Non-Korean Asians in Korea: What to expect

When I was applying for this job, I was curious about one thing -- as a non-Korean Asian, how would things be like in Korea? By physical appearance, I look like everyone else but obviously I wouldn't know the language or the culture too well. I tried looking for resources about what to expect, but came up disappointed. As I approach my 10-month anniversary, I think it's time I came up with some general observations about how it is to be a non-Korean Asian in Korea.

Please note that these are based on my own personal experiences and may or may not have any bearing on any future newcomers. Please take these with a grain of salt; it's different for everyone.

• Koreans can't tell the difference between Koreans, Japanese and Chinese people.
  
  In general, people from places like Hong Kong are able to tell whether you are one of them or not, either from your physical features or your dress. They can often even tell whether you're an Asian expat or not. But not in Korea. Quite often, they simply assume I'm Korean. If they find out I'm not, they predict that I'm Japanese. After that... American. And after that... well, you get the picture. A grand total of 1 person has got it right (even though either "Chinese" or "Canadian" would've been acceptable). They can't tell.
  
  
• If you look Asian and say you can't speak Korean (either in Korean or in English), a lot of people won't believe you.
  
  This is a bit strange, but whenever I say "hanguk mal malayo" or "I don't speak Korean," a lot of Koreans don't believe me and continue talking in rapid Korean to me... then get upset with me when I don't understand them. Quite weird stuff but it happens to be quite often.
  
  
• Mistakes are often magnified.
  
  Whenever you make a cultural mistake, the effects have a much larger impact than if you were Caucasian. You're expected to "know" a lot of stuff in Korean culture even when it applies only to Korea and not to other Asian countries, and committing a faux pas is something to look out for. However, linguistic faux pas have a lesser impact for some reason.
  
  
• The "staring" problem is solved but it comes up as soon as you speak.
  
  A lot of non-Asian foreigners in Korea complain about being stared at. I don't have that problem, but once I open my mouth and reveal that I can't speak Korean (and any Korean I do know is very bastardized), the staring would start and continue until I remove myself from eyeshot. The same thing happens whenever I answer my cellphone in public as well.
  
  
• If you're a teacher, your school is not going to know what to make of you.
  
  I've had instances where my school was surprised that I knew how to use chopsticks, even though I'm Asian. But there'd be other instances where they wouldn't be surprised that you know something Asian-related. It seems that they don't really know what to expect. Students can be a bit on the cruel side as well, such as mocking you for looking like a Korean but not knowing Korean stuff.
  

All in all, it's a mixed bag. There are usually extremes on both sides of the equation, as there are often some people who fit these descriptions perfectly and some who will act completely the opposite -- Korea is a place of extremes.

From what I've noticed, one annoying thing that a lot of Asians tend to complain about is how a lot of people here don't seem to have an awareness of other Asian countries around them while being relatively aware of English-speaking Caucasians. I can see this as well, even though it seems to be improving.

Things might change in a few years and things have changed since last August, so this may change in the future.

Well, my living quarters could be worse

I got a message on my door on Thursday after work. It was all in Korean, so I wasn't sure what it said, but it had some sort of cost figure in there and it involved water, so I was a little concerned. It turned out to be something with the water tank in the building, and everyone in the building needs to pay about $10 each to have it fixed.

They asked to wire the money but I had no idea how to do that, so it was arranged that I hand it over in person instead. So I went down to hand it in. The owner's place is a basement suite and the lights were off so it was hard to see anything. It turned out that the entire basement level is under about an inch of water. Yikes... No wonder it needed repairing!

Thank goodness I live on the top floor, I guess.

Appreciating Seoul

It's no secret that places annoy me. I get annoyed with Vancouver. I get annoyed with Southern California. I get annoyed with... well, almost every place I go to. I don't know, but the more familiar I become with a city, the more I get annoyed with it. (It's not always annoyed in a bad way though.) So it seems inevitable that I will get annoyed with Seoul.

Before the snow came and hit the city, I used to like making trips out to far places, like in Gyeonggi-do (the province around Seoul) or in Incheon. I had no idea why, until the other day.

There is such a large contrast between Seoul and the areas outside of Seoul. I was on my way to Anyang the other day, and once I was outside of Seoul, there was a large atmospheric change. Suddenly, I really started to feel conscious of the fact that there is a lot less English. Even ordering a burger proved to be a mountainous task. Even though the area looks like a much better neighborhood to be in, it doesn't seem to be a place where a newly-arrived frightened foreigner (ie. me) would want to be to start out in South Korea; the areas outside the big cities don't seem to be well-equipped for non-Koreans. Why should they be? It's not like non-Koreans find these areas to be large tourist hotspots.

