Korean Job Discussion Forums

[OopsIMadeIt]

It made me. It shaped me. And it gave me.

"It" is the past, and Korea.

It's a wonderful time you are in. Don't reject your experience as negative. Absorb it.

But sure, you judge. Here I am, back in the States, working amongst immigrants, and I know. I feel them. I know the alienation that sets in, the culture shock, and those who succeed "here" and those who don't.

The Colombian guy I work with can't even throw a football. Never learned. He rejects us, and pouts.

The Haitian guy became a citizen, is gonna get married, fishes in the bay.

What I'm saying is watch out for a factor called alienation, which is a serious stage of decline in cultural adaptation, and if you really want to experience Korea, absorb that culture positively.

I know. I was "there" for five years and fought all the way, even though it "gave" me positive memories in the end.

[PRagic]

TONS of stuff on-line on culture shock and acculturalization. The Peace Corps material is pretty decent, too.

Here's just one: https://www.thespruce.com/culture-shock-from-international-move-2436081

[OopsIMadeIt]

This info radiates truth, thanks.

Truth is, too, you get dissed a lot in Korea, making it a Mt. Everest experience. But never had I'd seen myself so mockingly as by seeing immigrants in the US.

The other day, at the tax office, a middle aged Hispanic guy standing in line in front of me says to the receptionist "Habla Espanole?" or however they say it. "Do you speak Spanish?"

"Nope" was all she said back, and I could see and feel his dismay.

Thing was, the Spanish guy's mentality was totally green, much like some expats in Korea. He could very well have memorized a few phrases from a guide book like Lonely Planet. Or else he could've asked another Spanish person what to say. But instead, he'd expected the other country to speak Spanish or for the receptionist to bend to his sense of expectations of being foreign. Then, to his dismay, he expected someone to bale him out and he almost didn't get it.

This he did because he had a false sense of expectations. Like English in Korea, Spanish is written all over the U.S. In Korea they have Romanization. In the U.S., however, they have Spanish itself and this written in certain environments and places. Banks always have recordings in Spanish, too. Products at stores use Spanish interpretations as well.

So there's no need to learn the language and adapt and I notice the attitude it creates, which is the same kind of attitude I felt and experienced in other expats while over in Korea. It's one of disregard and disrespect and dislike.

This latter I found the most debilitating, and sometimes even regret comments and actions I'd made while there.

So basically, I'm trying to formulate how well this fits in to your time there and how important it is so that you don't leave with low expectations of yourself and the country and what could otherwise be less problematic and eventually, quite high.

[PRagic]

Well, under 5% of the foreigners here are here doing professional/educational work to include ESL. I imagine these are the people to whom you're directing your comments.

Most are short term and work around people who speak English. Many don't have K friends, and some prefer it that way. They're here for a year or three, pay off some debt, save a bit, and do a typical SE Asian vacation on the way back home. Nothing wrong with that, just saying that most aren't invested in learning the language or culture as they see no long game upside related to that.

But there are some longer term teachers and a ton of exchange students here, and they're killing it; mainstreaming the culture and attacking the language.

Everyone does their time abroad, short or long term, differently.