Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yeramian]

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS LIFESTYLE IN RETROSPECT?
Are you ready to get back out there? I�m much older and am trying to figure out what impact this lifestyle might have on me at this time in my life. There have been some really interesting threads about mental health and expatriate living on this site and I was seeing a lot of alcoholism and mental health issues among expats. I became concerned over the isolation and noticed an increasing silence in my life.

[thorin]

I guess the ALL CAPS were an attempt to break the silence?

[white_shadow]

This is a little strange but I'm a Korean, born in Seoul, raised in California and a US citizen and back in S.Korea for the summer. So technically I'm back in my home country.

Korean lifestyles reflect socio/economic structures. I don't think much of it. Partly because I'm Korean, so some of the native Korean culture is preserved. For instance we still take off our shoes in our home in California.

[hellofaniceguy]

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

Going home in a month.! I'm going home soley for uni. I need it......back in school for mental stimulation. But I'm freaked out because I've only been back home once for a week in over 2.5 years. It's gonna be strange to adapt again to the nuances of Southern California.

[canadian_in_korea]

I had no problems adjusting back to canadian society at all.....maybe because I knew I would only be in korea for one year. My experience in Korea made me appreciate canada a whole lot more. Sure we have our problems here....but the perks far outweigh the problems.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm not really sure what the OP is asking.

By 'this life-style' do you mean adjusting to life back home?

I'm kind of a loner, so I didn't mind the isolation of living in Korea all that much. I had my books and other hobbies that filled my free time. I found having only one English-language TV channel to be liberating. The temptation to just veg in front of it was gone.

I made a lot of Korean friends, so I had a more active social life than usual. There were times when I just had to shut down the requests for spending time with other people.

Over time, life in Korea became somewhat routine, just like life anywhere. That became a challenge to find ways to keep my life interesting. That's where interests and hobbies came in.

I came home 6 months ago and found very fast that I wasn't as ready to be back home as I thought I was. I'm a certified teacher who does not agree with the latest government education policy, so I quickly lost interest in returning to work in the public schools.

In short, I decided to come back to Korea and am waiting for my visa now.

As I said, I'm not clear what the poster is asking, so I don't know if what I wrote was on topic or not.

[ed4444]

i am back at home now in my original career area but it is still difficult to adapt to it again.

I find myself more interested in reading blogs from people in Asia and other places rather than talking about the usual conversation topics during breaks.

[the eye]

i've been back home for a few weeks now.
it's interesting to experience home again, and overhear conversations from everyone in their various employment and social roles.

on the flight home, i overheard the flight attendants in passing blab to each other about some subjectively insignificant event that happened during the fight.
"ask Marcy about business class", one attendant smirked....
a few minutes later, another one, "did you hear what happened to Marcy in business class?"
eventually the suspense must have been too much for them. they all had a huddle and Marcy told her cute little story about some demanding customer at the front of the plane...
"you should have said this to him, Marcy", one coworker jabbed .
"i would have told him...." another attendant added.
to me, it all sounded familiar to the rants that happen here on Dave's.

now, i've flown quite a bit on korean and non-korean airlines, at least 4 times a year...and i've yet to overhear such conversations on korean flights (yes, i can understand korean)....furthermore, i've yet to have a western based flight where this type of biatchiness DOESN'T occur.
i've actually heard worse...Air Canada's personel take the prize for uprofessionalism.
as for 'Marcy'... the flight attendants' supervisor eventually noticed all of them in their gathering and told them to knock it off. as he walked away, they biatched about him too. "oh, now he's gonna get us all fired"

at immigration in Minneapolis/St.Paul, i overheard airport security joking about what kind of laws they could slap on some traveller who must have been acting suspicious... 'yeah, i'd like to see the look on his face when we..."

and, mass transit here sucks. it's expensive and inconvenient.
the bus is ssssslow. the driver obviously has a million operational procedures to follow for safety...some of which seem a little too drastic. for example, as i was waiting to hop on, the bus stopped in front of me. it came to a complete stop....a one second pause after the stop, and the door was opened.

