Korean Job Discussion Forums

Muffin · Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Location: Turkey

I started reading another country's forum as I am shortly moving there from Korea and noticed that the threads and type of debate are totally different to the Korea forums. For a start, there are fewer posts and flaming seems to be rare.

Being more bored than normal due to having a foot in plaster and living at the top of a steep hill, I started to peruse other forums. I checked out the one for my own country (UK) and that was oh so polite with a lot of discussion about teaching for examinations. I then moved on to Latin America, again very good-natured on the whole.

The Spanish board was not very lively in terms of numbers of posts and the tone was laid-back.

The North America forum was similar in tone to the Korean forums, perhaps because the vast majority of posters on this board are North American.

There was a similar level of flaming on the Saudi forum and a high level of disagreement over several basic aspects of Saudi life.

So why is this, does it depend on the dominant nationality of the EFL community? Does it depend on how stressful the country is to adjust to?

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Korea seems to get a lot of foreigners who have weird problems. I'd be willing to bet all of us on this board are at least a little bit flaky in more than an average number of ways.

mister_joseph · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Location: we lost the signal

the korean-korean forums are pretty nice if you speak korean you can read them. They are polite to each other consistently. However, this "about korea" esl-cafe one is filled with bunches of young english teachers who don't understand or even try to understand korea. after reading things on this forum, i hate koreans, i am suspicious of everybody, all koreans are so different from me and none share my values, they are all out to harass and manipulate the foreigner. This cafe is particulary hard to compare with others because of the age group and alienation they feel from being in korea, basing understanding of Korea on guesswork and what they hear from others because they lack the input of time and language skill to put in the time to actually learn about this place. We all know many english teachers who fit into that category. They need a korean chaperone or lots of their also-ignorant foreigner friends to get anything done.

I guess I'm supposed to just drink beer, talk English, try to score, and go to Dave's cafe.
(sarcastic emoticon goes here)

I actually met a foreigner who had been here a year and couldn't read korean enough to choose the right direction of the subway line, because she couldn't read the subway map. i think she came here often for poor directions.

this is a strange forum to me. unique. powerful impressing forum. lots of truth and much more BS. Like the WWE of ESL forums.

Yes. I like that. Dave's WWE cafe

Or, maybe, Dave's WWESL cafe.

Rolling Eyes

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Me? Flaky?

Maybe Crispy (but soft in the middle... like most of Dave's hard baked goods...)

DD

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

Dave sperling commented that he was literally amazed that this Korean forum was the angriest of all the international forums.

We could conclude perhaps:

a) Korea is the hardest country to adapt to for foreigners.
b) Korea attracts the worst/unhappiest esl teachers
c) Korea makes foreigners unhappy.

however, other countries have a far worse selection of teachers as far as experience and qualifications go. You're talking a high indidence of paedophiles, criminals and so on. But, they seem happier.

personally I'd say that a) korea is the toughest country for foreigners to adapt to.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

good point

there are too many countries to speak of to spend even 3 months in to make a good comparison.

(though I've had more than 3 months in a few other countries)

From what i hear China is not easy to adapt to either.

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

It's the lack of a proper cheese selection, I tell ya!
Supermarkets here bite!

Look, take tens of thousands of Korean and toss them in some distant country, take away their sticky rice & kimchee for YEARS, and then come back and see how everyone's getting along.

EDIT: Sorry, that was totally uncalled for. Don't mind me. I'll just quietly get in line like a well-trained monkey.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

mister_joseph · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Location: we lost the signal

It is pretty angry. it is also pretty exciting and interested. People generally know they can pull the plug if they want to. It's all just a show. For the audience. For kicks. To get a few bucks and tack it up to experience. Just put on a costume and play the part for a while.

Atleast it's not like a bar room brawl. It's more like a smack-down.

Muffin · Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Location: Turkey

Yes, if you are having a bad day here, log on to the Africa forum and see what the poor guys in Libya have to put up with! It put things in perspective for me, especially as I was offered a job in Libya out of the blue just after signing my Korean contract - dodged that bullet!

BTW my original post wasn't knocking the Korean forum, you guys have all kept me entertained during some of the dullest months of my life. I am just mildly curious as to what influences the tone of any particular forum.

Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

It seems to me like most other countries.. the person really wants to teach there for some reason or another. Some particular draw to that particular country.

South Korea happens to have an incredibly large demand for English teachers combined with relatively easily accessability to getting a job. In addition, there are paid for apartments and airfare thrown into it. The mass majority of people who come here have absolutely no interest whatsoever in South Korea at all.

If Thailand or Brazil or somewhere really really cool had free airfare, free apartments, good salaries, no experience necessary, was one of the most wired countries in the world, and had an incredibly large demand for even unqualified teachers with no experience, etc. Then I'm absolutely positive you'd have a large complaining expat community grinding their axes about the most ridiculous things you can imagine as well.

mister_joseph · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Location: we lost the signal

tiger bear, THANK YOU. very well said.

but a word of warnnig to anybody who has been here for 8 months and cannot read a billboard sign for "noreaebong" in korean!! Your language malfunction is crimping your brain! You have lived for that long in a foreign country and have not even learned the alphabet.
Congratulations!!
You now fit Tiger Bear"s description of the average .....

But, don't worry too much; you don't have to wear the shoe just because it fits:
we always have the choice of being an intelligent teacher or just the run of the mill. Just because you are abroad on a shoestring doesn't mean you have to become lazy about your life and resort to over-generalizations and alienation. And judge a culture just by what you can only see and ignore the other 4 senses.