Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

In my city of Uiwang and in a neighbouring area (Seongnam) there are two cities going up simultaneously. Koreans wouldn't refer to them as cities, but I certainly do. The one in Uiwang is a massive housing complex which has sprung up overnight. A few months ago it was just a long, overstretched construction banner around a four-five block radius, and now I can see the makings of skyscrapers forming behind it--at least twenty, and many of which are reaching their final height.

In Seongnam, Pangyo is growing increasingly fast. When I first came to Korea, the area around Pangyo was just being plotted and now everytime I drive through it (once a week) the average building has gained another two or three stories, and it isn't a handful of buildings I'm talking about either. It's an entire city. You would never see this in the West; in Canada, if they want to build a McDonald's in a metropolitan area (for example), they endure tonnes of considerations, hire contractors that only work five hours a day, let the shell of the structure sit for an entire season mid-construction and then complete it the following year. If a skyscraper is considered being built, everyone is aware of it and many people make a fuss about whether or not it will ruin the skyline, or whether it's taking the city too far from tradition, et cetera.

But in Korea, they just build entire cities without hestitating. Residential buildings aren't the only kind of progress either, my Korean friends have told me on occasions that Western amendities like restaurants and chain businesses are new things (within the last decade) and now it is difficult to navigate a few city blocks without being bombarded by them. The same goes for Western culture. Somebody told me that miniskirts and open neck t-shirts for women have really taken off in the past three years. I know for a fact that HipHop and other Western garbage hasn't been spoiling children for a half century either. God knows what else.

Anyway, I think this is a good question that hasn't been asked recently, on two counts: the first being that Korea does change faster than most countries in the world and it is interesting to watch and speculate on, and also because documenting such a change might help assuage those of you who think Korea has a chronic 'problem' and will always have one. I'm not of the second camp, but I understand the reasons why people would come to those conclusions.

If I had never been to Korea and still read Dave's routinely, I'd picture it as being small, quaint, and without any kind of progress; vertical or social. I'd imagine that the entirety of Korea looked like the old housing projects you see occasionally, like around Itaewon and where I live. But when I live here, the reality that surrounds me on a daily basis and the reality of the perspective of the foreign teachers on Dave's doesn't exactly match up. Most of my "consumer experience" here is vastly more advanced and comfortable than it is back home, for instance.

So my question is more directed to people who have been here for more than five years. What changes have you seen in Korea over the years, and have those changes generally been for the better of us and everyone (I know that day-to-day politics don't make much sense on a daily basis but I'm thinking long term)?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

In three plus years I've noticed a marked improvement in facilities for the handicapped and supermarket wine selections.

[Adventurer]

[RACETRAITOR]

I don't look at the development of places like Uiwang and Pangyo as progress, just the continually churning gears of urban renewal.

A couple weeks ago there was a protest in front of the Bundang police station by my work where displaced residents of Pangyo were protesting. Apparently that whole area was acquired and slated for redevelopment using less than pure tactics.

[jvalmer]

I'd say many countries are changing fast in Asia and eastern europe.

[Saxiif]

I don't think that Korea has changed especially quickly over the last five years or so, growth has been slow here since at least the credit card crash in 2002 or even since the IMF crisis in 1997. For example I read a Times magazine article about Seoul twenty years ago and except for there being less street vendors now, 90% of the description would fit.

A lot of the new construction you see isn't so much because Korea is changing fast as because a lot of the buildings were slapped together very quickly and they start falling to pieces relatively quickly.

Korea changes fast and has been making a lot of progress, but let's not overstate how much.

[bovinerebel]

[RACETRAITOR]

[jvalmer]

Never been to Africa, so I felt I should leave them out since I really have no idea what it's really like there.

[Adventurer]