Korean Job Discussion Forums

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

if in the next few months you decided it's too iffy with bush at one end and kji at the other, and you in between, what would you do and where would you go? i've been here in korea six years, and i've never seen such a kettle brewing. the situation has been discussed in other threads here. and how would you feel about leaving? especially if, once gone, it turned out to be a lot of fuss over nothing.
i like korea and koreans, but their grudge with foreigners over the years hasn't lessened. the kids in the hagwons are basically wonderful. but students are fickle and they do what their mothers say. just like anyone is fickle shopping for the best value; a cram school is a business to be rated, along with the teacher (sure, we have GREAT moments, but 'all is change, eternal progress, no death'). if i wasn't present for having left someone would take my place (one poster here has a quote, 'there are 212 different ways of teaching'). on the whole i feel like i'm a 'neccessary evil' to the parents.
and the korean men who spit, mutter something to their wife about wanting to punch out the foreigner, to which the wife says 'don't touch'. if i were somewhere else i'd look back on korea as a wonderful place, and wonderful years here, flush with good pay and discoveries. but a stickler is getting the impression from so many korean guys that a foreign male is an unwonted eyesore spoiling the 'korean way', which is homogenity. 'korea is for koreans'. this phrase came to mind years ago.
so i don't feel that i have any 'ties that bind'. i have no grudge against koreans, and RARELY 'vent' in 'this way', but it seems like my role is to be docile here. do my job as best as can be expected, from (apparently) the korean's perspective, 'for a foreigner'. there's this ever-present hierarchy, and chip on their shoulder re; 'defective koreans'. i get the impression that foreigners are seen as 'defective koreans'. when i first started working here the phrase 'being a black in mississippi' came to mind. i can understand the feelings of minorities everywhere. being socially blocked by this 'handicap', not being accepted as an equal, is a sack of sh*te. i 'respect' korean culture, the korean way, but only with the qualification that my 'regard' is like that of one deliberately oppressed. take the rafting trip described by sparkx where he was hazed for daring to be the 'equal' of a korean man, by being on a date with a desirable korean woman.
it's korean history and culture, and it's carved in stone, apparently.
all's to say that there's enough anti-foreigner antagonism i don't feel a 'ghost' like me would be missed. and re; leaving, the korean attitude always seems to be 'it would restore the homogenity'.
i love korea, and it tears me up to say the above, which is like a 'goodbye', but i doubt any korean would understand how much i want to give a good impression, but don't seem to give a damn either way given their hostile groupthink towards 'outsiders'.
that said i'd go to thailand and get a celta. then maybe go to china. i've heard just by reading dave's china board that the racism/prejudice is more entrenched there. but a person is free to roam and find out for themselves. like korea it's likely a wonderful place where the people are blessed, but with a few 'national personal problems'.

chi-chi · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

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captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

hi chi chi. i won't apologize for the heavy load of 'sentiment'/'melodrama', but, for everyone, the question is 'WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND WHERE WOULD YOU GO?'. i got so caught up in my pre-emptive sayonara speech to 'no-one' that i neglected to include the point of this new post, what would YOU all do? and, maybe, how would you look back on your time here, korea and koreans? to ask 'would you feel you made a difference?' is ridiculous. but how has korea changed you? how would you feel about leaving and in what ways would it feel like 'leaving home'? what kind of 'home' has korean been? that kind of stuff. to a degree it is the motherland for a time for its temporary residents. look at it that way and answer.

chi-chi · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

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captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

one poster here quotes, 'poor is the man whose pleasure depends upon the permission of another'. what's left, ambivalence? another poster once said that long-timers in korea tend to make a home in a climate of ambivalence and thus a prison of sorts. i agree. there's also a saying, 'don't decorate the walls of your cage', meaning recognize, and move out. no sense being blind to a lack of freedom, that's asking for it in a way. korea grows on a person, like a 'motherland', but there's a distinct lack of reciprocity.
and what would you do and where would you go?

Zyzyfer · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2003 6:18 am Post subject:

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

how 'bout (to the tune of 'home on the range'), 'where nowhere is heard, that 'foreigner' word, and the skies are not cloudy all day...'.
pitch into this cybernetic sea YOUR message in a bottle re; WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND WHERE WOULD YOU GO?
PLUS, if you respond to the additional question, 'how would you feel about korea if it would soon be in hindsight?'/'what kind of a 'motherland' has korea been to you?', receive a cyber- booby/door prize but only IF you act now! now be honest...

canuckistan · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2003 9:20 am Post subject:

I'd go home, slide right back into my cabin, and finally finish the 2nd floor.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

with solar panels and a basement bomb shelter next to anda's? cool!
what would everyone else do, heading where?

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

Interesting post. I'm heading back to Seoul this coming Friday. Have mixed feelings about returning- sort of like watching your mother in law drive off a cliff in your brand new Jaguar.

I'm sort of hoping that the airline is overbooked so I could enjoy another day in Vancouver and/or Tokyo. That would be something. Hands up all who want to stay another day at the hotel and get a free ticket to anywhere Japan Airlines flies in Asia!

Anyway, I'll probably be back in my villa in Seoul in a few days possibly feeling a little like Rat Leota's character at the end of "Goodfellas"- stuck in suburbia.

But, you know the truth is, I do love living in Seoul. I have my routine, my wife, her family, friends, , community, playing music, teaching, counseling and other work, playing and am very content.

I'm not out to change how people think. I just want to be myself- to love and care in the best way I know how. The point to learn is not- how do I live in Seoul? But rather, how do I live with myself, wherever I may find myself at a particular period of my life.

Believe it or not, there are many that enjoy living in Korea and Seoul has a way for becoming a "drug of choice" to some of us.

I hope that ou all find what you are looking for.

Cheers,
Harpeau
Feeling bittersweet about leaving Vancouver in 2 days.

canuckistan · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2003 5:54 pm Post subject:

Kirk, you're so funny. I DO have solar panels and I'm very proud of having a fully-functioning eco-friendly house completely off the grid. Don't have a bomb shelter though.

mishlert · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Location: On the 3rd rock from the sun

I agree with Harpeau, "I'm not out to change how people think."
I've been in Korea for 3 years now, and I love it; never a problem with anti-American/Westerninsm.
I have my girlfriend, friends, and my own life and if any Koreans have any negative thoughts about us, well, it's theirs.
There is a great line in the film Adaptation, "We are what we love, not what loves us."

Butterfly · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Kuwait

BTM · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Back in the saddle.

Well said, Captain, although a few capital letters might not have gone astray.

Me, FWIW, I'm waiting for my visa for Australia to be approved, and probably hitting Thailand for a while while I'm waiting.

I have a suspicion I'll be back here at some point, though, eventually. Damn it.

Drug, yes, but not necessarily drug of choice.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

jeez, i get korean guys spitting as they go by as if to say, 'you aren't wanted' enough times that the attitude, 'well, if anyone has any bad thoughts about me, they're THEIRS' is just out of reach, being closer to getting phlegmed. if the society is 'telling you' you are an 'alien' and you feel alienated no wonder! sounds like you resist this sack of sh*te by making your own little world starting with a colony of people positively disposed towards you, and *beep* the rest. 'it's not what life does to you, but what you do to life'. love and acceptance isn't a cupboard, it's mutual interest between two living things, not obtaining things. not passive and 'living a drag'. 'motherland' in this respect sounds like 'cupboard love'. waiting for a cookie or to be rescued. but a reminder of the thread's central core;

WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND WHERE WOULD YOU GO? how would you regard korea once in hindsight, and what kind of 'motherland' has korea been in your regard?