Korea Megathread IV: you all turned into grumpy old men

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Tourism & Travel > Korea Megathread IV: you all turned into grumpy old men

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

buttes

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Aug 28, 2012 around 06:27

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 08:09

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 16:34

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

buttes

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Aug 28, 2012 around 06:27

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 02:22

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

frozenpeas posted:

I'm spending New Year with my wife's family right now. They're really lovely people who've worked harder than I'll ever know and deserve a lot of respect. They like me a lot and I like them. I've not had a single problem with them since we met, unless you could my mother-in-law trying to feed me too much ddok gug this morning!

Next month we'll go stay with my brother-in-law who is an amazing guy with a lovely family. My family life in England wasn't all that great and I'm really grateful to be part of such a caring group of people here.

Yep, not everyone has the experience I've had and I'm jealous of the people that have accepting parents to deal with.

Her parents have the same story as everyone of that generation: they were poor, worked hard, and now they're very successful. It also means they stopped school at Elementary and are bigoted towards foreigners in this case, though. They are apparently semi-rich and well-connected, though, which I didn't know until recently. They just don't act like it, apparently. I guess that's all the more reason to be disapproving of the foreigner.

As for the gag shows, I haven't watched them, but I'm told by one of my friends that they are decent to watch and it was one of the ways he learned Korean.

So, this isn't so much of a breakdown post. It's a "why did I come back? I'm tired of this poo poo" post. I had a blast in America for a month and I came back to something I don't enjoy any longer. Meanwhile, I have open invitations from a couple of friends and basically bribes to bring me back.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 02:47

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

frozenpeas posted:

As far as bad tv, there's a pretty awesome Silla Era Sherlock Holmes thing on KBS2 right now, but it's more than half way through.

I'm pretty sure I could find it online. What's the name? I want to know that there's something worth watching so I'm more interested in staying in Korea and not thinking of it as a cultural wasteland.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 03:00

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Jesus christ. Take offense to my own experience much? I'm glad it's great for you, but to refute it outright as false is retarded.

edit: for the language point, I think it just makes you more invested. I am not invested in this place. I have plenty of friends that understand the language and can speak it well enough and I draw on their experiences as well as mine. I can understand and participate in basic conversations. That's good enough for me.

edit2: that was an awful overreaction based on reading the first few parts of your post. I apologize. I'll come back and be reasonable later. but part of your post was reactionary as well and you're assuming some things you don't know. For instance, all I tell my girlfriend is how great and amazing everything about Korea is because that's all she tells me. It's one point where I wish I could just be honest and say, "eh, it's ok."

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 24, 2012 around 05:24

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 05:02

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Momonari kun posted:

My parents-in-law, all my in-laws, and many others I know of are very kind, open, and understanding. Some people's parents aren't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBaxSqYFRow

Gross oversimplifications are fun, though.

Whatever anecdotes people have are sad and depressing, and of course they happen everywhere, but simply said, in all statistical measures, Korea is safer than the US. Even if there is a massive wave of unreported crime (and there always is at least some), it still wouldn't come close to the US. Not sure what point you're trying to prove here.

Let's see:
-In my small town I saw several thefts from people within 1.5 years for which the total of things stolen probably went over the $15,000 figure. Some bigger than others.
-A bunch of High Schoolers beat the poo poo out of a bunch of middle schoolers and killed one of them and it was swept under the rug.
-On two separate incidents, high schoolers stole their parents vehicles while drunk and drove them in to the river and froze to death. Again swept under the rug.
-A high school teacher in my town regularly found students of hers sitting on the street because they didn't want to be home since their parents were drunk/angry. It was usually well below freezing at the time.

