Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

I knew:

1. There was a war and the country was divided.
2. They had held some major sporting events (olympics, world cup).
3. That they were paying people a lot of money to teach english.

[laogaiguk]

I knew a lot, but I had lived in Japan and China first. And in China, the foreigner's compound I lived on had a lot of Koreans.

[Young FRANKenstein]

I knew:

1. There was a war and they made it into a TV show.
2. They had held olympics

I wasn't even supposed to be here. I was supposed to be in Japan in the JET programs and just got, uh, sidetracked.

[Fredbob]

I knew about the fact that the country is still technically at war.
I also knew:
Koreans drink a lot
Most Koreans are Buddhist
Korean women are easy
Most Koreans in Seoul speak English
Most Koreans love Americans
Korea is a calm and peaceful place where people don't fight or yell
There would be a Taco Bell and a McDonalds in every town
Koreans respect their elders, especially teachers
Koreans work really hard
Korean women are generally submissive in public
Korean art is extremely expressive and creative
Korea has alternated between being Japan's bioch and China's bioch for a few thousand years
Korea has lots of mountains
Korean winters are brutal
Learning basic conversational Korean is easy
Obviously I was misinformed about a few things and just a little off base about others

[RACETRAITOR]

I came here for three weeks in 1996, so I was very well prepared when I came this time. There were still surprises, but nothing I couldn't ever handle. Now coming here in 1996, that was a different story...

[theatrelily]

I knew a bit.

I had first learned about teaching English in Korea from a coworker during a student summer job with a theatre company.

She told me lots of stories, showed me some pictures and videos, shared some recipes and gave me an idea of what to expect.

By the time I had arrived, I had taught myself to eat with chopsticks, learned basic vocabulary for shopping (the essentials, really) and had already attempted to make kimchi in Canada.

...And still was madly overwhelmed when I arrived

[jlb]

Little to nothing. I was a bit of a dumb-ass and probably would have had a lot better first 3 or 4 months if I hadn't of been so lazy and done a bit more research. Actually, the whole year could have been better if I had done some research because I ended up with a crap job.

Coming back to Korea for round two was infinitely better.

[Bibbitybop]

I studied up on the culture a lot and I was also into cross-cultural research and anthropology. I wanted to learn the language before I came, but due to a social life, I partied instead. Other than that, I was well prepared.

[venus]

Embarrassed to say that initially - before any research I did prior to arriving here - I though I would be living in some kind of old building on a street with people who wore white clothes and those conical hats that vietnamese rice farmers wear, pushing vegetable carts along dusty roads.

Turned out a bit different....

I knew that korean women were thought of as the most beautiful in Asia by other Asians, informed by Phillipino nurses in the hospital I worked at.

I learned how to say hello, please and thank you and that's about it... I was too busy or too excited to read up much and wanted to find out when I got here...

hmmm.. the trouble I could have saved myself....

[JeJuJitsu]

--took tae-kwon-do as a kid, so knew the hana-yul counting thing
--a few american-born korean freinds in HS
--learned they eat dog from late-night talk show jokes during olympics controversies
--knew KJI & NK, loved Team America

[The Hierophant]

I thought it would essentially be Japan with less bling. I was/am an ignorant dumbass...

[Boodleheimer]

i knew it had a great economic miracle, that the people were friendly to foreigners, two of my uncles served in the Korean War, they worked their little asian butts off, and i thought it looked like M*A*S*H. i was really wrong about the last one. it's so verdant! nothing like california at all. but they do seem to use the same style heaters that Hawkeye and Trapper John had in their tent. and it is just as cold and hot as they intimated.

[rockstarsmooth]

when i arrived in 2000 i knew that south korea was in asia between china and japan and that it wasn't north korea. they ate some kind of food called kimchi.
when i arrived a year and a half ago after 4.5 years away, i thought that women didn't smoke in public, and no one walked while eating or drinking. it was also less dirty than i expected, things have cleaned up! *shudder*
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right now i'm listening to: beck - missing

[The Bobster]

[Yeolchae]

Everything I knew was wrong.