Korean Job Discussion Forums

[melly_k]

Hey everyone - I am leaving soon to teach in Korea and naturally I am a little nervous (shh don't tell). I am wondering if anyone would care to share the experience of their first two weeks. How lonely was it? How did you go about meeting other westerners, besides your co-workers (because at my school they are all couples!)? I know it depends on the school/area/etc, but if you could help me picture what this will be like at first, it would be a great comfort. Thanks!

[Saxiif]

My first two weeks in Korea were easily the most surreal in my life. Spent them holed up in a love motel (the guy I was replacing was sticking around for a bit to train me so I couldn't move into the apartment yet) being confused by the existance of two Starcraft channels on the TV, wandering around in ginseng fields at 7 AM thanks to jet lag, eating all kinds of stuff tha I didn't know what it was, having students amazed by the existance of leg hair and having the worst hangovers of my life. Was bizarre enough that I enjoyed it...

[Scotticus]

First two weeks were the honeymoon weeks. Everyone seemed so much nicer than back home. People smiled at me for no reason. All the women looked younger and cuter... and much, much smaller. The kids were cute and I was in the "try everything once" mode, so I was ingesting a ton of new food.

One of my first "wtf" moments was, having landed in Seoul maybe an hour before, being confronted by the "wtf-ery" of dancing girls at a store opening. At that point I thought Korea was going to rival Japan in "holy shit, I can't believe I'm seeing this" moments, but it tapered off a bit after that.

My "I hate Korea" period came about six months in. Triggered by my gf having a run-in with a drunk adjoshi. Then I was in my "I'm gonna stomp your Korean face if you *beep* with me" stage. It was decidedly less pleasant than the honeymoon period.

[twg]

"Darrr... I'm sleepy!"

"Darr... what's going on? Why isn't anyone telling me anything useful?"

"Darr... Them's some tall buildings!"

[dmbfan]

Ah, a stroll down memory lane.........


I arrive on a Sunday, May and was in the classroom Monday morning. The supervisor picked me up at the airport, took me to Pyungtaek and showed me around a little bit. I met one of the other teachers, and then I was taken to my apartment. I was lucky to have EVERYTHING already there. The teacher that I replaced (did a runner) had been there for two and a half years, and basically I did not have to buy anything (which was good, because I had a total of $30 in my pocket!). The supervisor would leave me alone, and let me sleep, so I finally had to tell him "Yeah....I'll see you tomorrow then......OK..bye bye, now".

The next two weeks were filled with such cool, diverse, interesting and overwhelming things. It seemed that at first, I had a job in which was really respected (honeymoon phase). It seemed that people liked whitey, and Amerians at the school. I met all the foreigner crew in Pyungatek, and by far, the BEST group of teachers I have ever known. Every group I've known since, has been a punch jerks. They were mainly Canadians, but they were all cool, and good to go.

I ate new food, was taken out for dinners, saw the "NSDG's"..(new store dancing girls). It was an interesting time in my life....something I wish I could go back to.

Then, the honeymoon phase ended, and I realized exactly where I was..........Pyongtaek Wonderland.

The downward spiral began.

dmbfan

[kigolo1881]

I had a really good time the first half of the year.

Arrived on a friday afternoon, had to wait 30 mins at ICN for the tardy teacher, who got us lost on the way home.

Saw how busy and exciting the huuuge satellite cities were, being really disappointed to find out in which village I ended up.
Moved my stuff into the really nice but small shoebox apt.

Went out for a little dinner with the coteacher, met other foreign teachers at the bar that night. Started drinking from 8 pm until 5 am saturday morning. Promised to come to the pub school that very morning at 9 am to say hello. Went back home crashed til late saturday evening.

Got invited to join in on the school's 2 day fieldtrip on monday and tuesday. Then just observed the classes for a week.

There were no real surprises at first.....
THOSE were the gooooooood times.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I arrived on a Monday night. Korea was oddly exactly as I though it would be. Tuesday morning I had orientation at the school. Wednesday I observed a demo class. Thursday I started work. Stayed in a hotel until Thursday night.

The only thing that really surprised me was how good the food was (and still is). I thought I might lose weight in Korea but it's a challenge with all of this good food!

I didn't really make meeting other foreigners a priority until I got settled in, but then I'm a homebody.

A word of advice: make sure you have toilet paper in your apartment when you get there! Luckily, I'd brought some kleenex with me.

[Mosley]

Wow. You're leaving America with a visa in hand. You've bested me.

Quote: " You're right. I'm dumb." Yep.

Yep. You're an "ameteur"[sic]. But like Incognito, you'll be telling us what a great teacher you are 72 hrs. after landing here. You're calling ME a loser, mate?

[Flash Ipanema]

I didn't have bad jet lag, but I think it had a lot to do with arriving around 7 pm, so by the time I got home I was able to go straight to sleep and ended up waking up around 7 am, feeling fine. My recruiter met me at the airport and waited with me, talking, until my bus showed up. Then I waited at the bus station for about 10 minutes for someone from my school to show up. He pointed out the school on the way to the apartment, then helped me get my things upstairs. The place had nothing but a bed, a crappy folding table and a crappier chair. Oh, and about 5 squares of toilet paper.

The next day, Thursday, I wandered around my neighborhood a bit and found a PC room, a 7-11, and a porridge shop where the women spoke english. On Friday the same guy from my school picked me up and mentioned there was another apartment in the same building available if I wanted to see it. It belonged to the teacher whose contract just ended and she left almost everything, including food. So I packed up all my crap in 10 minutes and took the other place. Once at school I had to take over the classes of the teacher who just left, but it wasn't hard. I also met another foreign teacher (who incidentally got the apartment I had just vacated). The following week another foreign teacher showed up, so we've been hanging out ever since. I admit, I totally lucked out.

And Desperation, is it really necessary to post on a topic not to contribute, but for the sole purpose of trash talking? Everyone's experience is different, no one knows how much or how little research anyone else did, and since managers make more of a difference than anything else, bad chains can still have good schools.

[ajrmacle]

I was scared to death when I first came over here. But the first two weeks were great. I got into my place at about 1am, freaked out beyond belief by all the neon and the fact that 5-year-olds were riding their bikes around my neighbourhood in the middle of the night. All the neon was a bit of a trip too. Moving into the heart of Gangnam was really being thrown into the belly of the beast.

There were only 2 other foreigners at my school, which didn't matter because they were both awesome. Quick friends and the one who'd already been