Infantilization in a Capsule
My awesome friend's awesome friend, CM, hooked me up with a potential employer that might result in a teaching gig in Korea. CM is pretty super; this is the same person through whom I met Asshole #1, which admittedly didn't work out, but for a long time he was the dude of my dreams...
It's an impressive roster of friends, in any case.
Anways. I had never given any thought before - I mean serious thought - to this universal recommendation that I go travelling this year, or to my mom's perpetual suggestion that I get more Korean. But once I started thinking about it, it seemed like a great opportunity, too good to pass up (if it should happen). I know it's not one of those fraudulent gigs, and plus I've been needing to beef up my language skills for a while. I keep writing on my resume that I'm "fluent" in Korean, but that's not exactly true. After a month of immersion it will be true, but that's just it, that immersion wasn't looking like it was going to happen.
I spent like half an hour at dinner discussing with my parents the pros and cons of the job and all that. Unbelievably, the bulk of that conversation consisted of my parents reiterating, Make sure they pay you enough to cover living expenses.
For real??? THAT'S the topic of the debate? It was practically insulting! I tried to tell them that it was a given - that I was NOT going to take a job that was going to plunge me into debt - but I guess they have no faith - scratch that, negative faith - in my ability to leave the birth canal. They spent the next half hour describing the housing problems in Seoul, while I spent the next half hour explaining that this company was not a volunteer opportunity or an internship, and they that knew I was not a resident in Korea, that the company was run by Americans, that I found it unlikely that I would get paid a higher salary if I said I had no relatives in Korea I could live with...
Etc. etc. Sigh.
It's an impressive roster of friends, in any case.
Anways. I had never given any thought before - I mean serious thought - to this universal recommendation that I go travelling this year, or to my mom's perpetual suggestion that I get more Korean. But once I started thinking about it, it seemed like a great opportunity, too good to pass up (if it should happen). I know it's not one of those fraudulent gigs, and plus I've been needing to beef up my language skills for a while. I keep writing on my resume that I'm "fluent" in Korean, but that's not exactly true. After a month of immersion it will be true, but that's just it, that immersion wasn't looking like it was going to happen.
I spent like half an hour at dinner discussing with my parents the pros and cons of the job and all that. Unbelievably, the bulk of that conversation consisted of my parents reiterating, Make sure they pay you enough to cover living expenses.
For real??? THAT'S the topic of the debate? It was practically insulting! I tried to tell them that it was a given - that I was NOT going to take a job that was going to plunge me into debt - but I guess they have no faith - scratch that, negative faith - in my ability to leave the birth canal. They spent the next half hour describing the housing problems in Seoul, while I spent the next half hour explaining that this company was not a volunteer opportunity or an internship, and they that knew I was not a resident in Korea, that the company was run by Americans, that I found it unlikely that I would get paid a higher salary if I said I had no relatives in Korea I could live with...
Etc. etc. Sigh.
posted by Rex at 7:43 PM
1 Comments:
Whoa! You're going to teach in Korea? That's pretty awesome. When does that happen? My parents would be STOKED if I got some kind of job in Hong Kong, esp. since I have a residency permit there. Cool! Do you read Korean? Anyway, I will call you this weekend!
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