Awkward Conversations With Koreans!

I know I told you all that I "got" that job in Korea, and then I lost the Korea job and now I'm sort of in limbo. I've been interviewing with schools passed along to me by two different recruiters and have scored a few, but now am just entertaining offers and seeing what is out there for me.

Now I don't mean this negatively in the least, but in doing these interviews, I have had so many awkward conversations with Koreans! I look at it just as practice for once I get there, but I still feel like I make an absolute idiot out of myself on a regular basis. But since I only got my first rejection yesterday, I must be doing okay.


There is always a lag in conversation (I think they may be using Skype to call) which means we're often carrying on two different conversations at once. I usually have to remind myself to speak much more slowly than I usually do, and that results in me taking in too much air at one time and not being able to breathe normally. I use four-syllable words and then think the person may not know what that means so I define the word, and then worry that I just treated the interviewer like a child.

And then, of course, there is yesterday's rejection. I know exactly what happened because the recruiter told me they thought I didn't have enough experience. I did the wrong thing, I took my cue from the recruiter. She seemed like she was in a hurry and acted as though she already knew I had experience (I figured she had looked at my resume). As it turns out, she did not look at my resume and apparently, resumes rarely passed along to the employer. Never again will I make such a mistake!

During tonight's interview, the employer was astounded by the amount of experience I had, so that made me feel a little bit better about my rejection. With Korean interviewers, it is much easier for me to pass off rejection as impersonal; perhaps it's because they are an ocean away?