Understand that these bullet points are not terribly significant except that I lived 26 years in Texas and never saw loving any of this poo poo, but in 1.5 years in Korea knew lots of people with brushes against terrible things. This is also excluding the time I've spent in two other cities for brevity sake. edit: pretty sure I'm forgetting some stuff, too

quote:

This is completely bullshit. It's frankly pretty drat offensive that you would paint all the friends myself and my wife have as not "real", or claim that we are a very rare experience. People use people everywhere in the world. Maybe it happens more here for obvious "oh my god crowded living" reasons, but that doesn't mean that it is anywhere near what you think.

Again, in my small town over 1.5 years:
-Friend's wife has lent about $150K to various friends whom either disappeared or refused to pay back
-Girlfriend's cousin's husband has $400K in gambling debt to his name. If he doesn't pay, the mafia kills him or breaks his legs or whatever. She didn't know when she married him.
-Girlfriend's family has lent ~$200K USD to various family and family friends never to be seen again - they have run off with the money/disappeared and/or spread lies about her family all over town.
-My girlfriend's best friend's family took the word of a soldier under the command of her father: that he had a school in Georgia where she could learn English for a year. She showed up, her father's money disappeared, they are not learning English, they were not given the accommodations they were promised, the soldier has made repeated threats, been abusive verbally and borderline sexually, and in turn they are learning Nursing from a Nigerian man that speaks Korean but no English. You can't make this poo poo up. They've also continued to scam more and more money out of her and the other girls in her situation.

Again, none of this would make me blink an eye if I ever had even a single run-in with this kind of poo poo in my life up to this point. I can also go over a list of why most of my girlfriend's friends are very fake if you want. I've even gotten her to see that since she has seen how my friends and I interact and how she and her best friend interact.

quote:

I hate to bring this card up, but do you speak Korean? Even semi-fluently? No? Then you have your answer. Stop treating Korea like it is completely understandable to someone who doesn't speak the language. You can understand it to a point, but that point will limit and cloud your perception of everything else. Your experiences and my experiences could not be more different. This is true of every country in the world. You don't speak the native language, there are going to be aspects of it that are always going to be hidden from you.

Yeah, so you tried learning it and so therefore you did your best, now you can comment. If you can't get the language down, you can't understand the country. That is completely different from not liking the country, which is a perfectly fine thing to do, but you can't claim you understand what Korean culture is and therefore you hate it if you're looking at it through poo poo-colored glasses.

My Korean is pretty awful, honestly, but as I said, I draw from others experiences as well as my own. I ask shitloads of questions about social situations. When Koreans speak to one another I can get the gist of what is happening pretty well and if I can't, I ask. I ask anyway, in fact, to confirm what I'm thinking. I don't think I'm missing a whole lot, but I very well could be. It's irrelevant to me, though, considering my experiences and the fact that I have a genuine Korean informing me of social norms all day every day with no ulterior motives. She will even say things to me like, "it's like this, but I don't like it. I like the American way better."

quote:

I can't pretend to know a single thing about you, but maybe it actually wouldn't and she's just scared? My wife's brother was afraid of what my parents-in-law reactions to me would be at first, but turns out, it wasn't a big deal at all! Not that I'm saying you'll have the same experience, but it's better to know than to have this whole lovely thing going on.

This whole secretive relationship that you have had with her and continue to have has turned into some kind of awful elephant in the corner. Nobody talks about it, it gets worse, they loving follow you in a car, you and your girlfriend have various discussions on it, and you get stress enough to post about it here.

If my daughter was running around in a secret(ive) relationship, with someone who was actively telling her about how much they hate where I was born and raised, and where my wife and daughter were born and raised, a place that has given me everything, and who can't even speak my native language enough to have a conversation with me, I would probably not be so friendly to this person.

loving man up and do... something instead of nothing.

A lot of this goes back to my language ability, really. She doesn't want to show up with anything less than a fluent boyfriend. Otherwise, it shows disrespect or that I'm an idiot. They aren't willing to hear "I'm working on it" or "I've been busy with other things." They know exactly nothing about me exact that I am a foreigner that they currently can only have limited conversations with in Korean. They don't know where I'm from, what my job is, what my personality is like, what I think about anything, how I treat her, etc. And she can't/won't inform them, either. To me, this is a sign of a very immature culture. Just contrast it with her experience in America and you should see why. If you can't, I think you're rationalizing. She could have shown up in America speaking only Korean to me and with me translating and promises of her learning English and her experience would have only been very slightly different from what it was.

quote:

Be proud, but not too proud! What a great message.

