Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grotto]

Words from someone who has been here for 2+ years.

I have seen many many newcomers come in with wide eyes and bright smiles.....that last for about 4-5 months. Then the reality that this is a job sets in, that this is something that you will be doing for the next 8 months, that working with children is either something you want to do or is not for you. No judgement...no recriminations.

This happens to many people for many reasons. One friend of mine had to do a midnight run because her mother was dying. Why did she do a midnight run? Because a previous teacher who gave notice got pulled through the shredder and got crap for pay.

Rule number one....dont judge others until you have walked a mile in their shoes!

[SuperFly]

When I saw this thread, I was reminded of a trip to Osaka in 1997 and an article I read that October KANSAI TIME OUT month while sitting at a coffee shop waiting for my visa to be processed.

I went and found my old Korea box of mementos and found the old Kansai time out magazine and the article.

By Marko Gamula

The Making of an Expat 1997 October issue.

��Tea is green and suites are blue.
They are them, but who are you?��

All foreigners in Japan are different, whether we are looking for spiritual growth, romance, fame or adventure. We can be divided into three groups; people who��ve just arrived, people who��ve been here for one year, and people who don��t like to be reminded. Personally, I like to say two years. That way the Japanese can say: ��Oh, your Japanese is really good!�� If I say five years, there��s a long silence, then: ��Japanese is pretty difficult, huh?��

In analyzing ��we foreigners��, a perceptive observer would notice different goals. The newcomers want to study: Zen, Noh, kabuki, or other esoteric things. People who stay for one year want to go back home and study to finish their degree, and the lifers – we��re not that naïve. We want money.

There are more obvious differences. People who just came off the boat are very easy to dislike. They always tell you how many kanji they know. And they have strange ideas about Japan. Acculturation means to stop eating at McDonalds. In six months they��ll be able to talk like a native. Most important in their eyes, they think living here will take virtually no money. They arrive, clutching letters from friends in Japan, saying they can find anything they want in the garbage. They just have to hop on an ��abandoned bicycle�� and go look.

After surviving the first year however, we finally start psychologically adjusting to life here. The naïve glow disappears. A paranoiac image of being swamped in a sea of Orientals surfaces. ��Japan avoidance�� begins. Natives are now afraid to practice their English on us in the subway. We sit every day on the train, with a harassed look on our face, compulsively reading novels from our native home. Brushing up on our Nihongo is unnecessary. Our long-suffering Japanese girlfriends try to explain everything. We become adept at more important things instead. We can slurp Soba and not get gas. We��ve memorized the food we like, so we don��t have to look at restaurant menus. We now recognize the kanji for ��Men��s section�� at the public bath. Though we all struggle to adapt after our own fashion, we��re still faced with the same seemingly insurmountable problem: we��re living in a sensory overload environment. There��s so much happening that nothing gets through. We can��t understand the TV, the newspapers, the signs, or anything that people are trying to tell us. Confronted with unavoidable interaction, we recoil a little bit, then give our stock answer.

Not knowing, not understanding makes life very difficult. Some of us try to cope, with great plans to study Japanese; we find the commitment too much though, once we start to dabble. Since we��re always so tense and out of touch however, some of us start getting definite ideas about our new specialty and how it fits into the big picture.

The evolutionary end product of foreigners living in Japan is a condition called ��Liferism��, characterized by: one��s apartment completely furnished from things found in the garbage, letting one��s ��ticket out�� expire, or using it for an annual hop to Hong Kong, the realization that the ��Japanese experience�� must have happened to someone else.

On the surface, lifers seem acculturated, but we��re not. We��re lost in a cultural limbo. We still can��t speak Japanese. Our textbooks were thrown out the moment we bought a bilingual TV. We��ve stopped socializing with the locals. Our emotional needs are now taken care of by our video rental card. Our English has totally degenerated into an incoherent mix of broken sentences, faulty pronunciation and ��eh, to neh!�� Unable to see our own mistakes, we relentlessly persist in correcting others.
However, compared to all the other foreigners coming and going in a never ending stream, lifers can be a distinct pleasure to talk to. There are no blinding revelations about the size of Oriental c o c kroaches. We don��t get defensive about being ��different��. We never compulsively criticize or belittle Japan. Life here hasn��t mellowed us, We just can��t remember anyplace else.

What we expect and what we find in Japan, changes us. The benefit of our hindsight is lost on people we talk to. The newcomers don��t listen, or resent us for being here before them. Many kinds of people try to come and make a life in Japan, but few survive. It really doesn��t matter. There��ll always be fresh smiling faces willing to try. They��ll learn.

[sadsac]

Running up to four years here and in my forties. Seen a few newbies come and go. They are the flavour of the month for a while and the freshness of Korea wears off. Captain Kirk, just move on and do what you do, in the end, you are the only person that will truly care about yourself.

[captain kirk]

No worries . I'm giving him a tour of Ulsan Sunday afternoon. Got an extra helmet and on the back of my 750 Virago. He's got to be back by four for hockey, and he's already started taekwondo. He's been in Korea 3 weeks and has a network of foreigner friends, that's why he's in Ulsan.
He was telling the female Korean teachers about him and his buddy getting drinks bought for them by some Korean guys, out at the nightclub. But no action, he said, after. Then, 'women, I mean'. He called the Korean guys their 'sugardaddies'. And explained the term to the K-teachers, who were cracking up. He's a charmer and having a great time.
You're in Kochang, Sadsack. I lived near there for two years. Lots of Dolmen out there, Unesco Heritage Site rated.

[Grotto]

Yeah the virago you snatched out from under me you banana slurping whoremonger