Korea Megathread VI: Free Soju is Still Too Expensive

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Korea Megathread VI: Free Soju is Still Too Expensive

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Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Peasant wine and squalene are a hell of a drug.

Assuming that's who we're talking about, I don't recognize the name.

# ¿ May 1, 2015 18:38

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 10:42

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I can't vouch for the social part, I just sleep and shower, but I've stayed at both Seoul I Guesthouse and Blu Guesthouse in Hongdae and would recommend either. Seoul I is closer to the subway station.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 15:57

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If you're on the standard E-2 you can be deported for doing anything that involves you being paid. From what I've heard among people who get caught, fines are more common than deporting.

If you're teaching guitar to college kids you probably have nothing to worry about. I would not private tutor kids, I've heard too many stories of vindictive parents. Teaching other expats is generally safe since nobody wants to be involved with whatever those white people are up to.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 16:12

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Koreans end up in weird places somehow. Every Korean friend I have who lived in the US was in Iowa or Idaho.

# ¿ May 14, 2015 17:01

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Been like 30 AQI here all day.

:smugdog:

# ¿ May 29, 2015 14:21

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Why? Silly foreigner and your strange ideas.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 23:48

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

How racist of you to infer a racial component to something that mentions none whatsoever. :captainpop:

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 01:03

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

100% applicable where I live now, except no MERS here yet. Are you implying all Asians are the same? :eyepop:

I'm going to have to forward this to tumblr.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 02:04

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I haven't heard this one before, details please.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 05:53

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

MERS days are being taken out of vacation so.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 02:32

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Well, rounding up and killing everyone infected would do the trick.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 03:28

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

God I miss alphabets.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 13:06

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Let us English posted:

I've never met anyone who couldn't read Hangul with a few weeks of arriving.

I've met a few people who had been in Korea for more than a year and couldn't read. All of them lived in Seoul though. As far as I know I've never met anyone outside Seoul that didn't acquire at least bare basic Korean ability.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 16:54

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Whizbang posted:

Another girlfriend story! She once got forced to babysit an enormously overweight American woman admitted to the ER who has lived in Busan for 12 years and can't read or speak any Korean.

wow

I can get the people who know they're only there for a year just for something different and don't really learn the language but not being able to read, it's so easy how do you not learn that

Being illiterate sucks rear end, I can't imagine. It's one of the worst parts of moving to China, the amount of work put into learning and I can still barely read

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 18:07

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

MERS chemtrails. Ron Paul tried to warn us.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2015 12:30

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Probably.

More likely if you're coming from the US or Canada at least Seoul is likely more polluted than you're used to.

A lot of people also get sick frequently when they first come since the germ strains are different, and the lack of hygiene promotes their spread.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 14:29

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Love Stole the Day posted:

i can only imagine how hard this guy tried with those photo angles

It's a horror fiction writing forum.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2015 07:19

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I'm pretty sure the entirety of East Asia is a designated college-level boozing area.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 09:53

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Both women and foreigners aren't really people so they're equivalent for Ehwa.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 15:38

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

AmbientParadox posted:

Add in slaves and you have the standing room only section of a Roman arena. :buddy:

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 23:49

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

ATM is generally the best bet. Any KEB bank will have a global ATM that takes your debit card.

There are other global ATMs (they're marked in English) but KEB is the easiest to remember since they always do.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2015 06:51

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

The "artist" isn't making any money anyway. You should feel no compunction about not giving money to the corporations that create that crap, they are awful and exploitative in every conceivable way.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2015 01:10

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Still plenty of jobs, but there are way more applicants than jobs so the benefits and pay have been dropping while working conditions get worse, hours rise, and the cost of living goes up. If you're white then getting a job is not difficult but finding a job that isn't awful has become even harder than it used to be.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 00:31

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I think he thought he was in a China thread. Hagwons now are doing dumb poo poo like 50 classes a week for 1.9k. And they can get Koreaboos to do it so everybody else is hosed.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 03:41

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If nothing else, cost of living alone is the killer. The pay has been stagnant for over a decade and in a lot of cases has actually gone down, while cost of living has gone up... I don't even know how many times. It doubled just in the time I was there. If you are debt free you can manage but if you have student loans that are large enough to matter you're hosed.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 13:33

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

GreyPowerVan posted:

So what is the new ESL holy land. China?

Probably. The starting salaries here are around the typical max salary in Korea, and the cost of living is quite a bit lower. China also doesn't have the issue where you immediately hit the glass ceiling, you can climb up pretty high if you want to make a living out of it. Japan's coming back strong too I hear, and my friends in Vietnam also get paid more than Korea.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 14:39

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Korea's a nice place to live, working for Korean schools sucks. Mostly; there are good ones but those don't tend to have job openings very often for obvious reasons.

China has its problems but if you're looking for the classic have an adventure and save up some money for a year or two experience, I'd say it's your best bet right now. Taiwan is also supposed to be a nice place to live, though it doesn't have a great reputation for job quality either. The balance in China still favors the job seeker if you are careful about it. The market in Korea is saturated and shrinking, here it's growing rapidly.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 15:03

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If they put you on Ulleongdo I'm going to laugh really hard and then request frequent posts because that must be bizarre.

