Job Discussion Forums

[Kathleen Freed]

I am hopefully going to be teaching in Korea this January. I was wondering if anyone has heard of either of these two recruiters: Your Choice Recruiters, or a Canadian recruiter called Korean Education Ltd., a subsidiary of PAGODA, and what the reputation is of these recruiters. Also, I am torn on whether I want to be in Busan or in a city just outside of Seoul. My goal is to be someplace where I can be close to the outdoors, but also be someplace where I can take advantage of participating in things such as Korean cooking classes. So, what do you think the advantages/disadvantages are of these two cities? Last but not least, is it hard to find places to eat if your a vegetarian (I do eat fish, but that's it)? Let me give you a big thanks in advance for your input!!

[Steiner]

Hi, Kathleen.

You will probably have a lot better luck posting this on the Korean Job Forum. The Job Discussion Forums (where we are now) are for everywhere else.

Good luck.

[gerard]

Actually the Korea board is not that good. I guess you could try the "Job Related" section though. Pagoda be careful with. They have a recruit office and a lot of bad jobs they earn a commision sending you to. Pagoda itself looks good it is in the cool part of Seoul teaching college students and business classes. The problem is murderous split shifts. 7-9 in the morning with a noon class followed by 7-9 at night is not unusual. That is very stressful I tried it. You will be tired all the time and wont want to do anything in your free time.

Where ???is a tough one. I like big cities so Seoul is the only one worth the bother. There are small towns though that might be good ---not that small by Western standards but they can be close to the ocean and parks that sort of thing...So my advice would be Seoul or the smallest town you can find.

[Steiner]

I sit corrected.

[schwa]

The Korea forum can be a rough playing field sometimes but there are helpful contributors too. Theres a lot of good information there & I'd say its pretty much required reading for someone preparing to head to Korea.

A word of warning: dont be put off by the seeming preponderance of bad experiences. Most here are having a happy & successful go of it & have little need for online community.

No problem being a fish-tolerant vegetarian (same here). You'll have sufficient tasty options almost anywhere you go.

[vanaloo]

hi, i'm quite new to all of this...

i'm still in the research mode of this esl business, deciding where i want to go in september (maybe sooner...). i've narrowed it down to japan or korea, but the negative posts about korea are really putting me off. so few people seem to have had positive experiences that i'm beginning to lead more towards japan, travelling with nova.

here's my concern: i'm vegan. i'm worried about how to find food i can eat, and also about offending people if they offer me food i don't eat. any suggestions on how to deal with this diplomatically, while maintaining my ethical integrity?

thanks for any help you can provide!

-vanessa

[Gordon]

Simple, say sorry I don't eat meat. They will understand, it's not a completely foreign idea to them.