Korean Job Discussion Forums

[guangho]

I am curious, how many here came to Korea specifically to avoid life and all its obligations out west? And if you did, how long have you been here and what are your thoughts about it?

[inkoreaforgood]

[guangho]

[the_beaver]

Possibly.

A life in the burbs with 2.3 kids, making payments on a car, putting money into the mortgage every month, doing a 9 to 5, and thinking that a week in Club Med is an actual holiday is not appealing at fucking all.

Here, there are no Joneses to keep up with so I live way more comfortably.

[VanIslander]

I like the idea of exile, of being out yonder because of one's political convictions or village-offending liberties, but alas, I came to South Korea to travel overseas (never had saved up enough money or courage to simply go around the world), to experience another culture as more than as a tourist (stay a while instead of just passing on through clicking cameras, pointing and knowing very little) and to be able to hop around Asia (as I've done and will do some more; to finish the list).

That said, after six months here I realized the advantages of staying on in South Korea for longer than the planned year to 18 months, and it involves the extra time to work on my writing projects due in part to the lack of distractions, a benefit an exiled person experiences in a society other than their own, all the while pining for the return.

Only, nothing back home is keeping me here, so I guess that's where the analogy ends.

Now to a phrase that's often bantered about in ESL chats:

[Alias]

[VanIslander]

[Wrench]

I had a really good job problem is that it was so much stress I had a nervous breakdown. I always wanted to travel, I also get bored after 2 years or so.

[Jensen]

[itaewonguy]

[NightSky]

though namecalling is somewhat overdone around here, the OP is almost completely trollish. Came here to avoid life??

[JongnoGuru]

I didn't come here to avoid or escape obligations in the West. I wasn't really old enough to have had many of those anyway when I first set foot in East Asia. Obligations to parents & family, those are pretty low-stress and in any case I'd still have them if I lived on Jupiter. Korea's no escape in that respect.

But I suppose there must be some foreigners here who were running away from something when they came to Korea. Never really gave that much thought. To get a real sense of their numbers, this ought to have been made as poll. I mean, who's going to say, "Yeah, I'm just here cooling my heels until the statute of limitations runs out on a little matter back home"? What you get are people claiming to be too good, too hip, too special, too intelligent for the standard workaday life in the West (as though everyone the West were living a boring, cookie-cutter existence).

For me, the West has never been a repelling magnet at all. It just wasn't as strong an attracting magnet during a very crucial run of years of my life as was Asia generally and then later Korea specifically. Because of that and because of the decisions I made and things I did then, there's no comparing the two anymore. My obligations as such are mostly all right here in Korea.

Exile? That's only if you see yourself as belonging nowhere in the world except in Country X, in which case nowhere else you go is going to be or feel like home. I don't think I ever lived in a country (this is my 5th) where I started out the adventure consciously thinking to myself, "Okay Guru, you're only here temporarily for a year or two. Better not get settled in. This isn't home".

[the_beaver]

[the_beaver]

[Homer]

Not all of us waeguks are here to avoid or escape anything.

For many it is a choice to live abroad and experience something new.

That was it for me and then I met my wife. Our life here is good. Our life back in Canada would be good as well. I just enjoy living in Korea.