Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

Was talking to two students the other day and they were asking me what I knew about Korea before I came here or started to think of coming here. There wasn't much, really. How about you? If you did a word association game about Korea before you ever came here, what would your answers be?

Here were my thoughts.

1. As a Canadian, if someone ever mentioned Korea I would automatically think of Ben Johnson and the 88 Olympics.

2. The War.

3. Horrible music. When I was in high school this Korean kid brought in K-pop music vidoes to show our music class. It was as bad back then as it is now.

4. A pushover -- took a course on Japanese history in uni. and got the impression that Korea was Japan's doormat.

5. Kalbi. Some goos Kalbi restaurants in Toronto.

That's about it though. Before looking into coming here I never would have associated Samsung, Kia, or LG with Korea.

Immediately prior to coming here I was under the extreme misconception that Koreans were very friendly, warm towards foreigners, and respectful towards English teachers. Still have to tell off the friend that told me that.

[SPINOZA]

the months of reading Dave's ESL Cafe before coming: xenophobic and downright horrible hellhole, loony expats, good for saving money, terrible employers, every day a complete nightmare.

before that, before I ever considered coming: they eat dog, questionable methods of slaughter, dogs in tiny cages on public view, hosted the Olympics and World Cup so must have something going for it, hardly on my 'must visit' list.

Didn't know much about it at all, to be honest. Didn't know much about anywhere in the Far East apart from Singapore (because I'd been). My education consisted of European and American things and I was never interested enough to do any reading by myself. I'd say my view is quite typical.

[ChimpumCallao]

i honestly never thought about it, but i guess i knew they were kind of like a japan jr. and i always felt a little sorry for them because i figured it must be hard to be between two such important countries that have such prominance with the west (china/japan).

also, that they ate dog, liked hip hop, and led the world with eyelid surgery operations.

my kyopo friends all liked to smoke and rap and pretend to be mexican.

[doggyji]

As far as I know, China is the world's biggest consumer of dog meat. But I rarely hear those outsiders saying China dog this China dog that. I wonder why. One thing funny happened. One day I went to have dinner with my Chinese friend and her Asian friends I didn't know. Having convos with them, that famous "oh, I heard that Koreans eat dogs.. is that true?" line started.(This time not by westerners.) Eventually I had to get some disgusted looks even though personally I rarely ate dogmeat when I was in Korea. My question is.. why always and almost exclusively Korea-dogmeat, dogmeat-Korea? How has this knee-jerk flashy image relation about that relatively unknown country been well established around the world? From my impressions, if they know Korea is not a new company or something to eat/drink and know only one thing about Korea, it is either the Korean War in 1950s from history class or the dog meat consumption.

[Neil]

As well as the stuff already mentioned a friend of mine used to work as the editor of a fanclub for an obscure band called Rialto.

The band were really unpopular in the UK and he always used to mention the only thing that kept them on a record label was that they sold loads of records in some place called Korea.

[endofthewor1d]

i started a similar thread about a year ago:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=41629
this is what i had to say:

[coffeeman]

Before coming here = K is similar to Japan and much worse than China
After = K is very different from Japan and more similar to China (except for the filth).

[Hater Depot]

I knew nearly nothing. I was definitely under the impression that due to Buddhism there would be lots of vegetarians.

[huffdaddy]

[Corporal]

I knew hardly anything about it before I came. I thought it would be much cleaner, greener, and that there would be more, I don't know, rice fields and bamboo in random places. For some reason I pictured wide city streets and not much traffic.

[Privateer]

I'd always associated Korea with the Korean war and imagined it to be similar to Japan (developed economy, regimented society) only poorer.

Other than that I had no idea.

I wasn't even aware that Samsung was Korean, and I, for one, doggyji will be glad to hear, didn't and don't associate Korea particularly with eating dogs (although, as it turned out, most of my friends and relatives back home did).

I didn't expect Buddhism or bamboo or any sort of rural idyll.

Before coming here, I met several Koreans abroad and formed the impression that they were very kind, polite people who always thought about the good of the group rather than themselves. I liked them very much and became friends. I had my first ever taste of Korean food - kimchi - at that time and instantly liked it too.

Coming to Seoul was certainly a rude shock and initially my impressions were very negative. I found it a very harsh environment to live in and unrelentingly so. It seemed like there was not only no time to stop and smell the roses but there weren't even any roses! It was like I had the honeymoon experience pre-Korea and went to full-on culture shock immediately upon arrival.

Nowadays...well I was going to say I've come to a more balanced view of Korea, neither rosy nor negative, but it's more like I can see both extremes and how two contradictory aspects simultaneously co-exist (ok this sounds like BS, I know). Whereas before I saw lack of ego and almost matter-of-fact truthfulness, for example in talking about inner feelings that we Westerners automatically conceal, now it's obvious there's loads of egotism and phoneyness here. Then when I think I've got it figured out - like, 'ah-hah but the egotism is transparently obvious egotism therefore Koreans must be just very emotionally naive' - then, I say, I meet people who are totally not obvious and/or genuine or selfless and I have to conclude that basically all the rules, including those pertaining to the when and how of displaying emotion and, deeper still, those pertaining to how emotions are constructed and perceived, are different here and, in the end, better face the fact that with Korea, kind of like with life itself, the more you know the less you know.

It's rather like looking at good modern art, as Joseph Heller said - which is to say, interesting.

Oh and of course mostly it's become totally ordinary and everyday nowadays.

[anjucat]

My earliest awareness of Korea consisted of ultra-violent student protest clips on the 6 o'clock news combined with stuff i gleaned from M*A*S*H at 7 o'clock (i remember Frank Burns thinking the locals were planting landmines when they were really burying kimchi pots -- good times). As a result, i've always wanted to make a molotov cocktail out of a grape nehi bottle...

[Qinella]

All I really knew was that it's a collectivist culture (though I had no idea what that *really* was until experiencing it), that there are no guns, that the violent crime rate is pretty low, and that Christianity has uprooted the shamanistic and Buddhist religious roots.

[Bulsajo]

moonies, war, and m.a.s.h.- not neccesarily in that order.

[Bronski]

Since I haven't been to Korea yet (I'll be there in a week) I give my impressions.

A friend of mine stayed in Seoul for a year and loved it. Crowded, dirty and full of things to do. Food is delicious and cheap. Everything's cheap. In some area Madammes will try to lure you to prostitutes. People are alcoholics and you can get a fifth of vodka at a Seven Eleven at 4 in the morning, but other drugs are strictly forbidden.

I think a lot of people come on this board to vent, so it may be tilted a bit toward the negative, but I get the impression that Koreans are rude and obsessed with Korean pride and homogenity. I'm sure that doesn't go for everybody, but it's a bit of a recurring theme here.

Going to a country as a minority in a completely different culture is intimidating, but I'm more nervous about teaching and how I'll fit in at the school and with other teachers than anything else.