Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

Our job has to be one of the stranger jobs anyone could have. We go to a foreign country where we don't know the language or customs. Some of us learn about these after a while. Some don't stay long enough, some don't really care. We teach people, often kids, who don't understand us well, and with whom we don't communicate well because of language and cultural differences. And yet we are wanted here for our language and cultural knowledge. And we are more or less accepted, at least at work, as being people who aren't well aware of the local language or culture. The locals must wonder a bit about what sort of world we inhabit.

Then again, I suppose there are people removed from their home culture and language all over the world. Just that we are wanted and paid for our knowledge of a foreign language and culture, even if we are clueless about the knowledge and culture of our hosts. Isn't it an unusual job? In how many jobs besides EFL does this situation arise?

[Derrek]

Don't forget that many guys have wonderful opportunities to sleep with some of the most vain and boring, yet beautiful women on the planet -- simply because we "look" western and speak English.

Just don't come here looking for "LOOOOVE".

[Eazy_E]

It's almost embarrassing to experience the fawning for what Koreans consider to be "Western" culture. In our own countries, how many times are newcomers congratulated for growing up in the place that they happen to come from? Not a chance... ESPECIALLY if they can't speak English. A small portion of us can speak Korean (no fault of our own... we're invited here regardless and most of us give a genuine effort to learn some).

So yeah it is strange... I can't understand my students and they can't understand 95% of what I say. But the parents figure they'll learn English with an impeccable Canadian accent by some form of osmosis. Honestly I do not understand why learning English is such a pervasive obsession here.

[mb2086]

I thought the attitude is that you will learn about a different culture and modes of communication the more you stay and the more open-minded you are. People themselves are pretty much the same anywhere, but if you just resent being in a different cultural environment and don't want to make efforts to relate or to know then you are probably in the wrong job. Experience of different culures and peoples should be an enriching experience not a bore.