Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sml7285]

[fermentation]

Well it has nothing to do with "earning" citizenship since you're a citizen regardless of your service, and you have no choice in the matter. Hell, I would have forsaken my Korean citizenship in a heartbeat if it meant no service, and I'm sure a lot of guys would do the same. This isn't like Sparta, I'd have more respect and understanding for Korea's conscription system if it were more like Sparta in some ways. Your service isn't appluaded and respected like soldiers in the US are. Soldiers get little to no respect in Korean society. Your sacrifice to protect this country are taken for granted and it's just "something" you do because you're told to. That's what I was talking about when I mentioned cognitive dissonance.

I agree citizenship should be earned but ROK conscription is a terrible example of that.

[sml7285]

[fermentation]

In your case people will give you props for it since you didn't have to go, but it's not the same type of respect American servicemen get from Americans. Don't expect your comrades to give you special treatment but to some extent, the military itself will reward you and make use of you for propaganda purposes. Take advantage of that when you can.

[holdenbeck]

Sorry for being MIA. I don't use the internet much (including blogging). There were some questions about getting deployed to Afghanistan much earlier in the thread.

I went to Afghanistan in 2004 and so I don't know how much of it applies but there isn't a whole lot of continuity between different stages in your term of service. I haven't heard of good/bad behavior carrying over from boot camp to your permanent station unless it was a reward furlough for marksmanship or something like that.

After you get assigned to your permanent station, the official notice for applying for Afghanistan will pop up and you should go to your unit personnel office to apply. (Of course, you have to get permission from your parents even if they're estranged, your COs, etc.)

If your application is accepted, they have the interviews at a central location (it was Suweon when I went) and they interview the potential applicants in groups of five. They ask some questions in Korean and some in English. The notice comes out a day or two later.

In Afghanistan, there are two units, the Dasan Unit (Engineers) and the Dongeui Unit (Medical) and most of the MOS they want are specialized but of course they need interpreters. There were maybe six of us with the Dasan Unit and only one for the Dongeui Unit, if I can remember correctly.

It seems to me that in order to have your application accepted, it was all about your qualifications (study abroad, majoring in a particular field) but competition wasn't very stiff when I went. The interview seemed to be the deciding factor and it seemed like they wanted to make sure you could speak English well.

Afghanistan was a great experience and not too dangerous. You get paid a decent wage (by normal people standards) and there's more freedom. You have access to American welfare facilities and non-Korean food (Burger King, pizza, Thai food). The Korean mess hall there is also contracted to civilians and so it's much better than in Korea.

With regard to language ability, I couldn't speak Korean when I started my service and I still couldn't speak very well when I went to Afghanistan. I think the main reason I was chosen was because I lived in America for such a long time (because I'm American).

Some people were talking about linguists earlier, which was my MOS, and unless things have changed, it's definitely possible to be a linguist even if you're not fluent in Korean but it doesn't mean it's a comfortable job.

First, there is a different between linguists (어학병) and interpreters (통역병). Interpreters are usually very capable and are posted in places where their skills will be of use. Linguists are another story. There were maybe forty linguists in my company of two hundred and a lot of them weren't so good at English. I would say only a handful were really comfortable with the language.

The reason it's not a great position is because they don't really train you. I didn't get any real language training and had to figure things out for myself. The only thing that might count as training was the unit interpretation officer giving me a notebook from a previous linguist and telling me to study.

Depending on what unit you're in, you might be called on to do interpretation, which is very frustrating if your language ability is not well developed. You have to develop a thick skin because officers will be cussing at you and throwing you derisive looks frequently.

You also don't really perform your linguist duties very often. I was at the Second ROK Army Headquarters down south and I maybe served as a linguist for a couple weeks of the year. The rest of the time you're a secretary or janitor or typing up reports.

I think it (being a linguist) might have been a prerequisite to applying to the deployment but I don't really remember. I only remember that I often wished I was just a normal infantryman.

Again, things have changed a lot since I finished my service and a lot of these things might not apply anymore. Fermentation is a much better source for recent information.

[minos]

It is possible to get out of serving if your an overseas citizen. Call up connections and a lawyer. My friend got a letter that allowed him to not serve(he brother voluntarily served and hated it). Another old guy I know had a father as a judge....he begged him not to serve(he's super hippie) and got out.

I've known some guys in a similar situation who took the plunge...

One younger; he regretted it

The other was older like you. He was assigned to Seoul and just did BS busy work in an office for a few hours a day. Had no complaints but he runs his own business and can spend the time easily.


Every Korean I met hated the army. I only met one guy who enjoyed. He was assigned "photographer" as his MOS and was paid to travel around Korea, shoot pictures, and do aerial photo shoots from Helicopters/planes all day.

He said Army was pretty awesome!

Remember; only one Korean enjoyed it! ONE!

As for your army service being respected....one of the reasons Koreans look down on the USA army soldiers is because they think anyone who would voluntarily join must be a grade A loser. Only the ROK marines seem to get respect and admiration....or people think the ROK marines are psychos who eat dog poop for 80k won a month....yeah; I've heard more of the latter than the former.

I've heard some katusa's enjoyed it.....some rich kids with connections get placed as interns in companies(listed as national defense work).

Some get useless busy work jobs in seoul like assistant janitor in a school.

[northway]

[fermentation]

[sml7285]

So I just got my orders to report to Nonsan in August. Anyone know anything about the army base there?

[fermentation]

It's the Army training center. It's where you go if you applied for a specialized MOS. I'm assuming you applied for Linguistics?

It's pretty big in scale (it's run by a Lieutenant General as opposed to a Major like my BCT unit) and in some ways the training might be better but at the same time the DIs won't give you as much attention since they're more people. Of course, I'm just going by what people who went through Nonsan told me. In my unit, Nonsan had a repuation for being "가라" because ever guy who came from there all seemed to be crappy shots.

You can just go to their official website.
http://www.katc.mil.kr/index.jsp

[sml7285]

[fermentation]

[sml7285]

[fermentation]

Doesn't matter. When you're wearing full combat gear and marching 40km in the mountains, it can be below freezing and you'll still think its hot.

[sml7285]