Korean Job Discussion Forums

toby99 · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 2:44 pm Post subject: Drinking and EPIK application

Under the health section of the job app it asks something like "how many drinks do you consume in an average week?"

Is the only right answer '0'? 2? 4? I do drink occasionally, sometime heavily, but I don't want to put down anything that would risk the application.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

I'd write down 2 or 3 a week. It's what I did. If you write down 0, then I think it may seem odd and they will probably question you on this and ask why.

toby99 · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:15 pm Post subject:

No_hite_pls · Last edited by No_hite_pls on Wed May 22, 2013 5:49 pm; edited 2 times in total

toby99 · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:46 pm Post subject: Re: Drinking and EPIK application

toby99 · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:49 pm Post subject:

I agree it's a dumb and unprofessional question. Do they expect a heavy drinker to answer '60/week" I guess if someone is dumb enough to put that it's an easy way to weed out the morons. It also allows the gov to say they 'screen' for alcoholics, I suppose.

No_hite_pls · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 6:00 pm Post subject:

Hmm, I don't work for EPIK but my job application also asked about drinking. I wrote 0, and no one questioned or asked about it. I am married with kids though. Writing O has helped me at teachers dinners, no one pressures me to drink.

Porksta · Joined: 05 May 2011

I'd be concerned that all the other teachers have seen your application.

young_clinton · Joined: 09 Sep 2009

For one week the correct amount is zero. Anything else and it will be seen as continuously affecting your teaching the next day and the application goes in the basket.

Skippy · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Daejeon

I do understand why Korea asks this question. In Korea, they can usually get away from asking tricky or very personal questions.

I could understand as happy medium kind of questions.

Do you drink alcohol?
Have you ever had serious issues? (ie missed work, blackout, legal troubles, etc)

Yet like ttompatz said. Subtly is not a strong point her in Korea. So go 0 drinks.
One of skippy's rules of Korea - Anything you say and do will be held against you in court of Korean opinion.

Waygook says:
Yes, I lived with my girlfriend for a year.
Korean hears or translates if they want to as:
Yes, I am an immoral person. I am so unchristian like and actually a spawn of the devil. I want to have sex with every woman, man, and beast.

Waygook says:
Yea, I am a social drinker. I sometimes have a beer or two on a weekday. Yet, I mostly drink on the weekends.
Translation:
I am a wild and out of control alcoholic. Lock me up or lock up your daughters.

Waygook:
Sigh... I think the whole situation with Dokdo is a silly and overblown issue. I think it belongs to Korea, still.
Translation:
I HATE KOREANS! KOREANS ARE STUPID! DOKDO BELONGS TO JAPAN!

Sigh.... Rolling Eyes

young_clinton · Joined: 09 Sep 2009

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

mayorhaggar · Joined: 01 Jan 2013

Booze is a major social thing in Korea, they might not admit it but once you get here you'll see what I mean. I think if you put 1 per week you're saying you're open to going out once a month with your co-workers for beer/soju. If you say 0 then you give an excuse to EPIK to wonder if you'd fit in. They probably don't care too much but there's other stuff like vegetarianism and tattoos that they get sniffy about. They won't disqualify you automatically, but if there's a huge number of applicants and they need to find easy excuses to not hire people, they're probably going to start cutting applications from teetotaling vegetarians with tattoos. And for the interview you want to be talking about your teaching style and knowledge of Korea, not whether you drink or not.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired