Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cdninkorea]

This only applies to people who are planning to live in their native country full time again:

Do you worry about becoming a travel snob? You know the kind- that insufferable jerk we all knew in university (at least at my school- I knew several) who was always going on and on about how people do things in other parts of the world while everyone groaned at the prospect of hearing another boring story about some show-off's travels.

I've only been here 11 months (yes, a newbie), but I can already imagine myself becoming That Guy. I'll start every conversation with little quips like:

"I've been fortunate enough to have spent a significant amount of time in Korea, and..."
"I think the way they do this in Korea is much better. Over there they..."
"Back when I was in Korea, we used to..."

Say these while tossing your head just so and with your nose held a little high, and you have a travel snob.

Anybody?

[Zyzyfer]

Hah, yeah I kind of do that crap back home. Nobody gives me any grief, but I quickly realize what I'm doing and spend like the next month trying to correct myself. I don't do the aloof thing, though.

[eamo]

I truly hate guys who tell long stories of their travels..........

..........."Yeah, one time we were high in the Afghan-Kashmir mountains and we met these hashish smugglers who sold us some primo...." Shut up!!!

[jaderedux]

[Junior]

[ajgeddes]

[Qinella]

I have nothing to be snobbish about. Ooh, I've been to Korea. That doesn't make me a world traveler. Some people on this board have travel lists longer than Ron Jeremy's filmography.

But I know who you mean. When I was in the US, I lived around a lot of rich people in NC. The younger people who would constantly mention their trips to Switzerland and France, but try to say it like it bored them... Oh god! Wow, it must have taken such strong will and determination to get on that plane with the ticket mommy bought for you! You are soooo cultured, dude.

Yes, that's jealousy speaking.

I've read a few people on this board say to be careful when you go home, because no on will give a flying fart about what you did in Korea. So when I went back, I was careful not to talk about Korea unless someone asked, or unless there was something truly funny to tell.

[princess]

Yes, when I go to see my parents, I'm like that. But I think many people don't want to hear so much about Korea, but my friends will talk to me about how they spent a week in San Francisco or something. They usually only ask if Korea has fast food joints. GEEZ!!! I think some family/friends in the homeland are just jealous and/or they just don't understand Korea, etc.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Hehe-- I think there are three categories.

The Bohemian Backpacker. The BB hangs out on Khao San road buying pirate discs and getting henna tattooes to match the hemp clothing while drinking beer and discussing Cambodia. Periodically he calls home for more money.

The Package Pest. The PP goes on package tours to Cuba where he is ferried from the airport to sit by a hotel pool drinking frosty drinks served by locals speaking English. When he goes home he regales all with details on how travel to Cuba has given him deep insight into Castro politics.

The Hogwan Burnout. The HB returns to the home country and feels a strange mix of emotions, because he likes to talk about how bad the food and the job was, but at times he misses the novelty and/or the women.

I don't want to be any of them! But sometimes maybe I talk too much about Korea because it's all I know when I'm here. It takes me a few days to deprogram, and from there I only talk about it with people who ask me what it's like.

Ken:>

[Corporal]

[flotsam]

But there's a flip side to this, I have been to at least 50 countries in my time and spent all last year in India, Europe and Southeast Asia and I want to tell people about studying Urdu in the Himalayas and the bus ride from Srinigar to Leh; or how I was in Berlin when the wall came down and knocked a chunk out of it with a sledgehammer that was later stolen by some soldiers from the neighboring infantry company in our battalion, the bastards; or the two months I hiked up Sumatra during the lead-up to Megwati's election and how I watched the Indonesian parliament tally their votes to cheers and jeers on a blackboard on a black and white TV in the pouring jungle rain at a highwayside shop cum gasi noreng place that actually sold warm bottles of Guinness(which is locally produced at a brewery in Jakarta!) even though my host and all the local guys I was sitting with(but not exchanging a word with as no one spoke English) were Muslim--they were Muslims who liked a good beer, and...oh, I'm doing it aren't I?

But these are the things that make up our lives and who we are and who wouldn't like to talk about them?

The problems are two:

First, some people are fascinated, but a bunch of others are either jealous or ambivalent or naturally hostile bastards whose reactions run the spectrum from annoyed to incensed when a world-traveller starts rattling off anecdotes, when they shouldn't feel so self-conscious.

Second, they feel self-conscious because we have romanticized travel and "adventure" into something much more exotic than it is. I like Pico Iyer's take on the new expat generation--it's just one of the many accessible options available to just about anyone these days--it's not like any of us have hopped on steamers like Melville, Conrad or Snyder for years or decades of manly reflection on the high seas: we're either business people, travellers, raver tourists or neo-hippies(with a few ESLers thrown in) travelling in what cannot really be considered a very spartan or hazardous manner. I really don't think what we do is any more fulfilling, rewarding or cool than my brother raising kids and having a mortgage.

It's just different. And my credit rating sucks.

[flotsam]

[Zyzyfer]

[laogaiguk]

I don't go over my detailed stories at all, but I throw things in sometimes when someone asked why I changed. For example, I use to be a bit more shy before Asia. When I went home, we were are the bar outside waiting for a patio table (this is right on the Atlantic). I got tired of waiting and just got up, asked some girls if we could use their table when they were done, and walked back (my French was a little rusty though ). They all looked at me like I had just grown two heads and I just told them in China you sometimes have to be a bit more aggressive than your typical Canadian finding a place to sit (or for the waitress to come over ). I make sure that none of the things Westerners find rude ever go back to Canada though.

I never bring it up, and give general ideas of life, never detailed stories unless they are really funny, like me asking my cute Japanese co-worker, "Can I see your c**t?" instead of asking, "Can I see your name stamp?". (manko, hanko)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I've been to 31 countries and my sister to over 50, and we're the two biggest travel snobs you could possibly meet. At family gatherings we must be insufferable.

Seriously, though, after all the strange shit I've seen here I don't think that anyone's going go believe me.