There are a number of places that are technically islands but right on the coast, like Geoje, so it's not as isolated as it could be.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 00:26

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

bobthedinosaur posted:

Anyone know of any university gigs that are opening up next summer or would I be better off taking a hagwon (again) or public job and searching for one in-country?
I'm graduating with a Masters in TESOL in a few quarters and am eyeing East Asia again but not for anything less than a university gig.

If you have a masters have you thought about getting teaching certified so you can do international schools?

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 00:34

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Bugblatter posted:

You don't have to worry about it though because I know the guy who is getting the placement (He actually wanted it. He was into the quiet island idea, speaks Korean and likes hanging out with old people).

Does he write about it? That sounds like it would make for an actually interesting blog.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 00:42

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Yeah doing EPIK with a doctorate in English is a terrible idea. You're going to hate yourself. There are plenty of university positions that hire for a year or two at a time, also you can just quit it's not like it's prison.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 10:24

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

CommonShore posted:

Ok, I just went and combed through a few thousand job postings again, and there's nothing resembling this anywhere - "$50,000," begging for doctorates, university, &c. Are the resources I have just awful and broken? Point me to where these jobs are advertised. Everything I'm seeing is garbage, even next to the EPIK pay package - stuff like ESL teaching, minimum 5 years experience, already have work visa or residency, $1100 USD per month kind of poo poo.

I don't know where you're looking, I haven't heard of job sites that have these posted on them. Facebook groups are the best way to find jobs in Korea, or contacting the universities directly. Four years ago Ulsan University was paying $3000 a month for 10 hours of work per week and two months paid vacation, and my friend with that job just had a bachelor's. Everyone I know with a university job either contacted the uni or heard about the opening via a friend/Facebook. If you're looking at like... I seriously don't know where they'd be posted but Cragislist or something? Those are all the shittiest jobs.

With a doctorate Japanese universities are also an option, or Taiwan.

With EPIK you're going to spend your days yelling "apple" at seven year olds while your brain, which has no role in your job, thinks about all the years you spent in university to be here. There are almost no jobs other than elementary now, it's literally babysitting.

Also in the next few weeks universities are going to get desperate. Korea now requires a master's to work at a university, and there just aren't a lot of people with those. I know a couple people who have gotten uni gigs with a bachelor's because the unis were so desperate they broke the law and hired anyway because classes start next week gently caress gently caress gently caress. I can't imagine that has changed radically in just one year.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Jul 16, 2015

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 00:48

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I like Ulsan and most people I know there do too. I wouldn't have traded it for another city, as much as I like Seoul. Jobs all sucked though that's true.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 15:20

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

The good/poo poo job ratio in Ulsan was the same as anyone I knew from anywhere in Korea. There are a lot of lovely schools. If you don't like little kids you're mostly hosed nowadays. You have a higher chance of being able to find a non-elementary job in rural areas, in the big cities it's a near zero chance. Probably zero with EPIK, you'd have to find the schools and apply directly. And having a terrible job is bad for general quality of life.

It is entirely possible to get a good job and have a good time in Korea. Other than my job and garlic bread with sugar on it I liked Korea a lot and miss it. I still think that even a good EPIK post is a huge waste of time and opportunity for someone with a doctorate.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 15:43

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Jeoh posted:

I knew a guy who was pretty happy with his engineering job in Ulsan. So I guess it's just Ulsan English teaching jobs that make you unhappy.

Well how could you not. As an engineer you:

A) frequently do literally nothing since you're a supervisor and the Koreans are doing the actual work, you're just making sure they don't gently caress it up
B) get paid $8000 a month with a free mansion apartment and car, and you can also possibly swing bonus hazard WAR ZONE pay if you pretend to be afraid of NK
C) ball hard

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 15:44

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

One of my engineer friends literally had a room in his apartment that was just empty because he had nothing to put in it, and said room was larger than my entire apartment. He had two ovens, two fridges, and a Jacuzzi room. He had a loving walk-in 신발장 that was larger than that tiny apartment Dontaskkant used to have.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 15:48

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I don't think you're an idiot, I just don't understand why someone qualified for the top rungs of the ladder would want to work at the bottom but it's your call. Hong Kong public schools are also worth a look. HK is awesome and pays a lot better.

Dave's ESL is the kind of place we're talking about that only posts lovely jobs.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 16:08

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Doesn't necessarily mean anything, don't worry.

The school year starts March 1st, if you wait until February there will be a bunch of universities desperate to hire literally anyone with a pulse because they had no foresight and have classes starting in a week with no professor and since you have a doctorate you'll be top of the list. That's how everyone I know with a uni job got theirs.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 16:29

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

The majority of the people I know irl who have the fancy jobs with "requirements" and "qualifications" do not actually meet the requirements. The only exception is the jobs that require an F visa, I've only known one guy who got around that somehow.

Everything in Korea is negotiable. I know a Swede who teaches English at a native speakers only job. He wouldn't tell me how he got it though. It's a hagwon so I assume bribery was involved somewhere.

Remember it's Korea. Laws are suggestions at best.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 17:22

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 10:42

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Love Stole the Day posted:

You and I have had completely different experiences in this country over the years.

Well think about it. Who is setting the requirements? Usually it's the school itself, so if they like you there's no reason they can't hire you. When it's a government requirement it's more difficult but Korea is not a law abiding country, if they really want you they'll find a way.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2015 04:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Korea Megathread VI: Free Soju is Still Too Expensive

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