Korean Job Discussion Forums

[philinkorea]

some really good view points here. can i possibly just ask what people thought of all that english spectrum stuff that happened a while ago.? that seemed like a big deal to me and to highlight this to me in particular.

it was like there was this ridiculous thing about bad foreigners sleeping with korean women. i mean what really is the deal here. guys pursueing girls, it happens in every single country in the world. but a foreigner doing it in korea. a student asked me what i thought of 'the english spectrum scandel'. since i was a teacher teaching a freetalk class i tried to stay very calm and attempt to play this role of model foreign teacher in korea to get the most out of class. but really what scandel was there. guys were into girls and the girls wanted them back.

i think this issue highlighted a lot of stuff about korea and its resistance to foreigners. a guy wrote an article in reply asking that considering the manner of korean society, hakwan owners, not being able to get out of contracts, privates being illegal. who does this actually attract? answer, teachers who are unqualified.

as i said i had a great time in korea. i dont want to slag it off but this seemed a major issue to me just to highlight this nature of korean society truly at its core and it feels like such a fierce aversion to foreigners. its like the society totally contradicts itself in its behaviour and sees foreigners as the problems for things when in fact they arent.

this is an interesting thing to look into as to why this is the case but i dont know if i could ever feel i truly have a warm home in korea. thats why i wanted to ask how everyone else felt.

[Tiger Beer]

[philinkorea]

your post is cool. it seems strange you never spoke much of the english spectrum thing because my students and my friends spoke of it a lot and i really felt it to be a massive deal. i can imagine how you wouldnt feel at home in New York city but liked it, same as me in korea. I guess wherever i live if its not england I would imagine living in a western country and area which is accepting and warm to me as a white western person. Although I feel I could have a good time and enjoy places for a period of time which arent.

I guess a lot depends on your life and what you find there. A friend of mine in Korea is English and was earning a lot of money in England and felt like a change and moved to korea and met a girl he really loved. theyre getting married and buying a house. He earn loads and is opening a business with a korean guy. I guess he seems like a quite exceptional case to me but he says when he come to england and remembers what he has compared to when in korea there is no doubt korea is more like home now. Anyway, I guess just for me it doesnt feel like theres more in korea as a plce to live, well not for now anyway

[JongnoGuru]

A lot of factors will determine whether a particular place suits you or makes you feel at home. As Tiger Beer notes, parts of your own country may never feel like home. People born & raised in big cities may find life in a quiet rural community in their own country a crashing bore, or they may be the only one of their ethnic group in that community and perceive it as uninteresting or even unfriendly.

Foreign countries have their own sets of pitfalls, and they can be wrong at the individual level in the sense that it's a mismatch. You're okay, Country X is okay, but Country X is just not cut out for every foreigner who happens to wind up there. The reverse is also true, but I don't mean that in the pontificating "you just can't hack it" sense.

For most foreigners, we're not looking to immerse ourselves in, be fully accepted by, or be socially or politically active in the host community. So, Korea can make all of those things difficult or impossible, and it doesn't really bother us. However, if it's important to you individually to be active in the broader community, then Korea is not the ideal place for you.

[jajdude]

Simply put,

a foreigner does not fit in here.

[JongnoGuru]

huh?

[tomato]

Mercury, I'm trying to fit into the honeybee category, but the Koreans keep trying to force me into the cowboy category and the curious category.

Philinkorea, I once went on Mithridates' message board and asked the same question you asked about English Spectrum:

http://mithridates.netfreehost.com/viewtopic.php?t=94&highlight=&mforum=mithridates

and while I got you on the line, I would like for you to check out my original jokes on the subject:

http://mithridates.netfreehost.com/viewtopic.php?t=34&highlight=&mforum=mithridates

[the_beaver]