Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vk33]

this is a re-post from another forum. it is original and unedited. i am the original author.

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1) 95% of all E2s in their 20s are solid, decent people. the other much publicized and ranted about 5% is pure trash. the bigger jerks are the ones in their 30s and 40s. the ones that usually creep the absolute [b]ModEdit[/b] out of me are the guys (not the girls) in their 50s on their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th E2. dodgy, simply dodgy every one of them.

the image of the 20-something guy whos just here for women, cheap booze, and easy cash is an uber-cliche that people keep using to describe the same people. for every useless guy ive met in the last seven years that fits that description, there were at least two girls that were worse because while just being here for the easy money and cheap liquor, they absolutely hated Korea and all the people in it. they routinely treated Korean people like total [b]ModEdit[/b] to make themselves feel better about living here.

worse have been the women in their 30s and 40s who act like the 20-something guy cliche. cradle-robbers. but at least the Korean guys were probably getting some sex-ed out of the whole deal.

i met a guy this year, E2, ps teacher, my age even, who thought there was nothing wrong with going up into a yeogwan he wasnt staying at, into a room where a woman was passed out and unconscious on the bed where my friend set her down (and gave up his room in the process). this guy actually thought i was [b]ModEdit[/b] him and wanted to go to blows over it. this brings me to my larger point that a great many more than 5% of E2s in the 30 - 60 range are total degenerate scumbags. after living in the thick of things for a few years, it is easy to get Koreanized in our perspectives after being here for a while and think that with age comes great dignity and grace.

2) the other 95% percent is the part that no one in Korea could do without. although many a policy maker will try, it is simply too late to undo the E2s as a visa class. there are too many jobs, too much demand, and too many decent folk with moderate to well spoken English abilities to ever get rid of them.

i held one for over six years, i taught privately a sometimes, but with great paranoia of being caught, fined, and deported from the country that id grown to love and the new life i didnt want to end. i was beaten up three times, the last time left me in fear for more than a year (hence no Halloween in 2006), but it taught me more about the Korean legal system and sense of justice than i would have ever learned. i was arrested twice, also good learning experiences, but like being beaten, fulled with fear that i would be ejected from my life by "The Man". i was afraid in a lot of ways of 'violating my visa status' which given the way immigration has things structured is an easy thing to do (just ask those kids in Pusan that put on the play a few years ago). i was also fired from two jobs, my very first mostly because i didnt understand how to interact with my boss and my first job in Seoul, after only one month. both times i relied on the grace of people i barely knew (all E2s) for support.

after being here this long (well not that long to some of you), half of my friends are married. some of them stayed in Korea, others took their wives and left. the others are still plugging away some after seven years on an E2 with no hope of getting an F5 or anything else because they dont/cant meet the secret requirement of the day dictated by immigration. most of them have private gigs and talk in that way i used to, about being careful and not getting caught.

3) early on, i had hoped that ATEK was going to offer an avenue for the E2s to come together as something positive and push and probably get visa portability for the E2. now that seems very unlikely. they are more obsessed with proving some point and choosing their plays (the few of them that are left before they become totally irrelevant) very poorly. visa portability should be their number one priority, the couch network second, and not being F-visa haters always.

my life as an E2 was scary and uncertain. the time sensitive nature of the visa probably makes some people go nuts. like a teacher trashing a flat the night before the plane leaves.

lumping all E2s up in the "dirty" column does little justice to any message one is trying to send or any point one is trying to get across. i just assume leave that stereotyping for the Korean press.

[pitch in your two cents wherever you see fit]

[cruisemonkey]

I can't take an English teacher seriously when he doesn't capitalize, makes generalizations and admits to breaking the law.

[tampabulls]

vk33, what you've just typed... is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent post were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this forum is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

But seriously, this was hard to follow.

[oskinny1]

I am guessing he was one of those 5%ers when in his 20's and is now the freak in his 30s that he was talking about.

[tampabulls]

The outline for a Refer Madness type of movie about ESL teachers.

[PatrickGHBusan]

OP I have a question for you. Did you think that posting this here would in any way, shape or form be a positive for you?

All this does is make you look somewhat incompetent when it comes to writing, rather closed minded, aggressive, judgemental and it has to be said: quite ignorant.

You judge and pass sentence on people because they are older. No wait, I apologize, on western older males. How does that foster discussion and debate?

You also quote numbers you made up and frankly they do not help your point at all. Tossing around percentages like 95% are solid is both laughable and completely without credibility. Why?

All you have is your limited personal experience to draw on, yet you wish to apply it to the entire western teaching population in Korea.

So, out of that convulted and confused mess you call a post, I ask you politely, what exactly is your point?

Foreign Teachers are lumped together because of the actions of a few bad apples?

Well thank you captain obvious. Small groups of bad apples by their very definition usually tend to spread rot to the entire basket...thats what they do.

You also seem to be quite the racist when it comes to Koreans. You present Korea and its culture only in a negative light and link that culture to those bad older western males that are long termers. They become koreanized and hence go bad. How nice of you to shoot yourself in the face at point blank range with both barrels. Well done!

You then rant on the Korean justice system...which again is "bad". In fact, all the negative or bad stuff is either Korean or from westerners who were koreanized or as you imply "corrupted".

So basically, it says that the non-Koreanized westerners are solid and innocent people who fall prey to the K-virus....

You then move to a rant on the visa. You make a miserable comment about the secret requirements for a F5...well there is no secret there. All the information about that visa is available to anyone who wants it. There are however requirements for a RESIDENCY visa. But hey, its better to hint they are secret and possibly controled by evil Koreans.

You finish off with some whine about living in fear on an E2 visa. How can living in korean with a valid E2 be scary? Oh wait..it is because of the evil Koreans...or is it the older western males?

You conclude with a sentence that shows how hypocritical you are and how much of a walking oxymoron you are:
i just assume leave that stereotyping for the Korean press.

Well...for someone who wants to leave the stereotyping to the Korean press...you sure spent a lot of time stereotyping western teachers, older western males, Koreans, Korean culture....wow! Do you have a University degree?

[sulperman]

PatrickGHBusan- Thank you. I think you just ended this. Very comprehensive rebuttal. Well, in a perfect world your post would be the end of this thread, and we could all go about our daily lives as though the idiotic op never wrote this.

But the world is not perfect, and it is fun to pile on the hate on a self-righteous ass.

Hilarious that this guy thought this was such an insightful piece that he had to share it with this forum, as well as the other unnamed forum. Also- how has he been beaten up three times???? To be beaten up as a white guy (or any colored guy, really) in Korea one time is pretty bizarre, but three? How did you make that happen? Or perhaps how did you make up that happening?

And to be fired from one job is nearly impossible. I have known some of the most incompetent people in my time here, and only one ended up being fired, and only because he really wanted it to happen. But one job, that's understandable. Perhaps you really got put in a bad situation. But two? Wow.

I'm sorry you were "fulled with fear" when you were teaching illegally. That must have been rough. I couldn't really tell from your writing if you were still an E-2 or if you married some poor, unfortunate Korean girl who really didnt know what she was getting into to get your F visa.

Either way, good luck, my man. You're really gonna need it.