Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

It is normal for us to be critical of a country that is very, very foreign to us, and that wasn't really a former colony of the West. It is a country verry different from the West. I do notice that often people from the West who are on these boards who are from England and North America talk about Korean ignorance forget how ignorant people are back home as if they are speaking like people who never lived in their own countries and lived in some North American or British utopia that's not reality. I have seen some of the most ignorant people ever when I was in the U.S.

I know that. You have people who wonder if people have cars in Africa.
Some people asking a Greek friend if people spoke Italian in Greece, and people thinking that Norway is the capital of Sweden, not having clue (some years back) as to the difference between an Israeli and a Palestinian, and people on Jay Leno not knowing the reason why Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Then, there was that lady in 1994 who wouldn't sell a guy from New Mexico an olympic ticket, because she thought New Mexico was a foreign country.

Korea though is hard to adjust to for many of us, because it is too Confucian, and it wasn't a colony of Britain, France, or what have you.
Only 50 years ago did the society start really industrializing. It had no influence from the Renaissance, European, or the colonial era worth mentioning.

That said, I complain about stuff like pension, taxes, and exploitation, because according to Buddhist, Confucian, and Christian values that Koreans say they follow, that's verboten, and they don't want it done to them. However, Koreans eating and in many cases slurping their food and a large percentage of their males spitting on the ground are not major issues. It's not attractive to us, but it hasn't dealt with global norms in the way Singapore has. Anyway, plenty of people are vulgar in England these days.

Just some thoughts..... Korea has plenty of good things, like the students generally don't drive you insane like many would in an urban setting in the U.S., Canada, or Britain. People who taught in places like that know what I am talking about.

[zpeanut]

Well said, some very good points.
This would be a good thread to counter the 'bad habits of koreans' thread.

It does seem that Korean kids in general have a more serious approach to study, especially when they enter years 11 and 12.

I also feel that koreans are very compassionate people. Friendships can last 20, 30.. 50 years. Strangers often lend a helping hand, though this occurs more out of Seoul. Most of the young still respect the elderly. Can't say much for other countries.

[blaseblasphemener]

[jkelly80]

Koreans have a very disturbing inclination towards thinking of 'others' (younger people, people they haven't met, etc) as non-people. Any society without Enlightenment/Reformation values are going to have some f*cked up notions of individual rights, that are (if I may say) inferior to the ones found in the West.

This is not to say the West is perfect or that these superior values actually translate to superior living conditions or policy (see: slavery, colonization, social Darwinism, the Jungle, WWII, the Holocaust, Jim Crow, apartheid), the West has the potential for humanism in its philosophical base that the East lacks and probably will never acquire.

[zpeanut]

[IncognitoHFX]

[Adventurer]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[idiotinkorea]

korea is a state of mind. the perception thereof may vary significantly. but -in a rare moment of sobriety- i can assure you that

KOREA IS THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[IncognitoHFX]

I agree with nearly everything that everyone has said in this thread. I wish there were more threads like this. Both Adventurer and Ya ta Boy have made some great points.

[Cheonmunka]

I have a theory about why people spit in public and when out in public act non-chalant about others.
I don't know about suburban NYC. Can you find a small spot alone there, a spot to sit down in and a place where no one at all passes by for the time you are there, say for five minutes? NYC has a pop density half that of Seoul. Seoul and much of urban Kyongi is 18000 pple per square km. NYC from memory is about 8000. But it has a lot of suburban tracts.
Anyway, I test it here in any urban area. No matter where I stop to sit down outside to take a breather, someone will pass. No matter where, and no matter what time.
I walked down a small alley at 2am, thinking, 'gee at last not one person ..., ' you know what happens? Someone comes by. I park my car in a car park outside an apartment in suburban Bupyeong and sit on the sidewalk with a coffee .... ten people walk by me (and have a good look) within just a few minutes. I sit in a pagoda outside some other apartments. I hear a noise nearby, someone is laid out picnic-resting on the ground next to it. It's like you just get sick of it. Sick of the people.

My theory is that people are just so sick of other people in their space that they just don't care for manners. One can't relax if they are aware there are others in proximity who are equally aware of them. So, people just try and act the way they want. Even maybe more so and exaggerate their sense of space by a bit of overaction of spitting or making more of their ciggy smoke than need be.

[CeleryMan]

[MANDRL]

I think I agree with the OP. I often wonder if my perception of Korea is from what I have come across, or from the experiences I have read about on Dave's. I think some of my ideas I have of Korea and Koreans have been formed from this website, which is unfortunate. I have tried to seperate the mentality often found on Dave's from my own experiences. I am not sure if that makes sense, but I had a good experience in Korea and am preparing to return in a few weeks with my wife for a second go. I think it is a pretty sweet gig, teaching in Korea.

[milspecs]

its funny when people complain about Korea so much on Daves, but they continue to stay here and teach.