|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Homer
Guest
|
 Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:49 am Post subject: Mid to long timers....whats the motivation? |
 |
|
Initially, I came here with a plan to stay one or perhaps two years. I wanted to teach, pay off my loans and do some travelling while experiencing a different culture.
Then, things changed, I met my wife, got to really love living here and found a lasting interest in the culture and language.
I think most of us come here initially for a short term stay...why did some of you fellow mid or long timers (over 4 years here lets say) choose to stay longer?
I know my wife and I have no real plans to go to Canada for now. We might do so if my consulting gig continues to pick up but so far life here is pretty good.
What about you guys? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
IlIlNine
Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Location: Gunpo, Gyonggi, SoKo
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
Will pass 4 years in a month or so...
But I went from the hagwon to working and doing my master's in IT at the same university. It's.... comfortable. I feel like I'm furthering myself, I like my job, and I like Korea.
I'm not rich... but I'm happy. Plus I get to go to the Philipenes for 6 weeks this winter. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:57 am Post subject: Re: Mid to long timers....whats the motivation? |
|
|
| Homer wrote: |
Initially, I came here with a plan to stay one or perhaps two years. I wanted to teach, pay off my loans and do some travelling while experiencing a different culture.
Then, things changed, I met my wife, got to really love living here and found a lasting interest in the culture and language.
I think most of us come here initially for a short term stay...why did some of you fellow mid or long timers (over 4 years here lets say) choose to stay longer?
I know my wife and I have no real plans to go to Canada for now. We might do so if my consulting gig continues to pick up but so far life here is pretty good.
What about you guys? |
For me, completely different and yet exactly the same. A long-term ex-pat, I havw worked in many other countries. This was intended to be the last contract for me - contract director on the TGV (now KTX) project.
But, having come here, I felt more "at one" with the place than any of the others, even though Korea does not really score number 1 for any item on any list. The longer I stayed, the more I liked it ... met a Korean lady ... a familiar tale. Now struggling to learn the language: my one regret is that when I first came here I had no time to take up the free lessons offered by the company twice a week in the office.
Anyway, current game plan is to work till I donlt have to - sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere: we have a place here, and will buy one each in US (where most of her family are) and UK, my homeland, so that we move around cherry-picking the best seasons in each country.
La vie est belle. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Beej
Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:59 am Post subject: |
|
|
| stress free money and inertia. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
Korean culture. . . neither appealing nor repulsive. But Korea gives me a good job with good holidays and good students so I'm still here.
That and Canada really sucks. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
my wife doesnt want to live outside korea..
I would rather live in a new country, start over again, new culture new life new job would be so exciting and an adventure and a great experience for my 8 year old daughter.. but my wife is not the adventurous kind. so IM stuck here unless I make it big and I can take my family to another country and live there.. anyway we will move somewhere soon for a couple years. just dont know when.. if I had my way it would be tomorrow why limit my life to only korea! I ran from my other home countries because I wanted to get away.. well ive been in korea as long as my other countries.. ive never been one to hang around for too long!
im coming up to 10 years and well korea is very comfortable, easy to live and can easily lose 5 years in a heart beat! so another reason why I want to get out.. before I get to comfortable and I wake up and im 40!!
I stay becuase its easy! thats it ...
lazy and I hate it!! im becaming an AJOSHI! ARHHHHHH!! hahahahaha
so I need to run! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
Korea is never boring, there is always a new facet to each day that makes me think about things. I am also very appreciative of my job. I am not here for the culture thing, though that got me here. I have long since tried to find meaning through learning who I am, and not looking to another culture for results. Though being juxiposed to Korean culture has led to many realization for me. That said, I am often branded as a sell out to Korean culture by a good many, but that is because Korean culture if just lived is rewarding for this Yank.
But then again in my cheaper moments, its the birds and beer! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
The reason why I am still here is that in the last 7 or so years, lecturing at a uni. I've had 30 or so months paid vacations and traveled to 24 countries. When I'm lecturing, it's usually 12 hours per week and it leaves me lots of time to do many other things. I love the Seoul subway system. It is so convenient and inexpensive (and yes, I'm willing to pay an extra 300 won per ticket if they would only throw a few more trains out during the packed rush-hour). In addition, I don't really like driving. Taxis are fairly inexpensive here as well.I love my wife, Korean food and totally despise the long Canadian winters.
