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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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 Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Whitegirlinasia wrote: |
I never taught in university in Japan, but I did JET for 4 years and loved it. I regret trying Korea out. I recommend JET. The pay is excellent and usually your rent is subsidized, sometimes completely paid for. Most jobs do no provide housing in Japan. JET will provide an affordable apartment for you so you don't have to apartment hunt. They take care of all the visa paperwork, orientation, setting up internet and utilities. The hours at school are easy and you never teach more than 4 classes a day.
Don't let people tell you there isn't any racism in Japan. There really is, it's just not as apparent if you don't speak the language because people aren't in your face about it. Unless of course you're in downtown Kyoto and the nationalists are out with their megaphones telling the foreigners to go home and Korea and China should give back those islands.
Racism in Japan is the softcore variety that stems more from ignorance than aggression. The base line assumption is that you don't know anything about this mysterious and special country no matter how fluent you get.
I've heard tons of idiots on the train discussing foreigner culture after spotting me. There's a lot of dumb ignorance surrounding the outside world. I had one person I knew tell me they went to Europe and they saw a lot of foreigners. I pointed out that leaving Japan makes THEM the foreigner. It's not malicious but it's present.
Japan is a fabulous place to live and work. But it has it's downsides too. It's very difficult to make friends with Japanese people. They will see you as impermanent. Few people speak English so unless you invest the time in the language you'll have a rough time meeting friends outside the expat community. No one at immigration speaks English for crying out loud. I wasn't really accepted as a fully fledged staff member at my school until I learned how to speak fluently. Then I was treated as an equal.
However, daily interactions with strangers, bosses, services you need will be calm, pleasant and easy. People will see you as a guest and help you out if you get lost or don't know how to do something. As far as daily life goes, Japan is a breeze in comparison to Korea. |
I don't know. If I'm going to have to work my @$$ off, I'd much sooner be in my own culture. In Korea, I still make more money in terms of spending power than what I would in Japan. I don't work that hardl only sometimes. It's definately more strict than it use to be and spending power is going down. Japan just doesn't seem worthitunless you do JET. But, who has time or money to travel to their embassy for an interview and al that waiting. Maybe, I'll try it just to see if I can get in. But I'd prob be a 40 something by then.
Anyways, about the racism, you only need remember Korea in the last decade and up until 4 or 5 years ago. If the Japanese quit being douches with their foreign teachers and paid them better, it'd prob be a better gig. But, they don't. So, they can go suck a lemon. There's other countries.
Just curious, pension seems high. Will it mean you get a lot of money when you retire from Japan and would they send it to Canada or where ever like Korea? I don't pay much here, but I prob won't get much. I had heard in Korea you have pay into it for 10 years though not sure if that's a rule or not. |
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Chaparrastique
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 2:10 am Post subject: Re: Tired of rudeness? Making the move to Japan? |
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| GJoeM wrote: |
| Koreans sure do know how to create cold exclusionary vibes, and how to make people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. |
Koreans are generally passive. Reactive. They don't initiate.
Its quite possible to have a warm and friendly time with Koreans, but usually it has to be you who makes the effort. |
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