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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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metalhead
Joined: 18 May 2010
Location: Toilet
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 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
But usually people don't want to talk shop when they're out of work and having fun. I mean mentioning how your day went or some crazy stuff that happened at work is one thing, to rant about it for an hour is a buzzkill. |
I agree. What happens at work stays at work, when I'm out I don't want to talk about work much, nor do I want to hear someone else talk about work; if I want to hear boring things I'll ask someone to tell me about their dreams.
That said, it is odd when most of the people you know have pretty much the exact same job as you, so work does get mentioned more frequently (with comparisons made and what-not). |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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| metalhead wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
But usually people don't want to talk shop when they're out of work and having fun. I mean mentioning how your day went or some crazy stuff that happened at work is one thing, to rant about it for an hour is a buzzkill. |
I agree. What happens at work stays at work, when I'm out I don't want to talk about work much, nor do I want to hear someone else talk about work; if I want to hear boring things I'll ask someone to tell me about their dreams.
That said, it is odd when most of the people you know have pretty much the exact same job as you, so work does get mentioned more frequently (with comparisons made and what-not). |
I think it's fairly unavoidable in Korea. If I'm out with one or two people it's more easily avoided, but the larger the group the more likely the only thing that really bonds everyone together is work. Also, the fact that the hours can be a bit long doesn't help either. |
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leicsmac
Joined: 07 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| That's a bit prejudiced isn't it? I'm sure young single rocket scientists and astrophysicists like hanging out in bars and talking about their work just like everyone else. |
As a taker of one of the aforementioned career paths, I can confirm...Yes, yes we do. We're human, after all, and everyone needs to blow off steam.
On topic though...I think the social scene here (in the expat community) is actually pretty diverse. You've got the hardcore partiers, the travellers, the lifers (some married, some not), people who are a mixture of these...fair few other kinds too. All of them do different things. So I don't think it's difficult to find other expats doing something social that you would want to do too. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:25 pm Post subject: Re: Social life here... |
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| thebektionary wrote: |
Lately I have been feeling really uncomfortable in the "waygookin scene". If I am out somewhere where there are a lot of other foreigners, I just feel so strange and uncomfortable. I don't like Koreans looking at me as "just another foreigner". I'm uncomfortable being a stereotype. It's hard to explain the feeling. I feel awkward in these situations.
A lot of people I meet here just seem so empty. Feeling kind of down |
Maybe you need to look at yourself (find something you enjoy on your own) and see a doctor. People are not suppose to make you happy, you are suppose to make yourself happy. If you don't like your situation in Korea change it. There are all kinds of different people in SK (thousands of them)and anyone should be able to find someone that they have something in common with.
Good luck, buddy. |
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jfromtheway
Joined: 20 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| leicsmac wrote: |
| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| That's a bit prejudiced isn't it? I'm sure young single rocket scientists and astrophysicists like hanging out in bars and talking about their work just like everyone else. |
As a taker of one of the aforementioned career paths, I can confirm...Yes, yes we do. We're human, after all, and everyone needs to blow off steam |
WTF, you are a rocket scientist or astrophysicist? I understand it��s not really what you do, but is there anyway you could send the Myth to Mars for us, so he can finally be where he belongs and never return again? Thanks, we��d all apreciate it. |
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Modernist
Joined: 23 Mar 2011
Location: The 90s
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| As a taker of one of the aforementioned career paths, I can confirm...Yes, yes we do. We're human, after all, and everyone needs to blow off steam. |
Please, please tell me you are not a trained astrophysicist teaching English in Korea. You are just reading this forum for the entertainment value, or something. I feel bad enough being trained at what I do and still teaching here. I think if I was trained as a scientist but still stuck here, doing this, I might kill myself. Even being a scientist here would suck pretty bad, when you could be in California or Switzerland or pretty much anywhere else that isn't Korea. Having to turn off your highly disciplined, curious brain for hour after hour trying to get people to make the 'r' sound right, day after day? 'This is a snake?' 'I go to bed at 10:00?' 'I agree, I don't agree?' 'I think Korea will win?' It takes me about 500 pages of nonfiction reading a week just to keep my brain cells from dying, and I'm no physicist.
That reminds me of those poor Russians from the 90s who started off in the rocket program and ended up in Albany working in convenience stores. The 7 Holy English-Speaking Countries haven't fallen so far as to send off our scientists to teach English, have we? |
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leicsmac
Joined: 07 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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| jfromtheway wrote: |
WTF, you are a rocket scientist or astrophysicist? I understand it��s not really what you do, but is there anyway you could send the Myth to Mars for us, so he can finally be where he belongs and never return again? Thanks, we��d all apreciate it. |
I'm an astrophysics grad, and I'm heading back to my home country later this year to study spacecraft engineering. That in fact is one of the reasons I am here - Masters degrees don't pay for themselves.
