Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mercury]

Or, an explanation (which is what the word means in Greek)

I have got one more theory!


Here it goes!




THE CHEAP THAI BUFFET



Okay, ever since I joined this board I noticed that not only me, but a lot of people have really gotten a bunch of flak for posting ANYTHING negative about this place. Sure, it has good things, and bad, but I really found some people took any negative thing personally, and I sort of came up with an analogy to help explain why.......



The last time I went to Thailand I went to this big Hotel, it was called the Diana, and in the evening they had an all you could eat buffet. I read the menu, it had everything listed, steak, chicken, all the Thai foods, and it started at 5pm. I did not eat all day, I was starving! So, I went to walk around at the mall and came to the buffet at about 5:10pm. The place was already starting to get full. Now the Diana hotel only costs about 10 bucks a night. The buffet was about 5 bucks. And what I noticed from the tables was the fact that there were a lot of strange people at the buffet. Some were HUGE, some were deformed, some had drug induced gazes, some seemed really poor. Well, I stood in line for the buffet, behind some guy with a Doors shirt on. As I approached the food I noticed all of the fat guys really putting the food away. It looked so great! I loaded my plate, and went to a table. I took the first bite and everything tasted like...........nothing! The food was terrible! Bland! I really felt like I got ripped off! Well, soon these sort of preppie looking rich people came in, and they walked over to the buffet. One of the guys was trying to taste some of the Food while his friend kept looking at the freaks! Soon they were laughing and putting down the food. They were like "lets just go eat at the Sizzler, this place suuuuuuuucks!"
Well soon after, these guys eating the food started yelling at them! There was almost a fight! I felt angry as well. I was like "how dare those guys come in and insult the food, by insulting the food we all look stupid!"


And so, I now see why alot of the posters really feel angry when negative things are posted. The first group seems to be the married westerners.
Especially those with a kid or two. I think they seem to feel like they are being judged if somebody does not see this place as heaven. I can understand how they feel. They 'bought' into this country. They cannot change. They will be a part of Korea for the rest of their lives. Did they make the right choice? They seem to want to believe they did, but if there is anything negative from some newbie, they get really defensive! Once I posted a thread about Japanese girls compared to Korean girls and they were really angry. Well, they were just like those angry guys in the restaurant. They did not want to hear about a place that might be better.

And................... well, this place is kind of like the Diana Hotel. I mean, anybody, yes, ANYBODY can get a job here. We do not doubt that. Hogwans will hire anyone, any size shape or form. Degree, or no degree. This board has some very intelligent people, but....... a lot of the teachers are like the freaks at the buffet, they really are freaks because they could not get a job anywhere else and so they are blind. And so........don't put down the "Diana Hotel". NO more negative things about Korea, remember...........there are people eating!

[stalinsdad]

This analogy is spot on-good job.

[captain kirk]

C'mon, freaks? This is a joke, right?
How freaky can anyone get living here? Koreans are normal. So normal and conforming it's, well, NORMAL. So how abnormal or 'freaky' is anybody gonna get living here alongside Koreans in this abundantly normal society?
It's freaky to be looking for freaks where there are none

[Swiss James]

echo

[captain kirk]

Seriously, how 'freaky' is the average ESL'ers life here in Korea? You get up, go to work, teach kids English, head home and do the same thing again. It's a routine. It's practically dull.
Unless you have a degree in psychology and get a kick out of spotting freaks where there are none, and for something to do. Which is freakin' nerdish entertainment.
I guess analyzing oneself gets old. Though Woody Allen made some dough.
I can't think of anyone I've met...really...who could be classified as a 'freak'. Unless one were to go on hissy fit stultifyingly small town normal mode.
And who'd want to do that?

[mercury]

[captain kirk]

Nice avatar your lordship. Do you wear silk panties with that, Merc?

[Summer Wine]

Have you considered that what you consider freaky is maybe just different to what you know. It is that the similarity in looks between you and them may be greater that between you and Koreans, thus you tend to think that you will act and think alike. Maybe you do and maybe you don't, but cultural differences do exist between Australians and New Zealanders, Canadians and Americans, English and Irish and between all these groups. Not as great as other differences between them and Koreans, maybe but enough that you consider them freaks. Unjustly so as while I have met many different teachers from many different countries, I have met none that I would call freaks, just different.

[steroidmaximus]

delete

[thorin]

The difference is the food at the Diana Inn really sucks. Newbies just *think* Korea sucks because they haven't figured it out yet (I'm not saying I have either but it's slowly seeping in). That's why there's less of a difference in perspective between married and single people who have been here a while than there is between newbies/veterans. Surely all the veterans will agree with me and nobody cares what the newbies say because, well, they're newbies. So I win.

PS Sure the prepsters were rude but most of the guys at the buffet were Eurotrash sex tourists who couldn't understand them anyway. Get over it.