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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
On May 27 2011 11:03 Reyis wrote: OP, why the hell u r leaving canada for some asian country anyway... i mean it cant be because of higher life standarts. what are you into really? Culture? Can't speak for Seoul because I've only stayed there for four days, but Tokyo is a city like no other, and I choose it over Toronto, NYC, and SF any day. | ||
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xarthaz
1704 Posts
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xVoiid
Canada199 Posts
On May 27 2011 11:31 Legatus Lanius wrote: not trying to be rude or anything, but do you actually know much about korea or japan, apart from the culture? have you considered important shit like job opportunities, education, cost of living, healthcare, rent/housing? i always laugh when i see a serious blog about korea/japan and OP mentions their really beautiful women. there's beautiful women in every country, i really hope this isnt a really important factor in your decision to move overseas >.< im pretty happy living in australia. if i were to move overseas, the country would have to have at least the same level of quality of life and opportunities. not saying korea and japan dont have this, but thats probably one of the first things id consider, and then all the other things like culture, technology etc etc Lool, it's okay. I'm still fairly young so I'm still quite naive. I do know quite a bit about both. Japan is a bit more expensive than Korea in general, but you don't HAVE to like in Tokyo/Seoul. You could live in Nagoya/Busan or something, where housing and cost of living is cheaper in general. And no, the women aren't really a big factor, haha.  I do realize the reality. Japan is not going only be the Otaku's dream, and Korea isn't all about StarCraft and gaming (I still think it's pretty sad that people think that is so). I am generally bored here in North America. Canada/US is nice and all, but there isn't really something that interests me really (other than maybe California or something ). I've been to NYC, it's really not all that great. Downtown Toronto is boring (in my opinion). My whole life I've been immersed in the asian culture. I'm still kind of hesitant in moving, but my heart wants to go (I know that sounds REALLY cheesy but it is true. lol). | ||
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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
On May 27 2011 11:38 xVoiid wrote: Lool, it's okay. I'm still fairly young so I'm still quite naive. I do know quite a bit about both. Japan is a bit more expensive than Korea in general, but you don't HAVE to like in Tokyo/Seoul. You could live in Nagoya/Busan or something, where housing and cost of living is cheaper in general. And no, the women aren't really a big factor, haha. I do realize the reality. Japan is not going only be the Otaku's dream, and Korea isn't all about StarCraft and gaming (I still think it's pretty sad that people think that is so). I am generally bored here in North America. Canada/US is nice and all, but there isn't really something that interests me really (other than maybe California or something ). I've been to NYC, it's really not all that great. Downtown Toronto is boring (in my opinion). My whole life I've been immersed in the asian culture. I'm still kind of hesitant in moving, but my heart wants to go (I know that sounds REALLY cheesy but it is true. lol).I wholeheartedly support your move, but what are you going to do there? Do you plan on living there forever? | ||
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xVoiid
Canada199 Posts
On May 27 2011 11:43 Cambium wrote: I wholeheartedly support your move, but what are you going to do there? Do you plan on living there forever? I also ask this question to myself many times. Most foreigners teach English in both countries; that is a fact. Job selections are much more limited in Korea, but even with broader selection in Japan, it is still hard to get a job that is not ESL-teaching. I don't mind teaching, I still much prefer being a developer but we'll see how things go. Also, I'm not entirely sure whether I'm going to live there forever. It's a really hard thing to think about. It's kind of like relationships (lol). I'm not entirely sure if I'm "infatuated" with Japan/Korea or entirely in love. I do imagine living there for a very long time though. If I get married there, I will probably stay there forever, though. As long as I travel too, it won't be too bad I think. | ||
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Legatus Lanius
2135 Posts
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
My Mom has bright red dyed hair, 15 tattoos (on her neck, hands, arms etc.) and tonnes of ear piercings. However, her attitude is very respectful of Korean culture (she nods acknowledgement to older Koreans, uses formal language even if she only speaks a tiny bit of Korean and is super polite.) I was expecting her to get dirty looks due to her strange appearance, but instead she gets welcomed over to the 'senior' seats by grannies, and people treat her really nicely. My best advice to people who want to live in Korea is - do your research. Ending up in a bad school, or without the correct and legal paperwork will only provide you with a bad experience. Also, lol @ people who think Korea is filled with beauties - I see maybe 1-2 girls a day in Seoul on my normal commute who would be considered 'above average.' Obviously, when you go to the richer districts such as Gangnam or Apgujeong this figure rises due to the amount of aspiring starlets and shop ladies wandering around, but these 'beautiful' girls aren't the only women in Korea. | ||
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nitdkim
1264 Posts
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ShloobeR
Korea (South)3809 Posts
