Korean Job Discussion Forums

Tiberious aka Sparkles · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!

I think the OP stated on another thread that she will be heading for Hong Kong soon (correct me if I'm wrong).

A very good post. Reading it, I recognized a lot of my wife in the OP's Korean friend. Before going to Canada (where we only spent 7 months) my wife could never understand me whenever I had a complaint about Korea/Koreans. Now, after experiencing what another country has to offer, she gripes about Korea more than I do. This is especially true in regards to how our daughter is treated here. I actually love the adoration and comments she garners, but Wifey is fit to gag the next time she hears "she looks just like a doll!" Anyway, I do hope that the next few generations smarten up and implement the positive manners/habits they have observed abroad.

Then again -- and I hate to sound so cynical -- you can't underestimate some Koreans defeatist, masochistic natures.

Sparkles*_*

matthewwoodford · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Location, location, location.

I've met quite a few Koreans who've lived in other countries and want to go back there.

I've also met lots of Koreans both children and adult who've vacationed in other countries or spent time studying abroad. Frequently when I ask them how Sydney/The Philippines/Wales/Canada/California/[insert cool place here] was they tell me it was 'boring'. Shocked

They go to places considered by the rest of the world to be fantastic places for having fun and they are bored - poor things - cos it's just not Korea.

Has anyone else come across this? It really gets up my nose.

Of course, these are people whose hobbies may be sleeping or playing computer games. If I thought they could understand I'd say only boring people get bored.

peppermint · Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:26 am Post subject:

My guess is that anywhere can be boring, if you're afraid to try new things.

stalinsdad · Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Jeonju

This is the best thread i've read in 3 years of being in Korea!!

kiwiboy_nz_99 · Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Location: ...Enlightenment...

gomurr · Joined: 04 Feb 2003

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it was 'boring'. They go to places considered by the rest of the world to be fantastic places for having fun and they are bored - poor things - cos it's just not Korea.

My guess is that anywhere can be boring, if you're afraid to try new things

Part of the problem is that Koreans just can't relate to the country they are in. I had 1 kid who had been to both Everland and Canada's Wonderland claim that Everland was better. when I asked him what rides he went on at Wonderland he mentioned all the little kid rides and this was when he was in middle school. He was to scared to try the big rides

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

My experience has been that it's usually easier to relate to Koreans who have spent, say, at least six months out of Korea. And several with years elsewhere seemed eager to go back or somewhere else. I have also met some fine people who hadn't spent a week out of Korea in their years. Ones who hadn't been to Seoul even, or Itaewon (exposure to a good number of non-Koreans at least). The ones who always want to remain with the familiar are kind of a sad lot. They are unwilling to try new foods or assume they won't like them. Self-fulfilling prophecy there. And the ones who think Cheju-do must be the greatest place ever! (Though never been out of Korea.) That is sad. Just got back from Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, etc... boring??? Fortunately they are a minority.

An entire life spent in a closet.

VanIslander · Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:26 pm Post subject:

My Korean adult students have told me many things they don't like about their country, and several have expressed a desire to move to Canada or America to have a better future for themselves.

Even my middle school students have said they want a better environment, want dogs to be treated better (many students do, some don't), and think their future in Korea wil be difficult. The downturn in the economy is fueling much pessimism, according to some koreans.

One Korean friend has told me that Koreans are basically unhappy people who learn about a long history of misery with only a faint hope for the future. Korean pride isn't false, but it's hollow.

peppermint · Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:36 pm Post subject:

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Well, I am not baiting the hook by saying this, nor Korea-bashing, but Koreans just don't mix well.

I taught a lot of Koreans in Canada, and the majority of them didn't like their time there. They went to the library a LOT to study, ate Korean food cooked at home, a place where 3 or 4 of them lived together, spoke Korean exclusively and drank heavily. They were also, interestingly enough, the ones most often absent from classes, due to sleeping late.

They didn't like Canadian food and only shopped at the local "Arirang" Korean food store. They had classes for 5 hours per day, and then went home or to the library.

Honestly, it was like they had a chip on their shoulder about something; a gripe that was unsettled and couldn't be rectified. They complained about the school a lot too...even opened a website just to complain about the school when they got back to Korea.

Of course, this was not the case for ALL Korean students, but 90%, for sure. Very bad travellers and very resistant to other cultures.

The Japanese and Chinese students on the other hand, were amazing.

Outgoing, always going and doing things, meeting people (they had more Canadian friends than I did), trying anything and everything...they really lived it up and enjoyed their stay tremendously.

Oddly enough, the Koreans kind of wanted to claim me as their own. My wife is Korean, I speak Korean, I understand how they are...this set the stage for my unwanted induction into their odd lives in Canada. I refuted their advances, and continually prodded them to get out more...my wife and I even had social arranged at our apartment, but few Koreans would come. Finally, we both just gave up on them and hung out with the Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese and South American students.

Abroad for study, they are a very closed group. They return to Korea not much more culturally or linguisically aware than when they left. It often begged the question "Why did you come at all?"

I did meet some really cool Koreans in Canada as well, and I maintain contact with them to this day. Those are the ones who this thread talks about....the sponges, not the stones.

TheMrCul · Joined: 09 May 2003 Location: Korea, finally...

TheMrCul · Joined: 09 May 2003 Location: Korea, finally...

TheMrCul · Joined: 09 May 2003 Location: Korea, finally...

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

coolsage · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:16 am Post subject:

I just wrapped up a free-talking (and who came up that particular oxymoron?) class, a group whose members had lived and traveled in Europe, Canada, America and Australia. They are as different from the xenophobic locals as chalk is from cheese. They returned to Korea because they ran out of money, not out of nostalgia for the 'Termite Kingdom'. But if they choose to stay, it is them and their ilk who will drag the rest of the nation, kicking and screaming, into the contemporary world.