Korea: Being Unemployed.

Since the economic downturn began, being unemployed has become one of the topics netizens talk about. How do people cope with this situation?

My unemployed life starts with a battle with children. I love my children. I feel happy to be able to have more time with them. My case to be unemployed is not bad, therefore. But sometimes I feel painful to be unemployed in the moment I didn’t expect. Most unemployed people feel humiliation when they receive unemployment compensation. They feel upset in workshop places where they can receive the compensation. We all know we lost jobs, but they painfully remind us in such a cruel way. We’re not begging, but it leads us to be upset. In order to receive the compensation that is provided every two weeks, we have to go to a public place on time and have to show evidence of how hard we have looked for jobs for two weeks. After passing, we can finally receive the unemployment compensation. I envy other European countries where people have rights to request the unemployment compensation for several years whenever I come out of the employment supporting center. In addition, the moment when I feel sad is how other people look at me. The way they look at me, why the person who is supposed to be the breadwinner of the family is stuck at home. “Can I take a rest for filling up new energy?”Even when I try to make a credit card, I was rejected from companies that had begged me to make cards before… Our society is not comfortable with the unemployed.

Then do I have sad experiences now? But they are something more than that. Starting with the unemployed life, I have delights with things I have dreamt of doing. I liked hiking, but it was impossible to try due to my job. As soon as I lost my job, I can climb a mountain in my hometown every week. I have been unhealthy due to stresses over work during the last 10 years. At present, it is my happiness to feel I am getting healthier. […]

While some actually enjoy being in this situation, most of course do not. A book, Escape from Unemployment, about living as an unemployed person in Korea and about how to find jobs, is even published. It is called a book of hope. And a poem…

Listening to Radio by 4 am,
turning my computer on for whole day,
and being nervous,
I become a fool without thinking at all.
There is no hope.It seems that I am getting crazy.
I feel that everything is over.

On the way to an institute, I saw an old man who begs on subway.
In the past, I felt sorry for those people.
But I have a different feeling now.
It could be me…
I feel sorry for myself.
I feel that even sympathy is a luxury.

I wanted to live helping so many people before.
But now…My biggest hope is
not to bother other people.

By Hyejin Kim on Weblog

Thanks to globalvoicesonline.org

Advertisement