Korean Job Discussion Forums

[krisinkorea]

So, howdy folks!!

So just wondering a few things. This topic has probably been posted many times and I'll just wait to see if it gets deleted.

Anyhow, school closed, went to Thailand, then came back to Canada in 2 days after Thailand, 7 airplanes (5 airplanes in 2 days) and 2 weeks later.

Yeah, you're right. Man, I'm a girl, usually the guys say..."everyone here is so huge." I went shopping and out of my house for the first time today (4 days later) and everyone's ass is huge. The clothes I tried on were too big and had to retry smaller sizes and I had to check twice to make sure I wasn't in the plus size section. I can't stop staring at all the girls and determining their lifestyle, value, choices, shopping habits, etc.

Went to Thailand...and oh my god... Koreans can't speak freakin English. Everybody in Thailand can speak simple English and complex English. Makes me think Koreans are hopeless. Getting a taxi to the express bus terminal in Korea is enough to cause a person a nervous breakdown even when you know where and how to say where you want to go in Korea.

Everything back home has changed, about 4 girlfriends are having more babies. More people are divorced. Everybody looks weird. Drove a car for the first time in 7 months.

The food in Thailand is sooo amazing. I actually started to tolerate and think that Korean food was normal and okay until I went to Thailand. Korean food is horrible. Don't convince yourself that it's great, it's not. Thank god I can cook. Thank god for Thailand and Canada. I went to a pasta restaurant today and died and went to heaven. Nothing ever tasted so good.

Next, I think North America has an eating disorder, a major one, but, I find myself thinking Korea has one too but in a different way. Anorexia looking girls with no asses and who are obsessed with their appearance and getting married is equally disturbing.

So what's up with that?

I'm returning to Korea and not sure why in 3 weeks but I am seeing Canada's follies emphasized equally at the moment. Both countries seem at extremes to one another. Is this normal?

[cubanlord]

I feel you. I am going back to The States (for vacation) in December after two years of not being home. Man will it be different....

Ah F#(K.....now I am missing my family. Thanks alot kris!

[Son Deureo!]

I understand the feeling. Everything seems so drab and boring when I go back home (Buffalo, NY) to visit. Then again, my hometown is a pretty drab and dreary place, a steel town that the steel industry abandoned decades ago and is floundering.

I find myself frustrated by the lack of public transportation. Buses every half hour and they're still slow once you get on them and all too few go to places you really want to go.

Every time I go back, I go to a restaurant and order a favorite dish that I had been missing when I was in Korea, sometimes a Greek omelette, suicide wings, chicken nachos with guacamole, etc., and every single time I can't even come close to finishing. I can't believe I used to eat that much heavy food in one sitting on a regular basis.

I could stand to lose a few pounds myself, a fact that many Koreans are *ahem* kind enough to constantly remind me of, but I look around on the streets and shopping malls and I am absolutely horrified by the obesity I see around me. People in their 20s and 30s who need walkers and scooters because they are no longer capable of supporting their own body weight. What on Earth are Americans doing to themselves, and how can I avoid doing this to myself?

I am shocked to be reminded of just how many homeless there are in our city, and that there seems to be nothing anyone can do to help them. Making matters worse, I even recognise some of them from when I last lived there over 7 years ago.

It's not long before I remember what it's like to worry about crime, and that I have to watch my back as I walk the streets at night. When a stranger approaches you on the street in America, it's not to practice his English.

It's hard to talk to people back home, because they have trouble relating to what I've experienced. They just don't have a frame of reference for it. There's so much I want to talk about, but their eyes just glaze over, or they don't even believe me. On the flipside, I find that I enjoy talking to first-generation immigrants more than I ever had before. Sometimes I feel like I have more in common with them than the people I grew up with.

I do get to talking to old friends and family about what they've been up to, and there seems to be so much pointless drama that I feel like I'm back in high school. Maybe the international intrigue of midnight runs, privates, xenophobia, the clashes and joys of cross-cultural dating, and getting burned by yet another hogwon owner are not really any more important than what my friends and family are going through, but it sure seems more interesting.

In spite of all I've just said, the longer I am in Korea, the more I feel like I don't belong in Korea, and that's not for lack of trying. But it really feels sometimes like home may never be home again.

[pet lover]

Thank you all so very much for making me even more nervous about going back next month after NEARLY a decade here. I hate you all.

[Hobophobic]

Been here 5 years. Last time i went back for a visit (2003)and seemed as though I left my old life in a holding box...everyone talking about stuff I was not around to be a part of...lots of little changes...it's a bit of reverse culture shock...a few scenes...

1. First day at a family restaurant with friends and relatives I yelled Yogiyo!...and complained about how slow the waitress was loud enough so all could hear..

2. In a loud pub later I asked loudly "Why is everyone so fuggin fat?"

3. Same pub tried to order a couple of beers...English didn't work, so I switched to French...didn't work...resorted to Korean...note : loud music does not mean language barrier...

4. Constantly used Korean words/ Konglish..etc... in conversations with others..." Look at that crazy ajjuma...Are you fuggin' babo?....Can I see your handphone for a second?...ARUHTSAYO...and on and on

I think it gets better each time you go back...can't wait til September...

