Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mervanm]

Can couples who are not engaged, but just boyfriend and girlfriend, work and live together?

[hapigokelli]

It depends on where you want to work. Are you looking at public schools? Hagwons? Uni jobs? Afterschool programs?

[ttompatz]

[prideofidaho]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[prideofidaho]

Really? That's a real shame. I'm not trying to push my personal beliefs about marriage on people, but that's a damn shame because marriage is not the only way to live a committed lifestyle.

[ttompatz]

It is actually written into the policy handbook and has been written into some contracts (public school) as well.

[bsrosenfeld]

I'm living proof. I moved out here with my girlfriend of 5 years, but no marriage certificate = separate housing while working for GEPIK. However, our recruiter was awesome and got us 2 apartments right next to each other in the same building. Aside from the slight extra cost it works out well for us.

[InDaGu]

EPIK offers a housing allowance in lieu of an apartment, or have they stopped doing that since they offered me a job in January?

[bsrosenfeld]

They do offer a housing allowance instead of housing; it's 400,000won per month.

[InDaGu]

Well, 400,000 x 2 can rent you a pretty good apartment, depending on where you live. Only problem might be coming up with the key money.

[ttompatz]

It may officially be in the contract but getting a school to supply it to a new teacher in place of the housing that they may already have secured is another matter.

If you were a renewing teacher then it may be more likely.

.

[bsrosenfeld]

Yeah, we've thought about that a lot. When we first came out here we had no idea what to expect. I wasn't sure if housing would be big enough for me let alone 2 of us plus a cat. After receiving 2 apartments next to each other in an officetel, we realized that we could definitely work with one. The extra 400,000 a month would be nice.

However, our schools are in communication with one another and after they delivered on their promise of places right next to each other it would be a little sketch if suddenly we cancelled one. So far we love our school and our apartments and I would hate to jeopardize that for a couple hundred bucks. So for now we have plenty of space and an extra bed for friends who need a place to crash. You live and you learn.

[toniyellow]

ttompatz is right, officially you can get it, unofficially you cannot, at least from my experience.

My boyfriend and I got jobs through jobs EPIK. At the interview we were asked about housing allowance as we had indicated on the application we wanted it for one of us. The EPIK guy told us straight out to change our minds or we would be passed over in favor of other candidates. We brought it up later with our recruiter, and at orientation but they make it very clear it is not really an option.

Our studio apartments are quite close - maybe 15 minutes walk. They are very different, one is an ok size with lots of natural light, the other is a dark tiny little box beside a perpetually noisy taekwondo hagwon. So getting supplied with two doubled our chances of at least one being decent.

We unplug the fridge and everything in the awful apartment and live in the other so at least save on utilities. And occasionally let people crash there. Its good if you like couchsurfing.org

[InDaGu]