Weird how there is no mass exodus of Korean youth to countries with better living standards considering the have very strong passports.
Language is always a barrier. Without good German skills you have the opportunity of being a cleaning lady or building Autobahn here in Germany.
Also uprooting ones life to a different continent can be expensive
Are there no job positions where English could serve as an fallback language, like in STEM fields. (tech, healthcare, electronics, architecture) ?
That’s kind of the same problem. People whose native languages aren’t indo-European tend to be bad at English, but Asians are a whole different breed.
Korean people suck at English. At least compared to Germans.
Visiting as a tourist with a strong passport is so much easier than actually inmigrating to another country, let alone one with a better living standard, considering SK is technically a first world country already. First, you need to be able to speak the language, then you need either the money to pay for school (if going as a student) or a job waiting for you that the destination country needs filled. You can’t just go and get whatever job you like, there are immigration restrictions on what jobs you can apply for, and the company must be willing to sponsor you. All of that costs a lot of money to top it all off.
Lots of people want to leave, but so many have never even left South Korea, let alone gone to the West.
Where will you go? China? Working conditions are even worse. Japan? Lots of Koreans go there, but it’s hardly a massive change.
Koreans go to Europe, the US and Canada, but the poorer class certainly can’t afford that opportunity.
Strong honor culture makes it hard to move, you would cut contact with just about everyone you know if you’re not moving to attend a prestigious university or taking a high end job, which is not on the table for the vast majority.
This is how it feels as a leftist from Texas. Family is too important to leave, but the scales feel like they keep tipping towards moving for climate and politics.
This read like an article about Japanese youth twenty years ago. They’re even replicating the hikkikomori phenomenon. That said, it sounds like things in SK are way worse than they ever were in Japan, especially considering their demographic situation. This will not end well.
Im curious about your perspective, what would you say is the next step? As in what happened to Japan that we would expect to happen to SK?
That was a really, really good article. My observations from living here for 7 years match, and I learned some stuff. It’s good to hear that these initiatives are happening. I try to teach coding in English as a non-profit, but I don’t know enough Korean to reach these other folks. I should do more
Would probably have to work 2 jobs somewhere else anyways . I’ve been working 2 jobs for over a year just to get by .
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For brevity, can we list the societies where that isn’t the case?
Most of Europe?
Countries with high unionization rates like the Nordics.
Yes!
Great list. And comprehensive too
In Germany you can get by with pretty much any job. If you don’t earn enough you can apply for welfare. It’s a pain in the ass, but better than working yourself to death. If you want more, you need a good education. Generally speaking, the better your education, the more likely it is that you can get by with only speaking English. But wages are lower than in counties like the US.
Do you subscribe to anything you could get for free?
Only YouTube premium right now I cancelled all other services awhile ago to save money since I barely used any of them.
Use ReVanced, YT premium is not worth the money
