Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rai]

[TECO]

[capebretoncanadian]

Been to Japantown three times now. I agree with a lot of the good things said about the country. It's pretty sweet where I've been....Fukoka...Osaka....Shimonoseki....I forget the name of the other place but it was bomb. However any place that cahrges you six bucks to get in the door of a taxi is overpriced....

[Medic]

The restaurant chain was "sizeria". Something like that. They were quite popular in the area where I was living, but that had to top the lot man. Charging more for their god---ed food after midnight .

We don't eat Ramyon and Noodles in Korea. Sorry. Foreigeners don't eat Ramyon and noodles in Korea. That's the low class food and it costs peanuts. We eat full on meals of either beef or twegi for the price you paye for your sh-t in Japan. Ok and no sh-t either.

Hey common man my Japanese friends used to wait for closing times at the department stores so they could buy exorbitantly priced salads at half price. They were selling marrionated chicken of subgrade quality for Y2000 in your fancy department stores too. I got back to Korea and bought much more of it at a much higher quality for 500Y.

OK you got good food over there, but you gotta paye for it. Then you probably get stuck next to some sh-t head who smokes without any consideration for the person next to them. Either that or the smoke from the smoking section wafts over to the non smoking section.

In Korea they have excellent food and you don't gotta paye for it. That's esentially what it is compared to what you paye in Japan

They got those cheap places in Japan alright, but there is usually a que of poor souls lined up outside waiting to get in to get a place. I can't help it if that's the sh-t you gotta put up with.

I ment the intercity buses charge more during high season. Not inner city.

Like I said there are good points about Japan, but there sure are a hell of a lot of bad points too.

I was working in a good situation, and I had pretty much everything I wanted, but I had a lot of other expat friends who weren't quite so fortunite. That seems to be the way it is with the majority of them.

[Medic]

Teco

The Jet programe In Japan payes more, but you have to apply for that in your home country. That's the only programe in Japan that provides rent free housing. The paye is the best to. Unfortunately you are underutilised from what I understand, and a lot of teachers opt out. But hey for that money what the heck.

If you can't get that then you get stuck with jobs that paye a lot less than Korea

[rai]

[Lemonade]

[Lemonade]

Japan the good, the bad, the different and the strange:

Good:
1. Japanese = politeness
2. GREAT food!
3. GREAT service - OMG I'm being treated like a REAL customer and not like some waygookin!
4. GREAT Reggae Music EVERYWHERE!
5. Generally VERY welcoming towards westerners
6. Clean bathrooms
7. Things run orderly - i.e. subways, streets, police officers
8. Amazing bikes and even better drivers
9. The feeling that you are in the PLACE where things are happening like no where else on earth.
10. The people watching is incredible!
11. Check out those unique styles- fashion, hair, hats, makeup - wow!
12. Are those trees?! OMG I think I just saw a forest! I did, I did.
13. Are the local expats cool? You bet!!!
14. You mean they have real pubs here in Japan?! YEP!
15. You mean they have a VARIETY of ethnic foods under one roof? Of course.
16. Can I make it down the street without dodging puddles of spit and puke? For the most part YES!
17. When I speak English, will people seem aggitated, stare etc.? NO, not at all. You can speak English all you want and no one seems to mind.
18. Can I speak English with the Japanese without being laughed at or treated with indifference? Absolutely!
19. Will I be treated like a second class citizen in Japan because of my race? No WAY!
20. Leave your wallet someplace. Walk away. Look at your watch. Count the number of minutes before someone tells you about it. Or come back twenty minutes later and you'll find it safe and sound right where you left it - all your cash safe and sound! Been there done that!
21. Will Japanese strangers ask me rude questions or make rude comments when I first meet them? That's highly doubtful!
22. Can I trust my employer to pay me and pay me on time? No Doubt. To not do so would be to lose face.
23. Will my employer lie to me and jerk me around in Japan? Seriously doubt that!
24. Saki, Saki, Saki, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
25. Wow, he/she smiled. OMG the Japanese really SMILE!

