Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hugekebab]

Hi,

I've been self-studying Korean for the past few months rather intensively and of course making painfully slow progress (oh, that's why people pay for private lessons!) and have developed a bit of a passion for it. I'm rarely passionate about anything.

I have been trying to pursuade myself, rationally, that learning Korean would be a useful addition to my CV. I have convinced myself that in the UK, Korean speakers are extremely rare (little to no Korean immigration and the subject is not taught in any schools and very few universities, as far as I know.) I've been thinking that many UK businesses must be doing trade or having to deal with Korean companies on their own turf, and as we all know, that can be an incredibly frustrating and fruitless experience; so there's my way in.

So, I have no money from family, and by September will have about 3000 saved (maybe even not that much.)

Would it be realistic to go full time in Seoul learning Korean on a student visa given the expenses of living etc. I would survive by teaching privates; do you think a million a month income would surfice for survival in Seoul for a year? How expensive is it to live in Seoul these days?

Americans/Canadians; please do not assume I want to learn Korean for use in your countries, I know there are enough gyopos there that would mean there is little to no market for Korean speakers.

Thanks

[sarbonn]

Only real thought I have as a response is to research the illegality of teaching privates, because they're getting pretty aggressive on catching those people. You might have zero problem, or you might get nabbed the first time you try and you'd be banned from Korea from that point forward.

Now, there are ways to teach privates that are legal, but from the sound of what you said, I don't believe you can do it as a student. At least that's my understanding, but then I wouldn't take my understanding as the last fact but would inquire further about the situation if I were you.

I could think of a lot better languages to learn for employment than Korean, but if you have a passion for it, well, then you gotta do what you gotta do.

[yeoja]

I can understand the situation you're in, kebab.

Korean's a rarity in the UK, but try to think of it this way:
If there was a high demand for it, surely others would try to learn and schools would offer it, right? It's due to lack of demand (And of course, lack of wars with Korea as well) that it's not offered much.


Then again, if you learn Korean well enough, Japanese would be easy enough to learn as well (nearly the same grammatical structure) so if you had a bit of basic Japanese as well, you'd be set for any company's 'head of east asia division' job


Here's a suggestion though - attend morning classes at whatever uni you're going to get lessons from, and look for those 4-5-hour-a-day jobs where you get a full 2.0-2.4M won a month from. They may or may not supply you with housing, but hey you're a student here to study so you shouldn't have too many other expenditures anyway.

As for Seoul living expenses.. Don't drink every weekend, learn to cook a bit and you should be able to survive on 500,000-700,000 won/month or less.

[yeoja]

[hwarangi]

D-2 is not for learning languages. You will need a d-4 for that - on which you cant work. You also need 3000 USD in the bank to get a D-4 + the letter of acceptance from the university/ lang inst. after you've paid.

[DaeSung]

Where to start... where to start...

No just kidding... well sort of.

I think that studying Korean in Seoul full time would be fun. However, I don't believe that its as valuable as you think it is. Well at least when you consider return on investment and lost income from studying. (Unless of course you know that you are guaranteed a job when you complete your studying).

Let me be very honest with you. Korean is not that valuable a language to learn. I don't mean that learning Korean is bad or that you shouldn't learn Korean, but if your goal is using a foriegn language to make money I just don't think Korean is the language you want to learn. (Frankly, I'm not sure what language you would learn to make alot of money but its not Korean).

There are a few things you should think about if you are serious about investing in Korean.

1) Koreans spend alot of money learning English (even if they aren't moving to your country, there are alot of Koreans that speak some level of English)
2) How much time are you willing to invest? (I have yet to meet a native English speaker that speaks very good Korean with anything less that 2 years of serious study. Sure others will disagree and this is just my opinion but you are looking at a 2 year minimum.)
3) Now that you've been here 2 years and speak somewhat conversational Korean you need to learn business Korean... (best way to do this is work for a Korean company)
4) Koreans that want to do business in your country spend $$$ to send Koreans to live in the UK and do business (most of which is done in English). I know you think there aren't that many Koreans in the UK, but as I've said before I work for one of the largest Korean companies and I've been to many of our offices throughout the EU including the UK and we have more than enough Koreans that speak English to go around. (However, I feel most of them are under qualified for there jobs and are only hired because they speak Korean and English.)
5) What is your opportunity cost? (How much income would you lose by taking 2 years off to learn Korean?) Is your degree from your home country still going to be up to date if you rest for 2 years?

Now to put this all in perspective, after my first year of University I came to Korea as a LDS missionary. I spent 2 years discussing beliefs with people (mostly in Korean). I felt I had learned alot of Korean after the two years and was interested in coming back after I finished up my degree (business). I did an internship with a Korean company at university. I got hired by that company because of my Korean language skills, and spent close to 2 years after that translating documents and training programs from Korean to English... And after fighting with the company long enough my 3rd year here they let me do some real work and not just translation. So after 5 years in Korea, 3 years working for a Korean company (all my daily communication done in Korean), what would be my suggestion to you?

Learn another language (or a trade).

I'm going back to school for an MBA this year, and while most people in the US think its "neat" or "cool" or something else that I speak Korean, they just don't really care about it. If you plan on working in Korea fine, if you plan on going back to your home country its just not worth the investment. You could spend this time doing vocational training and likely make alot more that you would from learning Korean.

I like Korea, I even personally think its "cool" that I speak Korean, but from an investment, value added approach Korean just isn't the language to learn.

I'm not sure which would be better, but maybe Chinese.

[samd]

Forget the money/business side of things and learn it because of the passion you've developed.

I found the same thing happened to me and while my circumstances don't allow me to study fulltime, I'd love to do it and I would encourage anyone with a passion for it, and who has the chance to do it, to go for it.

