Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cognorati]

Curious as to the demographics of the people living in working in Korea, and how it's informing their experience here...

[laogaiguk]

[normalcyispasse]

[VanIslander]

I don't come from a class conscious society.


You Brits!

[bejarano-korea]

My old man had a succession of different jobs, he was a soldier for 12 years reaching the rank of sergeant before becoming a bus driver, a factory supervisor, an insurance salesman before opening his own newsagents shop - that closed down and he worked as a security guard for the last 12 years of his working life, he went to the university of Liverpool and graduated this last year with a honours degree in history at the age of 72.

My mum was a housewife before the said shop closed down and she sewed football shirts in factories around the Wigan/Warrington/St Helens area, she went to Liverpool university and graduated at the age of 57 where she became a Spanish teacher.

We as a family lived in both private and rented council accomodation, which demographic we fitted into? Who knows!

What are we? The funny thing is the class system is becoming more blurred in the UK with working families being able to afford holidays to Florida, the newest gadgets for their home, children going to university
and the like but still retain their 'working class' identity when probably in reality that demographic does not exist anymore.

There is a new class strata though and thats the 'non working class' lazy, benefit grabbing chavs who think they're working class but never have done a days work in their lives! I know plenty of that kind of working class in the UK!

[spliff]

University 3rd most expensive in America...

[IconsFanatic]

[blurgalurgalurga]

I'm a dog's breakfast of classes: parents were rich, poor, then rich again, and I'm well-educated but enjoy rolling around in the gutter with dogs and Falstaff-types. My sister is a high-powered lawyer's lawyer, and my brother is a turnip who lives in a trailer with eight or nine kids and their mothers. He can't count real good though, so he might actually have more kids than that; we're not sure.
But, I'll be king, one day. I'm gonna invade France.

[viipuri]

My family was dirt poor - we survived on welfare payments almost the entire time I was growing up till I left home in my mid-teens. [In fact, me entire extended family relies on such payments...] I had very few clothes and often skipped breakfast and also lunch at school...we never did anything "family-oriented" as the money was never there. Additionally - and it's still a problem even now - I feel as if there were a lot of basic social rules I never learned that still make it difficult for me do things properly. Fortunately, I was able to receive funds from the government to cover the costs of having to leave home at an early age, finished high school as a top student and entered university no problems, with a few scholarships to cover things as well as further help from the government (student allowance each week and a loan).

Most people here have little idea that I come from such a "low" background, though my foreign co-workers might guess so from my apparent rashness and the fact that I keep most of my spending pretty simple and waste little if any of it...meaning I've managed to save a fair amount.

[thepeel]

[IncognitoHFX]

A grew up in a trailer park, and I owe the government for %80 of my education (the rest was scholarships). I win.

[blaseblasphemener]

Mother is a real estate agent, not a "professional" technically, I don't think, but has pulled in 6 figures for the last twenty years. Dad went from job to job, making $30 grand a year. Neither had degrees, although mom took university courses and got her real estate license.

Surprise, surprise, they got divorced, after 24 years of marriage...

[bgreenster]

Grew up middle-class, but then my dad became super-successful and now makes a lot. Interesting because my younger sister and I, despite only being 5 1/2 years apart, have grown up extremely differently. I went to high school with crazy rich people, but I still feel the most comfortable in areas with less money. Rich people and their feeling that they deserve their special status or whatever drive me nuts (generally speaking, of course) and I find that the "third-world" countries I visit and volunteer in are much more genuine.

I think the main way having money has affected me is that I have had experiences abroad before this, making the Korean transition one of the easiest things I have done.

[Bryan]

My Dad had grade 9, my Mom had her high school diploma, we were upper middle class.

[ajgeddes]

The choices are crappy. You seem to emphasize a direct correlation between education and income. What about if neither parents went to university, or even finish high school, but had a combined income of over $100,000. And since when is $60,000 the average American income?