grown up richer. Nowadays, if you're a decent looking guy or really funny/ witty, girls will like you, just like back home. The gold digging (outside of Gangnam) mentality is far less than it was. This was why Korean women chased after white guys, but only some Korean women. (Social pressure kept most away from us even then.) When the Koreans started making more, those "gold diggers" lost interest in us.
I lived in the country several years ago and did encounter "traditional" attitudes. I found many women, especially attractive ones to be neurotic, emotional, and generally a pain in the @$$. THey were very calculating and to the point. How much money do you make, would be questions quickly thrown at you. Given that few guys in the rural areas could match 2.0 million I was making at the time, some women commented how good it was and were lovey dovey. (Well for a time, until the xenophobic backlash started across town. Apparently, I was immoral for dating Korean women. )
Anyways, women until recently here didn't care if you were funny, smart, a good guy, decent looking. They were very calculating and obsessed with one thing - money and money potential. It's different nowadays as many Korean women seem to have similiar attitudes to wesern women nowadays.
So, if women don't flock to you in the west, don't expect them to here. Go to Thailand or the Phillipines where they poor and will love you for your passport. (Not saying every guy who gets married there is like that. Sometimes, you can meet a smart, nice, pretty girl there too.) |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:43 pm Post subject: Re: Korea is the Worst! |
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| maitaidads wrote: |
I've lived in 16 different countries doing missionary and teaching work, and I must say that Korea is the worst Third World country to be in. Chad, Cameroon, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Georgia, Appalachia, Haiti, Cuba, and Bolivia were all much more pleasant to work/live in than Korea.
All the people were happier, all the food was better, and civil/worker rights were more advanced than Korea.
Don't fool yourself that banking $800 a month, going to the CGV, drinking and smoking on the cheap, and laying an average looking local is worth it. Korea is a disgusting society and living in it is destroying your moral fabric. Get out if you can and stop wasting your life in the world's gutter. Take a step back and examine your value to Koreans and how awful these people truly are. What a bunch of mindless, hive-minded toads. Yuck |
I'm no apologist, but that's over the top. If you don't enjoy being around Koreans there's like 1.5 million non-Koreans living here. Surround yourself with foreigners and Koreans who have lived in the West and you'll be fine.
For a missionary you're awful negative. Not feeling the love of Christ for your fellow fallen humans, are we? If people weren't such douchebags they wouldn't need the gospel preached to them. At least millions of Koreans have gobbled up the nonsense you're peddling. That alone should endear them to you.
Oh, and the "average-looking local" jibe. Nice-uh. Way to look past the superfiliaties of appearance and into the person's heart. You know, the place where Jesus is supposed to dwell. 
Instead of criticizing Korea (in this case), I recommend that you take your own advice and "take a step back" and examine your own values.
Smithington's (one and only) apologist rant over. 
Last edited by Smithington on Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lucas
Joined: 11 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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For a missionary you're awful negative. Not feeling the love of Christ for your fellow fallen humans, are we? If people weren't such douchebags they wouldn't need the gospel preached to them. At least millions of Koreans have gobbled up the nonsense you're peddling. That alone should endear them to you.
Oh, and the "average-looking local" jibe. Nice-uh. Way to look past the superfiliaties of appearance and into the person's heart. You know, the place where Jesus is supposed to dwell.
Instead of criticizing Korea (in this case), I recommend that you take your own advice and "take a step back" and examine your own values.
Smithington's apologist rant over. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FglQ6coUBw4 |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| optik404 wrote: |
| duhweecher wrote: |
| jcd wrote: |
| Koreans want Chinese wealth that's associated with a giant conformist scary dark (panda programs don't fool me) paternal government ? I guess a billion dollars isn't nearly as good unless you can make people disappear easily. I'd like to see them request extra pickles at a MCds in the US. |
Perhaps you missed the whole point entirely?
Plug any richer country's name in place of "China" and you'd get the same answer...and yes, even if that means they you can't ask for extra pickles. We Koreans put more interest in another person's bankbook regardless of whether said person can spend it and regardless of the politics, blood, or other BS behind it.
It's probably one of the reasons that being a successful business man in Korea nearly almost always comes with the stereotype of said person being corrupt.
Korea has ZERO successful businessmen that have been seen or portrayed as role models. Most other countries do have one or two...and the idea that rich and ethically (semi) clean is possible. |
Isn't that guy who was going to make a run for the presidency considered a role model? I don't know his name but he looks relatively young. |
You mean Dr. Ahn, the free virus vaccine guy? |
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Savant
Joined: 25 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| optik404 wrote: |
| duhweecher wrote: |
| jcd wrote: |
| Koreans want Chinese wealth that's associated with a giant conformist scary dark (panda programs don't fool me) paternal government ? I guess a billion dollars isn't nearly as good unless you can make people disappear easily. I'd like to see them request extra pickles at a MCds in the US. |
Perhaps you missed the whole point entirely?
Plug any richer country's name in place of "China" and you'd get the same answer...and yes, even if that means they you can't ask for extra pickles. We Koreans put more interest in another person's bankbook regardless of whether said person can spend it and regardless of the politics, blood, or other BS behind it.
It's probably one of the reasons that being a successful business man in Korea nearly almost always comes with the stereotype of said person being corrupt.
Korea has ZERO successful businessmen that have been seen or portrayed as role models. Most other countries do have one or two...and the idea that rich and ethically (semi) clean is possible. |
Isn't that guy who was going to make a run for the presidency considered a role model? I don't know his name but he looks relatively young. |
You mean Dr. Ahn, the free virus vaccine guy? |
His Ahn-Lab products are crap and he is a political wimp. He is no "maverick". |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| duhweecher wrote: |
I'm ethnically Korea and was born here, but I'd have to say I understand where his anger comes from:
1. Korea suffers from collective amnesia (they have no clue that in 1940s and 50s NO ONE was rich...they were all eating rice with worms in it); (grand)parents have gone through loops to avoid telling their children the truth. In the US people value "know your roots"; in Korea, people value liars who makeup their roots (and some who can actually prove them).
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I don't know about this. My parents and my grandparents love to remind me how dirt poor they were growing up and how easy I have it compared to them. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Let's be honest. Korea certainly isn't the most enjoyable place, and Korean people can be difficult to deal with. However, saying it is the worst place in the world is a wee bit dramatic, and just makes me think some people need to grow a pair. |
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