Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sportsguy35]

Maybe this has been done before, maybe not. Let's do it anyway. What's your favorite thing about Korea. For me would have to be the hospitality. I visit a lot of peoples homes and I am amazed to the extent people will go to make sure you don't leave their house hungry. Also the people, the way they go out of their way to help you in the subway or bus. Maybe it's cause they wanna practice their English or just help, I dont know, but I like it.

[fidel]

Food, I love it and can't get enough. While some people think the food is monotonous if you get around a bit you'll discover a huge variety.

I also dig small villages in the countryside, I love to explore and they offer up so many interesting things.

[Gopher]

I don't have a favorite thing about Korea.

I was broght here under false pretenses by a deceptive recruiter. The contract I signed was clearly an act of fraud. I was working in a high school and working part-time in prestigious universities (med school and law school) in Santiago; now I'm working at a kiddie hogwon in Ulsan, where getting downtown to where the social life is means either a one-hour bus ride or a thirty-minute ten-thousand-won trip by taxi.

I'm still in shock and amazed that Korean businesspeople could do such a thing with no worry of consequences. True, the recruiter is not party to the contract and therefore can't be sued. But she is still responsible for intentionally lying to me over the phone several times to my direct questions (working conditions; kind of students; level of students; vacation; severance pay; return airfare; etc.).

What's my favorite thing about Korea? As soon as I find a creative way to reciprocate, then I'll tell you my favorite thing about Korea.

[Cedar]

Food.

[Badmojo]

Kim chi.

In any event, the list is not very long.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

This could quickly degenerate, so I'll try to find something positive to say.. I too am heartwarmed by how kind and polite Koreans are to friends or to people with whom they have some relationship.

In some aspects, service in the hospitality industry is very good. I can call for dinner, and someone will deliver it for free and come back later for the dirty dishes. Never seen this before.

Koreans respect education-- or at least the letters attached to it-- in a way that Canadians don't. It's pleasant to have people smile when I tell them I have a grad degree instead of a smirk.

Ken:>

[Swiss James]

I know it's a bit lame but I think that the way you can go to a bar at any time day or night just so good it sometimes makes me cry a little bit.

The subway system is pretty wicked in Seoul, and I love the temples- yeah I know some people love to say that once you've seen one you've seen them all, but it's the surrondings which make each one special, and they rule.

[Hyeon Een]

bathhouses.inexpensive martial arts.people.drink.girls.takeshima.bargirls.lots of rain-free days.kimchi.10 minute photo printing.24 hr stuff.pleasant children.lack of crime.

-HE

[rumpolestitskin]

I too hate 'most' of the food.

What I like however is : Galbi Dak Galbi and dol sot Bimbibap

Low crime rate for general crime (I am however exlcuding from this liabel fraud)

Freindliness of the average person on the street (though their lack of comon sense often annoys me)

Children in class are also nice in general, especially the one or two that try to speak to me regualry in break time.

[jlb]

I loved the efficient, cheap and easy to use transportation system. I travelled to a different spot to go hiking or sightseeing or whatever almost every weekend and just kept thinking how much easier it was to get around without a care than it would have been in Canada.

[sparkx]

Here it is, plain and simple - Korea isn't boring.

Look at how many threads are dedicated to talking about, dissecting and/or complaining about Korea. Damn near all of them. Check out messageboards for Asians living in the west and you will notice that very little of their diaglogue centers around their host country. While often frusurating, there is obviously something compelling about this crazy ass place.

I also like the fact that anything can happen at any given time. I can go to the market to buy banana milk and somehow find myself, 20 minutes later, in a noraybang with 3 korean girls drinking Hite and singing Lionel Ritchie.



Until they kick me out, push me towards the market directly beside the noraybang and say to me "Just buy your banana milk and leave us alone."



Stupid lesbians

[desultude]

L could come up with a long list, but here are a few things:

My travel agent, Tina (Kangnam Travel, Busan) is hyper efficient and knows my needs, and even reminds me when it is time to add pages to my passport.

My students who never ever have shown me disrespect (one of the advantages of age, guys). They are always so kind and bring me little things all time. I taught for 10 years in the States at the university level, and there is no comparison.

Food- let me count the ways! Tofu in a wide variety, dwenjang anything, all the little fresh greens. Rice cake! When I first came to Korea, I though rice cakes were a test for foreigners to see how well you lied when they asked if you liked them. Now I am hooked. I found some homemade ones the other day with apricot and peach, and various nuts in the fillings, and some rolled in coconut. Yum!

Also food- Ice cream treats! Wow, so cheap and so much variety!

In general, Korean courtesy and kindness (except when I am not a total stranger, of course, then sometimes the standard slips). If I go into an office, I am usually offered tea and cookies, or what ever is at hand. Even at the pharmacy I go to I am offered tea and cookies, and a seat and a little conversation.

Service! No, not like wait service (which is generally quite good also) but the things we are given when we buy something. Sometimes the service is worth more than the product we buy. Last week I got this really nice good quality black apron with a bottle of olive oil.

Eyeglasses. The last replacement pair I got from the place I regularly get my glasses were given to me as service. Of course, normally they are only like 30,000 won.


Lots to like about Korea if you can get past the culture shock and the demand that things be like home as much as possible.

Some people celebrate as things westernize here. Yeah, I am happy when I see, on a weekly basis, more and more western products. But I know that this inexorably leads to the homogenization of cultures. If I wanted a Starbucks on every corner, next to the Burger King, down the block from KFC, I could move back to the States, or to almost every other westernizes city in the world. For better and for worse, at least Korea is "other", and isn't that why a lot of us travel in the first place, to find other ways of living and being that challenge us?

[thorin]

The low cost of living.











10 posts and no one's mentioned soju?

[OiGirl]

[seoulunitarian]

My Korean boyfriend. He's wondeful!