If you actually try to learn Korean (unlike 95% of foreigners here), learn about life here and adapt then people will treat you with respect (and not that 'fake' respect reserved for white foreigners). Old Korean men and women will rib you, you'll just have to learn to live with it, when I'm out with my girlfriend we get weird looks all the time but we speak in Korean, when those kinds of people hear me speaking Korean they usually mellow out. Invest the time in learning Korean, it is more than worth it, it opens a LOT of doors to you. Don't be one of those foreigners who only hangs out with other foreigners, it's important to make an effort. I'm 24 and Irish, lived here for 3 years now and I still think it's amazing. But a lot of my foreign friends always complain about this and that and whatever. (The ones who don't are the ones who make an effort to adapt). If you want any advice feel free to PM me : ) Edit: I just want to make clear that if you come here with an open mind then living here can be a very very rewarding experience. | ||
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The_LiNk
Canada863 Posts
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misclick
Korea (South)155 Posts
First, some background. My experience is, understandably, going to be different from your experience simply because I'm Korean by blood despite being born in the United States. I can read, write, and speak Korean fluently (well reading/writing not too fantastic but enough to live here). I've been living in a rural area of Korea for 15 months now. I was obviously never met with any blatant racism since I look and speak like a Korean. As a gyopo, most people are intrigued when they find out that I was born/lived all of my life in the States rather than hostile. Every once in a while some friends of friends will throw a harsh remark at me because I don't have to serve in the military but that's about it. I conformed with Korean culture really easily as I grew up seeing it. I have a white friend here who has been living here for 9 months now (yes, I have one white friend. I usually don't chill with foreigners ever so I don't really know any more). He fucking loves it. He even plans on settling down here. He has a Korean girlfriend, teaches English, attends college classes for Korean, and takes special cultural classes on the weekends to learn random shit like Korean traditional painting. The way I see it there are two different types of foreigners. There's the one type that gives foreigners a bad name. It's easy to spot this type of foreigner. They'll get drunk everyday, hit on every woman in the street, refuse to learn any Korean, and flat out ignore Korean customs because they're entitled to act like they're in whatever country their passport says. There's a running joke here that with the English card (much like the black card) you can get out of anything. I'm ashamed to say, but I've pulled this card quite a few times getting out of tickets, fines, and even getting all of my hospital bills paid for when I was hit by a truck lols. Most Koreans don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with English speakers because they are either too incompetent at the English language or are too shy to even attempt to speak. Consequently, they simply let you do whatever you want. So, it's understandable to some degree why the first type of foreigner acts they way they do. My white friend is the second type of foreigner. This type of foreigner is usually the type that did their homework before coming to the country and view their job/study in Korea as a privilege and not a right. They'll be the first to apologize and attempt at every moment to fit into Korea instead of trying to get Korea to fit in with them. This second type of foreigner is rarely looked down upon. Instead of trying to use simplified English in shops, he/she will use their broken-ass Korean and at least elicit some form of sympathy from the shop keepers. I used to take this white kid around to meet with my Korean buddies for dinner and drinks and he used to try so hard to speak Korean with them and really just viewed it all as a learning experience. My Korean buddies could see that and were eager to help. Koreans, even if they have a disdain for foreigners, still can see if you are earnestly trying to benefit Korea or are simply there to get your own. Don't worry so much about it. Dunno how much help this will be but yeah. edit: and I'm glad you realize that Korea is not starcraft and Japan is not anime. After living here for so long and socializing with so many Korean uni students, I have yet to meet anyone who plays starcraft or watches it. EVER (though, I did drag two of my close Korean American friends to the MSL and OSL finals last year. lost $300 betting on jaedong in MSL against kids who have never watched starcraft before. FML). In the pc bangs it's mostly just random old ajushi's playing every once in a while or a few uni kids playing a 3v3 on hunters. | ||
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
On May 27 2011 15:41 misclick wrote: I can't give you solid advice since everyone's experience seems to be differing, but I guess I'll throw in my experiences/what I've seen. First, some background. My experience is, understandably, going to be different from your experience simply because I'm Korean by blood despite being born in the United States. I can read, write, and speak Korean fluently (well reading/writing not too fantastic but enough to live here). I've been living in a rural area of Korea for 15 months now. I was obviously never met with any blatant racism since I look and speak like a Korean. As a gyopo, most people are intrigued when they find out that I was born/lived all of my life in the States rather than hostile. Every once in a while some friends of friends will throw a harsh remark at me because I don't have to serve in the military but that's about it. I conformed with Korean culture really easily as I grew up seeing it. I have a white friend here who has been living here for 9 months now (yes, I have one white friend. I usually don't chill with foreigners ever so I don't really know any more). He fucking loves it. He even plans on settling down here. He has a Korean girlfriend, teaches English, attends college classes for Korean, and takes special cultural classes on the weekends to learn random