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Diana X2
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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 Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:07 am Post subject: 3 words |
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outta here soon. i was going to write a longer sum-up titled "things i wish someone told me before coming to SK" but i just don't have it in me. i hope this gets the message across.
3 words for my experience teaching and living here:
alienating, profitable, degrading.
3 words to sum up my thoughts about this place:
abusive, uninteresting (is there an opposite of "exotic"? if so, that's what i mean to say...), silly.
in other words, i don't recommend it. but i know you won't listen to me. i was warned too and i didn't listen either. it just sounded too good to be true. which of course, it turned out to be. i will qualify this and say that i'm in my 30's and ESL is pretty much my career. if i were fresh out of college and coming here just to kill time/pay off debt, it may have been a different story. but given my situation, this place has taken too much out of me. anyway, good luck to everyone all around. |
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Lekker
Joined: 09 Feb 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| When did you come here? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:15 am Post subject: |
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Sorry to hear Korea sucked for you. I definitely know where you're coming from. The English 'eductation' system is basically a farce, and most children are learning virtually nothing, especially considering the amount of time and money that go into it. If you work in a hagwon or public school and want to bring a western-style of teaching to the classroom, you will experience a series of mind and desire-deadening defeats.
For anyone who aspires to real results and effective teaching without having to deal with the Korean way of doing things, the only thing I can recommend is to either try a university job, or get the hell out of Korea before you start treating education as nothing more than a tax-free paycheque. |
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Dome Vans
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:18 am Post subject: |
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| To the OP, Korea isn't for everyone. I wasn't for you. Fine. For others it's really good. Sorry it didn't work out for you. |
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Stormy
Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Location: Here & there
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:21 am Post subject: |
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I was expecting something a little more.....creative from the thread title. 
Just another whinger though. I didn't like Korea so no-one else can either. Meh.
Last edited by Stormy on Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:22 am; edited 1 time in total |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:22 am Post subject: |
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| Dome Vans wrote: |
| To the OP, Korea isn't for everyone. I wasn't for you. Fine. For others it's really good. Sorry it didn't work out for you. |
Not to be a heel, but if you're a serious teacher, and you're working at a hagwon or a public school, you will not be able to do the job the way it should be done, period. That will lead to a lot of frustration, if you are professional, like the OP clearly seems to be.
Korea is a great place for a lot of people to make some cash, score some chicks, travel, or find a uni job.
Basically, Korean teachers and hagwon directors ruin it for real teachers, IMO. |
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zpeanut
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Location: Pohang, Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:23 am Post subject: |
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Sorry to hear Korea wasn't so great for you.
I have a friend who couldn't stand it and left after a month. Suffered from a lot of culture shock and homesickness.
On the otherhand, I love staying in Korea.
Try Japan? |
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Dome Vans
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
| Dome Vans wrote: |
| To the OP, Korea isn't for everyone. I wasn't for you. Fine. For others it's really good. Sorry it didn't work out for you. |
Not to be a heel, but if you're a serious teacher, and you're working at a hagwon or a public school, you will not be able to do the job the way it should be done, period. That will lead to a lot of frustration, if you are professional, like the OP clearly seems to be.
Korea is a great place for a lot of people to make some cash, score some chicks, travel, or find a uni job.
Basically, Korean teachers and hagwon directors ruin it for real teachers, IMO. |
I agree with that blaseblasphemener, but I also think that in some cases NT's are not that aware of their behaviour as well and just how it may affect their standing in Korea. I can't talk from a Hagwon POV because I've never and will never feel that I want to. I'm frustrated at the textbooks used and see that as a common reason why Korean's English at PS is not making ground. Multiple choice exams???? It's not science, it's English. But I make the best of a bad situation and adapt what I can and work from that. In the end you're offered a problem to work through and adapt for learning purposes, which in itself is a teaching skill.
In the PS system you take the chance you have to score the small victories. Why do people go out to Africa to teach classes of 50+ students? You have to fight all manner of cultural/personal dichotomies, but people still do it. It's a challenge. You set out what you hope to achieve and work towards that. Korea is similar, you'll come up against a number of problems professionally and personally and it's those things you work through and sort out. Obviously the OP couldn't, others have faced worse and come out at the end a better person, others landed on their feet and have had no problems. IMO. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:10 am Post subject: Re: 3 words |
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| Diana X2 wrote: |
| this place has taken too much out of me. |
Korea is like a drip. It just saps you of life force continuously.
The people drain you of patience and positivity.
I'd like to enjoy exercise and being able to rejuvenate properly here but even that is too much of a pain to bother with.
It requires quite a superhuman personal effort to stay sane here. |
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OnTheOtherSide
Joined: 29 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:33 am Post subject: |
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You just have to be realistic about what Korea is. I have NEVER met anyone who loves Korea. I have met aots of people who tolerate it and hate it though.
Why is it that the women here are TOTALLY sexually repressed and uptight. Yet there are like 30 whorehouses on every block? Strange. |
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Illysook
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:51 am Post subject: |
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| So, I'll be coming to Korea soon and I want to approach it with an open mind and few expectations...except for an expectation of hardship upon my arrival. Two things are probably true: No matter where you go, there you are, and There's no place like home. |
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:21 am Post subject: |
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| Just. Three. Words. |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:14 am Post subject: |
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I. Love. Korea.
I. Hate. Korea.
= I love to hate Korea.
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Diana X2
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| OnTheOtherSide wrote: |
Why is it that the women here are TOTALLY sexually repressed and uptight. Yet there are like 30 whorehouses on every block? Strange. |
i find the men much more sexually repressed than the women, being that i play both teams and have had encounters with both. in fact the men are not only sexually repressed, i think they are sexually reversed. i don't really know what i mean by that but i wanted to say it. i think they are sexually insane. that's an overstatement but i had to say it too. and i also have to say that i've lived in 4 different countries and i've never met men who were more sexually weird than korean men. even the muslim men i've known and dated are more sexually liberated-- much much much more so!!!!!!!! and i didn't date them from a westernized place like turkey, but from syria, egypt and well yes turkey but he was kurdish and far from westernized. |
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Oreovictim
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| Diana X2 wrote: |
| OnTheOtherSide wrote: |
Why is it that the women here are TOTALLY sexually repressed and uptight. Yet there are like 30 whorehouses on every block? Strange. |
i've never met men who were more sexually weird than korean men. |
Oh yeah? How so? Give us the juicy details, please. |
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