Korea…a life changing experience…or just a facade maker… March 28, 2008

Being here 8 months, and speaking with other foreigners, as well as drawing from my own experience, I have contemplated a serious question.  Many foreigners either think that KOrea has done nothing for them, that they are the same person they were before they came here.  Or they think that Korea has changed them completely.  Someone who was antisocial is now the life of the party. 

For me, I think I am the same, with some refinements.  I enjoy being on my own now, instead of looking it as a burden. I have learned to let my parents handle their own mistakes, instead of trying to parent them.  I have started to leave the past where it belongs, in the past.  I have become more devoted to God as i wanted to.  If I say I am going to do something, I do it.  But i haven’t become the life of the party, I’ve developed a funky sense of humour.  I haven’t strived to be MS popularity.  And not for one moment, have I considered that friendships here are permanent.

This is the danger.  Some foreigners think this is the life.  They now have a full social calendar when before it was empty.  It is a facade that can be easily broken by one foreigner’s contract ending.  Enjoy it, but don’t let it become you.  For what happens when you return home..and life was as it was before you went to South Korea?  The shock could be disheartening.

The ideal thing would be to look at this as an extended working holiday.  You meet great people, hango ut, and hten you go home.  I wish you all well, with whichever method of thinking you choose.