Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Weigookin74]

Also, I should add the Korean government has sent some Korean English teachers abroad to practice their English. They come back seeing us in our natural environment and seeming to be more understanding of us than in the past.

Is the Japanese government serious about English or merely want you to conform to the Japanese way? I never get that pressure here in public schools. I have to do my job and prepare interesting classes for the kids, but am not expected to behave like a Korean at all.

[Weigookin74]

[Brooks]

I think with public schools it depends on the school. I worked at a private junior high and the unstated feeling was that foreigners have to conform. I prefer working at high schools or universities.

There is racism here but Japanese like to pretend that they aren`t. I find some people are just intolerant of cultural differences.
My wife is from Osaka but at times in Kawasaki she gets treated like a foreigner if she speaks her Japanese dialect.
There can be the village mentality here that is downright feudal.

Maybe bigger cities like Nagoya and Tokyo have the more intolerant people, but I have heard that Kyushu can be bad and of foreigners getting stared at in Fukuoka.

When it isn`t rush hour, people often don`t sit next to me. This also happens to homeless people who sleep and smell or mentally ill people who talk to themselves.


You can save money here if you are frugal. Get an apartment that is farther from a train station and you can save money. It should be about 15 minutes away on foot.

[ippy]

The one key thing to understand is this:

Wages are CRASHING in japan.

5 years ago on a dispatch contract youd likely be on about 250-260,000. More than likely these would be targeting ex jets who had finished their three years but had to give up the golden goose.

Over the last few years and with more and more of the jet pie being sliced up for dispatch by an ever increasing number of dispatch organisations furiously bidding on contracts with prefectural BoEs, the deal has gotten significantly worse. More than likely youll be on a contract that is term based (pro rata), which cuts your yearly salary to 10 months pay. Youll also be losing wages due to the restrictions dispatch companies are willing to take to win contracts (its all getting passed on to you, the grunt).

Id put average salaries closer to the 230,000 mark and when you account for pro rata, its likely closer to 210,000/month.

But its getting even worse. Im seeing flurries at peak times for jobs on HOURLY wages. And not great hourly wages. Bear in mind of course that these contracts will be specifically pertaining to teaching hours and not in fact prep hours.

What else is fun? Hmmm... the massive widespread flouting of labor laws? Companies who set your working hours from 8 to 5 but pay you accoridng to 29.5 hours/week (teaching hours) and although youre on your break outside of those teaching hours, leaving the school between your work hours is grounds for dismissal. So thats nice, you are a part time employee and thus rescind all your rights to time off (no paid vacation - only national holidays) and certainly no sick pay. Youll also likely be paying into a company insurance policy and you certainly wont be paying into the pension system (though this is actually on the cards to be clamped down on - expect a 30,000yen deduction from your salary in teh near future).

Setting up is a bitch, though you can always go with a leopalace contract for a cheap noise box. Want to feel like you live in a dorm and listen to your neighbors snoring! come to leopalace.
Either way, youll need 2 months rent in advance, and a month admin fees as well as 30,000 or so in other fees (changing locks, cleaning etc).

Oh, and you get shived when you leave - i just paid 33k to leave a house as spotless and damageless as when i entered it (not to mention sodai gomi (bulk disposal) fees.

Japanese people... tough one this one. Friendly and courteous. Actually, maybe closer to the latter than the former. There is a sense, having lived here for several years that youre very much called upon as and when someones ego needs a massaging. Youre kind of treat a little like an object and asked to perform for an audience that you dont belong to. Theres always something going on under teh surface. Youre either the butt of someones joke, or to showcase their magnanimity in deigning to interact with you. No matter what, it never feels sincere. And i dont lay this criticism at korea. I actually found korean people to be super friendly and naturally curious and fun. Sure, there are always jerks, but the general feeling was that korean people just wanted to hang out. In japan it always feels just one step removed.

Still, the scenery in japan is breathtaking and the machinery of its (uniform) culture is a wonder to behold. Well done the nihonjinron backlash of the 70s.

Its also far more convenient and easier to live in. Likely youll be living somewhere really nice regardless of where it is, and though you might be further from civilisation, youll feel very much your part of a thriving cosmopolitan world when you step into any of the towns on the tokaido line. Its a nice place, the people are nice, but it does have that whole "welcome guest!" feel to it. I dunno, were someone to transplant the alps to korea and give it a bit more of a japanese efficiency to getting things done (the bureaucracy is horrific for gaijin who are more used to casual rule bending and help from the dude between you and your permit, but its marvellously efficient when its all going well), then all things considered, id probably still be living in korea. But alas japan just feels more contemporary and less hung up about bullshit. Youll be ignored and not bothered as much in your everyday life, and can just get on with stuff at yoru own rate. Its not a terrible life, the moneys getting worse, but it still ultimately feels easier and less exhausting to live in.

[Brooks]

Well when it comes to eikaiwa you are better off in Korea, since you get a free apartment.
It is rare to not pay rent here.

I think in the future it will get worse here. Korea looks like it is getting better.
In Japan taxes will go up. The sales tax will increase.
The birth rate is low and the percentage of elderly keeps going up.
Korea is following Japan on these treads, but just not as quickly.

[b-class rambler]

[happiness]

great posts Ippi. I was living in Hiroshima, well outside of Hiroshima, and I could start to feel a bit of the doom coming, so I left and came to Korea (since I had alot of connections here). Ive always been a big Japanophile (as my closet of Japanese denim, my Japanese made guitars, and my occaisional MIJ gf will show ...but I knew I couldnt sustain a good life there.). I came here and did decently for myself, and although I think if I go back, it will be like before, when I visit 2/3 a year or talk to my friends now and then, I know it isnt. I personally love Fukuoka, been about 20 times or so, but with the bad economy and such, it doesnt feel like before for sure. he y, I can go there on weekend if I need to, I guess. Not sure if Koreas the future, maybe its China, bigger market but who knows?

[mike1two]

Get this topic translated and sent to the Korean broadcasting companies pronto!

[Neil]

Done 4 years in Korea and 4 years in Japan. Saving money in Japan is possible but takes a lot more disipline, saving money in Korea can be done without even trying.

I think starting in both countries would suck equally, in Korea it would be some rubbish hagwon, in Japan some rubbish dispatch agency, after a while if one is socialable then networking will lead to great jobs that you don't see advertised on the web in both countries.

For someone not married to a local, Japan's visa laws are so much better than Korea's it's ridiculous.

Korea (well, Seoul) has a better and friendlier expat scene, which can be either good or bad depending what your goals are.

People are the same in both countries, some cool, some dicks. Japanese have better manners in daily life but leave them behind in the workplace.

Koreans are mad for English as we all know, whilst they have been apathetic in the past the Japanese have started to take English far more seriously in the past few years. (Unlike the Roh/LMB administrations who thought English was the best thing ever, most Japanese politicians couldn't give a monkeys about English....however recently big buisnesses have twisted their arms and forced them to increase the amount of English taught in schools.)

Students/Co-workers are pretty much the same in both countries, in Japan it can vary by region as the local boards of education have a great degree of independance from central government. In one town you might get a tightly run school with qualified and efficent co-workers in the next town you might get a place run like a madhouse.

Career progression in Korea is probably better, I have friends with BAs who can barely speak a word of Korean in good corperate and Uni positions. In Japan without an MA and JLPT 2 it would be difficult to rise to such a position.

Any ESL teacher in Japan who hates it would stuggle in Korea and vice versa. I'm lucky to have experienced both, I'm not in East Asia for the big bucks....when the time comes, that's what the Middle East is for.