Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

Was talking to two students the other day and they were asking me what I knew about Korea before I came here or started to think of coming here. There wasn't much, really. How about you? If you did a word association game about Korea before you ever came here, what would your answers be?

Here were my thoughts.

1. As a Canadian, if someone ever mentioned Korea I would automatically think of Ben Johnson and the 88 Olympics.

2. The War.

3. Horrible music. When I was in high school this Korean kid brought in K-pop music vidoes to show our music class. It was as bad back then as it is now.

4. A pushover -- took a course on Japanese history in uni. and got the impression that Korea was Japan's doormat.

5. Kalbi. Some goos Kalbi restaurants in Toronto.

That's about it though. Before looking into coming here I never would have associated Samsung, Kia, or LG with Korea.

Immediately prior to coming here I was under the extreme misconception that Koreans were very friendly, warm towards foreigners, and respectful towards English teachers. Still have to tell off the friend that told me that.

[SPINOZA]

the months of reading Dave's ESL Cafe before coming: xenophobic and downright horrible hellhole, loony expats, good for saving money, terrible employers, every day a complete nightmare.

before that, before I ever considered coming: they eat dog, questionable methods of slaughter, dogs in tiny cages on public view, hosted the Olympics and World Cup so must have something going for it, hardly on my 'must visit' list.

Didn't know much about it at all, to be honest. Didn't know much about anywhere in the Far East apart from Singapore (because I'd been). My education consisted of European and American things and I was never interested enough to do any reading by myself. I'd say my view is quite typical.

[ChimpumCallao]

i honestly never thought about it, but i guess i knew they were kind of like a japan jr. and i always felt a little sorry for them because i figured it must be hard to be between two such important countries that have such prominance with the west (china/japan).

also, that they ate dog, liked hip hop, and led the world with eyelid surgery operations.

my kyopo friends all liked to smoke and rap and pretend to be mexican.

[doggyji]

As far as I know, China is the world's biggest consumer of dog meat. But I rarely hear those outsiders saying China dog this China dog that. I wonder why. One thing funny happened. One day I went to have dinner with my Chinese friend and her Asian friends I didn't know. Having convos with them, that famous "oh, I heard that Koreans eat dogs.. is that true?" line started.(This time not by westerners.) Eventually I had to get some disgusted looks even though personally I rarely ate dogmeat when I was in Korea. My question is.. why always and almost exclusively Korea-dogmeat, dogmeat-Korea? How has this knee-jerk flashy image relation about that relatively unknown country been well established around the world? From my impressions, if they know Korea is not a new company or something to eat/drink and know only one thing about Korea, it is either the Korean War in 1950s from history class or the dog meat consumption.

[Neil]

As well as the stuff already mentioned a friend of mine used to work as the editor of a fanclub for an obscure band called Rialto.

The band were really unpopular in the UK and he always used to mention the only thing that kept them on a record label was that they sold loads of records in some place called Korea.

[endofthewor1d]

i started a similar thread about a year ago:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=41629
this is what i had to say:

[coffeeman]

Before coming here = K is similar to Japan and much worse than China
After = K is very different from Japan and more similar to China (except for the filth).

[Hater Depot]

I knew nearly nothing. I was definitely under the impression that due to Buddhism there would be lots of vegetarians.

[huffdaddy]