Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Sethro]

The title says it all. I am leaving Saturday (I think!) and I am nervous as anything. Anyone else feeling the same or felt the same?

[Theo]

I departed for Korea a little over a year ago, extremely excited. I left Korea seven months later, "scared poopless." Worst experience of my life!

[kantoi09]

[AgentM]

You'll be alright! Good luck!

[iggyb]

There is nothing to be "scared" about, but just be prudent:

Build up enough money to buy a return ticket home at a moments notice as soon as you can. That will provide you with the necessary security blanket in case the worst case happens.

Beyond that, just take things as the come...

It is largely a crap-shoot what kind of situation you will land in. There is really nothing you can do to guarantee how things will go. So, just relax. Make sure you have enough money to do the midnight run if you decide you can't take it any more, and you will be ready to cover any contingency.

[okayden223]

Well said Iggy...I, like most ESL teachers in Korea, went over not knowing a soul. I adapted. If you're someone who can't make friends at home then don't expect it to be any easier in Korea. You have to put yourself out there to meet people, plain and simple. It definitely is a crapshoot, but keep in mind that there are 20,000+ foreigners teaching English (legally) in Korea and most of them have never posted once on this site. Mostly you'll read about people blowing off steam about a given situation, which is to be expected. That is exactly why you need to find a few buddies when you can. You'll see that one of the most enjoyable activities is just kicking back with some beers in front of a corner mart and venting about the things that just annoy the heck out of you. When you're not doing that you can enjoy the other things Korea has to offer, and there are several. So don't be worried...soon it will all be a memory.

[iggyb]

Good points, and I'll add ---- I started in Korea in the late 1990s.

When I arrived in 1996, the guy I was replacing had been THE ONLY foreign English teacher in that city of 250,000 people 2 years earlier.

There were also no PC Bangs (Internet cafe's on steroids).

There were not loads of blogs and websites by expats on teaching or living in Korea.

The National Labor Laws were not, as far as I could tell, printed in English and available for purchase.

There were also virtually no public school teaching positions. Hakwons were it (and universities if you had a MA or PhD).

The ESL industry in Korea might still be a cesspool in many ways, but a lot of things that have changed have made it easier to an expat to navigate through it all...

[bassexpander]

I'm sure you'll feel much better after your first trip to the barber shop.

[I-am-me]

Just remember the number 7. That is how many days you will be in quarantine for being a foreigner.

[son of coco]

Where are we quarantined just out of interest? Certainly gives you some time to think about starting rather than being thrown in 24 hours after arriving I suppose.

Given the local habit of coughing in people's faces and spitting everywhere it's probably a good move. Swine flu (or anything else for that matter) would spread like wildfire here.

[Kikomom]

If you get quarantined anywhere, it'll be to your flat. Hopefully your school will bring you food and you might be able to pick up wifi in your building if you bring a laptop. You'll even get to go out and explore your neighborhood some, they just don't want you around kids--especially the ones in their school.

That's UNLESS someone on the plane is actually sick when you go thru customs. Then they might cart you all off to an undisclosed location and put you up in real quarantine for a week or so like they did with the CDI group last spring.

[laoshihao]

Kimchi cures everything. Didn't y'all see the article that kimchi cures H1N1?

[johnny_larue]

If you're going to work of EPIK or the SMOE you'll probably go to an orientation where you'll meet people and you'll be just fine.

[The Gipkik]

[fraukoch]

And indeed you should be, as there's much of which to be frightened. It is very likely you will have to deal with cultural items you are ill-equipped to understand, employers who are far less than honest, co-workers who are incompetent in many respects, and pupils who would love nothing more than to provide an under-confident teacher with misery. It would only be natural for a 'teacher' with no experience of either teaching or Corean cultural norms to have such feelings.