As for the impromptu Mars mission - whoever you want to send, they'd have to get in line behind me.  |
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leicsmac
Joined: 07 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Modernist wrote: |
Please, please tell me you are not a trained astrophysicist teaching English in Korea. You are just reading this forum for the entertainment value, or something. I feel bad enough being trained at what I do and still teaching here. I think if I was trained as a scientist but still stuck here, doing this, I might kill myself. Even being a scientist here would suck pretty bad, when you could be in California or Switzerland or pretty much anywhere else that isn't Korea. Having to turn off your highly disciplined, curious brain for hour after hour trying to get people to make the 'r' sound right, day after day? 'This is a snake?' 'I go to bed at 10:00?' 'I agree, I don't agree?' 'I think Korea will win?' It takes me about 500 pages of nonfiction reading a week just to keep my brain cells from dying, and I'm no physicist.
That reminds me of those poor Russians from the 90s who started off in the rocket program and ended up in Albany working in convenience stores. The 7 Holy English-Speaking Countries haven't fallen so far as to send off our scientists to teach English, have we? |
Well Modernist, the jobs situation where I'm from is direr than you might guess, even in physics...just having a BSc isn't seeming to cut it for research jobs etc anymore. So I need a Masters degree. And as the space engineering industry in my country is one of the few ones that seem to be recession-proof, that's what I'm going for. But as I said in my previous post, Masters degrees don't pay for themselves. I had some previous teaching experience, and thought coming out here might be a good way of getting something good on the CV, seeing a different culture and raising the capital I need to pay for next years studying. And it seems to have turned out OK so far.
Agree with you on the boredom aspect - but I've found ways around that - like you, I read nonfiction and study my BSc work to ready myself for next year, and I play a lot of brain games. Yes, the work isn't exactly what you'd call massively intellectually stimulating, but it can be rewarding (as working with kids anywhere can be). And I do try to throw myself fully into the lessons and make them as interesting and educational as possible for the students...it's nice to feed off their enthusiasm when a lesson is going well.
I'm thinking of the couple of years I've spent here as an opportunity to see another corner of the world and meet some new people, before doing my Masters degree and (hopefully) finding an employer in the space industry who will like the look of my MSc. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Modernist wrote: |
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| As a taker of one of the aforementioned career paths, I can confirm...Yes, yes we do. We're human, after all, and everyone needs to blow off steam. |
Please, please tell me you are not a trained astrophysicist teaching English in Korea. You are just reading this forum for the entertainment value, or something. I feel bad enough being trained at what I do and still teaching here. I think if I was trained as a scientist but still stuck here, doing this, I might kill myself. Even being a scientist here would suck pretty bad, when you could be in California or Switzerland or pretty much anywhere else that isn't Korea. Having to turn off your highly disciplined, curious brain for hour after hour trying to get people to make the 'r' sound right, day after day? 'This is a snake?' 'I go to bed at 10:00?' 'I agree, I don't agree?' 'I think Korea will win?' It takes me about 500 pages of nonfiction reading a week just to keep my brain cells from dying, and I'm no physicist.
That reminds me of those poor Russians from the 90s who started off in the rocket program and ended up in Albany working in convenience stores. The 7 Holy English-Speaking Countries haven't fallen so far as to send off our scientists to teach English, have we? |
There are all kinds of people here, buddy. |
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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| There are all kinds of people here, buddy. |
I've heard some people are here because they enjoy teaching, or because they like Korea.
Not sure of how many of them I've seen on Dave's though... |
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leicsmac
Joined: 07 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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| comm wrote: |
| No_hite_pls wrote: |
| There are all kinds of people here, buddy. |
I've heard some people are here because they enjoy teaching, or because they like Korea.
Not sure of how many of them I've seen on Dave's though... |
That's one of the reasons I've been a longtime lurker on here - everyone's got a story to tell and they're usually interesting (even if most of it is negative), and you can get some useful info from some of the forum regulars (ttompatz of course stands out).
Personally I like being here and I like teaching too, but I just can't envision doing it for the rest of my natural. |
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pegasus64128
Joined: 20 Aug 2011
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 1:57 am Post subject: |
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Don't want to sound negative, but foreigners here seem to be more pen-pusher types (or tablet-pusher or whatever) since I came back. Maybe it's the added paperwork needed for jobs. Their blandness will allow them to adapt here nicely, *a-boom-tish*  |
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