On the bus ride back, it was getting dark. As the bus crossed from Gyeonggi-do to Seoul, there was again the huge shift in atmosphere. There was suddenly a lot of English (some of it incorrectly used). There were signs that it was an international city, even though some of them weren't entirely successful, like the cellphone store that had a banner outside advertising some deal to foreigners -- but the banner was written in Korean. But at least the effort was there, which is more than I can say for the areas outside Seoul.

Back in Vancouver, I remember how many times I would go somewhere far from the city, just to re-energize myself. I would get away from Vancouver and go somewhere far like White Rock or Langley, where it's so quiet and so far from everything that you feel like you can scream and there's a chance that nobody would hear you, before coming back to the city, where things are convenient and faster-paced.

I guess here in Seoul, I need to find that release once in a while too. I need to go somewhere drastically different from the norm once in a while, only to come back and appreciate the fact that I live in Seoul. In comparison to its surroundings, Seoul is actually quite worldly, despite the large number of improvements that can be made. Is Seoul the best place for foreigners? I don't think so. Is it heading in the right direction in terms of internationalization? Probably. Would I be happier working in Seoul than elsewhere? Definitely.

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In other news:

• The temperatures are finally back above freezing today. It's amazing how 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) suddenly feels warm after a week of terrible weather.
• It's also amazing how much snow can melt in 6 degrees C (43 degrees F). The streets are wet out there and it looks like it rained, but it didn't.
• Yesterday was an awful work day. The students were almost scared of the material, and actually bailed on me after their scheduled classroom cleaning. But ironically, today was brilliant. They cooperated and didn't need me to force them to work on the stuff I assigned to them. It was amazing how one day was awful and one day was brilliant.
• I really want to make sushi, but can't find out how to prepare the rice.
• My laptop battery is doing weird things. Windows Vista said the battery is "plugged in, not charging." Jay suggested that it's an adapter problem. I hope so, because replacing an adapter is certainly a lot cheaper than replacing an entire battery.

I survived the great snowstorm of 2010 and all I got are these pics and videos

Article from the Korea Herald yesterday (emphasis added):

Heavy snow blanketed the Seoul metropolitan area yesterday, causing traffic chaos on the first work day of the new year and delaying or canceling scores of flights.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the snow that began falling early in the morning piled up around the nation's central regions, with more than 25.2 centimeters accumulating in Seoul, as of noon yesterday.

The snow in Seoul was the heaviest in 41 years and second heaviest since the nation started observing snowfall back in 1937, the weather agency added.

Albert told me it was snowing in Beijing. The storm was supposed to lose power over the Yellow Sea but that didn't happen. Luckily, the night before, I went out and had bulgogi (marinated beef stew mixed with rice) for dinner, and also did some grocery shopping on the way home. My apartment has always been well-stocked with food in case of weather emergencies (and also because I don't think going out in cold weather is a good idea). Also, this is a "work from home" week for me, so staying inside in my relatively warm apartment was an obvious choice.

Here are some photos...

Above: the view outside my apartment.

My apartment has a very small population -- there are about six units in total. Everyone else left for work earlier in the day, so it was very quiet. I went downstairs to see if the postal delivery person managed to make it through the snow. Because everyone left for work, the front door was left alone during the snow and it was partially blocked. I had to work hard to get it open.

Needless to say, nobody got their mail yesterday or today.

Above: My apartment building's front door -- trapped by snow.

The snow had briefly stopped when I went downstairs, so I got to open the front door and take some photos of my street during this brief pause. Shortly after these photos, it continued to snow even more. The final measurement I took later that night was 10.5 inches (27 centimeters) of snow.

Above: My side street, during a small pause halfway through the snowfall.

Above: This car was definitely not going anywhere. By the end of the day, it was 100% covered with snow.

And here's a little video I took shortly before the photos:

Living quarters

When housing is provided for you, you can't really complain -- especially if you're in a major city in Asia, where housing can be notoriously cramped. While there are situations where there would be cause to complain about housing, generally it's a good perk to have your rent paid for you.

With that said, I was not only pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up at the infamous Dongdaemun Stadium housing co-op, but also surprised that my place actually has wiggle room (if you don't think about the washroom). It's located near where Jung-gu, Yongsan-gu and Mapo-gu meet up, and close to the international district of Itaewon (a major meeting place for us teachers who got to know each other during orientation).



As you can see, there's a bit of room. Since this video was made, a new desk and chair were moved in (and I got the internet working). While the desk is rather large, there's still enough wiggle room. While it isn't exactly a penthouse, it's not a shoebox either.

The washroom is a bit amusing though:

Above: My cramped washroom.

The commute from my place to work is about a 7-minute stroll:



But this can be effectively cut down to 5-6 minutes if you take a shortcut (as I discovered by following some students the other day). This shortcut has a gentler slope and fewer cars, and features this fantastic view of the city:

Above: The view of Seoul and Namsan (with its famous Seoul Tower overlooking the city) from my new shortcut to work.

I wonder how that view would look like in snow.

