By Jon Huer who writes for the Korea Times has become infamous in the K-blog community and his latest article is sure to cause a stir yet again:
Through this business of column writing for The Korea Times, I have gotten to know some foreigners, mostly through correspondence and reading their entries in response to my columns. This is an interesting experience that has raised some questions and insights about those who live in Korea as “foreigners.” For the sake of focus, I will limit my discussion to those “English-speaking foreigners,” say, Americans, Canadians, and the group called “gyopos” who may be American citizens but are in Korea as returning natives.
I am most impressed by some of these foreigners saying the nastiest possible things about their experiences in Korea. Their violent loathing of everything about Korea is in some ways quite shocking.
To read their descriptions of life here is to read some of the most negative and unhappiest of human evaluations and social experiences.
The degree of their bitterness and rancor is, on first encounter, quite incomprehensible. [Korea Times]
Click the link and read the rest of what Huer has to say, but to sum it up he believes the English teachers come to Korea and expect special treatment because they come from rich countries and then when they don’t receive it they complain about Korea. Huer makes some sweeping generalizations because most English teachers I know enjoy their time in Korea and complain rightfully about things such as getting screwed over by shady hagwon owners.
I think Huer has a very poor understanding of English teachers in Korea just like many Koreans have a very poor understanding on why GI’s complain about being stationed in Korea.
There will always be a subset of any group that complains about anything & everything and they are usually loudest on the Internet, but I don’t see English teachers as a whole hating Korea as Huer makes it out to seem. So for all you English teachers out there that do complain about Korea, is the lack of special treatment that Koreans give you the reason as Huer claims?
5:37 am on April 18th, 2009 1
It's true that there are some teachers who come to Korea with a lot of ethnocentric baggage. These are the kinds of guys who can't handle being an ethnic minority for the first time in their lives and wind up spending all their time drinking and/or bitching on the internet. They're a very tiny minority, but also vocal out of proportion to their numbers.
9:08 am on April 18th, 2009 2
I teach here in Korea part time and I have very few legitimate complaints. I'm somewhat satisfied with my hogwon owner but I can certainly understand that a lot of English teachers have HUGE problems with theirs.
I'm lucky I'm just a part-timer, I could not work full time for any of these hogwon owners. No way.
10:44 am on April 18th, 2009 3
Not that bad of an article. More balanced than I expected. Basically English teachers have emotions and react to events in their lives. I don't think unhappy is a constant feeling. We have good days and bad days and vent online because freaking out on a bus and punching everyone in the face that bumps you has worse consequences.
People just like to feel important and who is to blame them?
11:01 am on April 18th, 2009 4
“I feel better now after having come to this discovery and understand the source of so many peculiarly unhappy English-teaching foreigners in Korea.”
This seems like a rather arrogant and presumptuous statement. Do you have a degree in psychology Mr. Huer? It seems like you are passing judgement on people you seemingly have not spent any one-on-one time with. It also sounds to me like a secular, would-be psychological analysis. Before presenting stuff like this, serious researchers do field work in which they get to know the people they are passing judgement on.
Sincerely,
A happy American in Korea
1:10 pm on April 18th, 2009 5
I think Hur is right about foreigners expecting "special" treatment, but only because Koreans can be just as manipulative and ruthlessly cruel towards each other. After working at a desk job the past couple years and seeing up close the way my coworkers were punished for things like having to pick up children after work, so never being able to work forced overtime, I've lately started saying that as crappy as some foreigners get treated here, Koreans get it far worse from their own brethren. So the "special treatment" foreigners expect certainly seems special from the Korean perspective, but from the western perspective it's what we call basic human dignity.
1:39 pm on April 18th, 2009 6
Not much to disagree with there.
When I came to Korea, I expected to meet a group of short-hair, high-cheekbone, can-do mutherfunkers who managed to tear themselves away from the sofa in front of the TV to go on a low-risk fully-paid adventure in exploring an exciting new country and proudly applying their life-skills at flowing seamlessly through a new and alien culture.
Not so much.
What I found was a very high percentage of stinkin' hippies and assorted losers who were in Korea by default… the last option in running from messy divorce, unmanageable debt, solitary alcoholism, unreasonable child support, deserving unemployment, outstanding low-level warrants, etc.
…and I'm not kidding about stinkin'. Of the 8 foreigners now at my friend's hagwon, 4 of them have moderate-to-serious hygiene issues…
…yet constantly complain they aren't getting any pusssy… which they believe is their great-white special-treatment right based on years of conditioning through Korean and Vietnam war stories, I guess. (That might actually be partially true… but it ain't gonna happen as a stinker.)
How do you graduate from a university without knowing the intricacies of daily shower-taking and regular clothes-washing? It mystifies me. One "teacher" didn't even know how to tie a tie.
