Korean Job Discussion Forums

[verok]

So if my visa doesn't get lost in transit (knock on wood), I should be arriving in Seoul the 30th of this month. I'm horribly nervous for various reasons, even though this isn't the first time I've gone into an American Girl store by myself (you know, like rodeo?).

I've been abroad before, but back then, a whole ten months ago, I was a naive girl with a hefty amount of cash in her bank account. This time around, I'm more cynical and hella broke. Therefore, I'm hoping you guys can give me some info on what to expect once I arrive and all that jazz.

Questions:

1- With how much money could I live frugally, yet comfortably my first month? I'm not expecting to leave with more than $400, so... on a scale from 1-10, how horrible is that?

2- Youtube and the blogospehere are saturated with people talking about how awesome Seoul/SK is: the food! Internet outdoors! Hongdae! so many expats! you can learn how to read hangul in 2 hours! I'm specially skeptical of the latter since it's been a day now, but what negative things should I expect when I arrive?

3- I'll be working at a Poly school. Is it horrible? There seems to be a lot of mixed feelings about it...

4- Is it easy to befriend people? I know this sounds like the type of question a prepubescent girl would ask, but it's a genuine worry. Will I be welcomed by a group of people who'll greet me with: "hey, welcome to SK. You'll hate it here. Also, I already have a set group of friends, so good luck on your own, beetch."

5- Should I expect to move into my apartment from day one when I arrive, or is that a pipe dream?

6- Anything else I should ask?


Thanks!

[Fox]

It is not unheard of for jobs to vanish out from under people's feet here. Coming with only $400 is a risk; it's enough to get by until your first payday assuming nothing goes wrong and you live frugally, but what if that payday never comes? What if you need to fly yourself back home? At the very least having either a line of credit sufficient to buy a return ticket or a relative or friend willing to do so for you if things went sour would be wise.

[radcon]

Are you from northern California, OP?

[verok]

[jleblanc]

[radcon]

[ttompatz]

[jleblanc]

[verok]

[jleblanc]

[pmwhittier]

$400 is going to be tough. When I first arrived, I had $400. Then I went for my health check. $300 left. Then I had to eat. Then I realized that my first payday was going to be 6 weeks after I arrived.

Luckily, I had a really cool lead teacher and he helped me out. He told me that it wasn't unusual for newbies to be broke, and I could get an advance on my first salary. I ended up getting a $300 advance just to be on the safe side. Didn't use all of it, but it was nice to know I had it if I needed it. Hopefully your lead teacher / school will be understanding as well.

As for meeting people, I ask this: How much do you like drinking? Seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to meeting friends. Either you get drinking buddies or church buddies. (This has been my experience, individual results may vary)

Good luck to you, OP. And welcome to the Korea.

[kingplaya4]

$400 is nothing. Think of it this way: imagine if you suddenly had nothing in your apartment in the US/Canada/UK and you had to live for the next month on 400 dollars, could you do it? The prices here are roughly equivalent with back home, with groceries being slightly more expensive and transportation taxi/subway/bus being slightly less expensive.

I would borrow another $1000 from family if you can or bring a credit card. The first month is actually the most expensive. Your apartment may need immediate cleaning and you will have to buy all mops, brooms, bleach yourself, and you may also need bedding, alarm clock etc. If you're one of these people coming here just to save up every penny you can give yourself a $400 challenge month after you've settled in. I doubt it's doable, but even if you doubled it you'd have good savings that month.

Oh September/October are big months for the first cold to go around, so unless you're the type of person who literally never gets sick, I'd definitely bring nyquil or whatever your favorite type of cold medicine is.

[PureLuck]

I arrived with $500 CAD and have been here about a week. Like you I have my parents as a backup plan but I'd rather not bother them.

Actually, I've found it pretty easy to live on a subsistence diet. Cup ramen is tasty and dirt cheap, cereal-with-milk is nutritious though a touch more expensive. And bananas are cheap like they are everywhere, packed with vitamins and fiber which will make your digestive system forgive you for the cup ramen.

So far I've lived on bananas, ramen, tuna, canned peaches, milk and cereal. My two grocery trips were 30k won and 10k won respectively. So at this rate I'll be able to live on about 40k worth of groceries per week (about $40 USD). I'm not even going hungry, but depending how Western-sized your appetite is you may not be able to do this like I have.

Keep in mind that one of your first mandatory expenses is going to be your health exam, which will cut about $80 out of your budget (in my case that's what i was). You'll also want to get living necessities for your apartment eventually but if you're anything like me, you can live a pretty minimal lifestyle until you can afford that.

Again, I've only been at it a week but I'm already optimistic. Are you living close to work? If so you can walk there and that'll save you transit costs.

Based on the advice I see thrown around here (well-intentioned though I'm sure it is), people tend not to realize how easy it is to subsist frugally on a temporary basis. Hey, you may even lose some weight.

Let me know how things go for you. I'm going to try and document my successes if I DO pull this off so I can safely contradict people who say it's impossible. Having a backup plan is always nice, though, so if you can fall back on your parents then that helps.

[le-paul]

You really dont have to eat shit everyday (cup noodles etc) to live on moderate/low budget - in this or any country.

Do an internet search and find cheap, healthy meals that you can cook at home. I can do my regular, weekly food shopping on around 20/30,000 for 3, good meals a day. I vary where I buy certain things to save money. Veggies for eg, are much cheaper from the street sellers. If you cook for a week and refrigerate for example (as I do), it costs feck all.

Buy a bag of flour and have pancakes with bananas for breakfast or whatever...

Avoid buying take out coffees everyday - buy some in the supermarket and make it yourself at home and work.

Use the bus/subway - or even better, walk if its not too far.

Find activities that you can do for free or cheap - there are plenty of them.

Its not that hard (and most of it is common sense) until you can get yourself on your feet.

[PureLuck]