I can also get this view from the cafeteria of the school I work at. It's nothing like the view from my apartment. My two windows open up to reveal the neighbor's roof or attic windows.

One of the cons about this apartment is that it has a slight ant problem. It's nowhere as bad as the problem my sister had at her place in California, but it's noticeable. Another issue is that the rooms aren't very noiseproof; if I play my radio too loud, you can hear it in the hallway. Likewise, I can usually hear whenever returns to their apartment because the doors in this building have very noisy locks.

Internet also requires a Megapass account but due to some holes in their authentication system (ie. you can use MSN Messenger and Vuze without a password), I managed to get around it using my still-active VPN account from my old university back home. So basically, I'm using high-speed internet for free. As another plus, because I'm using a Canadian-based VPN, websites are reading me as visiting from Canada instead of South Korea; this can be useful because I wouldn't have to repeatedly change some sites' default language from Korean to English. (Sites like Google, YouTube, Blogger, and Hotmail use your IP addresses to determine the default language.) Good times.

I live in a love motel. Wanna make out?

For my upcoming job in Seoul, I was scared and worried about many things. How will I deal with a classroom situation? Will I have enough money to live? Will I be able to adapt to Korean culture? (Will I eventually learn how to play Starcraft, get addicted and spend 3 straight days in a PC bang (PC방: internet/online gaming cafe) before passing out and dying?) Interestingly, one of the things that never entered my mind was the housing situation because it is provided by the employer. The contract with SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) specifies:

제12조 (주거)
1. 고용자는 피고용자에게 고용자가 선정한 주거를 제공한다. 주거 형태는 서울교육연
수원 내의 숙소동, 임대주택, 원룸, 아파트를 포함하나 이에 한정되지 않는다. 주거의
사용에 따른 제세공과금은 피고용자의 부담으로 한다. 주거의 형태를 일단 결정한
이후에는 고용기간 동안 이를 피고용자 임의로 변경할 수 없다.

Article 12 (Housing)
1. Employer shall provide Employee with housing selected by Employer. Housing selected by Employer may be, including but not limited to, an apartment of faculty residence in Seoul Education Training Institute, a studio-type room, or an apartment. Any and all fees, charges, costs, taxes, expenses, etc. incurred in using the housing shall be borne by Employee. Once housing is decided, it shall not be changed at Employee’s discretion during the term of Employment.

I've lived in the smallest bedroom in the house for so many years now, and I am usually pretty apathetic to the quality of living quarters as long as the neighborhood is safe enough and not out in the middle of nowhere, and as long as I have everything I need.

However, I came across something that was rather concerning regarding the specific treatment of the housing clause by SMOE: apparently it is possible that they will stick you in a "love motel" co-op kind of place. You know, the place that guys take their mistresses to and make love next door, which you can then hear through the paper-thin walls. Of course, the doors are no better so you can hear absolutely everything that goes on outside. By the sounds of it, even hardened veterans (ie. people who have been on the job in Seoul for years) can't handle more than two months of this.

And this is essentially a hotel, not a proper suite, which means that staff can enter the suite, which they can do without knocking and at any time. This is particularly concerning because it indicates that safety may be a concern; I'd have to make sure to keep any valuables (and non-valuables) well-hidden from view, in case greed takes over a staff member. I'd hate to leave my DSLR lying around and then come home to find it gone!

A lot of amenities are also shared among multiple guests, including laundry machines. The cost for utilities is apparently as much as what a proper apartment would cost -- for a huge difference in quality and piece of mind. Not to mention the reported size of the hotel co-op suite is something like 3 meters by 3.5 meters. There seems to be something strange about cost for utilities; from what others (with actual apartments) have reported, the hotel co-op utility costs seem to be quite inflated (which indicates that there's some shady business going on).

The advice is basically this -- if SMOE tries to put you in such a place, ask them to find you another place. If they don't (and you can't afford to threaten to find another job), then just take the ₩500,000-per-month rent subsidy (the contract specifies that if they can't find a place for you and you must look for your own place, the rent subsidy must be provided to you) and pay a little more out-of-pocket for security and piece of mind. Or, if you can't afford it, suck it up for a few months and then rent your own place elsewhere.

From what I've seen, even something that costs an additional ₩200,000 out-of-pocket looks more desirable to what was described. From the descriptions of the rooms themselves and the neighborhood around them (which can be quite seedy), it sounds just slightly better than the Downtown Eastside here in Vancouver, minus the drug addicts.

I know I shouldn't be complaining about housing that's provided to you, but that there's a difference between complying with the contract outlines and taking advantage of unsaid and unwritten loopholes in the thing to work it to your advantage (and compromise the safety and security of the employee and his/her possessions in the process).

Mind you, this apparently doesn't happen to a lot of SMOE teachers -- but it happens to some and the possibility is still there. That window of possibility is pretty disheartening by itself. I just hope it doesn't come down to that.