Highs and Lows, Pros and Cons OR Different doesn't mean BAD

One of the comments in my last post was asking for the highs and lows and pros and cons of living in Korea. I've been thinking about it, mulling it over in my head... and have decided to to a full post about it, in lieu of just sending an e-mail.

Let's keep in mind that everything in this post (and it's a long one...) is my own personal opinion.

Right, let's go with the good things first, keeping in mind that some of this list is specific to working in a public school (not a hogwan) and/or Canadian Connection, my recruiters.

• Since April 2006, I have been to China, Japan (twice), Malaysia, Singapore and India, today, I started looking up other places to visit (Hmmm, how about Turkey?);
• Today, I paid off one of my credit cards - okay, it was my smallest debt, but it's one less than I had before;
• My workload is hardly stressful - between tons of vacation and lots of classes that get canceled for different reasons, I can count on one hand the number of times that I have actually worked a 5-day week. Also, the "teaching" that I am doing is without corrections, exams, parent-teacher interviews - it's the fun part of teaching, without all the.. umm... "work";
• The friends I've made here - I've met people from around the world. The phenomenon here is becoming friends with a whole different category of people - people who I wouldn't necessarily have been friends with back in Canada;
  
• The view from my apartment - mist on the mountains in the morning, neon signs at night;
• My scooter - I couldn't have afforded one in Canada, nor would I have been allowed to drive one without a license or insurance (in Korea, 50 cc scooters require neither of those two things). And, Do Hyun, my scooter mechanic is wicked awesome;
• Canadian Connection has helped me a lot lately, especially Brendan. I would not want to be in the shoes of some of my friends in hogwans who don't have someone backing them up;
• My vet, Dr Cho - well, he's not technically mine, but Jakob's.
  
• Geez - I can't describe every single thing in detail or we'll be here all day - Okay.... I love temples, graves on the side of the road - especially the ones with the slab of marble rising out of the back of a turtle, passing mudbrick houses in narrow alleyways, vegetable gardens that go up to the roads (using every bit of available land, but still leaving tons of untouched forest and nature), the Wando seaside, the buses (comfy, cheap and you never have to wait long to find one going where you want to go), the mountains and valleys, cheegeu ramyan, veggie kimbap, Julianna's, soju cocktails, old halmoni (grandmothers) that smile at you, children that greet you, seeing people walk around in traditional dress for special holidays, walking into a doctor's office and getting seen right away for, like, $3, with super cheap meds from the pharmacist afterwards, really wicked awesome fruits (apples, watermelons, oranges that don't taste like Canadian cardboard) and veggies (when not pickled, brined or chili sauced), face packs, makeup, scrubbing down at the sauna, TaeKwonDo, Korean fashion (both men and women are super stylish), goguma, those soft honey cookies that look like flowers, Korean boy bands (I want one to follow me around like Gwen Stefani's Harajuku girls), Korean stationery stores, sounding out hangeul (the Korean writing system) and appreciating that King Sejong promoted literacy across classes by inventing such a system, "Art Street" in Gwangju, the lights of downtown Mokpo, looks of shock when someone says something in the teachers room in Korean and I agree with them (it's one of those... umm, I think "I understand Korean" moments. But then it passes.);
  

Still there? And what don't I find so appealing?

• Being far from friends and family in Canada. E-mail, msn and phone calls (thanks Meron!) are no substitute for actually being there. My nieces and nephews, who I only really saw a few times a year because I was living in Quebec before, are going to grow up with this concept of their Aunt being a nebulous figure. Actually, I think I'm becoming a bit nebulous for my friends in Canada too... Just, like, don't forget that I exist, okay?
• Feeling somewhat useless. I have the training and the experience, I can teach, but I am certainly not being used to my full potential here. Most of it is because...
• The Korean education system is baffling. The students are sleep deprived, stressed, cold and hungry. They "learn" English through grammar translation and by rote memorization (that we studied at Concordia as being "Methods that will pretty much ensure that you put way more effort than is necessary into learning a language, but that are so inefficient as to more or less prevent you from learning it"). I can't even begin to describe my frustration, yet feel that I've already said too much. I can't even compare these methods to how I taught in Quebec...;
  
• The treatment of women is disturbing. They are conditioned here to act like little girls, whining and mincing around on stiletto heels, calling their boyfriends "big brother", there are brothels everywhere, and infidelity and domestic violence (link to article) is a real problem here;
• The treatment of animals is also disturbing. Most of my friends (myself included) have adopted animals off the street, with many of those animals (Jakob included) showing signs of abuse. Here is an interesting article and site about the tradition of eating dogs in Korea from the Korean Animal Protection Society;
• The food;
• Not being able to understand Korean logic. No, I am not calling them illogical, it's just a different sort of logic than mine.
• Getting overly excited by cheddar cheese, real chocolate and unsweetened yogurt;
  
• Being completely and utterly dependent on someone (whether a friend or a kindly stranger) to help you with the most banal tasks. The post office has degenerated from being "an adventure" to being "the place where I am most likely to end up with tears welling up and people glaring at me";
• Not offending, even when offended;
  

Teaching in Korea is an experience that is different for every person. I am in a city, with a relatively large and stable foreigner community, and I can choose to live in my English bubble, or face all of Korea head on. Having been the "outsider" before: in Saudi Arabia and in La Pocatiere, I can say that Korea presents its own rewards, and its own challenges.

The concept of Culture Shock is a real thing, and if you move to any country that is not of your own culture, language, tradition etc you will live with it, to some degree, every day. I don't have to embrace every part of the Korean culture with glee, just as I don't embrace every part of the Canadian culture. And, many of my friends who have been home (for a visit or permanently leaving Korea) describe Reverse Culture Shock as being even more difficult to deal with.

Koreans are unapologetic about traveling with kimchi - they like it, so why not bring it with them when they go to, say, India, where they might not like the food? And, when I trip over myself to grab an overpriced slab of bleu cheese off the grocery store shelf, am I not doing the same thing? In La Pocatiere, when I would buy English newspapers and magazines, and not eat tourtiere, I was in no way rejecting the French or Quebecois culture, but choosing to live, for that moment, with my own comforts, my own language.

About Korea: Yes, there are some things that I like more than others and some days that I am ready to just pack up and leave. But... for the most part, I like it here.