Korean Job Discussion Forums

[desultude]

All I can say, Blind Willie, is what the avatar is saying in your last post is particularly accurate this time.

[Corporal]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[desultude]

[mindmetoo]

I've learned that if I marry and my future wife wants upwards of 30 kids, I can handle it. I really can.

[Blind Willie]

[philinkorea]

a really great post i must say

ill finish my second year in a few months and have been thinking how it may of changed me

for one its made me more open minded, well thats obvious. living in somewhere so different from england with totally different people and learning to respect a totally different culture.

- its made me feel grateful for having so much opportunity in the world. realising as a western english speaking guy i probably have the easiest identity in the world and the most opportunity. other people are less fortunate than me, no doubt. (that isnt intended to look down on others or in any sense me racist, im just saying i feel lucky as my adult students always tell me)
- made me feel a sense of my roots and where im from. appreciate my family and realise my home friends and family is really important to me
- me me thing its possible maybe to live a life abroad. made me into more of a survivor. i feel like im capable of much more. like i was brave and adventurous coming here
-actually learned to work hard and the value of hard work and the obvious importance of money, koreans make it so blatant.
- been able to see obvious bad points of my own culture and see good and bad points of another culture, really cool and interesting
- learned how to be a reasonable good teacher
- hopefully been able to save 10 000 000 wan in a year, yippee

yeah its been worth it. i think this post is great. i think it will take a long time after i get back to realise more about how its changed me

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

Hmmmm, I'm a little sad that I'm less idealistic and not as "I want to save the world" type as I used to be. It has become more of "I want a bigger paycheck" to me. Before I came to Korea, I wanted to be in the Peace Corps and save the world. Now that I've been in Korea for two years, I don't think I'll be running to join the Peace Corps for awhile. Not after getting used to easy money and lifestyle. I regret not doing the Peace Corps first.

On the positive side, I have become more confrontational, which is good because before I was a total push-over and afraid to speak to a boss when I felt I was being screwed over. Now, standing up for myself has become a requirement in this country and I feel like I can tackle anybody back home.

I agree with Crazylemongirl that I definitely obsess over my appearance more. In college, I dressed more like a hippie-chick and had short, unkempt hair. Now Korea has rubbed off on me and I have let my hair grow long/straight and keep prissing and preening over it. Also, my hippie clothes are gone and I wear skirts and whatever cute little Korean tops are in styles, along with heel shoes. Whenver I go home, my family and friends laughs at me, saying how "Korean" I look

[teachingld2004]

Korea changes everyone. Some for the better and some for the worse. All depends on where you were (in your head) at the time you came.

I had been teaching Special Eduction in Brooklyn, My worst day here was better then my best day home.

I have become a better teacher for it. I am more relaxed, things dont "set me off" like they used to. Here the kids may talk out or turn or curse us in Korean (and now of corse I can tell), but no one here has stabbed me with a pencil or spit at me, or pulled out a joint in the classroom.

Some of the mothers are quite nuts, and some of the kids are not so nice all the time, but it sure beats dealing with the special ed supervisor, and the insane druged out parents.

I am able to save money here, I had alot of debts to pay off. Now I can stay here 2 more years, and come home with enough money to move to a nice area, find a job, andddddddddd live.

I have made some very good friends here. (also met lots of wackos, but there are wackos all over)

My spelling and typing has not gotten any better, but then again that is what dictionaries are for.

All in all, I do love it here.

[JongnoGuru]

A good thread to resurrect.

Many of the posters talk about Korea having made them tougher, less willing to take lip or rudeness from others, more money-focused and looks-conscious, perhaps less liberal or open-minded, more set in their ways and opinions, maybe a little more prone to generalisations about race & culture, and also less caring toward other people, the world and all the furry little woodland creatures in it.

I wonder how much of this is due to Korea specifically, and how much of it is just a natural result of growing a few years older, spending a few more years in the work force, etc. When you go home, do you find that your friends there have all remained frozen in time? Or do you ever sense have they too changed in ways not totally dissimilar to your own?

[korian]

i think korea specifically does a lot to change you. before i worked in korea for the first time i lived and taught in samoa for 6 months. absolutely wonderful and the negative things were relatively negligible.

following that i lived and taught at uni in bagkok for a year and did a lot of travelling round s.e.asia. again, whilst it wasn't ideal in many ways, especially pay, overall i still enjoyed it and even now look forward to returning to travel in thailand and surrounding areas.

however after my first year in korea i was angry, jaded, cynical, stressed and generally negative towards my surroundings. i returned home to sydney and got the joy back. then i travelled and met up with my k-gal of the time in india and we returned to korea together.

again after 1.5 years there i was dying to get out of there. consequently my relationship fell apart.

for me, i am independent and had done a lot of travelling before i got to korea and got there hte first time with essentially no preconceptions or biases. so it didn't really make me stronger as such. but i do think it made me less idealistic and much more materialistic. i didn't enjoy life there as such so i just focussed on th paycheck. and we all know that you can't live in korea really successfully if money is your sole goal. well you can but it's bloody hard.

as the saying goes, everyone's a socialist at 20 and a capitalist at 40. i think korea just accelerated the process for me. primarily because of the constant battles you have to face day in day out. whether it's language issues, kids and their hellos, angst from ajjossis, the drama of the day - in my time it was apollo ohno, and the two girls getting killed - the stares when you're with your gal. day after day it just grinds you down. it did me anyway.

i saw a lot of people go to korea all bright eyed and idealistic and actually leave with a fair chunk of racism in their arsenal that they hadn't arrived with.

on the flip side, i saw a lot of people find a new home in korea that beat their previous life by 100 times. i think a lot of it really depends on where you've come from, the life you'd lived before getting to korea and your capabilities at home. if you don't really need korea and it's just an experience for you, i think it's hard to like it in all honesty.

but if you have debts or diddly squat back home to go to then you learn to like korea. but if you don't need korea, you don't need to learn to like korea. and for me personally, i had seen a lot of countries that offered a lot more than korea.

so in terms of how it changed me, i think it showed me the kind of person i did not want to be. korea was turning me into that so i left. but i did find my lovely partner there.

[bucheon bum]

this thread makes me feel like I just glide through life. I don't think I changed at all while in Korea. I felt like my life took a pause for 2 years and didn't go anywhere. Sometimes I feel like I just wasted two years. Not that I didn't enjoy my time there; it just didn't help my long-term prospects whatsoever.

[peemil]

I perfected being a complete bastard while here.

[canadian_in_korea]

I've only been here for nine months...and will only have been here for one year when I go home. Being in Korea has really just reinforced for me that my personality and the person I am is very consistant. Nothing has changed for me at all...sure I get funny looks when i say i'm sorry for bumping into people no matter how crowded it is....or when I hold doors for people. I don't really care what people think of me...if they don't like me then they don't have to talk to me...this is how I am in Canada, and being in Korea confirmed that if nothing else I am consistant.

Oh, there is one thing that Korea has done for me.....I have realized that you can't judge a whole nation on just a few people you have met...even if the majority of the people you know behave a certain way you stillshouldn't judge everyone based on this. Am I talking about Korean people? No....I'm talking about American people....some of the nicest, most rational people I have met here are American....and I must say....when I talk to my friends back home who think all Canadians are great and Americans are rude, loud...etc..... I just say....you think so?...well you need to come to Korea and see who is representing your country.

Korea has also made me appreciate Canada a whole lot more...even with all its problems....when I go home...I won't be so quick to complain.

[Rather_Dashing]

Jeebus, another post raised from the dead.



Let sleeping dogs lie!