Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Junior]

It took me a few days to figure out that all the skyscrapers were actually apartment blocks. They looked bizarre.

I couldn't speak a word or communicate anything. It felt like being an infant all over again.

I kept trying to find sheets and it felt wierd just sleeping on a yo.

my new director was nice but hardly spoke any english. The first few days were all just guesswork, i was on autopilot basically. An interesting but emotional time. Korea was the most alien-looking country I had experienced.

[NYC_Gal]

I got a call a few days before I was leaving. This was during the H1N1 scare, and my recruiter called to ask me if it would be okay to postpone my flight for a week or two. I'd booked my ticket a few months before, and I didn't feel like changing the ticket for a price, so said that it was non-refundable. He told the education office, and they agreed that I would come on the date agreed upon beforehand. I had to choose between staying in a posh hotel for a week under quarantine, or promising to stay in (or very close to) my apartment. I chose the latter.

After my flight, I arrived at Incheon Airport to find a driver with my name on a card. He said in broken English (that I was grateful for) that he'd take me to my hotel. Now, my recruiter had told me that I'd be taken to my apartment, so all kinds of red whistles went off. Single female in a country dominated by men kind of whistles. I used the driver's phone to call my recruiter, who told me that my apartment wasn't ready, and that I had to stay in the hotel for one night, and I'd have a car sent for me the next day to take me to meet my coteacher.

At the hotel, I got a call from the education office, and was told that my coteacher would call me the following day, and that I was free to order room service and enjoy the hotel. Unfortunately, the sauna was for men only. Ugh.

The next day, my coteacher called and told me that I'd be taken to my officetel. I kept thinking I had an office. When we met, my apartment was set up pretty well, though the bed was really a box spring on a cheap frame. The fridge was stocked up with bread, milk, and cheese, and there was a bag of rice and some cereal. My ricemaker, microwave, kitchenware, and furnishings were all new, and the place wasn't very dirty, being a relatively new officetel building (5 years or so). She took me out to look for an adapter for my computer, but, as we didn't find one, she said she'd get one for me in a day or so, as I was stuck at home anyway.

The next day, I decided to explore a little. I got lost. Very lost. I hadn't thought to ask her for my address written down. I know I know... Very stupid. I'd traveled a lot, but those places used a roman-esque alphabet! After an hour carrying a large rainbow umbrella, a new fan in its box, and a bag with apricots and jammy pants (did some shopping) I found a traditional market. I sat down in a huff (my coteacher wasn't answering her phone, even though she said she'd be available all that day) at an ajumma's food stand and pointed to a kimbap. She was sweet, and, after finally finding my way back home (I'd turned down the wrong block at the corner store where I'd bought the jammies) I went back to her food stall every day that week and practiced ordering.

Every time my coteacher came to see me that week (quarantine???) she saw something new at my place (a plant, a wall hanging) and asked where I got it. I'd say "Um... down the block" so she didn't know I was wandering around a lot.

[Globutron]

Pfft, getting lost is half the fun. Especially via subway. It's a pity I know how to work it now or I'd get on and go to... Dongmong ching chong woo or whatever and check it out.

[NYC_Gal]

It was lots of fun. I just wish I hadn't had all of that stuff to lug around whilst looking for home!

[T-J]

I remember there was a smoking section on the flight I took.

I landed at Kimpo.

There were only four subway lines in Seoul.

The exchange rate was about 750 for a U.S. dollar.

It took two hours for me to get from touch down to a bar in Itaewon.

The rest is kind of fuzzy...

[flakfizer]

I can't differentiate between that first flight to Korea and the next few later on, but I do remember that Detroit to Kimpo was a non-stop flight at that time. (Detroit to Incheon now stops at Narita on NWA). As it was a 14-hour flight, I decided to wear my glasses rather subject my eyes to wearing contacts that whole time. At the airport, my director was late. I guy saw that I was waiting and asked if he wanted me to call the director for me. At that time, most Koreans did not have hand phones, but rather pagers or "bbee bbees." My director had gone to the wrong terminal. When he came, he looked at my photo and then back at me several times to indicate that he thought I looked quite different from the photo (mostly the glasses, I think). He drove me to the school, and as it was November, he had the car heat cranked up. Of course, I had dressed warmly and was very uncomfortable until I cracked my window. We drove along the Han a while where he pointed out the Sungsu bridge which had collapsed less than a month prior and commented on what a national shame it was.
When we arrived, I was greeted by his wife and gave me a convenience store "hamburger" and a carton of milk. Then they took me to my apartment which I shared with 3 others, a 40-something Kyopo who had served in the US military, and a married couple from Michigan in their 50s. The Kyopo guy was a bit annoying, but not bad and was actually rarely there. The married couple had the master bedroom with its own bathroom, so it wasn't too crowded. The place was probably 45-pyung or so and on the 12th floor of an apartment building in garak-dong.
As stated earlier, there were only 4 subway lines then and we needed to take a bus to get to the nearest station (Jamsil). The old married couple were very frugal and did not care to explore or get out at all. In fact, though they had been in Korea 2 months before I arrived, they had not yet used the subway! My first ride was theirs too.
Back then, most hagwons required you to work a few hours on Saturdays too. Nearly all the exploring I did was in Seoul or using the Royal Asiatic Society tours on Sundays.
I was lucky that my first boss was a very nice man. If I had had my second Korean boss first, I might never have spent more than a few months in Korea.
Objectively speaking, the conditions of my first contract were pretty bad (Saturday work and we only got a week off in Summer). Still, I look back on that year with quite a bit of nostalgia.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Ah yes the ole 6-day teaching week.