There's a difference between being proud and making Korea the subject of every drat conversation and only speaking highly of the country as if its poo poo doesn't stink. I'm very drat critical of America and it doesn't mean I don't like the country. It means I'm realistic. I just would like a little honesty and a little bit of experience from people that are going to claim that Korea is a holy place that can do no wrong.

edit: Where have you spent most of your life in Korea? I'm in Gangwon-do. The Alabama of Korea.

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 24, 2012 around 06:19

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 06:03

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Momonari kun posted:

Edit: I've spent it in and around Seoul. This area has 25 million people, so while it isn't all of Korea, it's certainly a major part.

There you go. I think this goes a long way to explain our different experiences. As I said, this is basically the deep south of Korea. This place sucks culturally and so does the deep south.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 06:27

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I guess it's good to know that someone out there is having good experiences in Korea. I'm not trying to write the whole country off, but my experience has sucked, culturally, and I would rather be back home, for all its faults.

I guess thank you for sharing your experiences, but calling mine bullshit is bullshit. It's entirely possible that if you came here instead of the Seoul area you'd have very similar experiences and feel the same way. I'm not writing off the whole country. But I'm saying "my experience has sucked and there's more for me in America. Korea has not impressed me." Understand that if I say something like "Korea sucks" as a blanket statement I'm talking about my Korea and not the whole of Korea.

There's no law that I have to be impressed and say only positive things about a country I'm visiting or else I'm racist. My experience has sucked. I came here with an open mind hoping that I would be impressed and be sucked in to the culture. The fact that I'm not impressed says something. But maybe that something is that I should have had lower expectations similar to how if you go in to a movie with low expectations, it's easier to be pleased by it.

Part of the reason I've had difficulty with learning the language is that I've been occupied with girlfriends since one month in to landing for 3.5 years. That has been a big part of the time suck factor for me. The other part is, with my experiences with the culture, it's hard to get motivated. I'm not blown away by the music, the TV, the culture. I think it's different in other countries. I can see why people land in Japan and immediately start studying the language. They want to be part of it. There's a lot of great media to consume for one thing. Everything that I see here leaves me feeling like it's a waste of time to watch/listen to.

If I ever leave Korea and don't marry my girlfriend, what reason do I have to know Korean? Who speaks Korean other than Koreans? From a co-worker that learned Japanese, I know that my skills would fade if I don't use them. Then what do I have to show for the 2100+ hours required (according to the department of state) to learn the language? As a guy that's interested in all things IT instead, I could be spending that time developing other skills that could potentially lead to great things. I just....don't see it being all that important. I would feel differently if her family were accepting and gave me time to learn. As it is, I don't feel great about trying to impress people that hate me before knowing anything about me. That's loving racist for you. It's not a good motivation to think, "hey, these people hate you and don't know anything about you. You should spend thousands of hours learning a language you're not interested in to maybe possibly impress them, but they may still hate you." Yay.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 06:59

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Onion Knight posted:

I guess I can sort of vouch that people here in the countryside are more weird/hosed up/racist than in the city but in my (limited) experience it's always the older people. Almost everyone I've met here younger than, say, 40, is really cool and progressive etc.