[crazylemongirl]

The biggest one for me was hearing english friggin everywhere. It was like listening in on peoples thoughts. My mother and I went shopping and it almost drove me crazy.

OTOH I found NZ very dark, quiet and boring. I remember roaming around wellington on Dec 30th trying to find a decent place to eat and everything was close. I could have fired a gun down the main drag and not hit a single soul.

[seoulsista]

I just can't wait to smoke some pot.

[Son Deureo!]

[seoulsucker]

When I went back home last August, people asked me what being back in America was like.

My answer?

"Tittie$ and iPods."

[bignate]

The biggest problem I had was not having anything to do......and not being able to walk out my front door and being able to do it....Korea is like a playground, you just have to get out into it.....Canada is like a big field, you have to walk for half an hour before the fun starts...

[essexboy]

Yeah, i agree with the thai food being the best around, their green curry is something pretty special.
the food here it seems, is only a korean favourite if it severely tests the strength of your constitution for the first 20 times of eating it. I am now becoming used to eating squid whilst its family, blissfully unaware of their fate, jet propel themselves around in their tank next to me.
I have only been here a month, and already considering leaving after 6 months, if it weren't for the enormous cost of leaving (flight, recruiters fee, etc.).
This place is ok, but i am regretting missing a summer in London, i swear there is nothing better! -maybe Thailand

[cruisemonkey]

Go to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam or Laos... hell, go anywhere else in the world... you won't be consuming the crap Ks call food.

[davai!]

[ScottyG]

nice to see some of the same things going on in other people's heads. being back here is tough if you ask me. going to korea is much easier than coming home in my experience. when you get home....its like the strokes song plays in the back of your mind forever...."is this it?"

then you have to think....so am i back for good or am i just visiting? then you look for work, and you get feedback from the HR agents and they say "we like your resume, you write very well.....but you need to change it. this is a resume geared for finding teaching jobs."

then i think to myself "hmmm. well what am i supposed to put? those are the only jobs i've had in the last 4 years." and then i see what the jobs pay here, and the taxes, and then i have to get a place to live, a car, a sofa, a white girlfriend, and i have to be satisfied with using my vacation time to go to somebody's wedding. and maybe for a week off i'll go to the exotic calgary stampede. or a CFL football game that only costs a hundred dollars. wow! this is awesome!

and the first week you get back, you see friends again that you haven't seen in over a year, and do they ask you anything about what life was like over there and everywhere else you have been? no. instead they show you baby pictures or show you their new car sound system.

and then your family thinks you are relieved to be back, and in some ways you are for a brief time. they think they are doing you a favor everytime they cook steak or hamburgers on the bbq. and then people make jokes to your face when they havent seen you in a while : "so your back eh? is it me or are your eyes lookin more slanty everytime i see ya hahahahha. i bet we'll have to teach ya how to use a fork again. hahaha. so you liked it over there eh? yeah....my cousin is over there now to....where was you again? korea? isn't that next to vietnam? i seen on the tv there that they are testing some missiles and all that."

Yep. Good to be back. Good to go to bars and watch people line dance to Garth Brooks music (this is in Toronto btw). Good to have to tip again for crappy service to.

I think the first time you come back is about the only time you really really enjoy it. After that it just gets old, trivial, and eventually stressful.
Life in Korea isn't perfect either, but for some reason I felt like I was more in control of my own destiny. In some ways going back feels like a cop out. A way to avoid the real world. But in other ways it is a means of embracing the real world. Who says that being a yuppy surbanite who waters his grass so its green is living in the real world?

I could go on all day about this.

[krisinkorea]

Responding to my old topic. Had time to reevaluate the importance of everything I guess.

Since I've been home, yeah, I'm eager to go back. Luv hearing the replies. I never even looked at the replies afraid of hearing the psychobabble and wanting to make up my own agenda and decide for myself how I felt.

Well, Yeah, at first. I went out for dinner or my ma and my aunt made dinner. Everything was smothered in cream or cheese and my stomach was upset for about 2 weeks. I even had to go to the doctor and ask her about my bowel problems for the past month. I thought maybe I had parasites from Thailand. She said it was probably the milk since I hardly drank it in Korea. No need for parasite detection since my beep beep wasn't burning and I wasnt' barfing uncontrollably. Good to know!!

Next, omg, everything is so expensive. I breathed and I owed someone $20. No kidding. I park my car to get kimchi for a korean party to share with my friends a little of Korea, and guess what a freakin parking ticket. Everything is illegal here.

The air conditioning is driving me mad. I don't know whether to sneeze or get a wool sweater. It's freakin 33 degrees celsius outside and inside everyone is dying from the heat. Subarctic temp that encourages illness.

On the bright side, I've encouraged atleast 2 more people to find Korea and the life outside of this life after graduating...try out another country and open your mind.....just to see....as well, you don't need to make $7 an hour forever and settle for that. One opportunist, being an ex bf who is just finishing 2 degrees and thinking I'm twice as hot now than when I left and half proposing for marriage is highly important when compared to being around 90 lb k-girls and lack of memories with other foreigners (albeit sweet and valuable in themselves) versus long time friendships. But also, to know that you left here for a reason, even though you come back again is highly life changing.

I tell everyone I want to leave Korea when I'm sick of it...until then...I wont' be coming home and having babies...