Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Found an interesting website with stats on Koreans throughout the world outside of Korea itself.

http://www.korea-np.co.jp/pk/117th_issue/99102701.htm

Here are some numbers..

2,057,546 USA
2,043,578 China
660,214 Japan
486,857 CIS (basically Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan)
111,041 Canada
46,916 Brazil
31,248 Argentina
25,669 Germany
12,710 New Zealand
10,836 England
10,412 Paraguay
10,265 France
10,137 Philippines
10,078 Indonesia

They are also in other countries.. oddly Australia seems to not be on this.. not sure why? But interesting nontheless.. and just thought I'd share it with the rest of you

[Trinny]

As for Australia and New Zealand, I heard from the Koreans who have lived in either of these countries that most of the Koreans are there to study for years, rather than to settle permanently.

Quite a few Koreans who have immigrated to Australia and New Zealand tend to immigrate to Canada or the States, as they found that getting a job in the southern hemisphere on par with their previous jobs in Korea is not that easy. After immigrating to Canada, they face the same situation all over again, starting from the square zero.

And a number of Koreans eventually go back to their mother land from Canada, too. I've talked to a guy who once lived in Toronto now working for "Yonhap" news agency. He called Canada "boring heaven" and Korea "Exciting hell," adding Canada is only good for meditation.

Beauty is in the eyes of a beholder.

[The King of Kwangju]

[gomurr]

Most of the Koreans in the Philippines are also there to study English because it's cheap and they are not well liked by the people. It's amazing how many Koreans cannot adapt to another country or culture. Canada boring heaven? In my opinion Korean is a boring nowhere.

[bucheon bum]

yeah and us foreigners become advanced in Korean and never complain about the lack of international food in this country

[sparkx]

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

I've heard this one a few times myself. It always kills me when a student who had been living in Canada tells me how boring it is/was. What kills me even more is their reaction when you say anything remotely negative about Korea.

I had one student a few months back that told me "Korea is much more beautiful that Canada." In the eye of the beholder indeed. What is gawdy and tacky for one man is absolute beauty for another. I still wonder where the idea of man made "beauty" (ie. the incessant flashing lights) being more attractive than natural beauty originated.

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

I know a bunch of Koreans living permanently in New Zealand and loving it. Not very scientific I know, but WTF ...

I have nothing against Korea and Koreans as some people obviously do, but natural beauty? Not if you're from New Zealand mate ... on ya

[gang ah jee]

psychedelic, you've got to be joking, right?

no one could seriously use so many exclamation marks to emphasise such utter rubbish.

[mokpochica]

Actually, most of the Koreans that I've met really enjoyed living away from Korea (in the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand). Some of them were just there for a short while and some settled permanently. All were very positive about their experiences, but of course most of them were people who were younger when they came and worked quite hard to learn English.

The complaint I heard most often from Koreans living in the U.S. (and almost any foreigner living here) is that it is very hard to get around without a car. I agree with them wholeheartedly. In any other country I've been in the bus and subway system has been very good--especially in Korea. Here, especially in small to mid-size cities, we think it's only for losers and poor people. It's really too bad because there are a lot of elderly people that really shouldn't be driving (look at that farmer's market crash in CA) and could really use reliable bus transportation.

[gomurr]

Koreans tend to do the same things in other countries that they do at home. An American friend of mine working in Kangnung went to Guam for a vacation away from Korea. But he booked through a Korean travel agency in Kangnung. It turns out that in Guam he stayed in a Korean style Yagwon, the resteraunt attached to the place served Korean food and the managers idea of a good time was to go to a Korean Noraebang. My friend was extremely pissed off and changed hotels the next day. In Canada I noticed that the Korean University students tend to hang out among themselves and make no real attempt at adapting to life or had any real curiosity.

[rapier]

I met sveral Koreans working in japan when I was last there. Apparently they go there after college to make good money( maybe to pay their debts??). They save their cash and return home rich...
I've also heard that there's been an influx of Koreans into Poor old Zimbabwe in recent years where they open businesses, and live like kings, given the favourable exchange rates.
Met plenty in Oz as well. They kept saying "The air is sooo clean here"!!!

[billbile]

What would be interesting would be to have a look at the percentage of the population that Koreans make up in each of those countries. That will give us some indication of how likely Koreans will be to influence those nations culturally, later on down the line.

For example New Zealand's Korean population of 12,710 out of 4,000,000 makes our Koreans population, our largest growing, 0.0031775 of the population, or 0.317 of a percent.

Which of these countries has the biggest Korean contingent, in proportional terms?

[gang ah jee]

[bucheon bum]

Well then Koreans make up .7% of America's population (guesstimating that the USA's population is 275 million people.)

[Tiger Beer]