That was the norm back then!

[ThingsComeAround]

I remember my godmother, mom and granny talking me to the airport on that balmy NY summer morning, they went and got me a watch, some money pouch, and like 5 pairs of jeans. Granny lost it at the airport and started to cry. I passed through customs, and walked to the gate which wasn't too far. There was a group of Trinidadian soccer players going to Korea for a friendly match, so it was entertaining (and comforting) to hear them talk- I was growing in fear that I'd miss the accent of the West Indies for a looong time! We got in the plane, I got a seat next to some LG rep and his friend, they gasped when they saw my Apple could run Eclipse software.

I must have fallen asleep 3 or 4 times during that flight, the LG rep gave me his card and told me to call him for a beer or whatever (never heard from him again- don't trust Korean single serving friends). When I landed in Incheon, my recruiter had warned me not to tell Customs I was there to teach English- should have been a red flag but I didn't care. Eager to get to Asia, I told him I was there for a wedding and visit Japan next- this wasn't a lie. Two of my friends were getting married in Korea and one was happening in the following month. I get stamped, get my bags, get out and there is no one to meet me. For an hour. Not wanting to get upset, after all who would fly someone all the way out to another country spending a grand and then forget you at the airport? (Now I know this does happen but then I was far more optimistic) I got on the internet, called my recruiter and she contacted the cabbie who was at the other end of the terminal. Went and met him, loaded up the van and off to the EV.

At the school, I met my co-workers, one of them was half asleep. I thought he was a D!K (later he turned out to be a really cool dude) Met the head teacher, and they were going out bowling. Asked me if I wanted to join, and I guessed it would be best. Stashed my stuff in my room, the bed had been broken and filthy (love stains) but I couldn't see that because it was too dark. We get to bowling and the other teacher who had arrived the day before had broken his nail so he couldn't wear bowling shoes- but surprisingly he did really well. Later we went to McD's and ate, then slowly made our way back only to realize our bus stopped running so we took a cab back to the school.

[djsmnc]

I arrived at Incheon in the rainy July of 2002 and met a somewhat awkward, but very stereotypical (light blue short sleeve button shirt with black rimmed glasses) early-30's Korean man named "Tom". His English was quite ambiguous and unclear. We arrived at an airport limo stop that required a climb up a long flight of stairs in pouring rain. We then sat in a coffee shop in a department store, which I thought was immaculate at the time, and where I got plenty of looks while sitting there soaking wet with a bunch of luggage.

After that, we had to carry eveything out to his brother's Matiz and zipped over (or more like did crazy shyte that I thought was going to make the car spin out into a building) to the hagwon. At the time I had been told by my recruiter that being a native teacher required "assisting a Korean teacher by providing individual support to students on classwork in a public school," but soon found out it was "You are do level test today and teaching the classes Monday" at this dingy little late-Communism looking corner of a building with two classrooms and an office. I sat through an extremely exhaustive 3 hour meeting all in Korean as the only foreigner, with the occasional gesture in my direction and reserved mouth-covering laugh when they had apparently mentioned something about me. Thankfully, Tom could explain "This is schedule. You are teach this times. You doing level test. Don't leave a school except get the lunch"

After all this, I was whisked to my new goshiwon-like accomodations that I would live in for the next year. The next morning I awoke at 8am sharp thinking there was a military drill or NK attack going on until I noticed the truck that was blaring a man's voice out of its speaker had vegetables on it.

It was quite a year, full of love, laughs, fun, and friendship, but couldn't have been what it was without the crummy job and dictatorial director who didn't speak any English and that I would pull fast ones on and have ongoing battles with even long after I left! My perspectives have changed greatly since then, but that first year in Korea was golden and full of ups and downs.