Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pest2]

Ok, so someone put up a thread, "are Daves ESL posters too negative." In all fairness to consideration about the true purpose of internet forums and what attitudes of its users SHOULD be, I thought it necessary to start a thread and poll, "are Dave's ESL posters too positive?"

After all, as it was mentioned in that other thread, people get enough superficial, untrue statements about the joys and beauty of Korea and Korean culture at work. They have to just sit there and agree with those things on the outside while on the inside they wanna vomit.

Some or other of those early Greek philosopher guys as well as some notable later ones would say that best path to truth about the nature of the universe lies in a dialectic about it. In a discussion about the 'good' of living in a place, peoples arguments often take the shape of 'positivity' and 'negativity' because those arguments are made on the basis of thier own personal experiences as well as experiences that affects the views of others who contribute. So what some people see as 'bad attitude' and 'good attitude' about living here are hopefully only arguments about TRUTH...

At any rate, in my opinion, we need those goody goody apologists because without them, we have no one to argue with and shortly thereafter we run out of a means for complaining.

[jacl]

Edit

[tomato]

Here is a compilation of standard responses which tend to come whenever anyone says anything positive about Korea.
I keep this list on file and use it whenever the need arises.

�� "If you see anything good about Korea, then you are not looking deeply enough under the surface. In fact, you are a naive, gullible, fool."

�� "You can't possibly be happy here. You must be compensating. You're like a white person who shakes hands with every black person he sees."

�� "If you're better off here than you were in your own country, then you must have been a real loser in your own country."

�� "If you're loyal to Korea, then you're a traitor to your own country. You didn't give a hoot in hades what happened on nine-eleven, do you!"

�� "So you like Koreans better than you like us, huh? All right, then, reject us! See if we care!"

�� "What right do you have to be happy when we are unhappy? Don't you know there is a Law of Conservation of Happiness?"

�� "Oh! So you're happier than we are! So you must think you're better than we are! Well, touch you!"

On this thread, we have heard Responses numbers 2 and 7 already.

[little mixed girl]

i think posters on dave's are too horny.

[pest2]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I love my job. I love my students. I love my co-workers. I have my own house. I get paid well and on time. I can live like a king and still save lots of money. I can go on nice holidays to nice places. I had a nice date with a K-girl last night (all right she was a past-her-expiry-date weirdo but still a nice person). Today is the first day of school and I get around 100 new students I can hardly wait to meet. Teaching here is fun and rewarding. I like most Korean food. Eating out here is so cheap. Beer is always in steady supply. I like my gym. I have decent cable TV. I like my cat (even if she does scratch things up). I'm 50 metres away from some great hiking trails that lead to great views. The air is very clean where I live. I'm still close enough to a major city that I can enjoy cheap entertainment whenever I want. The eye-candy in Daegu and Seoul is incredible. I know a number of guys from Dave's in real life and they're all very nice people and fun to hang around with. I have nice foreign friends across the country. I also have lots of Korean friends whom I really enjoy seeing. The Koreans who know me are so kind and generous.

Korea is a happy, happy, happy place for the foreigner willing to put in minimal effort, ignore the little kids and odd ajoshi-babo, and occasionally exercise some spine.

[nautilus]

[periwinkle]

I think you need balance- there are some really positive people, some negative people, people in-between, people having good days, people having bad days, etc. If there wasn't a range of attitudes on this board, I think it would be boring. Disagreeing with people is fine, as is agreeing with people- it's a public forum, and people have a right to their opinions, a right to express them, and (usually) reasons behind those opinions. A lot of people come here to debate, I think. If there's nothing to debate, well, IMO, that's boring, too. I come here for entertainment, though, so I guess it depends on your reasons for coming to the board. Sorry if I'm babbling...

[Xerxes]

[nautilus]

[JongnoGuru]

[Rteacher]

Yeah, Dave's posters are probably too positive - HIV positive from poking everything that moves... It's also probably not a good idea for foreigners to brag about their real and imagined conquests of K women - and girls - especially when this site is reportedly monitored by concerned Koreans eager to tip off the mass media to more scandalous foreign teacher stories...

[Xerxes]

[Satori]

[Rteacher]

I guess some fairly new posters here aren't familiar with the spate of negative publicity - on major Korean TV networks (including simulated re-enactments...) because outrageous posts made on the English Spectrum website by idiotic ex-pats bragging about how easy it was to have sex with underage Korean girls, etc., somehow came to the attention of government officials and the media. It went on for months, and there were numerous incidents of anyone resembling a western male teacher being attacked by young Korean men looking to redeem the honor of Korean women. Combined with allegations of widespread fraudulent degrees (also flaunted in forums...) it definitely lowered opinions of western teachers in the minds of most Koreans. Site moderators and administrators are vigilant that a similar scandal doesn't recur because of stuff posted here, but posters need to be responsible - and aware that anything stated here can be used against the ex-pat community as a whole, further fueling anti-foreigner sentiment and worsening the workplace climate...