Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jingo besus]

I have an interview with a Hagwon in Seosan on Thursday morning, don't know the name of the school yet. Its a smaller town and more remote than i'd originally hoped for but as a rookie Englishman i'm prepared to have to make concessions on my first contract (at least in respect of the location, i'm still hoping to be paid and not be lied to anyway ).
Has anybody had (or known anybody who had) experiences either good or bad in this town? Anything i should know or look out for?

I've run a forum search and found a few comments buried in other threads but no real discussion about this town on here. The first page of search results goes back to 2008 so even if i went past there i still couldnt be sure that the information is current enough to be useful.
Wiki tells me that the town is well known for its oysters and garlic and a couple of pop stars grew up here, which has been a huge help.

I'd quite like to get an idea of the town before i have the interview so if anybody has any thoughts to share they'd be appreciated.

[nathanrutledge]

Physically, it's a nice area. It's near the Yellow Sea, so you can easily go to the sea, get lots of fresh seafood, it's going to be slower, quieter, a calm place. It does suck a bit - it's not on the train line, sitting about 20-25 miles off of one of the spur lines. Buses appear to be frequent and varied - lots of destinations, a couple different classes, etc.

Bottom line, if you're an independent guy who enjoys his solitude and the quieter things in life, you'll be fine. If you need a larger community, easy access to western things, etc, then this might not be the place for you. With careful planning, you can easily make it to Seoul or Daejeon pretty easily, but it won't be as simple as other cities.

http://seosanbus.co.kr/ (all in korean)

Good luck!

[Jingo besus]

Thanks for the response, to be honest that second paragraph does sum me up fairly reasonably. I'm in the late end of my 20's and already currently live by myself, I'm more of a city person but a year in the sticks wouldn't be a struggle for me at all.

My main issue is the transport thing tho, i dont want to waste my 10 days waiting for busses, i think that'd need some more questioning and research...

[nathanrutledge]

Remember, you can cross Korea in a matter of a few hours by train and about 5 or 6 hours by bus, so you won't be wasting time waiting for buses. They have multiple buses per day to multiple destinations. As long as you plan ahead and have a bus schedule ready, you'll be fine. Really, the general rule of thumb is that the further outside of the major cities you get, the more you have to study and plan your transportation. You can make it from Seosan into Seoul in about the same amount of time as it would take to go from Uijeonbu to Anyang by subway (two cities on opposite sides of Seoul). Really, as long as you make plans and schedule wisely, you can go places just as efficiently as if you lived on the train line/in a bigger town.

Really, if you're cool with a smaller place, go for it.

Another thing to consider is getting a scooter/motorcycle when you get here. You're close enough Cheonan/Asan that you could ride into town on one of those pretty easily.

I'd say, if the contract/interview are good, go for it.

[Jingo besus]

Yeah I forget how small Korea is in terms of transport. It definitely seems like somewhere i could settle into anyway/

The main thing I'll be looking at is the school and the contract as you say, the pay is on the higher side of the standard beginners wage and there's 8 natives at the school so it doesnt seem to bad...

Thanks for the insights.

[AsiaESLbound]

I lived in the city center of Seosan near the bus station and a traditional market which made it a convenient walking lifestyle. While they built a nice new small mall across from Pizza Hut and Holly's that would have housed an Emart, a grand opening never materialized, but they are talking a new Emart location is being built right now. There are a couple Western bars, but I didn't find the social scene jumping, because that starts very late due to most not being on a 9 to 5 schedule. They built a nice new lotus lake pagoda park with a giant TV at the entrance along with a hub of beautiful new elegant homes and businesses sprouting up nearby. It's looking really good in the new area, but the city center is old, yucky, gray, crowded, and very stinky. Seosan is only 1 hour and 30 minutes bus ride to Gangnam express bus terminal, but service ends like at 9 O'clock. Unlike other areas having 5 day markets, Seosan's old market is open nearly every day. Due to this being the flattest part of Korea, this part of Chungnam province is known for Dangjin rice and golf resorts. The beach is nearby and I know someone at Mallipo who speaks English and loves to go sea kayaking and fishing. Lots of good hiking abound such as at Palbongsan as well as a nice UFO looking tower on top of the 300 meter hill overlooking town. I didn't really meet or greet very many other foreigners so it was a very Korean experience all by myself. It really isn't a bad place and I wish I'd stayed another year, because now I know I actually had one of the best jobs in terms of conditions and pay though my apartment was grotty.

[Draz]

I lived there, did not like it. It probably would have been better for me if I'd worked in a hagwon. People always talk about how PS is the best, but everyone in that town who ever went out during the week worked in a hagwon and didn't even start to think about going out until 10pm which was when I had to get ready for bed. Then on the weekends everyone went into Seoul. I had basically no social life in town and ended up just making friends with people in Seoul and visiting on the weekends.

The transport is fine but I ended up using it a lot more than I expected. I consider myself a loner but by the end of each week I was dying to speak English with people who could actually speak English.