Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jeweltone]

Not sure if this will add to the conversation, but what the hell:

I am also looking at returning to Korea...at age 38! I definitely have a baby face - most people assume I am a university student - but it can be a trial when you are actually teaching uni students! I actually loved teaching in Korea...most of the time

I have been barely subsisting and getting by in the USA since I returned in 2007. Why? Because I am a teacher at heart. I have been treated here worse than in any Korean hogwon...but legally. My best job paid $25.50/hr for 12 hours a week face time...in San Francisco, where a studio runs $1800/mo. in the ghetto. My last ESL teaching job? $19.00/hr. I live with my parents (retired) and a friend (another single female teacher) in "The Commune" (a small house) where we share expenses and household duties.

I have done my fair share of university teaching and institute teaching in the USA. I have made several very successful presentations at conferences, gotten TESOL certified by the University of California (already had an MA in English), and taught TESOL training in the same program for two years. Yet, somehow, I haven't been too successful in finding the ever-elusive full time job in EAP (English for Academic Purposes).

I do have some interviews lined up with American universities, although none of them will hire full time due to health care provisions - a whole other topic I'd rather not get into. I have also sent a few applications to Korea, China, and even one to Saudi Arabia.

So basically, I am at a crossroads. My handsome prince never came, though I waited patiently, took care of myself, and learned to cook from scratch and keep a house in the traditional way - the Prince is missing out on some fine home cookin'! But now I have to figure out how to plan the rest of my life. I did everything "right," but somehow ended up "wrong." Do I stay here as an office drudge somewhere - I am good at it, but I hate it - or do I take off and become the jolly globe-trotting spinster? I'm actually not that bitter, just sorta resigned...I feel the OP's pain.

[Died By Bear]

Jewel, I'm curious - have you looked at other areas of the country (US) to live and work in? Perhaps where the cost of living isn't so devastating? I'm not a teacher, so forgive my ignorance. NPR did a thing today on the national unemployment rate is at it's lowest point in seven years, so I'm wondering how other areas compare to SF.

A woman I worked with in Korea in 1996 came back and earned her certification and was working within a year (in NY). Just curious.

Finally, a few words of encouragement for Jewel:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

[Jeweltone]

Died by a Bear - Yes, I have done a search across the US. I am zeroing in on Texas right now - there seems to be a lot of ESL activity there.

Everyone is looking for teachers who have worked with Saudi Arabian students, because that is the group that is starting to catch up to the Asian student population in America's universities: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/11/saudi-students-english-class/1827465/

During the first round of interviews I did last year, I was rejected because I had never worked with Saudis before. Well, now I have (challenging group - but very fun when they behave and get used to having a female "boss"), so hopefully I could add that to my job-getting arsenal this round.

I have only ruled out the upper Midwest (except for major cities) because I lived there for twelve years, and it was HELL on our California family. I left a week after I graduated and never looked back. As one expat Midwesterner in Korea says, "The Midwest is a great place...to be FROM!"

I am very open to teaching in Korea again as well - as I said before, I actually enjoy teaching Korean university students, even the difficult ones.

[northway]

I'm not generally one to bang Atlanta's drum, but twenty minutes outside of the city you can get a two bedroom/two bath for less than $700/month, while still having the city nearby. Prices go up a bit in the city, but are still reasonable (very reasonable if you look in areas that are majority minority). Might be worth checking out.

[Stain]

[Rockhard]

As a 38 year old woman does it really matter what you do at this point? You are never going to have children. And it's not very hard to provide for one. It wouldn't make any sense to buy a house to just live alone in. You might as well just zero in on a group of family and friends you like to hang with, move in with one of them, get a part-time job and just chill until you're bored and then buy a vacation home in Florida.

Asia is a place where young people desperate for money go to salvage what future they may have. It doesn't make any sense for a single person with no prospects for a family to isolate themselves from everyone they love to live miserably in some concrete closet in Korea.

[hiamnotcool]

[Jeweltone]

Well, I guess I am not too surprised to be attacked here...