The bad, The strange:
1. Subways are EXPENSIVE in major cities
2. Taxis are highway robberies
3. Housing is cramped
4. Put the money in the tray. Take the money from the tray. Cooties
5. Decent hotels at decent rates? Yeah RIGHT!
6. It's one very unstable economy that shows a LOT of signs for serious future problems. No wonder there's over 30k suicides per year.
7. Why on EARTH are those kids dressed like THAT?!!
8. What's up with all those comic books and why are they always next to porn mags on every street corner?!
9. Travel in Japan - save up because it's expensive.
10. Why is it so hard to get to know them?

[Len8]

I was looking at the adverts for jobs in Japan, and they all make big deductions for accomodation. Does that leave you guys with much to live on.

In Korea just about all jobs provide you with housing. Those that don't , don't get any takers. Salaries or whatever have been going up slowly and there is a lot of part time work. In some cases there are jobs approaching what they paye you in Japan before they take out your accomodation expenses.

I've read that the paye over there isn't going to change in the future either .

I have read that the atittude to english learning over there generally sucks too. They have everything and almost won the war, so why the hell do they need to learn English. Is that generally the Japanese mindset?

Someone told me that there are never ending forms you have to fill out to do the simplest of things. A barrage of forms to get a banking account, a barrage of forms to get a post office account, and waiting as well.

[rai]

I guess Japan is more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I never hear people rave about Korea; the most I hear is people saying, "It's not THAT bad." or bragging how well they "deal with it." It sounds grim.

People do rave about Japan, though, me included! It depends on why you're in Asia, I guess. If you're here for a year or two, and want to make as much money as possible in the shortest time, then I guess you want to live in the cheapest place possible (although again, in Japan you can teach as many private lessons as you can handle). Some people seem to hate asia, even though they live here (witness the poster above bragging how he never eats ramen or noodles???!!!).

If you're here for the long-term, quality of life is more important, and from what I can see, Japan wins that competition.

To each her own...

[Medic]

PC bangs are few and far between in Japan. Those that you do find cost the earth. They are at least W5000 /30minutes.

I did manage to find a PC bang for free though, and it was run by Yahoo BP or (whatever it's called). Actually bought a used laptop from them at quite a discount. They had a special in which they were off loading about six of them. For the life of me though they wouldn't accept me paying cash over the counter or using a credit card. I had to deposit the money in a certain bank account on a certain day. Talk about a cracked in the head mentality when it comes to making payments. To top it off they wouldn"t accept the address I had written down of where I lived as being correct. Would you believe that. Who gives a flying fu--. I knew where I lived. They wanted to see a goddam-d bill with my adress before they would OK the transaction. Oh man. I wanted to yell at them "delivery people aren't stupid. they are quite capable of finding me, you morons".
I had to go back to my house retrieve a bill and then everything was gonna be OK. I could even see that he workers being nervous about all the bullshit I was having to do to get the frigging computer.

That put me off Japan big time.

Like I said and I'll say it again "no foreigeners eat ramyon in Korea as a regular meal the way you guys do in Japan"

I also have an international drivers license, but do you know that your *beep*--g hosts refuse to acknowledge it after a year of driving, because they want to charge you $1000 dollars for a new license. Didn't always used to be that way, but as usual they (the god-ed japs) found another way to be greedy.

I might say that the miniskirted school girls are a beautiful site to behold. Panties and all. Could sure do with that being transplanted to Korea.

[billybrobby]

I could give a damn about clean streets and sidewalks. The politeness, the smiling, the customer service, the good driving, who cares? it's boring. and frankly, i enjoy spitting in the street.

The only thing that gives me the nagging feeling that I should've been learning Japanese is the culture. specifically the modern culture. sure, they copy tons of american and western stuff, but they are really producing some amazing art and fashion over there. stuff that simply doesn't get made anywhere else in the world. can we say that about Korea? a little bit, but there's not the wonderful depth and variety that I've seen in japan.

In Korea, I feel like i'm hipper than everybody else and they're playing catch up to me. In Japan, I got the feeling that they are on to stuff that I don't even know about and I gotta catch up with them.

[rai]

[capebretoncanadian]

I don't how you qualify ramyen as 'local cuisine' rai. You can find that stuff anywhere on Earth. Like there and here and everywhere else. It's unhealthy, cheap.....JUNK.

[mithridates]