There's No Place Like Home (but I'll live anywhere if the pay's enough)

It’s not often I write in the first person. I generally see the use of ‘I’ as a sign of weakness, a sign that I should be taken to task by some blog writing guru who would beat the soles of my feet until I started to use ‘one’ and use it correctly.

My intention was to be light hearted this week, and write about something fun and shallow that has no point. My intention was to forget about issues, get drunk at the weekend, see where that would take me and then write about it. My intention was certainly not to get involved in a facebook slanging match that would result in me defending Korea as if it were London in the Blitz.

It’s best I clear the situation up before I continue. During my time in Korea a number of people I’ve come across have had, let’s put it diplomatically, more bad things than good, to say about Korea. Less diplomatically, each day I open facebook there seems to be a post saying ‘Korean children shot my mother’ or something similar. Criticising the country that is providing work in times of uncertainty, providing health care, accommodation and a welcoming attitude, seems like a hobby to many, and completely ungrateful to me.

This irritation has been growing recently until, on a fine Tuesday evening, I finally broke. No longer able to contain my anger, my rage, I cracked. I commented on somebody’s facebook status update. Social disaster. Etiquette dictates that facebook statuses are only to be addressed by clicking the ‘i like’ button or by comments such as ‘i love what you’ve said and would like to have your babies. ‘

I broke the rules and posted something with a point. The original post was highly critical of a growing issue of Korean children gaming a great deal; critical to the point of calling it ‘pathetic.’ The slanging was made by an American, so I made a tongue in cheek comment that this is better than kids shooting each other in schools.

(This video in no way represents the views of Americans with intelligence, and is included simply for comic purposes)

All hell broke loose. The world stopped spinning for an hour in Chuncheon as comments came left, very much right and centre. But still I maintain, look at a guy on a Korean subway and you’ll see him playing a game. Look at a guy for long enough on a subway in the west and you’ll most likely see a bottle swinging rapidly towards your face. I know which viewing I’d rather subscribe to.

I mean, what do I care? I’m being paid a full time wage, above the Korean national average, with no accommodation costs, for working part time hours in a job I’ve never had to prove I can do. And there lies the catch; I do care. Despite my wage being over the national average, without taking into account free housing, there has never been a hint of bitterness from Koreans. There is no political party demanding foreign expulsion. No right wing thugs walking the streets desperate to batter me into a bloody pulp.

This is like the west could be if we started again and shot all the racists. And that’s the bitter irony. Most foreign teachers here are not qualified, yet many earn more than their Korean counterparts, many with Masters in Education, and yet many still see fit to point out every flaw in Korean society at every given opportunity.

Reverse the situation and, I for one, might be somewhat puzzled as to why I bothered studying for a teacher’s certificate in the first place. I might even go so far as to suggest, ‘if you’re not happy, go home.’ Despite working the lowest jobs possible, earning a pittance of a wage and often living in squalor, immigrants in most western countries are guaranteed a number of politicians proposing their being beaten daily as national policy, and a huge number of thugs more than happy to carry out those wishes.

Korea is no Shangri-La; the people don’t claim it is. But nor do they turn up in other countries pointing out how everything is better where they’re from, whilst taking said countries’ money the whole time. Generally that’s referred to as selling one’s soul.

One of these imperfections in society is that Korean students have to study 12 hour days throughout their childhoods; excessive studying that has been proven to have no benefit to overall learning. We, as foreign teachers can do nothing to stop this. We can just appreciate, despite such conditions, that students remain honest, for the most part studious, and respectful.

When the worst you can say about students in such a position is that they are often tired, and like to take their minds off the thought of another 60 hour working week by playing a game on their phone, then it’s hard to complain too much.

Especially when as a teacher, we can wake up at 11am, go to work for 3, and be back for 9. All whilst pulling in above average wages with a free apartment. That leaves us in a position we can do something about. Be appreciative, and take advantage of the easy and financially rewarding life we lead whilst here, or, if we think it really is so much better back home, take the next flight back.