Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Justinian]

Ok, I�m thinking about teaching ESL in Korea but my main obstacle is my health. I�ve had a few seizures this year however they seem to be under control. I�m on anti-seizure medication and have been seizure-free for 5 months. I have a few questions.

1. E-2 Visa. As I understand it, you have to go through a health examination once in Korea. How thorough is the examination? Would they be able to know that I�m taking anti-seizure medication via a blood test? To make matters more complicated, the drug I take for seizures is called Zonisamide which is used off label for depression, which I don�t have.
At the same time, I thought about simply saying that I take the medicine for depression and that I can stop it at anytime. Would that be a better move?

I found the application E-2 Visa Health Statement here:
http://www.footprintsrecruiting.com/pdf/korea-e2-visa-health-statement.pdf

Based on the info I�ve given in one, should I simply not mention my seizures to everybody, including my recruiter? Do you think they would deny me employment because of my seizures?

2. Tolerance for medical issues. I plan on teaching in Korea about a year from now which decreases my chance of seizures further but if I were to have a seizure when I was over there, I might be in the hospital for a few days and I might come back with my arm in a sling. I�ve had three seizures and they�ve all been at night/sleeping and have either dislocated or fractured my shoulder. Do you think the school would be tolerant of this situation as long as I could do my job teaching or would it be something to the effect of �This isn�t what we signed up for. There�s the door.� How do Koreans treat teachers and their medical problems (especially seizures)?

3. Seoul and public schools. I have been reading through these forums a lot and it seems that public schools are the way to go, especially for people who have never taught ESL before. At the same time, I want to stay in Seoul for access to medical care. How hard is it to teach in Seoul in a public school without teaching experience or a Masters? I�m open to getting a CELTA and/or a teacher�s license.

4. If I absolutely can�t get a job in Seoul my first year, what city in your opinion has a lot of doctors and access to medical care generally (neurologists specifically would be great)? Judging from the threads, everybody seems to say that medical care in Korea is great and cheap. I researched neurology departments and the one at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul seems excellent. Any experience? Also, any experience with physical therapists in case I fracture my shoulder again if I have another violent seizure?

Sorry for the long post. There are just so many facets to this problem.

[hojuhanguk]

you should be honest. not just because lying makes you a liar, but also if you were to have a seizure and either didn't disclose your situation or blatantly lied about it you would be in violation of your contract and visa. Therefore, you could possibly be fired without severance and possibly forced to pay back your airfare etc...

I will leave the other questions to other people or you could probably make your own decision based on all of the other threads about those things.

[Modernist]

I'm really sorry to tell you this, but you absolutely CANNOT teach in Korea with any kind of seizure disorder. Public, private, anything. Korean Immigration will immediately deny any visa application that mentions any disorder of the type you are referring to. No recruiter will spend any time with you if you say anything about it.

Your only option would be to say ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER to ANYONE, EVER about it. NOTHING. If your seizures occur at night, and not in public, it is POSSIBLE they won't be able to verify the truth. The dislocated arm stuff is dicey though. If that happened you would have to make up something about how it happened. Seeing specialist doctors wouldn't be impossible, but it would be unwise. Medical privacy here isn't the same. If you tell a doctor you have this condition, and also that you are an English teacher, that's asking for trouble. The med checks are really focused on illegal drugs, but they may find it depending on the place doing the check. That's a crapshoot.

Personally I would say doing this isn't for you, but I'm not in your situation, so...

I can say, it would be a significant risk. Think it over.

[goreality]

I once started working at a hagwon as the replacement teacher for someone who was 'let go' in the first month of his contract for saying he sometimes has seizures. I don't know if he casually mentioned it to the staff or if he had a seizure. This was before the whole medical check business and it wasn't an immigration decision. But I'm sure you will fail to pass the test if the doctor finds out.
Either way their opinion was that if it happens during class it will absolutely horrify the students. They didn't want to risk it. Your best option is to never say anything about it, including being on the common meds and hope no one notices.

[minos]

One seizure in class and your gone.


Medical confidentially is fine...I doubt your boss will find out unless you send him the hospital bills.

[Justinian]

[alpope23]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[oldtactics]

You can't miss days of work in a row at a hagwon. Maybe ONE day if you were in the hospital, but your employer would find out why you were there. Hagwon is a non-option if there's any risk of you missing work, ever.

Public schools are more forgiving when it comes to sick days, but not completely forgiving, especially if your seizure happens at school. Koreans NEVER miss work unless they're dying - a dislocated shoulder would justify one day off, not three or four.

If you decide to apply to EPIK and lie on your application, I'd save enough money for a return flight - there's a fairly high chance that your medical report could be a dealbreaker once you're in the country.

I'm not sure about this final point, but I'm pretty confident that the school has access to any medical charges that get billed to your insurance policy, so they'd know if you were visiting a neurologist. Plus, have you looked into the availability of your specific medication in Korea? If they don't have it and you have to switch to a different medication that you have no experience with, I worry about the potential problems that could happen.

[World Traveler]

[young_clinton]

If you put down seizures on your health questionaire, you won't get hired, at least that's what I think. The question is if you have one while you're employed what are they going to do? The worst that could happen is they could fire you, although once you're already hired if it's a public school they're not exactly likely to do that. So I think it's worth the risk to get a job at a public school in Korea, but get them controlled as well as you can and get a stockpile of medication for them (one year if possible) and don't list seizures as a medical condition (you won't get hired, I guarantee it).

[Skippy]

So I am guessing you are going to LIE on your health statement. Do you understand you are lying to the government/official.

Now I would be more forgiving if your condition was something else like mild manic/depression or some minor disease like HPV infection or one of the minor hepatitis infections. Things that will not really effect your life or somebody else's life. Those people I can understand in stretching the truth or lying.

But you I am are sorry to say, are a toe over that line of acceptability . Not too serious but serious enough. You have seizures every every couple of months. Not much to you but too much for Korea. Yea if you said I might have a seizure once or twice a year I would say lie. But here I say do not come!

Korea is not a very understanding country when it comes to physical problems. Heck a Korean just saying they visited a shrink will get them labeled a psycho. One piece of advice given to many teachers here is never talk about your health with co-teachers or that. The wrong thing can be used against you.

As above all it takes is one seizure at the wrong time and the school will let you go. Or use that later to fire you.

Sorry and Good Luck with your life.

[schwa]

Justinian, please heed all the well-meant advice above. You're simply not in good enough condition to be seeking work in Korea. The system here spits out people not physically up to the job & you write like you're already anticipating the next bad episode:

[Michael_75]

Regardless of employment issues, would you be willing to risk serious illness in a foreign country? Medical care can be difficult to deal with due to a language barrier.

[recessiontime]

Exactly what seizure medication(s) are you on and what type of seizures are you getting? Are we talking about the tonic-clonic ones? What adverse reactions are you currently getting from your medications? I see that you have been seizure free for several months but exactly when were you first diagnosed?


Pretty much what has been said is true. If you tell the truth to anyone, the public system is legally obligated to fire you, regardless of how charming you might be in real life. If you have a seizure in school, you will be fired. If any doctor knows you are a teacher they might report you (it's happened, not saying it will though). If you go to a hospital and take a blood test at a hospital, the pathology department may find that you are taking anti-epileptic medications or find something odd happening and question you about it. If you choose not to drink soju (alcohol) with your teacher colleagues they might also get suspicious. I would be extremely weary of whether I'd do this if I were in your situation.


edited for spelling