Opinion

This is a food trend report prepared by O’ngo Food Communications and KoCTA (The Korea Culinary Tourism Organization. Even though Korean food is gaining popularity all over the world, it is not trending in Korea. There are aspects of Korean food that are gaining popularity, but for different reasons than in other parts of the world.

*Disclaimer these are our opinions on food and we are looking at this issue from the idea of the whole country and it is not solely expat focused. Seoul has a 10.5 million Korean people and only 250,000 foreigners. The opinion of the masses can make or break restaurants here.*

If I had read this New York Times article before I had thought of teaching English in a foreign country (circa late 2007), I would have found the premise implausible at best. Americans voluntarily leaving their soil indefinitely? Americans don’t do that. Maybe they go off for a holiday in Australia, or they backpack their way across Europe. We get a little jealous of people taking a ‘working holiday’ It’s a rite of passage, or perhaps a way to postpone Master’s degrees and starting families. They always come back to the states however… don’t they?

From the aforementioned article:

Driving from central Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, for example, you see an American heartland slowly emptying of opportunity: roads and bridges crumbling even without the recent spending cuts, once-confident businesses shuttered, “now hiring” signs eerily absent.

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A recent article on CNNGo recently talked about the 12 rules for expat life in Korea. While I found myself agreeing with some of them, living in Korea requires more than drinking like a fish or learning to dance K-pop (yikes!). If you’re coming to Korea to teach, work as a business person, serve the military, or otherwise hold a respectable position in Korean society, THESE are the 12 rules to follow.

1. Embrace the culture’s take on alcohol, but know when to say when. Going to the bar with friends and co-workers is common, and (if the boss is paying) a chance for a superior to show their position. At the same time, know when enough is enough. You need not refuse a drink, but sip instead of chug, and choose beer over soju any chance you get – the latter is four times as potent.

It’s time to move forward.

I do think we need a organization that assists teachers; in fact, I’d be open to sitting in on that future discussion and offering up some ideas. Let’s get the seven or eight or twenty of us interested in moving forward and have a roundtable sort of meeting. Not in a bar, not in a coffeehouse, but a rather sterile, business room of sorts.

To clarify, I’m not talking about shaking ATEK up, using their contacts, or changing ATEK into something else. I’m talking about a completely new organization, because the name ATEK has become irreversibly tainted, and needs to be retired.

I’d also like to point out that this a big endeavor. At the very least you’d need a few people ready to spend at least a few weeks setting things up, working closely to keep things integrated, and then a larger team to canvass the online and offline worlds to spread the word.

Chris in South Korea note: this is a guest post from Chris D., whose biography is part of the story. Since we happen to share the same first name, please kindly address your comments to Chris D. (the author of this guest post), or Chris B. (yours truly) to avoid confusion. A post written by myself on the same topic is scheduled for later today.

This piece is about the oft discussed and hotly debated issue of ATEK. My goal here is to discuss one issue that is often left by the wayside in the stampede that is nearly always generated by any discussion on ATEK. That issue, in clear language is: What do Foreign English Teachers in Korea need?

A bit about myself before diving into this shark tank of a debate…

The Lady in Red and I broke up on Friday.

It’s not heartbreak, it’s not infidelity, and personally it’s not a shock. I’ll refrain from sharing the story or rehashing the details in such a public forum, but suffice it to say, it’s over. After a year of living together and two years of being together, it’s over. I don’t write this out of spite or malice, but there is an interesting moral that I’ve been reminded of recently.