Alot of the famous foreigners you speak of also had tons of cash from playing poker. Rekrul goes without saying but elky espcially I rmemeber he won a ton of money from winning tournaments. Food and soju is cheap in korea too so they have extra money to spend going to bars and stuff. I'm not pretending I know rekrul or anything but this is the jist i got from reading his many threads.

I doubt Mizu who is only going there on a limited bugdet for a study abroad program will be able to experience korea as rekrul has and no matter how much he embrace the language, i think he has to acutally learn it if he wants to "become" a korean.

I was talking about TL people because that is probably ones the OP is the most familiar with. Don't get me wrong, you don't have to be rich to follow this path to ' korean-ness ' if you will. Progamers like Legionnaire weren't ' ballers 'and they got along just fine.

Honestly don't think you read too carefully. Money doesn't matter. How you present yourself and where you put your effort matters. I'm korean-american whose been to korea many times and I've seen soooo many people interested in korean and asian cultures. This is the same advice I give them and they end up just fine.

djcube

United States985 Posts

February 19 2011 07:09 GMT

#62

I just think it's funny how half the thread took your "I want to become Korean" thing literally.

Going to a foreign country is always a great experience. GL on the application.

mizU

United States12125 Posts

February 19 2011 08:35 GMT

#63

On February 19 2011 13:47 kaisen wrote:
To "become" a korean, you must act like them, think like them, drink like them, and get fucked up like them...

BTW, what is your japanese name? There is a name converter which you can convert japanese name into either chinese or korean and vice versa.

I don't think I have... a Japanese name.

People call me Nate.

Rekrul

Korea (South)17174 Posts

February 19 2011 10:27 GMT

#64

On February 19 2011 15:55 Ack1027 wrote:

Show nested quote +

On February 19 2011 13:38 MaRiNe23 wrote:

On February 19 2011 08:10 Ack1027 wrote:

On February 18 2011 13:21 NeverGG wrote:
I came here with crazily inflated visions of Korea as some kind of amazing promised land. It's alright here and you can do some really uniquely Korean things - plus a lot of necessities such as public transport/food etc can be really cheap and yet still awesome. However, it's the same as anywhere else in the world - it has its good sides and bad sides.

'I want to become... Korean.
i want to live... as a Korean.'

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you (as a foreigner) will never be fully accepted as one. It's not even worth trying and I can't see why anyone would want to assimilate themselves so completely into another culture. I was a total koreaboo before I came here, but as the years pass I've found myself watching more British/American/Japanese things, focusing far more on my foreign-based hobbies and not going out of my way to see/do anything typically Korean.

I loved Japan too - it was amazingly clean as you mentioned. Also it was really fun to try some different food for once, and to experience Fukuoka's shopping scene.

OP you should take this with a grain of salt...it seems like a very isolated incident.

To say it's ' not even worth trying ' is kind of insulting. Going on to say its physically and culturally impossible is pretty ridiculous.

I find it hard to believe someone can make blanket statements like this without having a decent grasp of the language, or even participating with people who drink without giving 2 shits about drinking culture which is huge in korea.

What rekrul said is what most foreigners should experience if they put in effort to embrace the language and keep an open mind. Think of all the famous foreigners on TL who went to Korea. A lot of them ended up staying a long time. Even further, when they go back home they know they are leaving with some good friends and experiences. Sure you may never be as korean as a native korean but you can get damn close if you try.

If Legionnaire isn't a baller nobody is.

quirinus

Croatia2489 Posts

February 19 2011 11:42 GMT

#65

Replace 'Korea' with 'girl' in the OP and it makes sense.

Good luck with the studying abroad, if you get in.

One semester sounds like a good deal to see the Korean culture and life for yourself, then you can make more informed decisions on how you want to play your life out. Don't decide before you've actually seen it.

mizU

United States12125 Posts

February 19 2011 17:18 GMT

#66

On February 19 2011 20:42 quirinus wrote:
Replace 'Korea' with 'girl' in the OP and it makes sense.

Good luck with the studying abroad, if you get in.

One semester sounds like a good deal to see the Korean culture and life for yourself, then you can make more informed decisions on how you want to play your life out. Don't decide before you've actually seen it.

It actually makes less sense using girl...

But thanks, I'll try to use that experience kind of as a tool I guess. If I really like it, yay for me.
If I don't, I guess we'll see that not everything is as good as we hype it up to be. :D