Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I'm With You]

I had to return tot he U.S. recently and, although it was only for a week, I just hated it. I think if I were to go back permanently, I'd need some sort of counselling or something to be re-socialized. I absolutely hate it.

I know of one Canadian friend and colleague who has mentioned having similar feelings when he has returned home for short periods - everyone walking around with Vancouver Canucks T-shirts on and holding Tim Horton's coffee cups and talking like Canadians do and the inane chit-chat at the check-out in the supermarkets, etc.

I'm just curious if others have the same feelings when they go back home. I'm hoping this will be my last trip. I do not like it at all - the TV, the Walmart culture, the obesity, twenty-dumbthings with their tattoos, the MMA culture, the news, the attitudes of people, the guns, the car culture, giant pick up trucks, etc., etc.

I just despise everything about it.

[yodanole]

All those things that you listed and many more sometimes make "back in the world" seem like an episode of the "Walking Dead", or worse. It's nice to visit for very short periods of time very infrequently. Aside from any familial obligations, free time is better spent finding new places to complain about.

[World Traveler]

Maybe you were hanging out with the wrong people. There are good and bad people everywhere (just as there are smart and dumb people everywhere...and just as there are slender and obese people everywhere) yet places have drastically different percentages depending on geographic location. Where in the U.S. were you? (I'm guessing it wasn't San Francisco or New York City.)

[Seoulman69]

I enjoy going back because I don't have to put up with the inanity of a job and routine. I wake up when I like and usually have a couple of ales. My dad's retired so I piss about with him or nip down to my grans for a bacon, tattie scone, and tomato sauce roll. It takes like heaven.
Basically I just sit around doing *beep* all. I meet the lads and have a night out, but we're all getting a bit old for anything too mental. Everyone avoided a drug habit, which is a result where I'm from. Some of them have kids, some got married.
I get paid over the vacation months, (i'm really lucky), so that's a result. It's nice to come back to Korea though. After a while back home starts doing my head in.

[joelove]

Oh, I've been back in Canada for over a year now, after some time in China. I was in Montreal for a while, and I liked it enough, but there were personal problems as my brother there came down with a lifelong condition. It was heartbreaking. I had some problems there too. Then I came back to my small hometown in Newfoundland. I've had a bit of culture shock. It is my first visit back in nearly 16 years, to my hometown that is. We're all just older. It's not a very interesting place at all, but to me it still holds some fascination in a strange way. I got to spend a long time in Asia. This has shaped my outlook more than I knew. Everything is guided by culture, and all the houses and lawns are the same. It's quite strange. If you make OK money you can have a nice life. It's just different as a middle aged man. The ideas of success or not being a loser mean nothing to me, almost. I've seen young people perish, family die and suffer young. I've been darkened. Most days are boring but really everything is simple enough. I got some crappy job now that is no envy of anybody. I'm not complaining. Really, there has just been too much pain for me to even bother. Now if I can I might get a go into another country, or maybe just visit St John's. That's a nice town.

[byrddogs]

I definitely don't hate going back home. I don't do it often enough if anything. I'd even considered a 5 year plan to go back recently, but truth be told my wife and I are probably better off staying where we are. We will just take more and longer trips back instead.

[12ax7]

Wait and see. I used to say the same thing. Over time, I've come to change opinion. I'm sick and tired of the noise and the smog. I also hate how a trip to the grocery store is more stressful than necessary: the sheer number of shoppers, the resulting noise, and the lack of variety (an aisle of ramen and another for dried fish...Need I say more?). I'm also tired of the glass ceiling at work, how experience and additional qualifications are only rewarded with a new title, but never with a considerable raise, other than our yearly 3%.

But, what's sealed the deal for us is how our kids is so much happier when we're visiting Canada. He's not considered a foreigner there despite the fact he's got citizenship. He's just another kid.

We've begun undertaking the process of moving to Canada. We're doing it the smart way, we're not rushing into it. Our plan is to have a combined income equal or greater to the one we have now after we move. I've already had job offers and my wife is working on getting her professional certification in Canada.

[Zyzyfer]

Mainly just hate the cost and length of the flight to my hometown. Cost of ticket, car rental that is practically a necessity, nights out with the lads, it ends up costing a fair bit.

As far as getting annoyed by people, one friend tends to drag me out with him to cast parties or other drinking sessions among his theater friends, it tends to be a very large group and my bud has to balance his time between me and everyone else, so it intensifies the awkwardness since I no longer know most of the faces in that crowd.

It's kind of nice to be on vacation but not have the stress of being somewhere new to deal with.

[Drew345]

Nice post...
When my family asks what I like so much about Korea I never know what to say and usually just pick some random thing. Once I said "you don't have to do that inane chit-chat at the check out counter". Never thought I hear any one else mention that, thanks.
The amount of garbage created is also a turn-off. And I just went back this summer and the tipping thing has gotten totally out of control. It seems like a country of beggars now (America).

[Threequalseven]