Korean Job Discussion Forums

[robinsoncrusoe]

Hi,

New ESL teacher here shipping off to Busan in about a month to teach.

What would be the biggest piece of advice or warning or maybe something you wish someone told you before coming?

[ttompatz]

[Lady_Firefly]

honestly? i wish i'd known about the dongchim!

most everything i've dealt with i read about before, but i wish i'd known how much i was going to get molested by children. seriously, lots and lots of inapproriate touching. but i work with very young kids, so older ones might not be so bad.

[chrisinkorea2011]

1st. learn to read korean. its by far the easiest asian language to learn to read having only 24 characters.

2nd - like said above, come with an open mind. this isnt wherever you are coming from. Korea is much different, probably in part for so many years being an introverted country.

3rd - expect stares whether they are good or bad. lol (im mixed korean and still get them, because they cant figure out what race i am)

4th - be calm, patient, and willing to learn things

5th - have fun and DONT get discourage. a LOT of foreigners come here and do what is called a midnight/weekend run because they think they can handle a new environment and GREATLY underestimate the changes/way of thinking

6th - whatever your job is try to stick through it, and push forward.

finally just be you, and enjoy your time here. Busan is beautiful, right beside the water, and the aquarium is nice, as well as other sights to see. you will need to stay a long time to take it all in lol

C~

[akcrono]

The food threw me off a bit. Try to eat some authentic Korean food before coming here.

[myenglishisno]

[omgitsmax]

learn as much as you can about korean culture before you come

I agree with the learning to read. It has saved my butt on a few occasions

a lot of problems i have heard about and read about tend to stem from being unaware/insensitive of korean culture. You are in their country, try to respect their way of life as best as you can.

other than that, be polite + make a good first impression. Try to keep an open mind about things and you should be fine![/quote]

[pnaplsoda]

[FDNY]

EVERYONE should read and memorize this. Seoul is EVERYTHING in Korea.

Remember "Cohiba's Rule" (Now better than ever!):

Think twice before you live outside of Seoul. "In Seoul" and
"outside of Seoul" are like two different countries. Seoul
is an interesting place with variety and venues for most
tastes. Outside of Seoul you will find a homogeneous Korean
culture. I don't mean this in a bad way, but you will never
find things like: French, Greek, Indian or any other ethnic
foods. Markets that sell sherry, pate, pastrami, ricotta cheese.
Specialty shops that sell Cuban cigars, European pies, cold
cuts or rye breads. Just to name a few things. Also clubs such
as photography, drama, public speaking, sailing are 99% in
the capital city. If you want to experiment with a very Korean
culture, which unfortunately means "closed", then choose the
countryside. If you want to make money and have the lifestyle
choices similar to a western country, then there is no other
choice than Seoul.

The FFF RULE: FFF=Fun For Foreigners.

If FFF in Seoul = 100, then FFF decreases at
1/distance. So 2km from Seoul FFF=1/2(100)=50;
10km from Seoul FFF=1/10(100)=10. This rule is
a rule for nightlife, food and foreign products only.
Nature etc. is on a different scale altogether.

This means you will be wasting a lot of time commuting
to Seoul. This is especially a drag if you have been
boozing on a Friday night and there are no buses or
trains.

[nathanrutledge]

That the hat fell off. Oops, sorry!

[sojusucks]

There's a ton of corruption and life is based upon connections so grease the wheels at work. Usually small gifts during the holidays work.

There's a lot of racism and lack of accurate knowledge about foreign cultures, particularly in the country side. It isn't so bad in the larger cities but one must be careful to avoid the anti-American protests in Seoul. Note that if you are white, you are assumed to be American even if you are Canadian or South African.

Banks tend to take a little in addition to the exchange and wire transfer fees. This extra missing amount doesn't show up on the Korean side but it shows up at my home bank where the top management assured me that they did not charge a fee for receiving funds, while no one at the Korean bank was willing to look into it. However, this small additional fee didn't magically disappear if I used select banks in South Korea. Definitely suspicious and suggests the fee disappears on the South Korean side.

Most Korean dishes are delicious.

There are a lot of people interested in starting flame wars on Dave's.

There is a ton of scuba diving here. There are also some beautiful places to dive!

[tiger fancini]

[rumdiary]

If you have a good sense of humor you won't really need much. If you can find humor in getting poked in the butt by a 5 year old, having a taxi driver drop you off in Sincheon instead of Sinchon, or having a pack of 12 year old follow you around shouting "Hello" then you may actually have a great time and not become one of the typical Dave's complainers.

[sadguy]

hey robinsoncrusoe, i know you'll be moving here soon and you're trying to be well prepared. the thing is, just be flexible, keep an open mind, try to be receptive, and don't get into the mindset of "korean ____ sucks, american ___ is better." some things are just different, culturally. accept that.

and also, don't take too much of dave's esl advice too seriously. i remember before i came 4 years ago, i registered on this board and saw a lot of negative crap floating around so i just stopped reading all together and just jumped into the deep end so to speak. i formed my own opinions about korea instead of what jaded and bitter posters think.

[chrisinkorea2011]