shit like Korean traditional painting. The way I see it there are two different types of foreigners. There's the one type that gives foreigners a bad name. It's easy to spot this type of foreigner. They'll get drunk everyday, hit on every woman in the street, refuse to learn any Korean, and flat out ignore Korean customs because they're entitled to act like they're in whatever country their passport says. There's a running joke here that with the English card (much like the black card) you can get out of anything. I'm ashamed to say, but I've pulled this card quite a few times getting out of tickets, fines, and even getting all of my hospital bills paid for when I was hit by a truck lols. Most Koreans don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with English speakers because they are either too incompetent at the English language or are too shy to even attempt to speak. Consequently, they simply let you do whatever you want. So, it's understandable to some degree why the first type of foreigner acts they way they do. My white friend is the second type of foreigner. This type of foreigner is usually the type that did their homework before coming to the country and view their job/study in Korea as a privilege and not a right. They'll be the first to apologize and attempt at every moment to fit into Korea instead of trying to get Korea to fit in with them. This second type of foreigner is rarely looked down upon. Instead of trying to use simplified English in shops, he/she will use their broken-ass Korean and at least elicit some form of sympathy from the shop keepers. I used to take this white kid around to meet with my Korean buddies for dinner and drinks and he used to try so hard to speak Korean with them and really just viewed it all as a learning experience. My Korean buddies could see that and were eager to help. Koreans, even if they have a disdain for foreigners, still can see if you are earnestly trying to benefit Korea or are simply there to get your own. Don't worry so much about it. Dunno how much help this will be but yeah. edit: and I'm glad you realize that Korea is not starcraft and Japan is not anime. After living here for so long and socializing with so many Korean uni students, I have yet to meet anyone who plays starcraft or watches it. EVER (though, I did drag two of my close Korean American friends to the MSL and OSL finals last year. lost $300 betting on jaedong in MSL against kids who have never watched starcraft before. FML). In the pc bangs it's mostly just random old ajushi's playing every once in a while or a few uni kids playing a 3v3 on hunters. very good post | ||
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iPlaY.NettleS
Australia4329 Posts
Korea. Also a very nice country. The culture is there, but from what I've seen (correct me if I'm wrong), it seems to be the most "Westernized". Now, HERE is where I get a lot of mixed information. From what I've heard, Korean people can be either very friendy or very hostile/un-welcoming. I've mostly heard the ranting, though. The experiences from the YouTube vloggers [who are quite old (e.g. BusanKevin has lived in Korea for about 4-5 years before moving to Japan) tells me that Koreans don't really like foreigners living in their country. I've heard about a LOT of discrimination (for example; before your contract ends for your ESL teaching, they would (uncommonly) abruptly end the contract and give you a very questionable reason like "the children thought you were mean", or something like that). You can't go to some bars or general areas of attraction because they restrict foreigners from doing so. People will stare at you (especially if you're in a smaller city/town), give you dirty looks, or even go completely hostile and attack you (again, this occurs very rarely, but it does happen). I've even heard that Korean men will verbally (or even physically) abuse you if you are seen with your Korean girlfriend. The list can go on, but all this honestly just frightens me, You left out the fact you need a korean citizenship to use the internet over there. Anyway , just goes to show how racist some countries are in comparison to most western nations. | ||
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Spell_Crafted
United States192 Posts
On May 27 2011 10:48 Manifesto7 wrote: I suggest you re-read the categorization. Japanese is a 2000 hour language, and is on the opposite end of the spectrum from English. It + Chinese are considered the least compatible languages with English. You can read about it on the CIA site where it talks about language training. That's fine and I'm not trying to argue, but I actually studied Korean at the defense language institute and know it's a category 4 language. Yes, reading is probably tougher for Chinese but the grammar patterns are incredibly simple. The problem with Korean is they occasionally use Chinese characters but will also use them just writing them in hangul without giving you the meaning through the various homonyms. Context is very important and can be easily lost in a conversation. | ||
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mizU
United States12125 Posts
On May 27 2011 16:32 iPlaY.NettleS wrote: You left out the fact you need a korean citizenship to use the internet over there. Anyway , just goes to show how racist some countries are in comparison to most western nations. ??? What's that supposed to mean? Korea is more racist than, say, the US? | ||
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misclick
Korea (South)155 Posts