I also like the fact that I've been able to build my own little niche and do what I love to do.
I find that the Canadian taxes are way too high, most of my friends who are making good coin are working 60-80 hours per week and the gov. usually taxes at least a good third~ most of the time.
Though I do miss my friends & family, the nature, the outdoors and fresh- air, I am very content here for the time being. See what tomorrow brings. I don't know if this makes sense to you, but it sure does for me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:34 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Harpeau wrote: |
| Though I do miss... the nature, the outdoors and fresh- air |
Get out of Seoul, away from the big cities.
Having lived a few years in Toronto and the Windsor/Detroit area I knew a big city was not for me, yet it has its benefits, so I wanted to live near enough to a big city yet far enough away to have the benefits of living in the country, so I came to Geoje Island, an hour south of Busan by ferry.
I was supposed to be here for a year and a half, two at the outside. I'm entering my fourth year here and would probably make it a fifth if I didn't have to go back to Canada next summer to do something that can't be postponed any longer (defend my m.a. thesis).
I'm a mid-termer by default.
I've just enjoyed being here too much to leave yet. I don't like going back in life, so when I do leave it'll likely be for good. But I haven't had my fill yet. I feel at one with the food, as much as the family Hungarian cooking I grew up on, and the ocean here draws me to beaches and cliffs almost daily. Of course, my fondest childhood memories are from rural Vancouver Island, so in an important sense I FEEL LIKE I'M AT HOME. Though the amazing thing is the local people remind me everyday that I'm not. I am constantly surprised. Boring? Not a single day. I constantly feel a mix of the strange and the familiar.
"I must leave... but not yet." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JacktheCat
Joined: 08 May 2004
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
In a nutshell ...
The crazy, wacky, bi-polariness of the place. 'Tis never boring here.
Who wants to live in a boring, sane place like Japan anyway. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Like the OP, I planned to stay a year or two and then move on.
I stayed four years in one job because it was a terrific gig. Easy work, easy hours, good pay, but best was the students. I was working with researchers and found them fascinating. Moved on and found another great gig where the students were also out of the ordinary.
Like a couple of others, I've found Korea to be more of an adventure than living at home. It's fun most of the time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I've got a great job where I work only 1/2 a year and when I work it's only 12-20 hours a week. Why would I live anywhere else?
Plus as the_beaver said Canada sucks |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
guangho
Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Location: a spot full of deception, stupidity, and public micturation and thus unfit for longterm residency
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| JacktheCat wrote: |
...
Who wants to live in a boring, sane place like Japan anyway. |
~raises hand~ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hack
Joined: 24 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| SuperHero wrote: |
Plus as the_beaver said Canada sucks |
Canada sucks? And Korea doesn't? I really hope you aren't a Canadian and if you are, i seriously question whether or not you have lost your grip on reality. Have you ever had a good paying, responsible job there?
I really find it hard to believe that anyone who was born and raised in Canada and could have at least the same level of disposable income in both Canada and Korea would choose Korea.
I'm getting out of here (2 weeks today can't come soon enough) after 4 years here, 3 in a uni. It seemed lately that at almost every English dept meeting a grad sudent or prof would ask me "Why do you choose to live here over Canada? I wish I could move to Canada. I have friends or family in Canada and they love it" Every time I go home I ask myself the same question.
Sure there are a few things I might miss although I really can't think of anything other than my korean princess. I thought about asking her to come with me but I have been married once and that's enough and there's no other way she would get a visa there. Besides I still prefer North American women and 4 years with 1 woman is about my limit.
If Canada sucks, they would have to invent a new word for what Korea does. But that's just this Canadian's opinion. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
periwinkle
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| hack wrote: |
[Besides I still prefer North American women and 4 years with 1 woman is about my limit.
. |
And we love you, baby.
xoxoxo |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