Also as I understood it 친구 doesn't really mean friend, does it? It's just the closest approximation to English and a closer translation might be something like peer, maybe? Or "people of the same situation". One of my schools hired a new office assistant and she was the topic of conversation at our last dinner, and the head teacher asked her age and told me something like "Oh, she is a year younger than you. You are not 친구."
I think there's a cultural expectation for you to help out your 친구 and a lot of poo poo comes up when people take advantage of that.
I've always equated the English word friend to be something more like 형 (although maybe 'bros' would be a better translation)

I will second all of your post.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 07:06

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Momonari kun posted:

Stuff about learning Korean

Honestly, if you had the experiences I had: would you want to learn Korean at this point? Imagine all the media bores you, your cultural experience so far has sucked, and you see a lot of negative poo poo all the time. At this point, my motivation is extremely low but I'm still putting in several hours per week. The rest of my time is being spent learning more IT stuff because it's far more interesting and has many more benefits beyond pleasing racists.

edit: the bright side here is my girlfriend, who is nothing like a lot of the other people I've met.

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 24, 2012 around 07:36

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 07:31

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Momonari kun posted:

Like I said before, either you have reasons, or you don't. If you don't learn the language, there will always be a barrier.

So the people that are dishonest, fake shitheads will stop being that way? I guess what you're saying is that it opens the possibility of meeting more people that aren't assholes. I can take that point well. It's definitely true. I just wish I would have met some of them before now.

edit: You probably speak Korean in most circumstances, don't you?

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 24, 2012 around 07:55

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 07:50

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

tirinal posted:

You may not realize it, but the conversations you're having with your English-speaking Korean friends are the equivalent of emoticon spam on facebook. Even if they're fluent. I didn't realize it, until I learned.

This is called encouraging motivation. Thanks.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2012 08:06

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I got a MacBook Air and iPad and decided to root my LG Optimus Q (1.5 years old now). The reason for the root is: 3G hotspot wherever I go. I can be standing in a field in the middle of the countryside and I have internet for multiple computers/tablets.

edit: it came with two batteries, but I will probably buy one extra for $8.

edit2: if I don't do anything special, one battery lasts me all day and then some.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2012 01:12

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

aeglus posted:

My iphone dies in like 3 hours but then again that's because I am using it constantly for all sorts of stuff. If you actually NEED to use your phone for work, I would absolutely 100% NEVER recommend getting an iphone. Not being able to change batteries is a deal breaker.

Yep. With the 3G hotspot enabled, if I can't plug in my phone, the battery goes down pretty fast. I think I could drain it in 1.5 - 2 hours with semi-heavy internet usage from other devices.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2012 02:52

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I found out yesterday that LG is offering a basically free upgrade of your phone if you do it by tomorrow (and re-sign your contract for another 2 years). When I walked in to an LG U+ today they asked to see my phone. It's a 1.5 year old Optimus Q which was top-of-the-line at the time. I pull it out and everyone in the store immediately laughs. As someone that cares about technology, I still found it hilariously transparent that they were trying to make me feel insecure about my phone so I would buy something from them.

I also asked about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and they said they didn't carry it because so many people didn't like it. I call bullshit - I have yet to see a low review of the phone. They don't carry it and they just wanted to give a BS story as to why so I would look at their other offerings. However, they did kind of make me consider the ridiculous-sized Note instead.

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 28, 2012 around 11:45

# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 11:29

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

AmbientParadox posted:

I thought we went over this before? Cell phone stores here would rather lie and tell you some nonsense than admit their failure. They've either sold out of Galaxy Nexus, or never carried it to begin with.

Yes, but the more interesting part of this to me, was how their retarded sales pressure technique was and it also made me wonder how many people fall for it.

I went across the street to a different, more honest U+ store and got a Samsung Galaxy Note LTE. It took around an hour to root it since it's a Korea-specific phone again and I had to get my girlfriend to read instructions for me (since I didn't trust my ability or Google Translate). It also didn't work like it should have: it said to put a file on my SD card. I did. It didn't see it. I tried over and over. I gave up and then put the file on the local memory and then it worked.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2012 13:24

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I don't know if I'd buy ASUS again, honestly, considering my luck with my main computer here in Korea for 2.5 years. It died twice and their phone support basically said "not our problem that you can't speak Korean - we're not going to arrange things for you" to me the first time it broke. I had to get a co-teacher to help. The second time it broke was shortly after it was out of warranty so I didn't even try. I gutted the thing for its hard drive and I think RAM and threw it in the trash outside my house.

