Korean Job Discussion Forums

[T-J]

Korea has started to ween itself from total Microsoft Windows / Active X dependency.

Still a pain in the arse but getting better.

Socially, I guess the acceptance / popularity if skin art has noticibly increased.

[seoulsucker]

Plastic surgery, especially breast augmentation has become much more prevalent. Facial surgery has always been big, but the number of girls packing heat up top has REALLY jumped since 2006.

There are more big clubs here now, too. In 2006 Circle was the bee's knees, but since then we've seen the rise (and fall) of some pretty big spots. Answer, Eden, Heaven, Volume, mASS, Ellui, Octagon, Holic have all popped up since '06.

General manners seem to be improving here as well. People will hold doors, form orderly queues for buses, subways, etc.

The amount of Western goods (i.e. beer and cheese) to be found in neighborhood shops and convenience stores has increased significantly.

And my life has certainly gotten a helluva lot better.

[PatrickGHBusan]

As a visitor since 2008 I agree with a lot of changes already identified in this thread.

Some of the changes are good, some are not so good. Korea has westernernized in leaps and bounds in the past decade or so. So those of us who were there in the 1990s (late 1990s for me) this is good but also kind of sad as a part of what made Korea...Korea is vanishing.

From a foreigner teacher's standpoint Korea is, in a word, more convenient. It is more accessible to westerners in terms of goods, services, support. A lot of this has to do with efforts made in Korea by Koreans but also with the explosion of online resources about Korea. So, foreigners are arriving better informed than we did. There is a far lower "unknown" factor to going to Korea now as opposed to before.

As far as teaching goes, this pre-dates 2006 but, the work week went from Mon-Sat to Mon-Fri, housing went from standard shared with another teacher to individual. Those two things alone are HUGE improvements for teachers!

Korea has also become far more travel-friendly with the expansion of the KTX network. In a more Busan-centric angle, getting around Busan went from ONE subway line to over 4 by now.

Access to credit for foreigners has improved as well (for tourists and residents). For example, when we visit, we use our CC everywhere with no problems. That is damn convenient!

I will say that whatever staring there was, it has gone down dramatically as foreigners are becoming less and less of a novelty.

Employment-wise, the market went from an employee's market to an employers market in 2008ish. This changed the dynamics a lot.

Then again, in the 2000s, Public School jobs bloomed everywhere and University positions multiplied as well. The PS jobs are scaling back for now but that is just a market shift.

As far as foreign teachers are concerned, the crowd, from what I saw is younger than it was in the early to mid 2000s. It is also decidely more American while it was very much Canadian when I was there. The freak wave of deranged wayguks that landed in 1998 has receded to a large extent.

As a visitor, I am impressed on each trip about the fast pace of physical changes in Busan (neighborhoods, infrastructure...) but also at the morphing of that place into what to me (and my wife) is a very, very different Busan that has lost some of its identity.

[nautilus]

You get gawped at about once every five seconds now.

Back in 2006 it was every 2 seconds.



..so...yes..."the stares are less than before"

[xhaktmtjdnf]

No longer do they have those horrible looking gigantic plastic signs above every restaurant and convenience store with failing florescent lighting. I think the new signage looks good and has generally improved the look of buildings around Korea.

[SwissJames]

OK well the first couple of things I've noticed since landing:

There seems to be a lot more variety to the shops and restaurants Seoul- I remember trying to give directions and saying and trying to differentiate one corner with a Baskin Robbins and 7-11 from another was tricky.

More specialisation in the restaurants- the beef place I was in last night seemed to be all organic food. No staring at a white guy eating on his own either.

Pilsner Urquell in the convenience store- boss.

It's good to be back anyway, clear skies, and lots of good eating ahead.

[Garciua]

Would have loved to be able to experience the old Korea/world. It is getting way too generic and small, fast. It is sad in a way. What will happen in 20 years?

[JustinC]

Some places sound like the descriptions here for ten years ago; no western goods or restaurants, hardly any foreigners, bad coffee, farmers taking the bus next to you on the way to school. This is obviously out in the boonies.

[SwissJames]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Interesting James.

I think that compared to when I first arrived in K-land (1997) Korea has improved but also has lost a lot of what made it "Korean".

[The Cosmic Hum]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Thanks Cosmic, otherwise it made NO sense AT ALL.

[Garciua]

[hollakris]

More newer areas, more hagwons, same people, not much has changed

[PatrickGHBusan]