Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

Can I get some input on what you guys have in the way of bathroom facilities and the sorts of neighborhoods you live in?

I will be in the area in July and am thinking about looking for an ESL job, I tried it once before and the bathroom I saw after the flight over and then the 2 hours waiting in the airport for my recruiter to pick me up... well needless to say a cold ceramic room with a hose coming out of the wall and a bucket to wash up in wasn't exactly comfy... is this what you guys have? It did have a western style toilet but no shower or tub... seemed weird and compounded my culture shock... perhaps I should have just went to the store and bought some soju... but the neighborhood they billed as a "suburb" in the advertisement looked like a slum worse than the village I had to walk through everyday for a year on the way to the motor pool when I was stationed in Uijonbu.

I am hoping being able to see the school and apartment will help this time.

Any advice on good places to work? What to wear, etc.?


cheerio(s)

[peppermint]

Most apartments here have a throne style toilet, a sink and a shower head attached to the wall, so the entire room is your shower stall, It's not that tough to adjust to really.

As for neighborhoods looking slummy- that's pretty much Korea for you, With a few minor differences, most areas look the same as every where else.

[kangnam mafioso]

it seems like if you lived for a year in ujeonbu you'd be over the culture-shock by now -- even if you were stationed on base. there must have been times when you ventured out to mingle with the commoners.

[mindmetoo]

I miss a bathtub but Korean bathrooms are a snap to clean. Haul your stuff out. Soap it up. Hose it down. The end.

[chaz47]

kinda cold though isn't it, a shower curtain around that showerhead would work miracles for staying warm... also how long do you shower? how much is your hot water bill monthly? how long do you have to wait until you have enough hot water to shower? the place i had seemed to take a good while to heat up and then the hot water was gone lickity split...

on a bit of a side trip, what do you guys eat? how do you survive? maybe if i had had some help settling my experience wouldn't have gone so bad but i really freaked out... i lived on bananas and noodles and milk... i couldn't sleep more than a few hours... etc... i am a wussy i know

[chaz47]

uijonbu?

i had a KATUSA roommate too, he took me and my other roommates on some hikes and showed us some interesting sites... like we hiked up the Buddhist temple behind post on Buddha's birthday and had lunch with the monks... i was pretty shocked by all the cell phones and soda machines i saw but other than that it was a great experience...

ya, i did go out and mix in the village of post, but then i had people that i could talk to, when i tried and failed as an ESLer i was the only English speaker within a couple hours of travel... and the area had a lot of uh... barber poles and agashis hanging out with older ajoshis...

i hope that if i try it again this summer that i find a place that i like beforehand, that i am not plopped into a bad situation without an inkling...

[kangnam mafioso]

chaz, obviously you need to be in central seoul. ujeonbu is bunch of hillbilly rice farmers! why is it so hard to find a job in central seoul? still, you're gonna have to get used to the showers and, yes, occassionally eat korean food. after a month or two of eating LG25 crap food and snacks, you'll start to venture out to the restaurants and learn how to ask for the various korean foods that you like. they also have grocery stores/markets where you can actually buy stuff and take it home and cook it. come on, you wus! get a bottle of soju, a bag of dried squid and chill out with the rest of us!

[peppermint]

[chaz47]

ya... it was a definite wus moment in my life, all my wanderlust and bravado dropped out of me... it was humiliating and shameful... are those synonyms?

is Berlitz in central Seoul? I want to work with adults, kids are cute but I can't sing and the "poopfinger" posts are scarier than split-shifts... i think i want a corporate style job and some pseudo-professionalism, is that impossible without a Master's degree?

[Swiss James]

this is the guy who did a midnight run one day after arriving in the country.

Still thinking about coming back?

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[chaz47]

actually it was more of a wake up at 5am and freak out then catch a cab to the airport kinda run, as opposed to a midnight run...

btw i am flattered to be remembered, the anniversary of that sad event just passed two weeks or so ago... kudos on the attention span

this time i will see the place before hand and etc.

ya i suck i know

[Swiss James]

good luck on making it past that magic "24 hour mark" this time

[chaz47]

thanks SJ.... i think

what happened to your Aphex avatar?

[Qinella]