Korean Job Discussion Forums

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

I found that when I was in Korea, working in a hagwan, I was fairly crazy and wanted to get back home to get my career rolling, find myself a home, and a few other illusions. Now that I've gotten back to the good ol' USA, I'm finding that life is, well, uneventful. I'm teaching in an intesive english program on a university campus; and in a community college I'm teaching writing to native speakers. But my personal life sucks big donkey...ears. Am I crazy for dreaming about coming back and getting a uni gig there? How many of y'all left only to come on back?

KittyLover · Joined: 20 May 2006

I went back to the USA to be with my husb and. After a few months of working odd jobs that I hated, I finally convinced him to come here. We are having a great time! So no, you're not crazy to consider coming back. I think having had one year's experience will help you avoid some of the worst parts of being a foreigner here.

So what exactly do you miss?

princess · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia

I ALWAYS come back! The US is tooooooo boring for me. Plus, all my friends and high school classmates are either married or still single and all their paychecks go on bull like rent and mortgage and their lives are too dull. Most of them have never even been out of the US, except for one, and that's just because she was born in Japan and she's went back to see her Mom there like twice in all these years. I just don't see myself living my life like they do. I have traveled more in four years than they have in 10 or more.

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

I agree about the US being toooooo boring. I'm simply not meeting anyone here. When I was a student, there were always someone around whom I'd consider my peer. Now, they've all disappeared. In Korea, it's easy to spot the waygooks. Half of them are crazy, and the other half you just avoid. It certainly gets boring there, too. But, there is always someone new coming through. I've been back for over seven months, and I've found no one to hang out with. Being a single guy, well, things are very thin here. I'd pick up and go back to Korea yesterday were it not for the fact that I have a teaching contract for the fall semester here! I love international airports...

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

Well I have the next 7 days off and I'm GOING TO LA TO EAT REAL KOREAN FOOD TONIGHT WOOO-HOOO!

yeah!

had to throw that in there.

But yea im bored. Razz

It's 4:20 pm and I can hear the crickets reallly loud right now.

so quiet

RobinH · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:19 am Post subject:

I know what you mean. I'm returning to Seoul at the end of the month--provided I get my visa, but that's another story. It'll be my 4th time. I've lived and worked in other countries, Spain, Brazil, Kuwait, but I always go back to Korea. It's funny, too, the first time I went to Korea, I hated it so much I swore I'd never go back! Rolling Eyes

Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

rawiri · Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.

Lets be honest here folks. If we miss korea that bad when we get back home it's only because there's nothing there for us, which is only because there wasn't an effective exit strategy in place. Most people who leave Korea don't leave thinking "well i'll go home and get a job doing something and live err...somewhere". Living the life of an expat (in the true sense) leads you to reflect on your life back home and why you felt the need to uproot and begin over.

For the record- im a 3rd of my way through my third contract, it's pretty much crunch time for me.

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

Well, that's not exactly the case; though, sometimes--even often--I think that may be accurate. One does need an effective exit plan.

Well, I had mine. I'm working in a college and a university right now 'paying my career dues.' I could stay here and build on the little base I've got. But, what makes me miss Korea is the sense of adventure. Granted, I got bored as hell there from time to time. Still, I met a lot of cool people there. Here, being young and single, there just doesn't seem to be as much of interest. There, it was easy to say, 'hey, I'm bored as hell. I bet there is someone else also bored.' Then, you go downtown, and sure enough, there were several bored waygooks trying to figure out how not to be bored. Then, the advenure would begin.

The King of Kwangju · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Location: New York City

Omkara -

Go back to Korea. There is always time to come back to the west and get another teaching job.

The West is dull.

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

In 2004, I walked away from Korea, thinking I would never return. A short 2 months later, I was back for a winter camp. A short 2 years later, back for another year-long contract! So far, so good and I'm happy with my decision. Definitely agree about the North America being boring after having lived here. Always new people to meet, more Korean to learn, new food to explore, South East Asia to travel to. Not so much back in Canada. To do this stuff takes a lot more effort instead of it just being in your face.

Imbroglio · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject:

you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

flakfizer · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

I've come back a few times, the first return was an attempt to somewhat repeat my first experience in Korea, but with one of my college friends rather going solo again. The next return was to where things might go with a woman I met here. After I married her, we've pretty much stayed put here. I don't get the people who say North America is boring. To call an entire continent boring is idiotic (Antarctica being a possible exception). If you find North America boring, you are simply an immature person who thinks different=exciting=better.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

How I got to Korea the first time: worked at a construction site and got run down by a hockey player driving a front end loader. He was new to driving. Feet got somewhat crushed. In hospital a week, a cast for three months. I left an offer of a small pension. The Worker's Compensation Board listen to the construction company lie about the particulars of the accident. Out of the cast, still on compensation, I finished my Uni degree and was thus qualified to teach in Korea. So I left glad to leave Canada.

Went back once, after being here in Korea for five years. I didn't have an effective exit strategy. It's so easy to get a job and plunk into another city and job like the last in Korea. But, in Canada, it's painfully ridiculous.
Coffeeshops and newspaper ads, circling the same help wanted ad that comes up every couple of weeks. The Unemployment Office run by smug folk who found a niche and KNOW there are only a trickle of jobs. And that anyone walking into the Unemployment Office has lost already. The jobs being who you know and unadvertised there are so few of them.

So I got a 'job' being on trial 'training' to be a parking attendant in a kiosk that served a medical building. My mentor was a semi-retarded fellow who was good with people in the way that retarded people are able to sense emotions more than ideas. Can read people and be what they want to feel. I actually 'failed' that attempt at employment one day when some biyatch rolled up wanting something to vent about and I just sort of mooned her.

With little job opportunties for the holder of a degree in English Lit and Anthropolgy minor I decided, after that unplanned attempt at roosting back in Canada (after five years in Korea) to go back to Korea. Instantly I was back in Korea.

The time I was back in Canada it was Winter. Six months of snow. I was back there for six months. All of that time was snowbound. People next door had mortgages, houses, yards, two cars. The Tim Horton's donut shop was on the corner. It was so established and difficult to break into unless you really want to be there, be that suburban, built in person. Once built in the adventure would come in the form of toys for boys; campers, pickups, fishing in the northern lakes three hours driving north, skidoos, dirtbikes. But one must have the 'good job' for that.

In Korea Koreans have to be careful and put up with a lot to keep their job. The Korean teachers at the hagwon. Back in Canada one has to be the same.

I prefer the pick up and go, year by year, lifestyle here. Have just as many adventures as the good job guys back home. More, since you need a 'really' good job to be able to get out to Asia, from Canada, on vacation.

I hike alot out here and my foot injury, ten years since the accident, doesn't slow me down at all. But that's because I get out and hike new circulation into the feet.

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

After my first contract I went back to the States and after 4 months realized that the expat life was the one I REALLY wanted. I love traveling, seeing new places, meeting new people...and teaching!! I really found my true vocation in teaching English. And Korea has felt like "home" since I came back the first time, even though I tried 2 stints in the Czech Republic.

I also like being part of a crowd where you can say "When I was in...." and nobody bats an eye or looks bored. They listen, then tell their own stories!