i watched as this pause repeated for every new passenger.
the door was never closed while the passenger was next to the driver. only when the passenger moved beyond the driver, did he close the door, pause, and then accelerate at a snails pace.
i know a few seconds here and there is nothing to bark at, but when it's 30degrees and there's no aircon in the bus, a person can get a little bothered.
there seemed to be a bus stop every 50 mteres....really, 50 meters. how many stops does a person need? two stops in one block is unecessary.
when a cab stopped in front of the bus, the bus driver didn't even touch the horn. he didn't pull out to pass the cab either. he just sat there, waiting. when the cab left, finally we were on our way again.

the subway is a dark, nasty hole. last winter when i was here, riders thought nothing of putting their slushy, salty, sandy boots on the seat perpendicular to them.

language problems...
trying to correct a problem with my bank, i called a customer service line. i could barely understand the foreigner who answered the phone through her thick accent. according to my sister, she has had this kind of problem at various times with the gas and electric company.

and one thing i've noticed by reading the newspapers here is that when problems happen in government or industry... no one is at fault. no one takes responsibility. then, as the buck gets passed around, everyone eventually forgets about the problem.

image is still alive and well here too. everyone is customizing their cars and polishing them up. ...too bad all these slicksters live with their retired parents.
i live in a very diverse area according to income, but not culture. it's all white here. everyone seems to be flashing what they've got. and when they're not flashing what they've got, they're talking about what they've got.
everyone in korea talks about how image conscious koreans are...but i don't see much difference here in the west. all the girls are emulating Christina Aguillera's sorry attempt at fashion...and the guys seem to like anything that makes them look hip-hop phat or biker tough. tattoos are on almost every arm.

trying to get some customer service in the local department store was an experience i've forgotten since my last visit home. it would have been easier and faster just to get a job there and help myself.
"not my department" is the phrase...

walking through the mall i noticed how truthful all those media reports are about how fat westerners are getting. whales everywhere. coincidently, as i waited for help in the department store, i overheard two girls talking about diet supplements in the next aisle.
i looked over, and saw they were looking at diet aids in the pharmacy section. they had to be between 16-18years old, and well over 100kilos each.
one of the boxes they were looking at fell to the ground. instead of picking it up, one of the girls nudged it under the shelf with her lazy, fat foot.

i went to our local grocery superstore to drool at some of the new snacks i might find.
drool i did. long counters of every fruit you can imagine. fresh baked multigrain breads.
but, the potato chip / cookie / snack food sections are endless. and just when you think you've seen the last flavor of nacho, a new one suprises you from the next aisle....popping out from an impulse buy display case, it looks completely out of place among more healthy foods.

my niece and nephew pressure their mother into buying these snack foods because all their friends eat it. when they go to their summer sports camps, they are laughed at for bringing more health conscious items.
you are no one if you're not drinking a Bibo.

but even the health foods aren't healthy. 100% pure juice reads in bold, but the fine print says it's from concentrate.

before i left the grocery superstore, i noticed a deli counter with a freshly made assortment of wraps and sandwiches for take out. time for lunch, i looked again for some assistance.
no one in sight.
i must have looked desperate enough to be noticed by the espresso girl accross the way. she politely shouted to me from her counter, that the sandwich girl was on her 15 minute break...which just started.
no lunch for me.

and don't even get me started on taxes here!
i look around and don't see much in the way of improvements to infrastructure, so i wonder where this money goes.
it probably goes to support the population base for relentless urban sprawl. houses sit awkwardly backed up against highways and railroad lines, with nothing but a high wall of fiberglass to separate families from the noise and the danger.

