Korean Job Discussion Forums

[misoman]

I just got an email from a recruiter saying that the fact that I am legally blind might keep me from getting an E-2.

Does anyone have any experience or info about this? I know there's a health requirement, but I am generally healthy.

Please guys help me! I've been dreaming about this for years! Now I have my degree and they say I may not get to do it?

Thanks for any and all help!

Miso

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My friend got an E2 ten years ago and he was 'legally blind'. He could see straight ahead in a well-lit classroom but couldn't see in poor lighting and had no peripheral vision.

[misoman]

[Donald Frost]

Hello,

Please consider posting your question on the message board of one of the message boards or call the one in Seoul. Go to www.

I'll call them right now and get an answer for you and then relay it to you via P.M.

DF

[Donald Frost]

[misoman]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[misoman]

Here's the response I got from ESL-PLANET after i told them what DF found out for me. Tell me what you guys think. Is this a valid argument? What should i do?

Your resume looks fine. It is appropriate, but perhaps not the most appealing to Academy Employers since you do not have much experience teaching children.

However, I am most concerned with is the fact that you are legally blind. Being legally blind does not technically bar you from being able to obtain an E2 visa, since sight is not one of the conditions Korean Immigration states that you must pass as an English Teacher in Korea. However, your condition severely limits your prospects with Korean employers.

We will submit your resume to employers while fully disclosing your condition. If any school requests an interview with you, I will be sure to contact you immediately. I would like to be honest and tell you though that I think those chances are quite slim. If you would like, I would encourage you to try on your own a bit and submit your resume through sites such as www.workandplay.com and dave's esl cafe and the like.

Good luck to you!
Jane

[VanIslander]

Jane is a *beep*

There are hagwons who've been desperately waiting six months for a waygook.

If Koreans can get past their prejudice toward black people they certainly can toward blindness.

If you can't get a recruiter to go to bat for you then find a new recruiter. And if you still haven't found a job by mid-January then PM me and I'll hook you up with a couple of employer prospects (nice hagwon owners I know, and there ARE decent hagwon owners out there, nice people who don't care about such things as long as you can teach!).

[misoman]

[passingtime]

I am partially sighted, I never told my employer before i got here, and i had no problems with medical when I did. I don't know how it works with the new E2 guidelines but if they don't ask do you have to tell them?

[NoExplode]

Don't worry in the slightest. So you can basically see, but have poor peripheral vision and difficultly in low light? If so, and it's relatively minor, tell recruiters exactly that. If you sense after a few recruiters that they are reluctant to help you, just leave that info off your resume or whatever, then submit to new recruiters.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I would strongly recommend looking for a job teaching adults, especially at an academy where you do a lot of one-to-one teaching. If you get a job at a children's hagwon simply because they're so desperate they'll take anyone, you'll likely be in for a year of hell. The same might hold true for a public school gig in which you can't be garaunteed of having Korean support in the classroom. The other day when I was teaching my first-year middle school (grade 7) class by myself some workers were working on the electrical system in the school and the power (and thereby the classroom lights) kept turning on and off. No problem if you can see well enough to go open the curtains but it would leave you dead in the water if it rendered you instantly blind with 30 kids cheering on their good fortune.

[misoman]

*bump* and closer to my 25!

[John_ESL_White]