Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

No question about it. If you wonder why some expats are a little odd, there may be a reason. How adaptable and resilient are most people anyway? Living in a foreign place is a bit like the job of teaching. Many do it but really are not suited for it. I remember high school a little. When I think upon it, there were some lousy teachers, a bunch of whom went on for their entire careers at the school, sucking like no one's business, collecting a decent pay, being disrespected by asshole kids for decades. I use this as a comparison for those who live abroad long term and change countries, and after a long enough period become a bit odd, perhaps degenerate, or perhaps in ways become interesting too. I might be referring to someone familiar to me, perhaps myself. It's late in the game I suppose, but often I've thought, you know, I'm not really cut out for this. Years pass and you wonder, what the hell happened, what is going on? I know there are quite a few in the same boat.

Newcomers to foreign shores, welcome and enjoy. Don't judge the guy or gal who has been around and seems a bit off.

Also, bottom line for now, Asia is pretty damn weird from a conditioned western perspective.

Thoughts?

[mole]

Excellent post.
If I still drank, it'd be fun to share some onion/squid pancakes and a few soju bottles.

[Cheonmunka]

In the work that I was given pretty much free reign with, I've put in a natural entrepreneural spirit and come out with something that I could never have begun or even made successful back in the West.
So, moving back would be a giant step backward.

I dread it.

But for the fact that my own kids need to develop English fluency, and perhaps the lack of beaches and fresh air, and less spit and trash around, I'd stay here forever.
But, not looking forward to going back to the outwardly cleaner yet much, much inherently darker, and what's more crime-ridden, place that I had come from.

[Kikomom]

Damn you mole, now I'm hungry for onion/squid pancakes.

[mole]

[TECO]

[Forward Observer]

I don't buy your argument in the least. I work with a couple of guys in the mornings at a company that are totally normal and have been in Korea for 10 plus years. I work with a guy in the afternoons at another company that is as normal as they come, and I have a few friends that I see every few weeks or every other month that's been here over 11 years - totally normal. All these people are married, have kids and are not strange in the least. Oh it's true that we have to get out and take a vacation 1-2 times a year to keep our sanity


I'm not saying the people you're talking about don't exist, but those people were prone to problems before they came here. I just don't buy the argument that the job or the country makes you any weirder than you're already prone to be, or are.

Does that make sense?


PS - we all have to go back one day. I've only met one guy that said he'll live here for the rest of his life. I do agree with the poster above me that the longer we wait to go back to the world, the harder it'll be to readjust.

[D.D.]

Anyone who appears normal is pretending. People who appear abnormal are just more honest in showing themselves to the world.

Normal is such an ugly word and I pitty someone who thinks being normal is a good thing.

" I pitty the fool"

[hiua25]

interesting thread

I just got back home to the UK a few months ago from Korea

I found it very hard to re-adjust after just 1 year in Korea. I think a big thing is making sure one way or another that you have the qualifications to get a decent job when you do decide to get home (by decent I mean not manual labour, customes service, fast food etc).

[jajdude]

I suppose we could talk about the meanings of normal and strange, and we might all have different ideas on that. Is there anything much in common with the people who go abroad other than the fact they go abroad? Were the strange ones always a bit unusual, or did experience abroad shape them even more? ("Abroad" of course being too broad a word I guess.) How can one not be changed by this experience, one that is unusual to most of the world? Sure a lot of people do it, and it seems the number is increasing, but think for example of your high school class, and how many did so. Still a pretty small number. It's not just being or becoming a bit strange after years overseas, there's a lot more that happens, I imagine. The whole deal alters your world view, and I figure this is a good thing, usually. Seeing the operations of foreign societies of which you are sort of like an onlooker rather than a participant, is an interesting thing. You live there, but what goes on there isn't really your world, you're a sort of outsider. I think this has something to do with the strangeness that touches many after years. In your home country you are of that society, and abroad you feel outside it, and sometimes wonder what the hell is going on. Surely Korea is a great example. Some things that happen there I cannot see happening elsewhere, like the crazy mad cow demonstrations. I could be wrong about that.

Anyway, just something to think about. No definite answers or anything.

[alphakennyone]

i don't consider myself anymore weird than one of my best friends from high school. mormon. got hooked up with a girl from his church at 17. married her at 22. divorced her at 24. back with her at 26. has a medical marijuana card and works at a dispensary.

try actually finding out what your high school friends are up to. it might be more weird than teaching a bunch of disrespectful korean kids in a class room and then going out and drinking soju while listening to godawful music. in some ways, korean esl teachers are the ones with the boring, mundane lives. we're so busy fixated on news items and emailing our friends and family "WOW THOSE CRAZY KOREANS" but look at a lot of us. posting too much on dave's esl. downloading torrents everynight. it's not really strange...just boring.

got another HS friend who got back from a tour of duty in iraq and is now working for the border patrol.

[Fishead soup]

Expats to Thailand are much more strange. Try reading

"Private dancer". Particularly the sections on ladyboys.

[loggerhead007]

As long as I have my God, My Girl, and My Guitar I'm cool. Strange Universe- Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, check it out. You'll understand....................

[Robot_Teacher]

I'd say there are all kinds of people doing this ESL job. Many are independent loners and aren't looking to be your friend. And then, it may be the local population of foreigners where you're at are simply not people you'd befriend at home so you don't make many new friends; just acquantances.

Many are people like myself, who are not married with no kids, and probably will never get married and have kids which makes them independent loners.

I wouldn't say it makes you strange to live abroad, but it demonstrates you're very different than most folks back home. Most back home might fancy the idea, but would never go through with it and actually end up on a plane to the other side.

[samcheokguy]

-I think a lot of ESL teachers would/should be in serious academia but for financial reasons can't accept it. In other words, spending the money to get a Ph.D. in any liberal art is idiotic from a finacial perspective, and we know it.