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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:27 pm Post subject: Re: Korea 20 yers later |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Shimokitazawa wrote: |
| Nelson Bennett wrote: |
No one is staring at me. The National Museum in Seoul is filled with school children, but only one comes up and wants to practise his English on me.
Nelson Bennett
Vancouver, B.C. |
I knew you were a Canadian before I got to the end of this message.
So, what is it, 4 / 5 TEFL teachers in Korea are Canadian?
What is it with Canadians and Korea?
How did Korean TEFL come to be dominated by Canadians?
You go to Japan or Thailand and you can't find a Canadian TEFL'er. Yet here everyone is Canadian.
Why is that? |
The exchange rate use to be worth something to us. (I kick myself daily for not having gotten here 2 or 3 years sooner. Could have been out of debt with the old exchange rate.) It sucked for others, especially Americans. Plus their economy (USA) was booming for many years amd their exchange rate sucked. Americans just didn't have the motivation because they couldn't make the same amount of money. They only flooded into here out of desperation in 2009 to now? I think the smart ones will probably go home or elsewhere as the won will drop to pretty bad levels for them over the next year and beyond according to analysts.
So, I don't think there are as many of us Canadians as before the recession. The won went down badly from 2008 to 2013. Then again from the end of 2014 to who effin knows? (Had one ok year in between - 2014 - but sure not like the old days.) |
It used to be mostly Americans. Koreans found Canadians would work for less and under worse conditions so they started recruiting the heck out of them. |
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Qonny
Joined: 28 Oct 2014
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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Yup. Canadians are famous for their willingness to work for low wages with next to no benefits. Bloody Candains, the world's coolies.
Teaching esl while eating their ethnic food and singing their songs from the old country. Sick of them. |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Qonny wrote: |
Yup. Canadians are famous for their willingness to work for low wages with next to no benefits. Bloody Candains, the world's coolies.
Teaching esl while eating their ethnic food and singing their songs from the old country. Sick of them. |
Now now...no need to insult coolies. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Qonny wrote: |
Yup. Canadians are famous for their willingness to work for low wages with next to no benefits. Bloody Candains, the world's coolies.
Teaching esl while eating their ethnic food and singing their songs from the old country. Sick of them. |
What the hell are you guys talking about. I just told you we use to get a good deal on the exchange rate. Also, 2.1 million in 2004 was worth a lot more than today. (I'm told it was worth 2500 bucks back then. It was more like 2300 or so when I got here though.)
But, what can I say about every American supplicant who came here and flooded the market post 2009 accepting a falling wage (because of inflation) and a falling exchange rate. As badly as we're getting screwed on the exchange rate, you guys are getting it far worse. Why stay?
Last edited by Weigookin74 on Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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Qonny
Joined: 28 Oct 2014
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Qonny wrote: |
Yup. Canadians are famous for their willingness to work for low wages with next to no benefits. Bloody Candains, the world's coolies.
Teaching esl while eating their ethnic food and singing their songs from the old country. Sick of them. |
What the hell are you guys talking about. I just told you we use to get a good deal on the exchange rate. Also, 2.1 million in 2004 was worth a lot more than today. (I'm told it was worth 2500 bucks back then. It was more like 2300 or so when I got here though.)
But, what can I say about every American supplicant who came here and flooded the market post 2009 accepting a falling wage (because of inflation) and a falling exchange rate. As badly as we're getting screwed on the exchange rate, you guys are getting it far worse. Why stay? |
I saw a Canadian today picking up acorns. When I asked him why he said he was just happy to be in Korea. As we were talking a Korean man whipped him in the face with a glove. Then outside the station I saw two younger Canadians eating soup. They offered to shine my shoes. I was in a hurry so I couldn't say yes. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Qonny wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Qonny wrote: |
Yup. Canadians are famous for their willingness to work for low wages with next to no benefits. Bloody Candains, the world's coolies.
