Is It Really That Bad?

         It is understandable that when people have bad experiences, they want to talk about them. They want to vent, to rage, and maybe even to warn others so no one else will have to go through what they went through. When working in a foreign country, bad experiences are likely to occur. People visiting the United States from Canada and vice versa see some major cultural differences, so you have to expect even more radical deviations when visiting somewhere so much farther away. The internet, being a wonderful place for everyone to publicize their ideas, naturally has spawned places for such commentary.

         Since I work in Korea, I like to keep track of what others think of the situation. I read a job forum on a good ESL teacher's website. In this forum, I have seen some of the most hateful, venemous, and one sided diatribes ever. These are not limited to attacks on certain individuals, schools, or companies. Many of them attack the Korean people as a whole. I would like to take this opportunity to present my opinions on these negative statements and the reasons for their origins.

         One common feature of these anti-Korea messages is a comment to the effect that anyone who disputes the writer's claim must either be fresh out of University and incapable of knowing any better, or someone wearing rose colored glasses all the time who has never seen the 'real' Korea. I think it important to show that I am neither. I have worked for two years in Korea, with a year off in between. On my first trip, I worked for someone that I would politely term a jackass. If you listened to some of his other workers, you would understand why this could be considered polite. The man would overcharge on tax, break the contract as he saw fit, blame the foreigners for student losses, but never credit them for student gains and so on, and on, and on. He was still far better than many of the employers I read about in the forums.

         My second contract has been with someone who has the best interests of the students at heart, well most of the time anyway. He does listen to me when I have something to say, and even actively seeks out my opinions, and those of the Korean teachers at the intitute. He buys materials so we can improve the curiculuum, he is completley honest with pay and benefits, and the contract is actually more generous than many I have seen. In short, he doesn't exist according to many of the more bitter posts.

         So maybe this last experience might plant rose colored glasses firmly on my face. It hasn't, though. I have had my share of bad experiences here. My first contract, while not the nightmare many experience, was not overly pleasant either. The time off was nice, but the actual work had a lot of problems. On my current contract, I have had to spend weekends at live advertisements for new student books. I've gone to immigration twice to get my registration card processed, becasue they decided to change the card midcontract. And now, I've been falsely accused of sexually molesting a small child. So, I think my rose colored glasses broke long ago.

         I agree with the posters who target the schools they have bad experiences with. If enough people read the notices, maybe these schools will not be able to get foreign teachers, and will close down. This will only be good for people coming to Korea to teach. The problem I have is when someone has had bad experiences with a school, or even several schools, and decided based on this, that all Koreans are evil thieving brutes who hate everyone who is not Korean. Granted, there are people like that in Korea, but they are a very slim minority. Most people in Korea are very nice people who are always willing to help out when you are in a jam, just like most places. So, why do people get such a negative image of Korea?

         I have found that these diatribes tend to divide into two types. The first of these seem to result from the fact that Korean culture is different from what we typically think of as Western Culture. Korea does have a lot of Westernization to it. There are McDonalds and KFCs in most of the cities, and even some other western chains here and there. English is pretty commonly spoken and understood, at least to a limited extent. Movie theatres and video stores have extensive foreign selections of the big Hollywood hits. Still, this isn't Kansas. There are a lot of differences. Yes, they eat dog here. Yes, the toilets are squaters, although many places have at least a few seaters too, especially in hotels and appartments. Traffic laws, sanitation standards, even views on equality are all different. Unfortunately, some people don't consider this fact before signing the contract, and then become outraged on arriving and finding that it really is a different world out there.

         The prevading opinion in these types of posts is that since Koreans are different from 'us', they are wrong. Now granted, I don't care much for some of their norms, but I can work within the system and adapt. I don't like their standards for the treatment of women. However, I won't change their attitudes by yelling at them. What I can do is go there and treat my female coworkers and friends the way I would at home. They like that. I can also discuss this problem, as I see it, with my male friends and coworkers, and slowly change individual opinions. It's slow, but look at how slow our society is to change too.

         However, many bitter posters go far beyond even these complaints. I have seen attacks on Korean food. Many comlain it's too hot. It is hot, Koreans love their spices, but a quick search on the net will tell you what Korean food is like. Plus, there are a number of more bland dishes too. Others complain that the quality is so poor, any westerner who eats it will suffer stomach problems. While it is true that in most of Korea, drinking from the tap is a bad idea, I have been here for two years, and only rarely suffer stomach problems, about as rarely as back in Canada. Most of those were caused by the national dish, Kim Chi. It had nothing to do with quality or spice, it was the fermentation process. I can't eat pickles at home, and I can't eat Kim Chi here for the same reason. I have one friend who has lived here for about five years, and he has rarely suffered from stomach problems.

         Other posts include irate comments about how Korean people don't speak English. I read one furious letter from a former teacher who ran out on his contract. He was absolutely livid that the cab driver couldn't understand him when he said 'airport'. You'd think if he was going to flee the country in the middle of the night, he would have learned something like the Korean word for airport, which is kong hang (o as in 'go', a as in 'hawk'). I find these complaints laughable. There is a good reason this country is called Korea and not England. It is a unilingual country, and yet, ironically, has a very good command of the English language. Still, if people plan to come here, they should at least invest in a good Korean-English Phrasebook and dictionary.

         The second type of complainer is even more annoying to me. These are the people that complain about aspects of Korean culture, ignoring the fact that western culture suffers from the same problems. Koreans drive poorly. Yep, they do. Now take a good look at your own home town. Koreans are racist. That is true. One of the racism issues is that they preferentially hire white people for their teaching positions. Were it not for that most of the complainers probably would never get the jobs they held. It is true that many schools will only hire white people, or pretty young women or what ever. Well, guess what, we have businesses like that back home too. They complain that Koreans are xenophobic and don't like foreigners. Well, they are, to about the same extent as I see back home. Korean businessmen are dishonest. Well guess what, we have dishonest businessmen back home too. True, the fact that the western world shares these faults does not excuse bad behaviour by Koreans, but it certainly is not reasonable to complain about them as if they never occur back home.

         So, essentially, these complaints tend to come from very angry, very bitter people who have left the country never to return. In general, there are good reasons for their anger and bitterness. This does not excuse coloring an entire nation as a "wretched hive of scum and villany" to quote Star Wars. The Korean people are generally very friendly and very kind, and not too much different from people all over the world. If you are interested in reading the opinions of people who have done the job, the best place is Dave's ESL cafe, which is easy to find with a quick net search. But whatever you do, please don't let the bitter rantings of a very loud minority of ex-teachers turn you off a trip here. Do some good research and make up your own mind.