Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

In this review post:

A good recruiter - tourist waiver to E2 - Seoul Immigration - How My Korea Experience is (Initially) Flipped

First I'll plug ESL Seoul - a recruiter who specializes in public schools (and maybe more). I know the guy I worked with (John Kim) handles only SMOE people, because I asked him a few times about other possibilities when things looked iffy with Seoul...

http://eslseoul.com/default/

Do NOT confuse this company with Seoul ESL - which I can guess is trying to ride the coattails of this other place.

I can't promise your experience with Mr. Kim will be the same as mine. Background will obviously make a difference: I just finished a MA and have taught 2 years in US secondary schools and have 4 years of Korean TESOL experience in hakwons and some grad school TA teaching experience in writing...

But, he was good for me for the most part. I was highly pissed off at him and his company when I was told at the last minute that SMOE had dropped my contract -- but -- I found out here that it was a SMOE thing and that they had dropped about 99 others in the same way.

ESL Seoul had been good enough with me besides that hiccup for me to come to Dave's here and find all the other posts where I had mentioned the recruiter in a negative way in regards to being dropped or delays in getting my Visa and deleted them -- leaving a note as to why I'd done the edit --- that I'd learned subsequently that it was not the recruiting agency's fault.

So -- if you want to work for SMOE, I'd recommend this place. (I learned near the end of my time with them that they have an office at the top (2nd floor down) of the Korea world trade center building with a fantastic view of Seoul)).

---- Next, coming on a tourist-waiver visa:

After SMOE bent me over (and dropped me), my wife and I decided we'd pay to fly me over since her mother was expecting me and my wife's father had recently died (his cancer was why we'd decided I'd return to Korea for a year).

I came on the tourist visa waiver between the US-SK. -- I bought a roundtrip ticked (using the maximum time in the waiver) - just in case they asked me any questions at the airport.

Immigration didn't ask, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have if I had not bought a roundtrip ticket... For whatever that is worth...

--- Next, immigration --- After I found a job and signed a contract - I was able to get the E2. -- I did not have to fly to Japan (or back home), because I had held E2 visas in the past (1996-2000).

Things might have run smoothly on this end in part because I signed with SMOE - a government agency...

Next -- Immigration in Seoul

I got the E2 and residence card in Seoul.

The office is located at Ankuk Station - the same station for Insadong. You can't miss it. Go out of exit 6 and take a u turn to the left instead of walking straight. (Straight gets you to Insadong a couple of blocks away).

The immigration office you need is on the 2nd floor of the building. Go in and take a number --- and wait.... You can schedule appointments online, but I didn't see many people who seemed to have taken that option. It was crowded the day I went.

I don't recommend going to the bathroom or leaving the room if your number is within the next 5 to 10 to be called: The women who work there are VERY quick on the trigger finger in moving to then next number if they don't see some sign the person they just buzzed is in the room and moving toward them...

I didn't speak to the immigration person at all. My wife was here visiting her mother for 3 weeks and went with me, and the person did all the talking with her.

It went smoothly enough...

They gave us a paper to come pick my passport and immigration card up a week from that day (a Monday). I came back that Friday to check since I didn't want to make another trip into Seoul from Wonju, and it was ready for me.

Lastly, my new position is apples and oranges from the one I started out of the gate in Korea in 1996 in an adult hakwon:

I put in about the same hours. I'm fatigued most days and worn out by Friday. And that is where the similarities end...

This time around, I spend half or more of my time out of class -- doing prep work, getting my classroom ready, working on projects, looking for material to use in class, checking papers, and so on...

In the adult hakwon in 1996-1998, it was a pure meat grinder: 40-50 in-class hours -- which meant no preparation to speak of.

Here, I have time to prepare and actually teach. Which is great --- because I had just finished a MA in a university near my home where I was teaching high school in the US before I came to Korea, and I figured when I made my decision to return here, the MA and experience would sit on a shelf for a year collecting dust while I collected pay checks...

...So, the tired and long hours now are good......when the adult hakwon was simply "a job."

Basically...I'm putting in the kind of hours I did teaching ESL/EFL in a high school in Georgia and doing much the same kind of work - though no writing since that is handled by another TESOLer and my focus is supposed to be conversation/speaking.

Keeping so busy is also good for me too since my wife is back in the US working and taking college classes until she comes back for a short visit in the spring...

....I'll have to see if I keep up this working pace once I settle into the new position and get used to the classes I'm teaching...

I actually need to if I want to start studying Korean again in my free time - something I was doing well while in the job hunt........

[andrewchon]

How about making a comment on different mindsets of US and Korean students?

[Darkray16]

Wow, you won't get to see your wife til spring? How do you guys manage it? Me and my wife have had long times apart for the same reasons as you but it was nearly unbearable for us... though we are still newly married.

Do you guys just do video chatting?

Sorry to sidetrack the thread.