and contract law? cheating is alive and well here, too.
my sister's family is waiting for a new house to be built. it's three months behind schedule and the builder just tried to install inferior shingles to the roof despite the speculations in the contract he signed. furthermore, she and the family will need to find some place to stay as the closing date approaches for their current home's sale. when they prompt him about the situation, he hums and haws, but nothing changes. they can take him to court, but they still have to find somewhere to live while the new house remains unfinished. it isn't easy moving a family of 4, twice.

trash is everywhere here, too. i guess it's easy to pass over for the vast amount of open space, but i see kids chucking fast food containers out of their cars quite frequently.
only, unlike korea, there are no old men who are paid to sweep it up.

my conclusion, if anyone cares, is that every single thing that we complain about in korea can be likened to similar circumstances back here.

in the case of korean pushiness, the all out most common complaint by us foreigners , i compare the over politness and touchiness of people here in the west.
kripes, you brush someone the wrong way here and they look all hard edged at you as if they are about to take your head off.
or they want to sue you.

xenophobia in korea??? you should sample the fear out here in the suburbs.

[indiercj]

Thanks The Eye. It was somewhat depressing, a good read nontheless.

You are more creative than we are. You own logic which is the last thing we have. Rationality and efficiency is your strength while our society has no future. We are doomed. Read some of RR's posts and cheer up!

[jlb]

Being back in Canada has really made me appreciate how much free time I had in Korea. I thought I worked a lot at my hagwon, but who actually gets 2 or 3 hours off in the middle of the day and comes in to work at 10. Plus the money/hour is quite a sweet deal.

I'm not sure if I could do the 9-5 here...I might be back!

[Wangja]

Excellent view from The Eye.

[the eye]

[Hanson]

The Eye shows us that life back home isn't as rosey as we sometimes make it out to be. After being here a while, we forget our pet peeves from back home; we forget the things that really get on our nerves and frustrate us.

For me, I remember my deep-rooted hatred of banks back home. They have fees for everything and you have to wait an hour in line. I find banking here much more pleasant and cheaper. How long do you have to wait in line at the bank here? I've rarely waited more than a few minutes if at all. How much does each transaction cost back home? Or maybe you pay a flat rate for 25 transactions a month? Here, I only pay when I take money out of an ATM that isn't from my branch. I can live with that.

My mom sent me a newspaper from home in a package recently. The front page story was about how dirty and messy Montreal has become with a couple of stories on civic groups trying to clean the city up. Throughout the first section of the paper were pictures of trash, wrappers, plastic bags and whatnot lining the streets. I no longer say (like I used to) how much cleaner Montreal is compared to here. It may be a bit better in Montreal, but not by much.

Try striking up a conversation with someone while at the supermarket, waiting in line at the bank, or in a bar. What do you get? You get the 'what-do-you-want-from-me' look. Here, Koreans and fellow expats are generally approachable and nice.

Don't get me wrong, I also go through my "I-hate-Korea" days, but let's not forget how some things back home pi$$ us the hell off, sometimes, too.

[captain kirk]

Yeah, touchy in the West. I was back three months ago and in line at a music shop in a mall. Somehow I ended up doing the Korean funnel thing a little instead of getting in line. You know, butting a little. Which is ok in Korea because one has to be assertive.

Well there was a teenage girl standing there I got in front of, apparently. Suddenly her wiry, pinched face Mom blindsided me verbally and was totally irate, confrontational, while her daughter stood there smirking. It was totally ugly. And I guess I was at fault but who knew the consequences could become so heated?

About airline stewardesses being catty on Air Canada, I hear you. Compared to the gracious dolls on Asiana or Korean air the stewardesses on Air Canada were snarly, middle aged bags. Which is quite a contrast.

It's interesting what the Eye says about overhearing the stewardesses griping like family over some encounter where they aren't taking any guff (which reminds me of the scene in Anger Management where the guy gets arrested for persisiting in requesting his headphones) and that reminding him of the griping on Dave's.

I guess the most shocking thing about being back home was the confrontational bits. Assertion in the bustle in Korea here, done over there, sets people off big time. Like they're time bombs.