Job Discussion Forums

[psychedelic]

Hello all!,
I'd REALLY appreciate any comments from those that have taught E.S.L. in South Korea and Turkey. Pro's and con's? What did you like and dislike?

Thank you!

[tarte tatin]

Okay here goes:

Korea

I liked:

Good salary

Flights paid for

Free accommodation

The children I taught

The people (most of them)

I disliked:

The weather (especially the summer rainy season)

The diet (fresh produce is very expensive)

The sense of isolation I felt living in a smaller town

Some aspects of the culture e.g.people can only be friends if they are the same age - the culture is very Confuscian - research first!

Turkey

I liked:

The scenery

Ottoman architecture

Most of the people

The climate except the extremes at high summer and deep mid-winter

The fact that the language is more accessible

I disliked:

Being an employee (contract ignored etc)

Some aspects of the culture such as people constantly giving unwanted advice

Financial restrictions

To sum up (and this is only my experience) if you research VERY carefully you can land a good job in SK which will give you an opportunity to live and save well. If you skip the research you could truly get the job from hell so beware. SK is not a difficult country and is more developed than Turkey especially in Seoul. I would call it a low-impact country, nothing terrible but nothing wonderful either.

Turkey is a more varied country and the people are more out-going. The problem is the job scene. Until you make contacts here you are likely to work in a language school (none of them great) or a private school (spoiled kids). Also, Istanbul if that is where you end up, while fascinating is increasingly expensive and your salary will not give much flexibility.

To be honest, I would probably work in SK save hard then come and travel round Turkey. As I said only my opinion and others may differ.

[big3bc]

I taught in Pusan for a year, and have been here for over a decade. The major differences I have found are:
1- Istanbul surely smells better. Pusan always reeked of raw sewage and fish.
2- Turks definitely treat you with more respect if you are American. Koreans are not happy with the American military presence there.
3. Korea is a bit more modern.
4. Believe it or not, Pusan was much noisier than Istanbul. Trucks with loudspeakers were always going up and down the streets selling something. Each section in a large grocery store was always blasting out its bargains on loudspeakers.
5. Public drunkenness is much more blatant in Korea.
6. Traffic is much worse in Korea. It would take our driver over two hours to get to the university which was only 10 kilometers away. The drivers, including the police, are even crazier than here.
7. The books used to teach English are better here.
8. The pay is better in Korea.
9. Even though Pusan was full of foreigners, I always felt isolated there. I find travelling around Europe much more satisfying than where I travelled in the Far East- Japan, the Philippines and Thailand.
10. It may have been me, but looking at real letters instead of symbols helps me deal better with culture shock.
11. Turkish is much easier to learn.
12. The management in Korea was more sympathetic to the needs of the teachers.
13. My contract in Korea was broken several times in regard to living accomodations.
14. Some of my comrades who had taught previously in Turkey said that the young Korean children (6-11) in their classes were much worse than Turkish children.
15. I heard many horror stories about teachers in Korea while there. Such stories have been few and far between here.
16. Istanbul is safer.
17. Korea is cleaner. They recycle everything.
I'm sure there are many more. I was fortunate in that I taught at Pusan University, and the owner was fairly honest and respectful.

[scot47]

Culturally people from an Anglo-American or European background have much more in common with Turks than with Koreans.

It may be difficult for us to accept but Turks inherited a similar classical background to those in the Western Mediterranean. We are the joint heirs of Roman Civilisation !

[Henry_Cowell]

[Cordial_Sunset]

I currently teach in Korea in a small town. I have had some major issues where I am located, both in respect work and the area.

I love teaching but I would like to try teaching else wheres. However, when I was college I managed to rack up a lot of personal debt. That was one reason why I chose to work in Korea. Here I can save upwards to $1000 USD a month.

I think Turkey sound like an excellent country and I was wondering, how much money can you save in comparison to Korea. I know it less, but how much less?

[atkinson]

I too have now taught in both: 1.5 years in Seoul, and now 4 months in Istanbul. Mostly, what others have said is true to my experience. I'll only mention some new things, and things that were different:

New things:

1. In Istanbul, ties to history are much more visible than Seoul because everything in Korea was burnt down less than 100 years ago, and a lot of the way of life went with it.
2. Seoul, for the most part, is ugly and boring to look at -- columns of identical concrete towers in every direction.
3. The "places to visit" list in Turkey is incredible. Almost nothing in Korea (or most other countries) would even show up on a tourist map if it were in Turkey. There's more cool, ancient, varied, mind-blowing historical stuff to see in Istanbul alone than all of Korea.
4. Books are more expensive in Istanbul.
5. Turks share a western mentality in terms of cultural references, sense of humour, tone, irony, undertone, etc., so it's easier for me to understand Turks than Koreans. Turkish personality is the reason I decided to move to Turkey.
6. Korean has almost the same grammar as Turkish, but Turkish is easier to learn from scratch only because the letters are almost all the same, and the sounds are generally easier to produce. And if you know French, then you already know a large portion of the vocab. If you know Korean or Japanese, mostly you'll just be learning vocab, vowel harmony, and places where the grammar is a bit different.

Places where I disagree:

Traffic in Istanbul is worse than in Seoul, and getting around in general is much harder because public transit is shite. There's dolmuş and minib�s instead of subways.
Management in Istanbul screws the teachers over in about the same proportions as management in Seoul.
I have already witnessed more teacher horror stories in my 4 months in Istanbul than I did in my 1.5 years in Seoul.
I taught children in Seoul, and they were never a problem. The children here 12 yrs up to University are a holy terror.
Seoul is far safer. Female teachers in Seoul can stagger home alone down dark alleys at 3 a.m. without fear (part of the Confucian mentality). Not so in Istanbul. Same goes for pickpockets, and dishonest taxi drivers.