On May 27 2011 16:32 iPlaY.NettleS wrote: You left out the fact you need a korean citizenship to use the internet over there. Anyway , just goes to show how racist some countries are in comparison to most western nations. You need korean citizenship to use the internet? What? At face value, you're saying that a foreigner can't even access an internet browser which is... bullshit. Maybe you're trying to say that you need a Korean social security number to register with most online/free games? If so, that's only partly true. Any foreigner who plans on staying for an extended period of time (i.e. not on a tourist visa) will receive an alien registration card. On this card, you receive a temporary foreigner social security number. This number can be used to obtain health insurance, buy a car, rent an apartment, etc. Because Korea is currently experiencing a huge wave of foreigners entering the country on working or study visas, most game companies are attempting to broaden their horizons by offering separate registration for foreigners using their alien registration card social security number. You can also use this number to apply for internet/cable services. I did all of the above using an alien registration card (I am a foreigner) so I don't know where you're pulling this shit from. | ||
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GG_NO_RE
Japan238 Posts
i really did like my time in korea, though. the subway system was fantastic and spacious, and things are indeed much cheaper in korea than japan. the food is better too imo (they actually have spicy food and great street vendors). but yeah, taxis/trains/food wayyy cheaper in korea than japan. oh yeah, and korea has heated floors whereas japan has very shitty insulation (which sucks when it's cold out). as for japan itself, i have had a blast here so far (living here a bit under a year). people are very welcoming and people will tend to be interested in you just because you're a foreigner. you are almost guaranteed to pick up a japanese girlfriend if you want one within a month. there have been conflicting opinions in this thread about how difficult japanese is to learn, and i would just say you get what you put into it. some people complain that japanese is difficult but really never study, so of course they don't improve. that being said, i think speaking and communicating is much easier to learn than reading and writing once you have some basic grammar down. and if you teach english or live in japan then you'll have to use at least some japanese everyday (where writing/reading you'll barely have to use save for some name/address documents and the grocery store). there's really a lot to say, but it depends on what you want to hear about (if you want to hear anything at all). feel free to inquire into whatever (i see there are other people living here like manifesto that would probably also be happy to correspond). i'm also from toronto ^^ | ||
Kipsate
Netherlands45349 Posts
On May 27 2011 16:32 iPlaY.NettleS wrote: You left out the fact you need a korean citizenship to use the internet over there. Anyway , just goes to show how racist some countries are in comparison to most western nations. What lol?What is this even supposed to mean?. | ||
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OopsOopsBaby
Singapore3425 Posts
On May 27 2011 16:32 iPlaY.NettleS wrote: You left out the fact you need a korean citizenship to use the internet over there. Anyway , just goes to show how racist some countries are in comparison to most western nations. im not korean and im posting this from korea. if posting on team liquid isnt using internet in korea, i dont know what is. | ||
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iPlaY.NettleS
Australia4329 Posts
http://www.eslsouthkorea.net/alien-registration-card.html Your Alien Registration Card is your national identification card that proves you are legally allowed to work and live in the Korea. It provides you with special privileges such as opening a bank account (though it is possible to open an account with just a passport as well) or registering for medical insurance. Things that you can't do when on a tourist visa. The Alien Card contains your Alien Registration number which is the foreigner's version of a Korean's government-issued ID number. The Alien Registration number serves the same purpose as a Social Security number in the States, or a National ID Number in South Africa. Alien Cards are issued by the Korean Immigration service and you'll need your card within 90 days after you've landed in Korea to avoid becoming a illegal alien. The card application process is normally something your employer will help you with and entails visiting a Korean Immigration office in your city with the following documents: - Your Passport - 2x Passport Photos - 10,000 Administration Fee - Your employers company registration certificate. Your school will provide this. Alien Cards should be kept on your person at all times during your stay in Korea, since they serve as as identification documents. Alien cards are surrendered to customs when you leave Korea at the end of your contract. Limitations of the Alien Card Unfortunetaly, there are certain limitations you'll encounter with an Alien card and despite the fact that it's supposed to be the Foreigners' version of a Korean ID card, certain government initiated restrictions are imposed upon the Alien card. The most obvious of these will manifest when you need to enter your Alien Registrations number to use a service on a Korean website. Since Korea is a digitally charged country with an Internet literate population, everything from movie tickets to Pizzas are booked and paid for online. Makes life very convenient, but there's a hiccup. Any Korean using these online services need to enter their 13 digit National ID number (in compliance with Korean Internet-anonymity laws). But when a foreigner does the same with his number, it doesn't work... It's almost never accepted and usually rejected as unrecognized or erroneous. The reason for this is found in the difference between the final digits of the numbers. A Korean's registration number ends in 1 or 2 (to indicate male of female), but a foreigners number ends in 5 or 6. Korean Immigration Service Korean ID numbers are still required on most websites, even for services targeting foreign residents and visitors. A few sites do, however, now accept foreign ID numbers or have eliminated the requirement. A simple issue that the Korean Government could easily address and fix. It'll make life easier for the thousands of English Teachers and US Military personnel in Korea. They just haven't got to it yet :-( | ||
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