Korean Job Discussion Forums

PRagic · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

Just posted 17 job ads with links on the 'University positions without Uni experience' thread. Yeah, I was bored. Some only require a BA so the OP might have a shot. Never know...

expatacular · Joined: 08 Nov 2014

Thank you to everyone that replied to my question - I appreciate that very much. I do have a B-Ed. - English major, a couple of years of domestic teaching experience w/ letter of ref., current public school license, and have, by way of vanity or sense of self preservation, managed to keep myself presentable. I will probably give Seoul another shot.

Been There, Taught That · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 1:33 am Post subject:

Scorpion · Joined: 15 Apr 2012

basic69isokay · Joined: 28 Sep 2014 Location: korea

Been There, Taught That · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 4:12 pm Post subject:

2011. Contract finished in October. I had my wife with me then, and she was pregnant and, let's just say, not as, um, svelte as a young Korean female. And not willing to consider a C-section. She couldn't come to the conclusion that a Korean doctor knew how to handle a pregnant woman with a little weight to her. She visited two 'women's clinics' in the Bundang area, and from the interactions, we decided it was best to have her under the care of a US hospital.

But for that, I might have taken that job in the Suwon area, which school name I forget now, except that it was a science-oriented university on a hill, and I didn't have all the key money the places around there were asking, because the university wasn't helping out with finding a place for NETs. Anyway, if it sounded like it, it wasn't like someone came up and said he was from a university and did I want a job. I met the guy and got into a pleasant conversation for a long time before I even knew he was from a university. So, not 'Hi, strange foreign-teacher-looking type. I want to steal you away from your typical-English-teaching hagwon job, like, tomorrow!' He gave me his card and I called him back later to arrange the interview. He simply offered it because he thought I would actually pass the interview. I was in a gang of 4 at the interview, and we all passed acceptably.

But I had to come back for our second daughter to be born. Doctor-wise, I think it was the right decision, but we want to go back after my MA, because I was comfortable in Korea, few bills, and, now, insurance woes aren't any worse nor more socialized than they are here in the US..

On a side note, one do-it-now offer that did appear out of the blue one evening as the sun was setting and we were strolling through the Mi-geum station area was a from a photography studio owner. My 3-year-old could have supported us all with a modeling job if we'd stayed. But, strangely, he never got back to us after I outlined our terms in a letter to him. Apparently, he wanted to wing it his own way.

Been There, Taught That · Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:38 am Post subject:

A couple of improvements I'd like to make to what I said:

1. It turns out I was 37 when I first set foot in Korea in 2001, my wife pointed out, not 33. I started out at Oe Dae in Guri City, got illegally farmed out to another one in Ilsan before I knew anything about visa transfer laws, which were not followed, and ended up in Daejeon at BRYS institute. That made me 44 in 2008 when I went back, to one-horse Dongducheon near Camp Casey and the DMZ, amazingly small but nevertheless filled with Noraebangs and Budongsans (real estate offices).

In 2008, being 44 didn't keep me from trying again, this time taking my wife and then-3-year-old daughter, as I said, back to the US in 2011. I've never considered China, Saudi Arabia--these days, the strictest Muslim country is no place for dyed-in-the-wool Bible believer to be--Russia, nor anywhere else, really, because Korea has always been good to me.

I've had a lot of the negative experiences as well, as in Guri City, but the people, the language-learning, the teaching--my specialty--has always been worth the trouble, and I've always been willing to travel to other countries; however, as an ESL teacher strictly, I think I have to find a 'home country', so to speak. And my daughter absolutely loved it there, being an outgoing and engaging 3-year-old subway attraction, meaning she charmed a lot of Koreans old and young out of little trinkets while riding the subways. She's now 8 and looking forward to returning.

hubbahubba · Joined: 31 May 2008

please...don't do anything to ruin the "naysayers" and their absolutel inability to get a job because they're lazy pieces of dung...lol..."Korea is a horrible, racist, manipulative society"...not that every other society isn't like that. Don't ruin their vibe---the "woe is me..it was so much better 4 years ago..yada'" they might implode from the stress