The reason I say this is not because I think they're all crap build quality or anything like that. What I do think is that they are poorly designed for heavy usage if you game at all, which at the time I did (and I don't anymore). It seemed to me they didn't expect you to use their laptop for hours on end playing intensive 3D games and that's why my GPU died twice. A lot of people with my model of laptop had the same problem: game a lot and you had a dead laptop. ASUS M50Sa (Newegg-only model, but there were similar ones sold elsewhere).

Also, I wanted to bring up phones one more time: the Samsung Galaxy Note is loving awesome and I thought I might regret getting it over an iPhone and I don't at all. First of all, the entirety of Korea is going to be covered by 4G within 3 months. It's already in my old small hometown of Hongcheon and it's amazingly fast. The iPhone doesn't support it yet and probably won't for another 9 months. The phone also came with tethering by default and I didn't have to root it, but I didn't know that when I got it and rooted it immediately. The screen on this thing is massive and is making me consider selling my iPad2 since the resolution is higher than the iPad 2 (phone is 1280x800 versus 1024x768). I basically have a highly customizable tablet in my pocket with ridiculous internet speeds and I can attach a laptop or real tablet to its internet connection at any time. Bad part: my plan went from unlimited data per month to 6 GB of data per month. I'll probably bump up against that on occasion.

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Jan 31, 2012 around 02:59

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 02:57

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I'm going to be staying in Seoul from Sunday night until at least Thursday. Anyone care to meet up for a night or two or offer up a place to stay? I promise I'm not how I am on the internets.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 16:00

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Last call before I risk my life and butthole in a hostel for a few nights. I need to get to Mokdong pretty fast every day of next week, but basically anywhere in Seoul is an improvement over coming from Chuncheon. Would love to visit with a goon for a few days if possible.

Really, my biggest concern with the hostel idea is having some of my things stolen. I took that risk around 5-6 months ago when I did this and really didn't like the place I stayed. I wish I could call my company cheap for not putting me up in a hotel instead, but looking at the prices cured me of that notion. Anything decent near the area I need to go to is around 100,000+ Won per night and they just recently flew me to SFO and back plus a week of hotels, food, and transportation. At least they'll pay for a hostel, too. I just...bleh. I'll probably meet some K Pop loving weirdos, too.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2012 08:23

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I had almost 2 months in Gangwon-do, plus an extra 2-3 weeks of desk warming. It wasn't worth staying, though. I was an English-repeating monkey that had no control over my teaching or environment and quite miserable. I constantly tried to reassure myself it was worth it for the vacation, but it absolutely wasn't. My schools sucked. Others had awesome schools and even more vacation/lack of deskwarming.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2012 01:17

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

For those traveling in the region: http://www.coupang.com/alldeal.pang?type=C

Don't forget this place. My girlfriend and I had an amazing two nights and 3 days in Fukuoka and the whole thing cost ~$800 USD. That's bus tickets to Busan from a place near Seoul, round trip boat, two nights in a hotel, food, and entertainment.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2012 02:13

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Low chance, but anyone want to have some drinks in the Hongdae area tonight?

# ¿ Feb 5, 2012 09:04

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

politicorific posted:

Okay, cell-ish phone chat again.

What are the options in Korea for mobile data? Wibro, SK/LG/KT wifi, mobile hotspot ect?

4G cell phone and hotspot. My plan gets me 16 GB per month with LG and by 3 months from now they will cover the entire country. They even have it in Hongcheon already (really small town). My co-workers and I have been using it extensively this week in Seoul and I'm already up to 8 GB usage this month. I needed to grab a file from my home server and I got 2 MB/sec over it.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2012 12:52

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I do IT from home and starting this week I'll have to do onsite support for our largest customer (a US-based company) once per week in west Seoul. What would you want to know? Also, where does your expertise lie?

