Korean Job Discussion Forums

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

Hey y'all. I'm just curious about how many of you are over 30 and traveling abroad. I'm single, 33, with MA, not attached to a career, mortgage, wife or child. My family, of course, wishes I were attached and rooted. I've lived abroad both in Russia and in Korea. Last time I returned home, I had the intention of getting settled down, of getting my career going, of finding a sweet lady with an instinct to nest, and some other story book stuff. Now I'm here, and I find it difficult to stay still. I'm thinking of getting on an airplane again...
What are your stories?

sentient_squirrel · Joined: 17 Jul 2006

Mid thirts, single, enjoying travelling, being happy in the moment.

Don't sweat it.

Very Happy

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I tried that last year--went home with the intention of staying. That lasted less than 3 months. I'm back here (obviously).

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Can I ask why you felt the need to start two threads on the same topic?

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

No, they're not the same topic. The other is simply about returning to Korea. This one is about dealing with the issues of ESL and being over 30. These issues generally have to do with career, family, home, etc.

Many of the people teaching in Korea are in their early to mid 20s. It makes perfect sense for them to be out and wandering. Moving into the 30s, certain doors open, yet others close.

One line that echoes through my mind was uttered by an elder of mine. She said, "You can float over seas for your whole life." Yet this person understands the wanderlust, says it never goes away.

I want the freedom of travel, yet I don't want to become that guy who is over the hill and sitting the end of the bar, who has no place to call home, who has no family, who is lost.

On the other hand, who wants to stay put?

Granted, this example is a bit melodramatic. I just want to hear the stories of people who've been out there for a while. Just looking for little pearls of wisdom; just looking for a seasoned sense of "Carpe Diem!"

mount real · Joined: 07 Apr 2005

Not sure I'm seasoned, but I'll be turning 30 on Monday and getting on a plane to Shanghai the following day....I came home for a year after 2 in Korea, and felt I had to get out there again "before it's too late". Who's to say what's right or what's wrong? My friends who stay at home envy my travels and sense of adventure; I envy their marriage and children. The grass is always greener, right?

Omkara · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: USA

Yes, always greener! I get that feeling of "before it's too late" too. But then I get the "before it's too late" feeling...

Really, if I didn't have a contract to teach this fall, I'd be getting on a plane yesterday.

I get that too, people envying me for my travel and my freedom. I even remember quite well an ajoshi sitting down next to me in a park where I was playing guitar. He told me as much, expressing he wished he could travel also, but that he had far too many commitments to make it possible.

sojukettle · Joined: 23 Aug 2005 Location: Not there, HERE!

I left New Zealand in 1981 to work in Asia, so I'm in now in my 40's and have never been back there to live. Was planning on 12mths work and then ride a motorcycle overland to UK. Never got past Thailand. Too many interesting things to do and see.

Have a terrace house in Sydney that the tenants pay enough to cover the mortgage. Have two kids on Australian passports, a wife on a Singapore passport - so home is...?

Home is where I am. Korea this year, maybe China next year. Maybe here still as it is an interesting place to be.

SK

poet13 · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject:

Left Canada in 1989, never looked back. Mediterranean, USA, Central America, Asia, South East Asia, still going strong., even though I have a family now (asian). When my wife finishes uni, she and our son will join me, and we will go adventure somewhere else together!

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Well I'm also in my mid-30's. I came here 2 1/2 years ago thinking I'd just stay for a year. Now I'm married and we are looking at going back next year to settle down.

seoulkitchen · Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Location: Hub of Asia, my ass!

I left home back in 1995, now I'm over 35, and have no plans to settle down. I have some single friends who are well above their 40's and are still doing the travel thing.
I highly doubt you'd ever end up being the lonely old guy sittin at the end of a bar. Unless that's how you wanna end up.
The more you travel the easier it is to make friends and soon enough, no matter where you go you know someone. You'll be the guy who knows everyone in the Bar at the End of the Universe.
There's a lot of older single people traveling out there, don't be afraid. As you get older you'll just meet more and more.

I see absolutely no reason to settle down with a wife and kids. I'm not that insecure.

(haha, now I'm gonna get flamed by all the marrieds out there I'm sure!)
(sorry, but I'm highly irresponsible and independent, that kind of personality doesn't work in a marriage situation, I love my freedom too much, and so does my Peter Pan like inner child!)

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Getting married, settling down, and having kids is not for everyone. We don't plan on having children. One of the reasons I'm going back is to be closer to my family. I feel my wife needs to have a chance to meet them and get to know them better.

There's nothing in life that says, "here's a textbook do it this way." If we were all like that we'd have a home, both parents working long hours, two and a half children and a mini-van. Certainly more people are making a diffrent choice these days.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

My mother took me and my brother round the world in a boat when we were 9 years old. I've been travelling, living, and working (on and off) in exotic locales ever since. Can't get this 'wonderlust' (read irresponsible laziness) out of my system. I've experienced 42 countries - and visited some 3-5 times).
You've probably guess I'm well over 20 now.

I'm not the sad boy at the end of the bar. I'm too busy for that. I only go drinking on my vacations. Life is just too short to spend one day with a hangover.
Tried the settling down thing - really enjoyed it (a few times). Currently dodging marriage proposals from a beautiful dusky maiden in a tropical paradise.
Will I return HOME?? Yes, I'll go home when I'm old enough to retire. I'll then get married, ride my Harley, go fishing, get drunk, and smoke every day. Or maybe, I'll just get married and live in a tropical paradise. Life is good.

lastat06513 · Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:

I can't speak much about this topic, since I will turn 30 in a couple of months.
I am married, no kids though. But my wife has travelled as much as I have, which makes it easier for the both of us to go places.

The best place to ask this kind of question would be on one of the middle east forums.

As many people know, I was in Kuwait for 3 months (long story....don't ask....) But what surprised me was that I was "the baby" of the workplace. Most of the teachers I worked with were twice my age, some even in their seventies and still roaming about.

I knew one guy, old enough to be my grandfather, who was in Kuwait for 4 years and who bought houses and huge tracts of land in Thailand AND the Philippines and was getting married to a 22 year-old thai birdie.

I strongly believe that as long as you love your job and have enough experience and continue to get the qualifications that goes along with the age, then age is nothing but a number.