Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

More precisely, do you know any Koreans that immigrated to your country (or another Western country) and moved back to Korea because they didn't like it?

We have a lot of threads on Dave's with foreigners comparing Korea to their own countries (many of them complaining because they're experiencing culture shock), but little on what Koreans think of our countries.

Do you know any Koreans that have moved back? Surely there are some. I'll bet that there are many Koreans that go to the West and wind up disappointed.

[redaxe]

You have to understand that pleasure and enjoyment of one's surroundings are not what motivates Koreans. What motivates them is increasing their childrens' future potential income and status, and they know that education is the way to achieve that. The reason why they emigrate to Western countries is to give their children a better/more prestigious education in English so they will make more money and be more successful when they grow up.

But yes, I work at a Korean company that sends a lot of expats (not immigrants) to western countries, and while overseas they always complain about how terrible the local food is and how they miss Korean food. When they return to Korea they are very happy to once again be able to eat Korean food for every meal.

But they still want to go overseas so their kids can go to international school and learn English. Likewise with the immigrants, a lot of them don't really like living in America or wherever, they're doing it as a sacrifice for their kids.

[laguna]

[Newbie]

My Korean wife came to Canada with me 2 years ago. Here are some complaints from her and some of her Korean friends, adults bewtween 30 and 50.

(in no particular order)

Too cold.
Lousy underwear and socks. (?)
Sucks working for Koreans. (bosses screwing them, not following Cdn standards)
Kids are too Western* (cute story to follow)
Long hours at work.
Expensive soju.
Expensive Korean BBQ.
Too many Chinese.
Too many brown people.
Expensive cigarettes.

However, most of them find (living in Toronto) it is still very easy to stay Korean. They can find most any product from back home, lots of Korean churches around, and interenet makes it easy to stay in touch with things back home.

*My wife's boss has an 18 year old son who he felt was becoming too Canadian. In an attempt to remedy this he sent him to Korea for the summer. While there he became fascinated with Korean B-Boys, Korean Hip Hop and other K-pop culture crap. Dad is kicking himself cuz as he put it, "he sent his son to Korea to become more Korean and he ends up becoming more American." I tried not to laugh too hard when he was explaining his frustrations.

I imagine this happens a lot... that kinda disconnect between parents who are still very Korean and their kids who integrate into Western culture.

[jvalmer]

I know a lot of Koreans that came pre-80's never intended on staying in the west. But circumstances like marriage (to Korean or non-Korean), job, house and, the big one, kids forced them to stay longer than anticipated. Once you have kids that are half way through elementary, it's really hard to go back to Korea.

Some of the things I've been told:
- If they would have known Korea would develop so fast, they would have left.
- Their families and friends were envious of them, but they didn't have the heart to tell them it wasn't as great as they made it out to be.
- One guy visited Korea a few weeks after that Gwangju mess was over. But nobody outside of that region even knew it happened. That's when he realized how much propaganda he was exposed to when he was in Korea. He decided then he wouldn't come back until Korea fully democratized. Which happened surprisingly fast.

[madoka]

[redaxe]

[Dev]

[ticktocktocktick]

I took my lady to Britain for a month in January. She wasn't exactly keen. These were her main complaints over 30 days:

Too cold (it was during that nasty cold snap)
Too hideously expensive (agreed)
Terrible food (yet she still whines I don't appreciate Korean food)
Everything closes at 5.30pm
Anything Korean is unavailable outside London or Manchester (even then, it's a serious hassle)
That I kept telling her to watch her purse


Things she liked:

Primark
Real ale and cider
Chicken and mushroom pot noodle

[eamo]

The Koreans I know who spent more than just a week or two in western countries mostly just talked about the food.....how heavy and oily western food is and how they totally, physically and spiritually, missed Korean food.

I've heard the anecdote about the Korean who returned to the motherland after 10 years in Canada........he described Canada as "boring heaven" and Korea as, "exciting hell".........I think there's a lot in that. Koreans like there to be a lot going on......My wife is so shocked when she visits my home country at just how much people sit around doing not very much.

[chellovek]

[Slowmotion]

Do you guys really use the term 'oily' ? I thought only Koreans used that. I can only remember people using greasy

[PatrickGHBusan]

We moved to Canada in 2008 and here is what my wife complains about or mentions...

Winter is long and cold
Lots of over weight people (can't really deny that one sadly)
Misses the open markets around our old place in Busan
Lack of good public transits
Cabs are expensive.
Korean restaurants are sometimes pretty bad (food quality).
People are selfish
Discrimination at work
Air Canada
Trains being late
Shopping is less interesting due to such limited opening hours
Having to be careful with her purse

On the flip side she likes

Food variety
Schools
Daycares
Ethnic mix in the larger cities
Lower levels of pollution
The big lakes for swimming
Variety in the supermarket
Public Healthcare


Overal she is happy in Canada but she obviously misses Korea (heck I often do as well).

[ticktocktocktick]

[redaxe]