# ¿ Feb 13, 2012 00:31

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

There's a penis bar in Changwon. It's actually a very, very good bar. Amazing anju.

To answer the IT question: I came here as a teacher just because I wanted to travel. I went home for the first time and my friend's company was doing training. I went to the training. I got hired after. It's company that specializes in storage software. Before teaching, I was a .NET and Java programmer.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2012 13:26

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

THE LUMMOX posted:

The thing about this thread is that nobody is a mid 20s Korean girl *-^

Maybe go to that crazy thread where everyone loves Korean TV (still can't believe it exists).

# ¿ Feb 15, 2012 00:03

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

nunchi posted:

I'm trolling conservative homophobic Koreans on the Internet. Tell me about prominent gay Koreans / gay Korean stuff so that I have material that I can use to harass them with.

It's very important.

You've renewed my interest in learning Korean. Really.

edit: not for this particular subject, but just because there's so much old school, "we've always done it this way so it's right" thinking in Korea that I'd love to do stuff like this on the internet if I could.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2012 01:17

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

theinfamouszero posted:

Job hunting is making me lose it. 2 weeks until I'm illegally fired and the only offer I've got is from a place I completely don't trust. I figured having a transferable visa would make this quick but even the recruiters cringe when they hear that I worked for EdUp/WinEdu. One recruiter even said "I don't think I'll be able to get a reference from them". Glad I've put in extra hours every day for the past 2 months.

What's your e-mail address? I might have something for you, depending on what you need.

edit: anyone else here looking for work or work for their significant other or friend?

# ¿ Feb 16, 2012 09:45

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

THE LUMMOX posted:

Despite the box saying "100% Real Cheese", Pizza School uses processed cheese. I knew there was a downside (other than health) to the 5000W pepperoni.

God damnit.

I love that I get these updates from my girlfriend all the time. She expects me to be shocked and I'm just like, "so? It's a $4 pizza." And she gets flustered and thinks I don't understand the situation.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2012 12:41

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

gingersmurf posted:

Friendly PSA: Delta sucks. Yes, I knew that before and yet foolishly booked domestic (US) flights with them. Just wanted to make sure to remind everyone.

I'll be back in Korea in about 36 hours or so. Looking forward to being home!!

Pfft. As if United is any better at all. :P

edit: I still always fly United, though, because they're almost always the cheapest. I can endure discomfort and other such things for save a few hundred dollars any day.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2012 10:37

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Onion Knight posted:

This right hurr. Nonstop from O'Hare for ~$500

Also if you're not popping heck of pills on the pills in flight I feel bad for you. a few benadryl once we took off and I was only conscious for about 3 hours from Chicago to Incheon. I can't imagine flying any other way.

Why would you pay extra for a nice flight that you don't even get to experience?

My personal strategy is to get as many alcoholic drinks in me as possible without getting terribly drunk. The time goes faster and it's less uncomfortable. I can't sleep in a chair.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2012 11:24

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Ginger, can I live on your porch or something for a few weeks? Looks like I'm going to be staying in Seoul with my boss for a few weeks on a rescue mission. I don't really care for hostels and they won't get me. a hotel room since I live relatively nearby (3 hours by subway to the place I have to go). Just joking. Unless it's OK:)

# ¿ Feb 20, 2012 23:50

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

gingersmurf posted:

I don't see an issue with that except I'm about an hour from Seoul via public transportation. And we don't have a porch (except for the smoking balcony) so you will have to sleep inside. Will you be bringing Soju with you? The dog, not the booze.

What is the closest stop from your place? I mostly need a quicker way to Mokdong and sometimes Samsung stops. I am currently 2.5 hours from Mokdong, my most important place.

Also, can't bring Soju as I don't have a car and my girlfriend would die without him. Sorry.

I can share plenty of stories, pictures, and videos, though!

