During Free Train today, 6-8pm, we had three random visitors walk in our club. Two were brothers, all were friends and coworkers and all were from Uzbekistan. Usually when most people think of foreigners working here in Korea they imagine Westerners, like Canadians and Americans, teaching English but what many don't know is that there are more than just foreign ESL teachers here. In Cheonan, for example, we have a very large Filipino population and there is a growing population of people here from Uzbekistan.
Today three Uzbekistan guys walked into Hulk's to ask us about our club. One question lead to another and a conversation lead to them breaking out into training right there and then. After I finished my training and they sat back down at the front, we started talking about Uzbekistan. As many know, Snickers went to Uzbekistan some time ago, to help out a friend with a business idea he wanted to get off the ground but hadn't the English to do so. They were very flattered that Snickers really enjoyed his visit to their country and they had a good giggle over the pictures of him on a camel. In chatting with them about their country, I asked what country they liked better, Korea or Uzbekistan. Two out of the three said Korea and noted that it was because they can make easy, fast money here. The one who noted Uzbekistan said it was because he was homesick. Apparently here in Korea, these guys make $1,700 a month doing the same factory work they'd be doing in Uzbekistan for $200-300 a month. Wow, big difference. They told me that their fellow coworkers, who are also from Uzbekistan, send the vast majority of their paychecks home to support their family. I know this is true for other country people I've met here who also work at the factories. Two of them noted they won't be joining our club because they have financial responsibilities back home but one did note he'd be back on Monday.
I don't know if I believe him.
For the most part, if someone doesn't sign up right there and then when they first come into Hulk's then it's safe to assume they won't be back to do so. I'm not insulted, it's come to be expected, but I just wish people were a bit more honest and blunt with telling us. Tell us why you're not going to join up. If it's because of the price, the facilities, the staff, or whatever, perhaps if you told us we could change things so that this isn't a reason for someone in the future not to join.
With school being out and it being the new year, membership has really increased but it'd be nice to get more new faces here at Hulk's and by new faces I mean different country people. With the exception of our Mongolian member, who may be is a stay-at-home mom or just work part time, all our foreign members are English teachers. It'd be nice to get some factory workers here and really spice up the dynamics of our non Korean population.
Regardless of if he comes back or not, it was fun meeting him and his friends. They impressed me with doing tire flips with our 250kg tire and I had a good laugh at the fact that we had to speak Korean because of their lack of English. Our Mongolian member's Korean is amazing and so was the Korean of these guys from Uzbekistan. I've been here in Korea for 10 years but my Korean isn't up to par with my Mongolian member. She too has been here for 10 years and is married to a Korean man but unlike my husband hers doesn't speak any English. I vouch that's given her a heads up on me, well that and the fact that many members here want me to speak only English to them. Time to up my Korean and talking to these guys tonight made me thankful I had spent my afternoon studying. I thought it pretty cool to be talking in Korean to other foreigners, that was common language, and it greatly amused our Hulkie training to hear and see such a sight.
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