Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Trevor]

One thing I like quite a bit about Korea is this:

There is no significant social class discinctions among foreign ESL instructors.

Think of your firends. Some of them might make 1.9. Others might make 2.7. In terms of choosing companions does it make the slightest difference to you how money they make?

I have yet to meet a trust fund baby schlepping away at a hagwon (though there has to be one, hiding somewhere). 95% of us make roughly the same amount of money, have roughly the same job description; same housing; drink the same crappy Korean beer; same, same same.

I think it is easy to forget that that is a luxury.

Back in the States, I recall being surrounded by absolute brain-dead shitheads that perceived themselves to be in a higher social class than me (little did they know that I was kidnapped from the palace as an infant). To this day, I believe it to be one of the most unpleasant aspects of life in America -- a social heirarchy that rewards the worst attributes in humans. One can ignore it, of course, as I did fairly successfully for years. But isn't it nice when it isn't even there to have to ignore?

This is not to say that there are other forms of social stratification. There are, of course, instructors that I avoid like the plague, but the social stratification that results is, I believe, highly egalitarian: As long as you are not a complete shithead**(see below) and live in a reasonably populated city, it is almost impossible to avoid making friends -- and none of your peers in the foreigner community are going to judge you on socioeconomic terms.

Koreans, of course, have their own, very rigidly structured social pecking order, arguably more unbearable than even the U.S.-- but guess what -- I don't care what they think and they don't care what I think.

In a way, that's a beautiful thing, isn't it? We can reap the economic benefits of their relatively vibrant economy without being subjected to the rather obnoxious rules concerning social stratification that they all have to adhere to.

We're left to sip our Hite in peace as we wait for the exchange rate to improve.

Not so bad, and it beats back home, working for the idiot BMW driving nephew of the local gentry who flunked out of community college and has never finished a novel but still thinks he's vastly superior to you

Notes:
** My apologies to the small number of complete shitheads reading this.

[Ukon]

I don't really recall social class being that big a deal....I was upper middle class and it just isn't something you dwell on often unless you talking to white trash types....

[jkelly80]

[Trevor]

I've spent most of my life in New York and California -- where there are many who are obsessed with social class -- and I can honestly say I have been a member of all three classes at different times. I have experienced homelessness for brief periods as well as fairly high status-by-association due to a highly successful and well-known family member. I truly do not like to be associated with any class. If I had my choice, it would be the middle, though because it carries the least baggage.

[Unposter]

Trevor,

I totally agree with you. This is something I have thought about before. Like you, I find it a breath of fresh air.

This is one of those subtle niceities about our job.