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 11:17

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Momonari kun posted:

gingersmurf is at Seojeongri station, so it looks like about 2 hours by subway, so about the same. I think there's an express train that leaves from Chuncheon station. You looked into that?

Yea, it skips like 3-4 stops on the long leg and makes almost no difference. Ginger is still an hour shorter (I have a program on my phone that calculates shortest time and fewest transfers - its accurate, too). I might use that as an excuse to visit her a couple of times in the near future. Thanks, Momonari.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 12:04

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

So, it's not only Korea that does it: I was semi-sick yesterday and still had to go meet my boss in Seoul for the day. This morning I'm worse than ever and had to do several conference calls, send a bunch of e-mails, and do regular work duties.

I feel absolutely awful and the line I'm sure is "just be sick at your desk." I'm completely OK with it, understand, but this is the first American job I've had where being sick isn't a good reason to not work.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 02:47

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

I spent a bit of time looking at that. It mostly speaks truth. That makes me sad. I would never teach in a public school again even if I could (I can't because I quit mid-contract to accept my current job).

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 03:22

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

Dr. Eat posted:

Friend's book is out on kindle, only $2! Or $1 with prime!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...p_p-Nrpb0K66ARR

edit: "[6:32:18 PM] Isaac: this book is just the total nightmare of every korean xenophobe that thinks all foreigners should just gtfo"

Why would he do this to us?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 12:35

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

MonkeyBrains posted:

Just got back from my day long orientation/going out drinking with my new coworkers at my uni job. It was actually a day full of really useful information. There are about 30 native English teachers in our department, and for the most part they all seem pretty dedicated and enthusiastic teachers. It's nice to actually be around people that really enjoy teaching and want to collaboratively work together to create lessons and activities. It was also comforting to talk to several people that had worked at this university that left to work at other universities in Korea, but then came back because they missed it here. And even others that have been here for 5 to 8 years and still love the job. Even in their drunken state tonight they talked a lot about how much they liked teaching here much better than other places. From initial impressions it looks like this will be a pretty nice job.

My bosses actually encouraged us to go drinking with our conversational students. And apparently during the spring festival all classes are canceled and the whole campus turns into a giant drunken party for 3 days. During the festival we will be having drunken movie viewings and we will possibly host a jello shot tent for our students. I think I have found the awesome side of teaching in Korea.

That's pretty awesome. I'd have loved to do this instead of EPIK, but alas, I was all the way in America and have only a BBA (double B on purpose). It's a wonder I got a job at all.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 13:27

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

tismondo posted:

My friend with only a BA from a midlevel university in the US did a cheap online teaching certificate + a year with SMOE and squeezed his way into a University job.

He laid a wide net and wasn't picky about location, but still ended up getting a position in Suwon.

Yep, I know a lot of people that have been able to get University jobs with not quite the right qualifications. I just question the stability of that long term. Every country that opens an ESL/EFL program like this seems to go through the same motions:

-Small program: will take anyone
-Big program: will take anyone (the beginning of this is when I came in the Korea timeline)
-Downsizing: can be a little choosy (seems to me where we are now)
-Stable and small: ridiculous qualifications required for almost every decent job

I'd say we will get to the last one in ~5-10 years.

edit: There's also no way in hell I'm investing any time/money in to getting more English teaching qualifications....especially since I don't teach English anymore (and I'm increasingly thankful for that every day). I am, however, quite jealous of my friend married to a Korean girl that works 7 months out of the year, 4 days per week, 4 hours per day, though. His pay is less than an EPIK'er, but he can more than make up for it in his off time if he wanted to (not sure if he does or not).

TreFitty fucked around with this message at Feb 27, 2012 around 14:41

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 14:39

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 16:34

TreFitty: Jan 18, 2003

The Bible posted:

Good lord, what job does he have?

Small University in the Gangwon province. I'd imagine the smaller the school, the better your chances and you could possibly get pretty good pay, too. This applies to schools mostly outside of Seoul, though. Everyone wants to live in Seoul and everyone wants a University job.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 18:07

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