[Css]

There isnt much korean related work in the UK.
I have a friend whos degree included korean and he studied out here for a year. He found it nigh on impossible to find work which utilised his new language skills. The odd couple of pages of translation and the like but not much more.

He ended up doing something totally unrelated and doesnt use his korean at all now.

You will not be allowed to teach privates on your visa.

Perhaps you could save up a little longer and come study here and live off your savings for a while.

[DaeSung]

[Ukon]

[jkelly80]

You can probably get privates (if you say law be damned) and do OK. With housing, 1 million/ mo is probably doable. But why Korean? It seems like this economy will be in shrink/expand/plateau mode for a while. China is stil growing, even in the middle of this crunch.


My opinion:
I would highly recommend you learn Mandarin , maybe start on the HSK Test prep. 1.6 billion speakers (1st or 2nd language) v. 75 million for Korean. Sichuan province alone has 140 million people.

[dharma bum]

i did something similar to what you're thinking about doing (no privates but i did study korean for a year on basically the same monthly budget that you're talking about), and i would say that it's possible but that you should be careful not to overestimate the benefits of learning korean or underestimate the hardship that would be involved in living on such a small budget.

i have a lot to say and don't want to take the time to organize it into paragraphs, etc., however, so bullet form is going to have to do:

1) be aware that you are going to have to keep a certain amount of money in the bank to qualify for a D-4 visa (or have a korean sponsor you somehow). this is a continuous requirement and you'll have to provide documentation every 3 months.

2) choose your accommodations carefully. without key money and on your budget, you might have to stay in a hasukjip or goshiwon. i would suggest the former as goshiwons can be very cramped and you're not going to have money to go out a lot, meaning you'll be stuck in a very cramped place with poor ventilation. this can be bad for your health and for your morale. choose a place that's affordable, not tiny, and that has good ventilation, including windows.

3) living off of 1,000,000 won a month in seoul is possible but not pleasant. you're probably going to be looking at 400,000 a month in rent, leaving 600,000 for food, bills, transportation, nightlife, etc. the food part especially can take a toll on your body if you're eating only the cheapest food all the time. additionally, it's not much fun living in korea when you can't do anything except sit in your room and study - and you're forced to hang out in the dingier areas. also, emergencies happen.

4) it's not worth attending a full-time university program if you're not going to be able to dedicate the majority of your free time to studying (which will probably be the case if you're going to be working while going to school). the other students at most institutions are pretty much solely studying korean while their families (or scholarships) support them, which means that they have a leg up on you. the asian students may also progress much much more rapidly than you because their native language is more similar to korean (chinese and japanese students) or because koreans just expect them to speak korean, meaning that they get more speaking practice and are more fully immersed in korean society (students from all other asian countries). i speak from experience when saying that falling behind is not something that you want to do because, once you fall behind, it's nearly impossible to catch up, especially as you won't be getting as much from the classes as the students who are ahead of you and can understand everything.

5) choose a good school. i recommend snu for lower level korean-language learners (levels 1 and 2), but after that, switch over to sogang if you're looking to really be able to interact with koreans in real life (conversation instead of pointless grammar), which is what you will need to do to fully take advantage of your experience (true immersion, etc.) and be fluent in korean. related with this, don't forget to include tuition fees - 1.3 million for 3 months? - and book costs (both of which are constantly rising) in your calculations.

6) it's cool to know korean as it will open up a lot of doors socially, but you might also lose that protective bubble that some foreigners have and that makes korea a fun place to live for them (they can ignore their surroundings and feel like a rock star). additionally, i would say that the employment opportunities that will result from learning korean probably aren't all they're cracked up to be.

7) koreans might not be as receptive to you speaking korean as you'd expect, which can make you frustrated and make you question the point of your studies.

please feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions about my experience or if i can provide any information about anything else. my post may come across as mostly negative, but i just thought it was important for you to hear the possible downsides before pursuing your plan. learning korean can be a great move, however, if you can do it the right way.

good luck with whatever you choose to do.

[hugekebab]

Thanks for all the comments.

Seems like it's not going to happen in view of the above.

Cheers

[coralreefer_1]

Just out of curiosity. what is keeping you tied to Seoul? If you are going to study Korean full-time with no other work except for teaching privates, why stay in Seoul?

Almost every university in the country has Korean classes. While the well-known "SKY" universities in Seoul, and Sogang are the best, Korean classes at other schools outside of Seoul are not terrible.

Also the living expense outside of Seoul will be much more affordable compared to Seoul. Added to that, the fact that there are fewer foreigners in other cities such as Daejon, Daegu, etc, will increase your chances to be more "special" as a foreigner and more likely to find those private lessons. Of course it is illegal to do so, but unless you take a handful of cash in front of an immigration officer in a coffeeshop or make enemies so that they turn you in..you should be fine.(Note that I do not suggest you to participate in illegal activity)

Just as an example studying Korean in Daegu for a year is about 360만 for the year (10-week semester x 4) Apartments here for the basic 1-room place is about 20-23 만 a month..including water/internet/washing machine/full-sized fridge and A/C., but there are plenty of "gems" out there. I have a friend who lives in a huge 2-room apartment in a very wealthy area of Daegu (next to Ariana Brau) for only 18만

What others said about Koreans going to other countries, so there are plenty of Koreans who have a good command of English and Korean is very true. However I believe that a company that trades with Korea, MAY be more willing to hire one of their own nationality who can speak Korean, rather than hire a Korean who can speak English to handle those transaction with Korea.

Regardless of whether or not having Korean skills will help your career, you cannot really hurt yourself by learning any foreign language.

Good luck with whatever choice you make~

[toonchoon]