Korean Job Discussion Forums

[robinsoncrusoe]

With 2 weeks left to go, I'm getting all my things ready, but I'm afraid I might forget a few things. Would highly appreciate a critical eye to look over my to-do list before departure.

So far, the list of things I've already done:

-Clothes shopping: Lots of sharp-looking business-casual clothes
-Electronics shopping: international converter, surge adapter, electric razor, camera, iPhone (bring? yes/no? i have at&t)

Things I still need to do:

-Pick up allergy serum in order to continue allergy shots in Korea
-Get 6 more months worth of contact lenses (note to self: consider saving up for possible Lasik surgery in the near future...)
-Physical checkup with doctor
-Explain to girl I've been kind of seeing that we should probably break up, though we were never officially dating
-Clean up facebook page...possibly create second one that's only for my co-teachers
-Start drinking in order to build up tolerance to my college-years level.
-Buy a new laptop? I have a beatup 3 year old IBM thinkpad that still works fine. But I'm thinking of making the switch to macbook soon
-Practice speaking Korean
-Tell friends I will be leaving and that I will fight tooth and nail to get to their weddings even if I have to pay a body double to teach my classes for me...

[sadguy]

don't worry about contact lenses. there's plenty of them here.

[chrisinkorea2011]

let me by all means give some advice lol

buy a couple converters, its better to have more than not enough. your iPHONE might not work here, depending on your visa decides what kind of phone you get. (plenty of free ones and thats fine if you plan on staying only a short time)

glasses/contact lenses are relatively cheap here being that 80% of koreans wear glasses at some point (im one of the lucky ones! lol)
you would need a check up of course BUT chances are high that you will get a check up when you come here becuase its required.

for the girl use the famous "its not you, its me....as in its ME leaving the country and i dont do long distance" lol

your facebook should be cleaned up, but you know what, no matter who you meet or work with, do NOT let them know of your personal FB account AND refrain from writing anything even remotely negative on it (even if its hard) that kind of stuff even something small can become a HUGE matter (it has happened many times)

drinking here is something everyone does at first, alcohol is cheap, its relatively easy to get a hold of AND public intoxication is a natural event everywhere. but after a while it might get old to you (did to me) and the good brands can be COSTLY (ex. bottle of absolute vodka = 70 - 100$ depending on where you can, when you can buy it at emart for 30)

it would be smarter to buy a laptop where you are, things here like electronics are PRETTY marked up so i would oppose waiting til you got here for that idea lol (ex iPOD touch 4th gen 8GB 300,000 won)

as for getting to your friends weddings, that will be a toss up, it really depends on your boss and if they allow, sometimes they give the weirdest reasons, sometimes it clashes with classes, and sometimes they just dont care. it depends really lol.

also some really good advice would be that you learn the korean alphabet. its by far the easiest asian language to learn, but getting the accent and the notion that many different things can be from one phonetic can be a bit confusing, but hey if you are coming here might as well learn it right!

hope it helped! if you got other questions, just ask lol

[methdxman]

[West Coast Tatterdemalion]

Definitely buy the laptop back home. It's much more expensive in Korea. Don't buy contact lenses. You can go into any shop here and get them without a prescription. They are everywhere. Those are my two pieces of advice.

[northway]

I don't know if you need that big a set of balls, Korea's pretty tame.

Contact lenses are non-prescription here, don't bother bringing a ton. You can walk into your local grocery store and get them over the counter.

[methdxman]

[Triban]

Bring vitamins. I didn't get coldsores in America and then in Korea one sprung up, most likely due to the dryness. I went to buy Lysine...guess what? NO LYSINE IN KOREA.

-So Lysine and other vitamins is a good bet.
-Large Towels
-Neosporin (the wound creams they have here are hella expensive)
-Your American Doctor
-Converters/110>220v (easily found in Korea though)
-Your favorite whiskey
-Macaroni and Cheese/Spaghettio's
-OVEN CASSEROLE PANS WTF I CAN'T FIND ONE ANYWHERE

You can find lots of foodstuffs at costco

DON'T BRING:
-US Beef
-Japan
-Knowledge of spicy food outside of Korea
-

[Triban]

Oh wait here's one...

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=173081537&pos_shop_cd=EN&pos_class_cd=90000001&pos_class_kind=T&keyword_order=casserole+dish


70,000 WTF? I am sometimes shocked by the idiocy that goes on here....

OP if you bring me a casserole dish I can use for my oven I'll pay you.

[northway]

[shostahoosier]

If you have the time, I would consider trying to reset your internal clock now.

I was "lucky" enough to come to Korea during the swine flu hysteria so I had a week of quarantine to sit at home, rest, and get acquainted with the Korean timezone (as well as Korean late night tv...SCANDALOUS LOL).

I would have been a zombie if I had been asked to teach that first week.

Even going home for Christmas, it took me about a week to snap back to Korean time when I came back to the ROK, and thats with me never fully adjusting while at home.

[chrisinkorea2011]

some big balls is funny. but i can understand that, people here have a lessened version of Tact. and korean kids basically say anything that comes to mind, then again so do a lot of older ones too. be prepared for anything really and dont take things too hard. lol

in other words thick skin lol

[davai!]

go to a free consultation for LASIX in the US. you can get it done in Korea for cheap, but best to make sure you don't need the more advanced procedure.

[ZenMoto]

Bring a bunch of your favorite deodorant, soaps and any medicines you like personally... Advil or whatever... The little things like that can be nice to have and will be cheaper buying before you leave. I brought a small pharmacy with me... They have the stuff in Korea but sometimes it's hard to find a familiar product or the prices can get a bit exciting. Bath towel and bed sheets. Be prepared to clean the apartment up... I've seen some dirty dumps and some dissapointed faces on day one. Bring some extra snacks as well... The first day can be a circus and finding your place and getting settled in might be stressfull... Make sure you have an open mind a sense of adventure and you'll be fine. Be prepared for the worst and be surprised if it's better than you'd planned for.

[Taiwantroll]

You don't need to clean up your facebook page, just change the options. You can change the options so that no one, not even your friends can see your friends list, or posts from other users. Thats huge when you have several girls on your friends list who would get offended at seeing one another on there.