Korean Job Discussion Forums

[samyberg]

I'm coming to Korea to teach in May, but all I've read on this message board is comment after comment of miserable people. Am I making a terrible decision or do only sad people exsist in this message board. Please can someone give me a good report?

[newteacher]

Like most things in life the experience is what you make of it.

[samyberg]

Why does everyone keep saying that. No one will give me a straight answer.

[TheChickenLover]

Outside of my work I"m very happy with my personal circumstances.

My work in school is too simple. I often feel quite bored & unchallenged though I do have plenty of time off.

The way I see it is like this. I work to make money to do the other things in my wife which I identify myself with. If you have an employer that pays well & gives you a moderately stress free environment, then all the better. Don't fall into the trap mentality of 'Teaching English is challenging'. It's not. Once you've taught long enough, you can teach while on autopilot.

Those who are bitter have horrible circumstances both at home & work. These guys are poison, avoid them.

Chicken

[newteacher]

You also should not forget that Dave's is a place where people come to vent. Even though you hear a lot of negative on here that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is miserable. I know I've posted a few negative things on here (not many) after having a bad day at work, or after my ex and I broke up, but in general I'm pretty happy and Korea has been good to me.

[ciccone_youth]

i'm loving it here. i'm fairly new to korea, but i like it and i know i'll have an amazing year. my boyfriend liked it so much that he came back as well.

i like my school, i got a great contract and great co-workers. i'm friends with the other teachers, and everyone has been nice to me so far.

i started hiking and soon i'll join a gym, and i absolutely love seoul, so much to do! and the food is cheap and healthy.

so yes, im very happy, even tough some days are more difficult. i think it's all about the attitude. there is a lot of negativity of this board, but don't let yourself be influenced only by that.

and watch the "kickin' it" video!!!

[samyberg]

thank you for your reply, i'm sick of hearing the stock answer, "it is what you make it." I know that. I want to know what on earth could suck that bad. I'm not coming into this with a false notion that it's vacation and playtime. It's a job. Sometimes work sucks, i get it. My job in the states sucks sometimes too, but most days it doesn't.

[ardis]

[MollyBloom]

I like it in Korea too. I am going back in September. My boyfriend and I went together in 2006 and it was a great experience to have with someone. We're kinda not the going out type, but we had a lot of fun when we did. A few beers knocks me out, so I can't kick it with the soju.

[ciccone_youth]

exactly.

you'll have great days and bad days, but overall if you're open-minded and want to learn about a new culture, try new food + activities and learn a new language, then it's probably right for you.

[thatwhitegirl]

I like it here. It's quiet and pretty where we are. The people are friendly to us, and the students are great.
Our apartment is good, and the school (public high school) has been very nice to us.
Overall...good experience, and we'll be staying another year or two.

I like it much better there than in China, where we were before.

[saw6436]

Samyberg: As a fellow North Carolinian I can honestly say I've enjoyed my time in Korea. I've put in my 10 years here and feel the time has been productive and worthwhile.

People do generally come on to Daves to vent and rant. When I first joined this site the negativity was a bit overwhelming. True, I have my "I hate Korea" days but those are few and far between.

[Unposter]

A bit of a hodge podge but here goes:

A lot depends on the person you are. Have you ever lived abroad before? Living abroad is not for everyone.

Common Problems:

Your boss will play mind games with you
Your boss will test you to see what your limits are
Your boss will test to see if you have a backbone
Your boss will see how gullable you are by cheating you in front of your face
If you pass that test, your boss will see how clever and resourceful you are by cheating you in more clever ways

You might suffer from culture shock. Common test of culture shock: You say something like, "I hate Korea or Koreans becuase Koreans do things differently than people back home do it."

Your students, co-workers, boss, people on the street, your landlord, everyone in the whole darn street suffers culture shock because they can't believe you do things differently from them.

Some people feel like an animal at the zoo

Some people get frustrated because Koreans expectations of how and what you teach might be different than what you think you should teach and how you would teach it

To be a good English teacher is extremely difficult. Knowing English is only the beginning. You need to be a Diplomat, a Psychologist, a Cultural Anthropologist, a Businessperson.

