Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cadburys]

Been looking for a job in Busan for the last 4/5 weeks... thro agencies.
have all my docs notarized, apostilled etc.
Are they really keener to hire americans/canadians?
I consider my accent to be very clear! I can see how they might have experienced problems with the different accents like scottish, northern ireland, welsh etc.
I think the irish accent is more similar to american than the english.
anyways!
i'm a teacher, tefl qualified etc.
should i forget busan and try elsewhere??
tho i really wanna be on the coast somewhere, but obv not a rural area!!
any advice fellow tefl heads??

[andrewchon]

I'd say stick to your guns. There's bound to be cancellations and no shows etc. Other option is Ulsan, but that city is a petro-chemical forest of stacks. The Irish thing is that Eirenne just doesn't appear on the news enough in Korea to be considered a nation. Koreans know two: USA, Great Britain, sometimes Canada and Australia. I mean gulchies speak proper English than scousers and Geordies but Koreans don't know that. Tell them the song "You raised me up, so I can climb a mountain." comes from Ireland. Koreans love that song. Accent isn't the main problem either, it's the choice of words. When you say 'pub', americans say 'bar', in Korea it's 'hof'. Koreans prefer American vernacular because Hollywood is ... just so everywhere.

[Kikomom]

I don't know about RBI, but you might contact them and see how you feel about them?
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=38569

Use Google Earth to see what part of the city the jobs they have are located in.

[gartonator]

just my 2 cents, if you're from Ireland and you get a phone interview, I'd try to act like Kevin Costner in the movie Robin Hood (ie, speak with an American accent with 110% effort, like no other accent has ever existed in the English lexicon)

I was friends with 3 Irish guys while teaching in Daejeon. I loved these guys, I swear they made the most boring waygook bar fun in 5 minutes flat, but I'll be damned if I could understand half of what they said, and they loved to joke about how they taught English but no one could understand them! Ha!

different job market back then I guess

seriously, you should be able to find one in Busan, keep at it! I've heard end of August is when a lot of people 'back out/don't show' etc, so hopefully the opportunities will blossom soon for us buzzies, ya know? We'll soon be buckled in a boozer, eh bucko? Wouldn't that be bleeding deadly?

[Totti]

Put your resume on www.pusanweb.com/ and you should get a few offers from the schools directly. I'm from England and was getting offers from Busan, but decided to go to Ilsan instead.