Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Netz]

Here we go, and I don't know why I'm bothering, except for the fact that your attiude annoys me to no end.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[jfromtheway]

Excellent posts, Netz. And very good writing within them. I haven't been here long, but I've spent time in Korea before my present stay, and there is a lot to be said about the points you brought up, as well as the superficiality regarding the way things are often done here. Teaching is a temporary, future living expense gig for me, but I find these cultural things to be fascinating, as much as some attempt to shrug them off.

Wednesday conversation with my hagwon's "head teacher," when we were the only two people in the room (and I get along well with her):
Jfromtheway: Do you speak any other languages?
Her: I spent a year in Mexico and I speak Spanish.
Jfromtheway: Ah, you speak Spanish? *In Spanish*
Her: Yes, I speak Spanish. *In English*
Jfromtheway: Where did you live in Mexico? How well do you speak Spanish? We should speak Spanish together. *In Spanish*
Her: A little. *In English*
She then puts her finger up, runs out of the room while I stand there alone processing the previous attempted conversation, pokes her head in twenty seconds later and says, "can I ask, how old you are?" I give her my mid-late 20s age, she says, "OOO-Uhh, thank God," grabs her chest, sighs, then runs back out of the room. There's something to this stuff. I partially understand the "things are just different, accept it" argument, but the sociological break-down has much more depth and is always worth talking about, even if it gets done up on this forum more than some would like.

[TheUrbanMyth]

Solid posts Mr.PatrickGHBusan. Unfortunately some will never get it while most will pretend not to get it. I'm always mystified why people think they need to feel accepted by every Lee, Kim and Park. They are not accepted by every Tom, Dick and Harry back home so why this obsessive need to feel accepted here? I suspect that it's not so much the need to feel accepted as it is a handy stick to bash Korea with...but that's another post for another thread.

And for the other posters...as long as you are accepted by family and friends (no matter where you are)...isn't that all what really matters?

Surely if one needs to vent one can do so without making sweeping generalizations that are just plain wrong and verging on xenophobia to boot.

[Draz]

[minos]

Korean parents do want to meet you if your teaching higher end classes or private study rooms. Parents of older kids have much higher expectations.

However, I think it's Korean culture to talk around people and tell the boss directly unlike the west where we just chew out the person you have a problem with and later go to the boss if things don't work out.

I don't think Korean teachers get talked to directly unless they're in charge of dealing with parents.

[morrisonhotel]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[lichtarbeiter]