Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

If you could change just one thing about Korea, what would it be? For me, it's easy:

NATIONALISM...

I don't mind rooting for your sports team or loving your country, but when it gets to the point that you think everything great is from your country, your country can do no wrong, and you think that the whole world loves your country when in truth it is of minor relevance, then I get annoyed. If there weren't so many people with so much blind pride, I think I'd be about 80% happier.

[jvalmer]

Unification under the control of the souless evil capitalists.

[VanIslander]

Expats who want to change the locals... to stop expecting to do so

(and accept them for who they are, and see imported value-fantasies as being as absurd as an American in Paris wanting Parisians to change)

[Sine qua non]

[VanIslander]

After a few years of hearing repetitive whining and complaining about things that will not change during one's time here, not when there's less than 1% of us and 99% of them, one gets a bit fed up with it.

It is the one thing I'd change.

Even a decent tune can sound like a broken record.

BTW, Pollyanna I certainly ain't. She tried to change things in the society she was in, and did so... more the optimism of the wishful thinkers around here, than the practical futility I practice.

Just get on with things. Change the world if you want, just don't start with Koreans. Urinating in the wind would have more effect. Make the best of your situation, don't try to change others, and if it gets to you, then move on, this ain't our country anyways, and we don't give a flying fig what happens after we leave, and most of us, myself included, are here for a good time not a long time, not a lifetime anyways.

[captain kirk]

I'd like Koreans to stop speaking Korean so I could understand what the &%$#@*& they're talking about.

I want Koreans to speak French.

[Cerebroden]

I'd get rid of all the koreans.

[Sine qua non]

O.K., if I could change any one thing it would be more hot chicks.

[Saxiif]

For me it would definately be the obsessive concern with image and the desire to spend money on overpriced crap so that you can show other people that you spend a lot of money on overpriced crap. Its really not necessary to be decked out in full North Face hiking gear for a short hike...

That and the beer

As far as the nationalism goes, the urban upperclass kids that I teach now are MUCH less nationalistic than the urban middle class kids I taught before who are in turn less nationalistic than the lower middle class rural kids I taught before that. The nationalism is mostly prolefeed and it works damn well.

The exception would be the Cheolla-types. They've were shit on by other Koreans enough that they're in generally not as nationalistic as other Koreans in my experience.

[tomato]

Just a few minutes ago, a thread like this one got bleeped by the moderators.
How much you wanna bet this one doesn't get bleeped also?

Incidentally, anyone legitimately claiming to be a Renaissance man would recognize the quote in Sine Qua Non's signature.
Can any of you who sneer at the Korean people identify that quote?

[Hater Depot]

Obviously I would eliminate all the misery and sadness whatever the source. Same for any country. Duh.

[Cerebroden]

[pest2]

theyd have real bicycle races instead of gay-ass tours. Actually, they do have real bicycle races, but not for foreigners. That goes back to that nationalism/ fear of losing face because you got your arse creamed by a foreigner-problem. For me, that personal pet peeve always opens the lid on the can of all my other hatred for this place....

[captain kirk]

Tomato, you worry too much about the lifetime of this thread. You, Tomato, could be squashed and rendered into spaghetti sauce at any moment, depending on the whim of the cook. So steady on and hold fast, my vegetable friend, everything will be ok.

[Newbie]