Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hatcher]

I was in Korea for a long time and what I miss most is the food. Good food for good prices. I also miss the saunas as I would go and relax before a biz class.
Finally, the nightlife with the streets busy every evening.

I dont miss being run into when standing right in front of them. Work environments were tough as well.

[edwardcatflap]

I left after around the same time for Hong Kong and after racking my brains for a bit realize there's absolutely nothing. Everything's better here. No, just thought of something, the girls dress more tartily in Korea.

[schwa]

Nice question. Racked my brain too & couldnt come up with much. I left earlier this year.

Had I gone "home" to the familiarity of Canada I'd surely be missing the foreign experience. I cant picture that eventuality, its too much fun discovering new stuff.

I truly enjoyed all my time in Korea, a decade & a half. Naturally I miss a handful of longterm Korean friends, but we keep in touch.

I thought I'd miss my students (the many delightful ones) but you know, you get a classroom full of new kids somewhere else & they take over your focus & affection in the here & now.

I thought I'd miss the hotsprings. Korean saunas are great & I went weekly year in year out. Nowadays I dont even have hot water in my house or access to it & I'm perfectly content.

Korean food: I'm meh about food in general & seek only just enough pleasant daily fuel. I'm vegetarian, a light eater, & can be easily satisfied anywhere.

Money. I do miss earning more than I could spend, even with diminishing wage conditions, & watching my account grow. I've diversified that into savings, investments, & pension. Thanks Korea. As a result, I'm doing fine just breaking even doing what I love to do in a remote & exotic locale as a post-retirement-age guy.

Korea: I learned how to teach there & got pretty good at it & that experience has served me well. I hope that window remains open for others of similar inclination into the future. Living there took up a good chunk of my life (a quarter!) & I have no regrets.

Life, you'll eventually discover, is fleeting.

[metalhead]

I slightly miss kimchi jjigae and gamjatang. Where I am now Korean restaurants do not exist, it's all about Chinese, Japanese and Thai food, East Asian-wise at least.

I also miss convenience store drinking a bit.

I also thought ticket prices to travel around Korea were good, and there were always buses and trains except during nightmare times like Chuseok of course.

Otherwise I can't think of anything I miss really, maybe if I had a higher salary and great work conditions in Korea I would miss that but alas! It was not to be.

[SHGator428]

I couldn't come up with anything. I enjoyed my time there for the most part, and I would do it again as a first time ESLer.

I still work with and teach Koreans. I eat Korean food daily during the school year. I transitioned into China easily from having been there for many years.

China isn't that much different culturally. I live in Shanghai, which I find a plus over Seoul.

I'm relocating to the States in an area that has a sizeable Korean and Chinese population next year after over a decade abroad. Even so, maybe I'll have a different opinion then.

[World Traveler]

[GENO123]

[Hatcher]

As the OP, I do miss the manner in which the K ladies dressed. I worked at a female university for 7 years and had models and actresses as students.

You dont see those styles in China.

[Fallacy]

[Yaya]

The expat scene here is not bad but also deteriorating with the decline of the ESL market. I hear Korea will turn into Japan in that area.

I hear expats in Japan aren't friendly at all to people they don't know, whereas in Korea, it's so easy to start a conversation with expats.

And of course, I love not having to see whale-size people in Korea (though I have seen more than a few obese people lately).

[crescent]

Left for good on Feb.18, 2014.

After 13 years in Korea, the only things I miss are ondol heating, and having a bathroom I can flood with water. My Korean wife misses only her folks. Everything else, even jjimjjilbangs are available here if we want them, but we never think about going because life is far less stressful.

Returning to Canada after more than a decade is practically like moving to a new country and we are enjoying discovering new things together, mixed in with sharing things I enjoyed before i left.

[creeper1]

I miss

- clean air
- high salaries and low workload
- stunning girls with great dress sense
- Jim jil bangs
- food
- drinking at convenience stores
- low cost of quality goods
- night life

[metalhead]

[World Traveler]

[Mr. Pink]

It's been almost 10 years since I left. I doubt I'll ever return to live.

I do return once a year or so for vacation. (I am still in Asia so it isn't a far trip).

I am not sure what we'll do once my wife's parents pass away as far as visiting once a year goes.

Things I miss:

#1 is the food. I spent about 1.5mil on food this past summer in the 3 weeks I was in Korea. Well maybe food and drink The food is just so much better when I can get it all I want for a couple weeks and then leave rather than see it every day year in and out.

#2 is my friends. I still have friends in Korea and I love visiting with them. I doubt I would go as often as once a year if I didn't have friends. My wife could always go without me.

#3 is the tech. The Internet is great, as is the LTE sim I get that airport. I am in China and even with the fastest internet here, because of the Great Firewall, things load SLOW.

#4 is the mountains. I always loved the mountains of Korea. I love seeing them and being near them and driving up into the mountain ranges of Kangwan Do.

I don't miss the crowds and the weather. In particular I think the weather is absolutely horrible and one of the biggest reasons I'll never return.

If you have been to other Asian countries, the people banging into you thing is an Asian thing, not a Korean thing.

I like the girls but I always come in winter so I don't get to see the short shorts or short skirts etc. So I didn't put that on my list.