Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner1]

I notice a constant smoky burnt foul odor in the air that is just making my eyes and throat raw. I also feel sick and fatigued often. There should be a warning label slapped all over these teach in Asia jobs. (just kidding) All the trash is being burned in the streets instead of being recycled as well as local factories making everything from TVs to cars to washing machines are pumping out big time raw air and water pollution into the environment people live, work, and go to school in. And my local area is not nearly as bad as what I experienced in Seoul Dongdaemun gate area. You would think Korea would care about it's own living environment and do something like install air scrubbers on factories and recycle waste, but it don't. I guess if you don't know any better, then you wouldn't know how bad it really is. People will have this sparkling perfectly clean car, but pollute places so bad that the air in a school and neighborhood is constantly wreaking of burnt crud and rotting fish. And I understand Korea is sparkling compared to China so that may be why Korea boasts that it is sparkling, because maybe they do know of worse despite their environment being deplorable condition.

People leave their doors open regularly trying to get fresh air, but there just isn't any fresh air or air circulation in the low lying valley areas where people live except during a typhoon event in or near Korea. At times, it just makes me downright mad that there is no air to breath until you hike up on a mountain trail at an elevation above where people live and work. I often wake up in the wee hours of the morning with this burning air wafting into my window that just makes me feel raw and ill. It's sick, I never fathomed any one would tolerate living in such deplorable conditions. You won't see me in NE Asia next year for sure. I feel that $50,000 is still not enough to stay, much less; only $28,000. This tells me that quality of life is more important than money.


How do you wear contact lenses here without your eyes getting raw in a just a few hours? I find my eyes are bloodshot everyday whether I wear contacts or glasses, but I must be getting soot particles under my lenses. I have experienced this all of my 9 months in Korea, except on breezy days which are rare. In the states, I can wear contacts all day, but here only about 4 hours a day. I tried to think it was low quality contacts, but that just isn't so. This notion was confirmed when I spent 13 days of September in rural Missouri. It was so beautiful there and I didn't want to leave after experiencing NE Asia, but work and money reasons put me back on a plane to the big smoke.

[ella]

I take out the contacts, clean and moisturize them, then put them back in, several times a day. I switch to glasses as soon as I get home. Yes, my eyes are red a lot.

[Draz]

*beep*, am I glad I'm getting laser eye surgery before I go.

[Dedalus]

This post really concerns me. I wear rigid gas-permeable lenses ("hard" contacts) and my eyes can become very irritated on a smoggy day, or if I'm just riding my bicycle in heavy traffic.

Is all of Seoul this bad? What about Busan?

[kat2]

Yeah, I always carry lens solution with me. I have to take mine out and remoisten/clean them about once in te middle of the day, more in yellow sand season. I wear my glasses most of the time I am at home and sometimes when I go out. I've just gotten used to having itchy eyes. I don't wear as much eye makeup here to try and balance out the effects of the pollution on my contacts.
Some people haev said they have switched to the daily disposable lenses after coming here (but that seems like a waste of money and packaging to me, so i've never considered it). I just wear my glasses a lot more often.
As for wearing hard contacts here, I'm not sure how that would go. No way to know until you try!

[ella]

I wear RGPs, too. Seoul is definitely worse than Busan. You just get used to having red eyes all the time.

[mumblebee]

I used to wear 2 week lenses, but I found that the pollution made them very troublesome, and I couldn't easily take them out and then wear them again. I switched to daily wear ones, which are much more comfortable to wear all day, and I never reuse them. They cost 35 000 for 30, whereas I was paying 25 000 for 6 2-week lenses that I would have to chuck after one use anyway.

I think giving your eyes a break and not wearing contacts every day can help too. I don't wear contacts more than about 3x per week, so a box lasts me awhile.

[igotthisguitar]

Electrosmog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrosmog

[Natalia]