Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BroodingSea]

Reading around on the mostly excellent and informative posts on here is fun. But they really do convey a sense of change in Korea. My experience as a fresh graduate back in the late 90s in Daejon was immense. Novel, unusual and exciting. Daejon, compared to Seoul, didn't have a great nightlife but it had things to do if you looked hard enough, and was small enough to get a feel for. The money and opportunities were good. It had a real sense of a huge metropolitan city and that sense of being lost in a totally alien culture was incredible. Some of the things in the small hours of the morning, lots of things in fact, still stay with me. I went back 6 years ago and saw a massively different place - Incheon my destination was like a shopping centre - brick benign and sanctified. Reading your posts now I see a Korea inundated and saturated by the ESL market, novelties seem to have worn off, a sense now that the West has permeated the nation and resentment is growing. I hope I get to go back to Daejon and retrace my steps some day. Considering now looking for a university job in Korea. I think I'd want to work in a smaller city, bit more of the beaten track should I find myself out there again. Ah. Reflections.

[12ax7]

Yes, South Korea is certainly not as exotic as it used to be. It's become very westernized, an inevitable consequence of its economic growth.

Good luck job hunting.

[Died By Bear]

Agreed, so much better when Korea was still just like the old wild west.

[PatrickGHBusan]

You are refering to the ole Wild East days of Korea. I agree with much of what you wrote OP. I arrived in Korea in the late 1990s, we left in 2008 and visit every year (family and work for me). The place has changed so much it is hard to describe!

It has in so many ways become a tame and easy place for foreign teachers. Access to western goods is outstanding compared to what it was back then. Transportation is better (KTX, more subway lines) and service for foreigners has improved dramatically.

Still, I do miss the old Busan of the late 1990s, it had that chaotic flavor and that wild side that has for the most part been replaced with a more organized vibe. A lot of the changes have been for the better but in the process some cool things were lost in the shuffle.

[BroodingSea]

Totally agree with the ole wild west sentiment. The Hogwan industry was just starting to really germinate: there was money everywhere - from recruiters being paid 500m won for bringing teachers over, with degree certificates being printed on a4 paper and jobs aplenty. There were hogwan owners treating their institutes as cash cows. It was the wild west alright. It was a country in transition, culturally but not technologically. The influx of waygooks was a novelty but now I just sense a weariness towards foreign people and ESL. I may be over-generalizing here but the trend certainly seems to have shifted. I want to revisit but consider a two week vacation there perhaps unjustifiable. You have to 'live korea' to understand it and appreciate it.

[rollo]

Came over in 1990 to Daegu. yeah it was really a shock. but good in so many ways. I remember signing the books of children at a high school and the principal wanting my autograph. Waygooks were so rare we were celebrities in a way. Hakwon owners often did not really know how to treat us, sometimes real cultural wars. The country was going through a big political change from a military dictatorship to a true democracy. Kind of scary with the curfew and troops in the streets. But a real adventure.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[teachyou1004]

The 90s in middle-peninsula were free wheelin times. The foreigner, however, definitely had to perform and adventure was there for the taking. I greco roman wrestled some 88 Olympian who was a silver medalist in his gym, went out with a boss/gangster and his room salon girls to eat dinner once in a while, continued to have "classes" on certain nights for a certain group of ajoshi to cover up their adulterous acts, smoked cigars without a shirt on in my college office during the summer, spent thousands of won on carnival games because games were only 500 won back then, during air raid nights I'd sneak out and give choco-pies to my county official students who had to walk around with those flashlight batons, lived in yogwans and paid 200 to 250,000 won a month, used to take taxis from Kimpo airport to Cheongju when coming back into the country, once took a taxi to Kimpo from Umseong near Chungju on Chuseok to catch a plane and paid 180,000 won, paid 500,000 won for a 91 Kia Pride drove it for a year and sold it back to the same lot I bought it from for 300,000 won, once I flew to Osaka from Cheongju via Pusan and on the way back I was the only passenger on the airplane back to Cheongju - they called me VIP but I still had to go through Cheongju customs because it was an international flight and I was working illegally. I got through!

I've returned to Korea every two years since moving back home in 04. I'm glad it changed because I would have never made it out of there.

[BroodingSea]

[Dodge7]

So would you old timers say it has changed (for you) for the better or worse? Would you rather have lived here in the 90's or now?
The 90's sounded like some rock star type of ****.

[Weigookin74]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=202262&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

[Cartman]

Great posts... back then must've been quite the noveltly and/or scary times for young Koreans, male/female to try and hook up with a 'foreigner' too.

[happiness]

yeah, 1996 here. i left after 11 months, but i made a ton of money just being hired out in my free times to places. things were so cheap, and all the western chains were empty alot of times (tgi fridays seemed to be perpetually empty, lol. even back then, if u worked there, you REALLY had to speak decent English, now, most students there cant speak English it seems). The boats to Japan and tickets to Fukuoka and Tokyo could be bought the morning of depature. Tower Records had some cool European stuff the locals didnt touch, and they had cassette stores . I had internet (my boss then was very kind), and I didnt necessarily feel the Koreans nationalism as much (dont know why..., maybe the cultural/financial gap wasnt asmuch). K-music was more Korean for sure, but there were some cool bands (JuJu Club, JoyBox, etc)

I visited here from Japan during IMF. $30 suits from places closing and 1000won galbi places , remember IMF galbi?

I got US goods from black market stores, the one I was at was right in front of an apartment block. Those are all gone now, lol.

Now, Korea is ALOT more Americanized, I dont think they know it. K-pop is a new phrase, Even DaeHanMinkuk wasnt used (until the 3rd game of the 2002 World Cup) and then suddently everyone used it lol. It was just Hangook and Korean music.

Its alot more tame now, but theres alot more internationalism (more on our part) and western goods here. Man, NETs here can get sooooooo much more here, than then.
but it was fun then too;

[jvalmer]

[rollo]

Better in many ways. The screenings of diplomas and the criminal background check have made the quality of teachers much better. there are less drunks, druggies and nutters. Also less interesting people perhaps. I worked with some people who were basically outcast from Western society either fullblown alkies, or running from the law, of course i also worked with decent hard working educated people who tried to do a good job everyday. But enough of the fullbore loons to make you wary of associating with WEsterner's.

Worse in the the nationalism is more pronounced it seems. It was more "freewheeling" in the 90's No one really seemed to care about working on the side. My boss hooked me up with outside gigs quite often. it has become very Americanized. Sterile in a sense.

In 1990 it was difficult to get many things, I mean just simple things we were used to. Could not find any clothes that fit and of course no deodorant. Spam was a delicacy and any fancy dinner you went to it would be served. No pizza and no American chain restaraunts. Maybe there was in Seoul but not in Daegu. No Homeplus or e-mart. I can remember the only wine i could find in Daegu was some boones farm . the propritor of the shop was so very proud of those bottles of Boone's Farm. Nothing worse than a strawberry Boone's hangover.