Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Darkray16]

So I'm going to be teaching at a public school in Busan.
I was wondering how large are meal portions for teachers at public schools.
If I remember correctly the school will be paying for my lunch at least.

The reason I'm wondering is I eat a lot per meal, even by American standards. I would say a 1 foot long Subway sandwhich plus a drunk and chips is the regular size of each of my meals(breakfast, lunch and dinner).
So I'm a bit worried I'm going to be starving as I see most korean guys are skinny little girly men(j/k if any korean guys are reading this).

And before anyone starts, I put in 20 hours a week of weight lifting(and still do now that I arrived in Korea and got my gym membership) and 10 hours of hard running. I'm not some fat ass American stereotype. I really need tons of food or else it feels like my stomach is eating itself.

Sorry if this seems minor compared to the other issues on this board, I just wanted to know what to be prepared for at breakfast/lunch time at the school.

[bundangbabo]

You help yourself as far as I know. You do in my school.

Mind you - the quality leaves a lot to be desired - I don't know if you want to eat great quantities of it.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Jeff's Cigarettes]

What's a "drunk"? We serve ourselves at my school. Good food to. Today I munched on about 15 juicy succulent chicken wings smothered in a nice light BBQ sauce. Friday it was big meaty tender pork ribs...ate about 10 of them.

[Kimchieluver]

A lot of schools don't charge you for lunches. They see it as some kind of perk (and it is). Yes. the quality may leave something to be desired, but if you can handle squid something 2 times a week, you really won't be going hungry.

[Rusty Shackleford]

You will probably get away with going for seconds, but you probably won't want to as the protein quality can be quite low at times. I work at 2 schools and one is consistently good to awesome, the other is average to outright shit. If you have special requirements re. body building you will probably want to bring something to supplement your lunch.

I resemble a Korean girly man although I have gained 8 or so kilos since I got here, I believe it's from the soup which sometimes has a lot of protein in it cos a lot of the time it's anchovie broth. Which shouldn't taste good but it does.

[cruisemonkey]

I've been at PS' where the teachers do their own 'self service' from 'troughs' seperate from the students'... and also where teachers and students were served by the cafeteria ajumas.

If you're served with the students, go to the front of the line. Either way, you can have as much 'food' as you want. The ajumas may try to be 'stingy' on the (so called) meat, but just keep holding your tray in front of her 'quoting' Charles Dickens - "Please mam... may I have some more?"

[Oreovictim]

Ah, I remember this huge dude in one of my classes in university. His muscles were too big for football or any other sport. I just assumed that was on some body building team or something.

Anyway, he'd always carry around a gallon jug of water. He had permission to eat during class. And twenty minutes into every lecture, he'd be eating a big-a$$ serving of pasta or rice with chicken chunks. I would always laugh in my seat because you could hear him eat. He'd couldn't use a plastic container with a plastic utensil, no. He'd eat out of a glass bowl with a metal fork or spoon. Clang, clang, clang!

[Chris_Dixon]

Its help yourself, but your not going to be liked if you take a massive plate full and someone misses out....tbh the food is usually pretty crap...i make my own sandwiches

[Chris_Dixon]

[Darkray16]

I love the food here, and don't mind the low quality stuff either. I actually have no problem with quality, it's more about quantity. Strange, I know. I can handle cheaply made sweet and sour pork, as long as I get enough.
Only small tiny issue I have is the motony in my diet now. Before I would have mexican one day, then chinese, japanese, vietnamese(oh how I miss authentic pho), thai, american, etc.


I don't think I will have a problem with low amounts of protein, I'm not super huge or an athlete, so a single serving of meat or two per day is enough(usually I just make a tuna or ham sandwich).

So far I like what I'm hearing.

BTW I had a similar experience to the guy above. In my community college, there was a football player who was huge, massive 6'10 guy made of muscle and could benchpress 500lbs.(around 220kg). Everyday in Biology class if he didn't bring in a meal with him he would get so hungry half way into class he would hold his stomach.

Still doesn't top Michael Phelps in training though, 12,000 calorie/day diet.

[nomad-ish]

i'd suggest to start off with a normal first serving and then if it looks like there's enough food left, go back for more. i see a lot of teachers filling up the soup bowls with side dishes after eating and taking them back to their offices.

[crusher_of_heads]

[Xuanzang]

My school has a self serve cart. Mind you sometimes there isnt enough of something delicious to go around. Office ajummas, principal and VP get first dibs then teachers. Kids even come to steal because their class ran out.

[intl girl of mystery]

The lunch ladies at my school would be thrilled if I went back for seconds, because they always look at my tray to see if I liked whatever they made that day. They give the adults such monster portions, though, that even if I like it I have a hard time finishing it.

Just see what's normal at your school. You have leeway as a foreigner to be weird to get the things you want. There should be a nutritionist on staff who can probably talk to you about what's in the lunch, nutritionally speaking, if you really need to know (mine does when I ask, but here it's mostly tofu, seaweed and fish).