Teaching esl while eating their ethnic food and singing their songs from the old country. Sick of them. |
What the hell are you guys talking about. I just told you we use to get a good deal on the exchange rate. Also, 2.1 million in 2004 was worth a lot more than today. (I'm told it was worth 2500 bucks back then. It was more like 2300 or so when I got here though.)
But, what can I say about every American supplicant who came here and flooded the market post 2009 accepting a falling wage (because of inflation) and a falling exchange rate. As badly as we're getting screwed on the exchange rate, you guys are getting it far worse. Why stay? |
I saw a Canadian today picking up acorns. When I asked him why he said he was just happy to be in Korea. As we were talking a Korean man whipped him in the face with a glove. Then outside the station I saw two younger Canadians eating soup. They offered to shine my shoes. I was in a hurry so I couldn't say yes. |
Don't forget to say they mix in flasks of maple syrup to their soup. They were probably from Quebec. They're weird anyways....  |
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Location: dans la chambre
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| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:43 am Post subject: |
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Aneeway, back on topic...
OP, I enjoyed reading your post, and looking at the photos of Korea in the 90s, brought back a lot of memories.
The reason I returned was becasue I wanted to see more of Korea outside of seoul. I was quite disappointed because by the time Id arrived (2009) the facelift had already gone wrong and something had happened to the people...  |
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silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:50 am Post subject: |
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Good story. I'd also love to return someday just to see what's changed. It doesn't seem likely though.
Except for retrofitted busses, those pics from 90's could have been from 2003, at least the outer parts of Seoul and anywhere else in Korea. They were mostly still diesel then, and I'm surprised to hear they are all natural gas now.
Is the air quality better because it's Autumn? I remember Autumn being the best season in Korea for weather and air quality. I wonder if you'd have a different perspective if you went in another season?
Did you notice a freeway missing through downtown Seoul replaced with Cheongyechon stream? I would have thought that would have been the biggest change, also affecting air quality.
Is Dongdaemun market really gone? The night market too? If so, that's shocking to me, it seemed such a staple of Seoul culture. What replaced it? |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| When all is said and done, though. Korea is still a shithole. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:55 am Post subject: |
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| silkhighway wrote: |
Good story. I'd also love to return someday just to see what's changed. It doesn't seem likely though.
Except for retrofitted busses, those pics from 90's could have been from 2003, at least the outer parts of Seoul and anywhere else in Korea. They were mostly still diesel then, and I'm surprised to hear they are all natural gas now.
Is the air quality better because it's Autumn? I remember Autumn being the best season in Korea for weather and air quality. I wonder if you'd have a different perspective if you went in another season?
Did you notice a freeway missing through downtown Seoul replaced with Cheongyechon stream? I would have thought that would have been the biggest change, also affecting air quality.
Is Dongdaemun market really gone? The night market too? If so, that's shocking to me, it seemed such a staple of Seoul culture. What replaced it? |
The Dongdaemun History Park. But you can still shop late at night in the shopping towers there. The Chinese and Japanese tourist love 'em. |
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motiontodismiss
Joined: 18 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 4:05 am Post subject: |
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| FDNY wrote: |
| When all is said and done, though. Korea is still a shithole. |
This. |
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Location: dans la chambre
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| motiontodismiss wrote: |
| FDNY wrote: |
| When all is said and done, though. Korea is still a shithole. |
This. |
well...
except now its a pretentious shit hole with no character |
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cbmufc
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| awesome link for the 90's photos. I've been visiting Korea on and off since I was a kid, and I remember what it was like. ahhh the nostalgia. |
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fidel
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Location: North Shore NZ
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| Posted: Wed May 13, 2020 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| Since my tour of duty between 2000 and 2006 I visit every couple of years and still get a huge buzz from every trip. It is harder to see the changes as I visit so often, but there is one change that needs to happen, which is better waste disposal methods outside of the big apartment complexes. The piles of festering garbage in the alleys and small streets really lets down the people, their living environments and the liveability indexes. For a country of innovators I can’t understand why this hasn’t been solved. |
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