Korean Job Discussion Forums

[augustine]

[3DR]

[3DR]

Me personally, I'd take Korea over China any day of the week.

No blocked internet/fast internet, less pollution, cleaner, easier to get around, and kids don't take poops in the street. Also a lot easier to get started with basic Korean and help you get around a little bit easier.

But, it's my opinion.

[Julius]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Markets change and Korea's has been changing for the past few years. No sane person would debate this point.

China is emerging as the new wild east ESL destination and has been for the past few years. Again, perfectly normal cycle.

[rollo]

China can be great and a lot of fun. the country is amazing and so many interesting places and things to do. But the recruiters and many schools well

let me say that if you think you were screwed in korea, that was just some heavy petting. When you get wcrewed over in China you will undersstand deep penetration. it is the wild west for sure and that means lots of oppurtunity and also dangers. Be careful and do lots and lots of homework before attempting to take on Big Red.

[wonkavite62]

I understand what you are saying about the Korean job market. It is true that there are more unemployed Americans and British people than there should be. That is influencing the market. But the biggest change was, I think when Lee Myung Bak and his fascists took over and started introducing all sorts of silly bureaucratic rules and restrictions. They went really over the top in 2007. That's when things got more complex, not 3 years ago.
I know what you say about China. There are some reallly good jobs in that country, because I have done some of them, and they were fulfilling. BUT look at this. Before I came to China, my employer-a university- said I had see a doctor and get the Foreigner's physical before I left home. It's a very detailed procedure and in 2010 it cost me 380 pounds, and now its 500 pounds .
There was only one place that would do it. I then had to pay for my flight to China. The school paid a flight home and back to China at the end of the contract.
Recently I have been finding that recruiters who post university jobs say the job is gone, but wouldn't I like something less attractive instead? Sometimes they just ask questions. Korea has some pluses. Remember that some schools will pay for accommodation and my flight into Korea The good jobs are worth having

[World Traveler]

[World Traveler]

[earthquakez]

[World Traveler]

[Who's Your Daddy?]

[augustine]

I'd be in China right now if I didn't have a job where I teach max 3x50 minute classes three days a week, and 2x50 minute classes two days a week. 11-3:30 or 12-4 and I'm off.

This forum is dominated by homer freaks and is pretty toxic, whereas people on the China board are generally pretty helpful and friendly, or at least more capable of shooting shit straight. Same with Raoul's and other sites. I think there's something to say about that.

Reading various boards and talking to people who have worked in both places, my random, meaningless survey of this debate over the last couple years has resulted in China > Korea, overwhelmingly. Take that for what it's worth.

But, there are so many factors. If you are some desperate peon who signed a hagwon contract working 9-7 in Bucheon or some craphole more than 30 minutes away from Hongdae or Itaewon, then get a cush university job in Xiamen or somewhere, you're probably going to have a positive experience. Similarly, if you worked a nice PS job in Busan near the beach, then wind up in some language mill in some nasty mining town in northwestern China, you're probably going to have a negative experience. Even myself, if I went to China and got a good university job in a nice city, I'd likely still miss my current working hours and (internally) gripe about having to wake up early and live on campus. If you've had a positive or negative experience in either place, I want to know your background of experience in Asia. That is the most important factor to me.

I've managed my way in to having independent accommodation here, I could not have a better/easier job in central Seoul, I've met some great men and women, and have had a lot of fun... but I think a lot of that was due to luck and circumstance (as well as my nose). I've seen the worst of it though and I wouldn't even hesitate about moving to China if my job was somehow taken away from me.

[rollo]

They started asking for transcripts when it was exposed that recruiters were supplying degrees to applicants. Also many were just printing up their own bogus degree. The ESL pool in Korea was a fetid one in the late 90's and some of the predjudice against nets in Korea is because of some of the shall we say "colorful" characters who washed up on koreas shore.

China is gradually tightening up because some of the same stuff was happening there.

so any where you go HOOps to jump through.

China to me is just more interesting, and you can never really get a grasp of the whole country so there is always something else to see. You never really understand the place or the people and that is part of the charm

I lived in a small town had an apartment , air con, microwave, big screen t.v.. I could walk five minutes from my building and see men plowing with water buffalo. Women washing clothes in a creek. the 15th centurey was right there.

if you are an urban rat then Shanghai, Shenzen, Guanzhou will sake your thirst for nightlife and bright lights.

Thee is gold in them thar hills but first learn the lay of the land. I think it takes at least a year in country to understand and make the connections to land one of the better jobs.

[Skippy]