Rockhard, it is a family trait, fwiw, for the women in our family to marry late and have children late - "I'm 46, this is not menopause, and I'm pregnant?!" is quite normal for us in fact, going three generations back. The game is not up yet.

As for a house, never was really something I wanted. I packed my personal baggage neatly away, where it can't get at me, long ago. You are right that people with a personality crisis should NEVER go to Asia! I have seen many people crash and burn doing this - you can't escape yourself, no matter how hard you try!

So what do I mourn from my misspent youth? I fell for the lie that a modern woman has to go out and be a nut-cracker, have a successful career, and then, if she is lucky, get married and pop out a few kids. I let a few good ones, as well as lots and lots of bastards, get away. I was too focused on career, like everyone else, and looking for my "soulmate" (shudder shudder). Now older and wiser, I would like to settle down with someone who I know I could cohabit peacefully with and trust with my life.

The poster who alluded to this earlier is correct - it is a big lie that a woman must do everything. This has unmanned American men - they are not naturally homemakers, so what the heck are they supposed to do?

One big difference I noticed with some of my Saudi students and East Asian students is that generally, and I do mean generally, both groups are very manly, for lack of a better word. They know what they want, and they go out, and they get it. These are the men that will fight for you and protect you and support you if the world suddenly explodes. You will sacrifice quite a bit of freedom - um, hello, it's Saudi Arabia and East Asia - but it may be worth it for some women if security is what they desire. For every failure of an intercultural marriage, there is a success. But who writes the books? I guess the real question is, what are you willing to sacrifice for protection?

I have only ever met two American men who came close - one is stark-raving loony half the time, the other abandoned me (my "soulmate," if you will) because I was too stupid not to follow him when he asked me to as he left Korea. Bring out the violins...

I am being honest with you all, even though this is a public forum, because I have nothing to hide. Maybe my story will help someone else figure out if becoming a Returnee is worth it for them or not.

As for me, I have some interviews lined up for next week, so life isn't all bad. You take what life deals you, shoulder the burden, and carry on. Or you stay flat on your butt, staring at the sky, wishing you could reach the stars and wondering why the hell the horse threw you.

[meangradin]

OP, you seem like a decent person and i sincerely hope you find nothing but good fortune in your life.

[Died By Bear]

[Al Borland's Beard]

[Al Borland's Beard]

[Rockhard]

I don't know why all of you work, but I work for money. I need money to buy food, housing, clothes, and entertainment. There's more than one way to get the things I need without money and there's more than one way to get money.

For a man there's basically four ways: work, live at home, inheritance, crime.

For a woman there's six ways: the four above + get a man, get knocked up and live off government assistance.

Inheritance is something that's beyond your control so not an option for most. Living at home will crush any chance at love or family. Crime will probably land you jail. So work is really the only option for men.

A woman can work, or she can get a man, or she can turn to the government. Maybe she doesn't like her job or doesn't like her man, but that's not really the issue. The point is, it's an option for survival. It works. Whether you are unhappy doing it is really a different debate altogether. Some people don't like collecting garbage for a living. Some people don't like fishing for a living. This isn't about what you like. This is about, is this a viable option for me to get the things that I need. A lot women these days complain that they don't want to depend on a man, so they MUST work. Well, is being a wife really so much more terrible than being away from your family, living in a concrete box, in a country full of people who don't speak English and don't like you?

There's plenty of women out there who found happiness with a man. Those kind of women don't come to Korea. Is it really a surprise to anyone that the kind of women Korea attracts are uber-feminist types?

Jewelstone I'm sure you are a nice person, but if you are 38 and you think you still have time to have a healthy child, you are being delusional and need to wake up. There's already a 40% chance you are infertile and 1% chance your baby will have Down's Syndrome. Even if you beat the odds, as a man who doesn't like to gamble, I wouldn't gamble on you. I'd much rather go with a 20 year old who is 100% fertile with zero chance of having a child with Down's Syndrome. That is the cold, hard numbers of it. It's fine if you want to travel and work in Korea. thats' your choice, but don't be a child about it.

[Al Borland's Beard]

[Al Borland's Beard]