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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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 Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:03 pm Post subject: One Year In, Korea's All Right |
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| Been here exactly one year now. Yes, the country's f*cked up in numerous ways and most Koreans are, on the whole, idiots, but all in all it's a great place to live and a great place to teach if you're not in a crap hogwan. I've been shown friendliness here numerous times that a visitor to Canada would rarely see. The pay for English teachers versus the cost of living is fabulous. The country's public transporation system is amazing. There's a lot to do and it's an easy base if you want to travel around. I might not like all the food but there's plenty enough to love. Food is plentiful and cheap and so are drinks. It's convenient to the point of not being challenging enough. Despite what you hear there are countless Koreans who are genuine, genuinely friendly, make genuine friends, and will go the second mile to help you in a heartbeat. Despite what you hear there are countless students who are wonderful and a real joy to teach if you're in the right environment. For a country so densely populated that's only recently emerged from dictatorship, Korea rocks ... 95% of the time, at least. |
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SPINOZA
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul
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| Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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Wise words mate, but I disagree with your assertion that most Koreans are idiots, as you go on to refute yourself in the following paragraphs.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you have a hagwon job and get a public school job in the space of less than a year? |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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| SPINOZA wrote: |
If you don't mind me asking, how did you have a hagwon job and get a public school job in the space of less than a year? |
I told f*cking idiot sh*t-for-brains hopeless b*st*rd wongjongnim-babosaki that I was leaving in 30 days and if he didn't give me a letter of release I was going to call every parent with my bi-lingual Korean friends and give them my honest opinion of his crap academy. By the time we got off the phone with the second he had heard from the first and after a big, feigned 'misunderstanding' (face-saving) we were off to immigration at the next available opportunity. Once again some of my wonderful K-friends provided the boot straps for me to pull myself up with and enjoy a much better life in this fun and never-a-dull-moment country. |
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4 months left
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:34 am Post subject: Re: One Year In, Korea's All Right |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| I've been shown friendliness here numerous times that a visitor to Canada would rarely see. |
That's because they don't see many visitors. Who the hell comes here for vacation other than Japanese or Chinese and most of them are here for the casinos. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:31 am Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| SPINOZA wrote: |
If you don't mind me asking, how did you have a hagwon job and get a public school job in the space of less than a year? |
I told f*cking idiot sh*t-for-brains hopeless b*st*rd wongjongnim-babosaki that I was leaving in 30 days and if he didn't give me a letter of release I was going to call every parent with my bi-lingual Korean friends and give them my honest opinion of his crap academy. By the time we got off the phone with the second he had heard from the first and after a big, feigned 'misunderstanding' (face-saving) we were off to immigration at the next available opportunity. Once again some of my wonderful K-friends provided the boot straps for me to pull myself up with and enjoy a much better life in this fun and never-a-dull-moment country. |
Dude. You got iron balls. A creative solution. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| SPINOZA wrote: |
If you don't mind me asking, how did you have a hagwon job and get a public school job in the space of less than a year? |
I told f*cking idiot sh*t-for-brains hopeless b*st*rd wongjongnim-babosaki that I was leaving in 30 days and if he didn't give me a letter of release I was going to call every parent with my bi-lingual Korean friends and give them my honest opinion of his crap academy. By the time we got off the phone with the second he had heard from the first and after a big, feigned 'misunderstanding' (face-saving) we were off to immigration at the next available opportunity. Once again some of my wonderful K-friends provided the boot straps for me to pull myself up with and enjoy a much better life in this fun and never-a-dull-moment country. |
Dude. You got iron balls. A creative solution. |
I'm sure that having the foreign teachers do telephone teaching where we had lists of all the family's numbers suddenly didn't seem like such a brilliant idea. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 5:48 am Post subject: |
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I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans   |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 6:16 am Post subject: |
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| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
---------------------------------------joined on friday huh... 
hahahhhahahah welcome ... I can see you are gonna be popular  |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 7:53 am Post subject: |
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| itaewonguy wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
---------------------------------------joined on friday huh...
hahahhhahahah welcome ... I can see you are gonna be popular |
Welcome.
You need to keep in mind that a third of the stuff written here comes from bored teachers in need of a good old BS session like we often do back home, one third is ranting as a means to deal with culture shock, and the last third is serious discussion (of which only a third are based on logic and facts). |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
I'm pretty nice to them 99.9% of the time but .1% of the time it helps to show them that I can be a bigger a$$hole than them. The way that wongjongnin-babo treated his female Korean staff, I can't believe that they didn't just conspire to put him out of business. It's such a shame because with one exception they were all really nice people. |
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desultude
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
I'm pretty nice to them 99.9% of the time but .1% of the time it helps to show them that I can be a bigger a$$hole than them. The way that wongjongnin-babo treated his female Korean staff, I can't believe that they didn't just conspire to put him out of business. It's such a shame because with one exception they were all really nice people. |
| Quote: |
| Yes, the country's f*cked up in numerous ways and most Koreans are, on the whole, idiots, |
So this general, dismissive, at best ethnocentric (I'll skip the "r" word), statement is the .1%?  |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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| desultude wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
I'm pretty nice to them 99.9% of the time but .1% of the time it helps to show them that I can be a bigger a$$hole than them. The way that wongjongnin-babo treated his female Korean staff, I can't believe that they didn't just conspire to put him out of business. It's such a shame because with one exception they were all really nice people. |
| Quote: |
| Yes, the country's f*cked up in numerous ways and most Koreans are, on the whole, idiots, |
So this general, dismissive, at best ethnocentric (I'll skip the "r" word), statement is the .1%? |
The point is that they can be a bunch of idiots but still fun people to be around; the country can be screwed up but still a great place to live. And a few of them sometimes need to learn the hard way that there are certain levels of BS that the clever Westerner need not tolerate. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go off to 29 of the most wonderful 3rd grade MS students I could have the pleasure to teach  in this idiotic, screwed up, wonderful, fun and always paradoxical country. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| desultude wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
| I'm sure you're a great guy but please B nicer to Koreans |
I'm pretty nice to them 99.9% of the time but .1% of the time it helps to show them that I can be a bigger a$$hole than them. The way that wongjongnin-babo treated his female Korean staff, I can't believe that they didn't just conspire to put him out of business. It's such a shame because with one exception they were all really nice people. |
| Quote: |
| Yes, the country's f*cked up in numerous ways and most Koreans are, on the whole, idiots, |
So this general, dismissive, at best ethnocentric (I'll skip the "r" word), statement is the .1%? |
The point is that they can be a bunch of idiots but still fun people to be around; the country can be screwed up but still a great place to live. And a few of them sometimes need to learn the hard way that there are certain levels of BS that the clever Westerner need not tolerate. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go off to 29 of the most wonderful 3rd grade MS students I could have the pleasure to teach in this idiotic, screwed up, wonderful, fun and always paradoxical country. |
Aw you sound like a good teacher...shame about your hidden negative viewpoints  |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 3:49 am Post subject: |
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!!!Aw shame- about...Could??%%yOU be the Korean?
Why? Not! Use. Punct  uation????.....
?Your... hidden...negative-------viewpoints!!!~~~~~~~~~ 
Nice to meet you! |
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