Some people give up
Some people loose thier spirit

Who survives here?

People who can make money a priority in their life
People who make drinking a priority in their life
People who are lazy and look for the easy way out in life
People who enjoy the challanges of living in another culture
People who make Korean friends (at least a spouse)
People who enjoy learning languages
People who enjoy traveling (really enjoy it and not just think they do)
People who think that Korea offers more than what they can get back home wherever home might be
People who make good contacts and find opportunities beyong the entry-level position teaching English
People who are problem solvers and enjoy figuring out puzzles
People who are tall, good looking or at least blond and blue eyed
People who enjoy the fact that Koreans cannot figure out their short commings

What are the advantages of sacrifising what you have back home and years of experience and income potential in a job in your home country?

It is not home
You have the freedom to leave whenever you want
You don't have to care about things
You can learn a new culture and language
You can travel and see the world
You can save large amounts of money, especially if you are not a law and order type of person
There is a kind of freedom from being an expat that is attractive to some people
Taxes are lower here
You don't have to own a car
You might have the free time to pursue other interests (much harder than you might think but certainly not impossible)
You can make friends from all over the world
It is relatively violence free compared to the West but catching up
There are surprisingly a lot of opportunities here - things can be very wide open and it often comes down to being in the right place at the right time - this has its appeal to certain type of people
I'm sure there are plenty more

Bottom line: Living in another culture really is not easy as you don't have the support systems (family, friends, cultural intuition, understanding of the law) that you have back home so many people seek solace in strangers on line. Also, many people work in places where they are the only Native English Speaker or in a town with few or no other Native speakers or they have very specific tastes and interests and find it hard to find people who they have things in common with. It is also easy to loose general stimulation here as you don't watch tv, sports, movies, listen to music,politics or whatever in which people talk about and you find yourself empty headed and conversationally-challanged or you have talked to Koreans for so long you don't know how to interact like a normal person.

Are you the right person to be an international educator? It all depends on whether you are "international" and an "educator?"

Good luck!

[anyangoldboy]

I'm happy cause I'm leaving in 10 weeks

[poet13]

I think that a lot of unhappiness in Korea boils down to a few simple things.

Corruption. Korea is rife with corruption. Unfortunately for us, we don't know the rules of the game, or we would play too. It seems doubly unfair because we (English teachers) work in a market amenable to corruption because of its' lack of regulation and oversight. What to us is a blindingly obvious case of outright fraud is perceived as just crafty, and hence "good", business here.
All this translates into lots of foreigners get ripped off.

Korean isolationism. I think person to person, Koreans are ok having us foreigners tramp all over their country. I think however that big business strives to alienate foreigners and create a Korean-ONLY marketplace. That's why you can't sign up for Naver, you can't get a credit card without hassle, a cell phone is a pain in the ass, banking laws seem designed to make life difficult (think international ATM card) and you don't own your own visa. It weighs upon a person after a while.

Korean vs everywhere elses' way of thinking. We don't understand what makes them tick. What for us seems like simple lunacy, short-sightedness, or a mind-boggling lack of vision, in general makes absolute sense to a Korean. We don't like that, and it frustrates the hell out of us.

Korean culture and pureness. We Native English Speakers come from cultures that are among the most multicultural in the world. Korea is relatively pure. A lot of Koreans, especially the older generations, would like to keep it that way. Korean culture is built primarily on three cultures, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. My Canadian culture, and more specifically, who I became based on my cultural experiences growing up in Canada, is built on a much broader array of cultures. All of this lends itself to a difficult to overcome culture shock for some.

The foreigners who come here. I don't know how many other labor markets in the world are predicated upon taking people straight out of college or university, flying them part way around the world, and placing them freely in a society that they don't understand and can't communicate with, with little or no support for an entire year. If you think about it that way, it seems that problems are unavoidable.

Bell just rang....time for class.

PS - I hate to say it....but in large part, it IS what you make of it.

Welcome and good luck.