When you get a large group of people who were basically unhappy and unsuccessful in America, there is little possibility the daily annoyances of a foreign culture are going to help the problem. For most, it is just tolerated as they make more money than they could ever make back home. And they biitch. And many of them do expect special treatment.
The only real group of "normal" Westerners I saw living in Korea seemed to be the army of trained Canadian teachers who were trying to get a year of work experience while paying off crushing student loans… and being completely frustrated since very little they learned actually could apply to educating Korean children.
They were "normal" girls but weren't really happy to be in Korea as they just wanted a job back in Canada and didn't have any dreams of living in Asia for its own sake… and they biitched about it, too. But, as white girls in Asia (no matter how hairy the legs), they got unlimited special treatment.
The few Westerners I bumped into that are happy and well-adjusted are far too busy living life to even be noticed. They get lots of special treatment… because they have something to offer on top of free English conversation.
As for special treatment, gone are the days of, "You are so handsome". Koreans are now worldly enough to recognize who is sharp and who is a stinkin' hippie… and give special treatment accordingly.
The stinkers are on the same level as third world workers and are increasingly being treated that way.
Take a shower and StFUaGBtW.
2:02 pm on April 18th, 2009 7
Judging by the replies here, it's official, the author of the article is right on the money.
4:33 pm on April 18th, 2009 8
Wow… I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with CH on this. Some of the ESL teachers are cool, but lots of them are here because their running from something, or needing to get out of a bad situation. They see SK as a way of "reinventing themselves". You have to learn to take the moaning with a grain of salt.
Really the only complaint I have isn't directed towards SK, but rather my own difficulty learning a new language. There is so much to do over here, I can't imagine anyone not having an adventure.
5:15 pm on April 18th, 2009 9
How about the employee who works for an alcoholic boss, who takes his employee out to dinner with his (the employer’s girlfriend) while the employer’s wife works diligently in the institute. He then kisses on the woman and caresses her in from of the employee. Keep in mind that the employer knows this will offend the employee’s moral sensibilities. Then consider the employee respectfully asking the employer not to put him in this situation again. Finally, consider the employer firing the ‘diligent’ worker out of vindictiveness because the employee does not want to play is immoral games, and he (the employer) is afraid his wife will get wind of his disgusting antics. Tell me Chickenhead is this suit and tie, diligent employee one of those low quality employees you are referring to? No doubt there are a lot of messed up people in Korea, but let’s be honest; there are often legitimate reasons for dissatisfaction with Korean employers, contrary to what some people would want us to believe.
The happy American
12:02 am on April 19th, 2009 10
It's not only the English teachers that complain. Others who have made a choice to come to Korea also complain after arrival to include contractors, GS employees, Soldiers, and dependents. Why volunteer to come, or volunteer to stay under AIP if all you are going to do is complain. Life is too short to spend several years hating it. A few extra bucks is not worth the trouble. As they say either love it or leave it!
7:45 am on April 19th, 2009 11
[...] also RoK Drop for an interesting discussion in the comments [...]
4:12 pm on April 19th, 2009 12
Well you can't blame soldiers who are assigned here on orders, you really don't have much of a choice in the matter. Now if they choose to AIP then yeah they need to STFU and learn to adapt and enjoy live.
Hmm, I don't know too many GS / Contractors who complain, most are married to Korean or Philipina's and have a life / children. Honestly IMHO the SK adventure is 100 times better if you can get a Korean girlfriend, or become close friends with some KATUSA or other KN's. They will show you around and really bring you into the heart of SK life style.
7:39 pm on April 19th, 2009 13
[...] hominem attack against the economic migrants’ overbloated sense of superiority. Surprisingly, responses have been subdued, although I think the best response is [...]
6:57 pm on April 19th, 2009 14
I completely agree. When I found out that most of my co-workers work a full-time job in a PR agency for about 1-1.5 million won a month, I was astonished. I've seen things happen to my Korean co-workers and I can't understand why they would just sit there and take it…
I agree with Huer to a point. You hear a lot of complaints on the internet, mostly from young English Instructors who just graduated from college and expect to be treated like gods here. (In a way , I was like that until I took a job at a local Korean PR company and realized that I'm just like everyone else…except I speak English and not Korean.) I've heard every complaint in the book from my former co-workers at the hagwon. However, I will say that the number of happy foreigners way outnumbers the unhappy ones. And that no matter how happy you are, everyone complains at some point. I personally love Korea, but I know there were days when I filled my blog with complaints of work… And to be honest, a lot of my Korean friends complain about a lot of the same things that my co-workers complained about. Mostly how rude Koreans can be and how older Koreans treat new workers at the office…
11:32 pm on January 26th, 2010 15
How about the psycho boss that screams and hits children?? Or the fact that not a single person in Korea smiles, or the general sense of anger and bitterness that seems to resinate from every singe Korean that I've ever encountered? It's a little difficult to shoot sunshine and smiles when everyone treats each other so poorly….