A Cup of Tea

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I read the Golden Compass, but never finished the series. And honestly I don't remember much about the original either except there were armored polar bears.

I'm not sure if I'm going to come back, to be honest. In a few months I'll get the opportunity to re-up for another year if I wish. I miss my family immensely...but at the same time I'm settling in here, and making good friends I don't want to leave.

Anyone have any plans for New Year's?

[thestick]

You wouldn't happen to know another East Asian language (any variety of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese), would you? I've heard there are quite a few cognates if you have.

I don't know how to ask this without sounding insulting, but what types of friends are you making? I hear of many people who go abroad but don't speak the local language, and end up living in an expat bubble/ethnic ghetto.

No real plans for New Year's.

[KingOfPain]

...It's been hard sometimes. I thought my girlfriend and I could survive the separation, but she met someone else while I've been gone, so I find myself newly single....

Look at the bright side if you can call it that. Some of the best way to learn a foreign language is to watch their movies and listen to their music; but the best way is to get a local for a girl friend

Nice thread!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

You wouldn't happen to know another East Asian language (any variety of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese), would you? I've heard there are quite a few cognates if you have.

I don't know how to ask this without sounding insulting, but what types of friends are you making? I hear of many people who go abroad but don't speak the local language, and end up living in an expat bubble/ethnic ghetto.

No real plans for New Year's.

There's definitely an expat bubble in the city. In fact, as my network spreads it's pretty clear that the ~200 Westerners in the city all seem to know each other - or at least, that's the impression I get. Everyone is mutual friends with everyone else.

I do have about ten Korean friends - English teachers all, with varying levels of ability. We go out about once a week or so together for dinner and talk. It's entirely possible, though, that I'm their token foreign friend that they want to show off to their friends.

[superdeath]

I dont think i could get over the fact that anyone around me could be talking about me and i wouldnt be able to understand them. So props to you for moving into a situation such as that.

[thestick]

How many of those ~200 expats are English teachers like you? I assume those Korean friends were fellow teachers in your school/wherever you teach English? When you say 'we talk,' how large is this 'we'?

How's the pay compared to your old position, and does your previous experience teaching English in the U.S. help with your current position?

And to stop this from turning into an interrogation... I do wonder how people build a sense of identity. Looking around me, my peers build an identity through their god(s), or their job/salary, or their ethnicity, or their goal/dream, or their favorite commercial cultural product. What else is there to build on? Kindness?

[Bobchillingworth]

Family, politics, hobbies, disabilities, accomplishments, failures, experiences in general.


I doubt most people base their identities on just one attribute or interest.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

How many of those ~200 expats are English teachers like you? I assume those Korean friends were fellow teachers in your school/wherever you teach English? When you say 'we talk,' how large is this 'we'?

How's the pay compared to your old position, and does your previous experience teaching English in the U.S. help with your current position?

And to stop this from turning into an interrogation... I do wonder how people build a sense of identity. Looking around me, my peers build an identity through their god(s), or their job/salary, or their ethnicity, or their goal/dream, or their favorite commercial cultural product. What else is there to build on? Kindness?

Most of them. Korea is a very English-focused country, and there's a booming industry in native English speakers coming over to teach. The government, popular culture - everyone is constantly pushing the importance of English and the need for their young people to be fluent in it in order to compete globally. On the whole, I'd say probably 3/4 of the expats here teach in some form or another - some university professors, some high school teachers like me, and many, many in elementary/middle schools and hagwons. Of the remaining ~50, many operate bars and restaurants that primarily cater to expats. My Korean friends, on the other hand, number about a dozen, and they come from 4-5 different schools. 

Pay is good. The salary is a little lower than my teaching salary in the US, but the school pays my apartment, I have no car payment, and utilities/food are much cheaper, so on the whole I'm able to save a lot of money (and still can afford to travel - I'm taking my first ever trip to Japan at the end of the month! Excited to see Himeji Castle, which is a wonder in V (and VI? I can't remember). 

As for identity...I mean, that's an individual thing, by definition, isn't it? Everyone's going to make their own in their own way - it's not something that you can imitate in others, again, by definition. Your identity has to be yours.

Personally, I think it's based on what's important to you. If someone asks you, "What's the most important thing in the world?", how do you answer? That's a starting point to figuring out who you are and what you're building your identity on.

[thestick]

How's the level of English 'on the street'? Is it being used outside of the schools?

Heading anywhere else during your trip to Japan besides Himeji?

I hope I am not bothering you with my incessant badgering.

Maybe I'm disconnected from my inner life, or maybe I've been hanging around too many social scientists, or maybe I've gotten too caught up in cultural politics, or maybe I've just gotten too used to seeing facets of individuals rather than their entirety, but I've always thought of identity as a collection of social roles, rather than character traits or personal experiences. Huh.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

How's the level of English 'on the street'? Is it being used outside of the schools?

Heading anywhere else during your trip to Japan besides Himeji?

I hope I am not bothering you with my incessant badgering.

Not all. The whole point of the thread is just to chat as friends, after all.

Just about every Korean can speak some English. I've only once encountered someone that I struggled to communicate with during a transaction. Everyone knows a few basic words, and many shops have signs in both English and Korean. In fact, it's made learning Korean difficult because it's really easy to get by day-to-day just using English only. 

English academies are very common. It's only a mandatory subject from 3rd to 8th grade (American equivalents, that is, I translate everything into American school terms - roughly ages 8 - 14), but for many parents that's not enough, and you can see advertisements for after-school English programs all over the place. I could walk around my apartment block and spot half a dozen, easily. 

Now, if I want to follow King of Pain's advice and get a local girlfriend, I do need to step up my Korean game...and white people are common enough that I can't really play the "foreign and exotic" card either. 

For Japan, I'm really excited. I've got a good itenirary mapped out to help me see most of the country. I'll ferry over from Busan (mostly because I want to see Tsushima, plus I've never been on a ferry before) to Kyushu. Once there, Japan has a great program for foreign tourists that lets you buy an unlimited rail pass for damned cheap, meaning the whole country is open to me. So, the plan is to make my way from Kyushu to the Tokyo area, pausing at historic sites like Hiroshima (and the Kure Naval Arsenal - the museum of the Imperial Japanese Navy is maybe my #1 destination in the country), Himeji of course, Osaka & Kyoto, a day at Mt. Fuji, Mikasa, and finally wrapping up with a weekend in Tokyo before I'll fly back to Seoul. It's going to be intense but it'll also be just about everything in Japan on my bucket list scratched off in one go! 

Maybe I'm disconnected from my inner life, or maybe I've been hanging around too many social scientists, or maybe I've gotten too caught up in cultural politics, or maybe I've just gotten too used to seeing facets of individuals rather than their entirety, but I've always thought of identity as a collection of social roles, rather than character traits or personal experiences. Huh.

I don't think there's anything "too" about any of those things. "Too" implies that you're doing something wrong, that you're not properly connected to your inner life, or that there's an ideal amount of social scientists to hang out with, etc. But I don't think any of that's true - I think conceiving of identity as a collection of social roles is just as valid as my view as a collection of personal values or Bob's personal experiences. The whole point of your identity is that it's how you choose to define it. I suspect that I choose not to view it as social roles because at the moment I'm in a distinct phase of social isolation. I have my job - teacher - but it doesn't feel like part of who I am. And other relationships and roles are all distant background - no family here, friends are all brand new and don't feel core to me yet, etc. So I'm in a unique position to navel gaze (and naval gaze at Kure, ehehehe) and define myself on my own terms. But that's me, and I don't claim that it's the way for anyone else.