Korean Job Discussion Forums

pest2 · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Location: Vancouver, Canada

My first year here, I got seriously sick once or twice. Last year, I thought that now that I've been here for a bit longer, my frequency of illness would be lower. Since then the opposite has been true: I have been sick 5 times in the last 6 months. First with a mild fever and cold, then with a serious fever (then about 3 days of good health), then with a month-long period of pneumonia, and then a 2 day stint of serious stomach flu.

I was remembering that teachers who had been at my first school for a while were always getting sick and I thought this was strange because I figured they would have built up some immunity to viral and bacterial conditions here whereas I would not have that immunity and should be getting sick more often.

It is a serious detriment to be sick here... teaching is not a job where you can just call in sick for any old reason. This is especially true at a private school where students just withdraw if there is no teacher.

So I was just curious about how often and how many of you out there get sick... there was no way to add it in the poll, but if you could say in your post about how long you've lived here, that would be more helpful (wish there was a way to have 2 polls in one thread so as to see correlations but oh well).

Tiberious aka Sparkles · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Your enormous avatar is making me ill.

Sparkles*_*

deessell · Joined: 08 Jun 2005

I have been here for 8 1/2 months this time and had a cold once.

After spending two years living in Vietnam I think my immune system got a good workout.

I am super E> teacher....I am immune to SARS and Bird flu along with most other garden varieties.

Twisted Evil

pest2 · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Location: Vancouver, Canada

Fine then you can add that to your total when you vote.

Homer · Guest

First few months here...was sick twice (cough and eye infection).

Since then, or from 1998 on, I have visited the doctor once for a sprained ankle.

Then again, my family seems to be blessed with robust health.

uberscheisse · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Location: japan is better than korea.

i have been sick one time (i don't count food poisoning) since i have been here. i didn't miss work.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

I eat any old crap (here and back home) so the squirts is an old friend of mine (here and back home). But, apart from that, I've had two minor colds in 5 years. Think healthy, be healthy.

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

The problem is you aren't eating enough kimchi. Kimchi has a special mixture of vinegar and red pepper that functions like antibodies in the blood stream to ward off bad cells.

sillywilly · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Canada.

I found I had a runny nose quite often in Korea. Got the flu a lot less often. And I'm sorry if this is gross but I thought it was really interesting. I never got one bladder infection there! And I , like many women, used to get them chronically. You know how cranberry juice can affect the bacteria in your bladder? I wonder if kimchi does the same thing. OK. It took a lot of gutts to discuss this so don't make fun of me!

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

I can't vote as it depends on the season. I get sick a lot in the winter and not in the summer. When school winter vacation was over and everyone went to their regular schools, they all got sick and shared with me.

I used to think that it was just a sign of my getting older, but I spent a year back in the states anbd didn't get sick even once. I've since concluded that my system cannot handle Korean winter germs.

But it rarely warrants a visit to the hospital. Even when I know I have bronchitis, I tend not to go because I know that their few days of antibiotics isn't really going to help me anyhow. And going to the hospital for a cold (what I usually get) just seems silly.

krats1976 · Joined: 14 May 2003

When I first got here I got sick quite often, probably because I was in Seoul, working with kindy kids and not eating a very balanced diet.

Now that I'm out of that filthy city, working with older kids and eating more fruits and veggies, I get sick very rarely.

Captain Corea · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul

As soon as I stopped teaching children, all those germs seemed to stop bothering me.

I haven't had a cold or anything in over a year.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Sick once, not big enough ot miss school though (and not through being bullied either, I just didn't feel sick enough to stay home). Then again, I've been teaching in Japan and China for awhile. Never been really sick there either though.

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

Funny this thread came up, because I was just thinking today how I always have something wrong with me here. For my little while nothing went wrong with me, but since then, I constantly have something wrong. I get a nice wide array of things as well, not just focusing on the same problems. Although, I am very rarely 'sick', I just always seem to have other things going wrong with me, and they always go away when I go on vacation or go home. However, I don't attribute most of this to living in Korea, I think it is being around kids.

Dawn · Joined: 06 Mar 2004

Pneumonia twice, conjunctivitis twice, and multiple sinus infections the first year. Then, my immune system seemed to kick in. Haven't been to the doctor in nearly two years.

Unfortunately, that may all change Monday morning as I seem to have picked up strep throat. Sad

"Not feeling great" yesterday morning degenerated to 102 degree temp and little blistery things in the back of my throat by the time classes ended last night. ...