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globalnomad
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
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 Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 4:16 am Post subject: I'm working and My girlfriend wants to come and stay |
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Hi all,
Need some feedback on this situation.
I'm about to go to Pohang....accepted a Job...
My girlfriend (2 is from South America and doesn't speak English all that well, has never been out of her home country, has never been on a plane for that matter.
ANYWAY....
I was wondering if there were some of you out there in this situation....Two foreigners in S.Korea, one of you working and the other one not.....How does the non-working (female) partner cope/deal/ with living in S.Korea....any experiences...advice....
ALSO.....she will be on a tourist visa...how long can she stay...and is it just a matter of leaving the country for a day and coming back in to get a new tourist visa issued? How many times can you do this? |
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sheba
Joined: 16 May 2005
Location: Here there and everywhere!
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 4:44 am Post subject: |
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Welcome to Pohang! (Im teaching in heunghae just out of the city centre)
A tourist visa lasts 3 months. Ive heard of a foreign teacher who is working illegally and goes to Japan every 3 months to renew their visa... might be expensive for someone without a job though! Not sure if there is a limit to the amount of times with this, and no idea about the partner situation sorry! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 5:01 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Two foreigners in S.Korea, one of you working and the other one not.....How does the non-working (female) partner cope/deal/ with living in S.Korea....any experiences...advice....
ALSO.....she will be on a tourist visa...how long can she stay...and is it just a matter of leaving the country for a day and coming back in to get a new tourist visa issued? How many times can you do this? |
1. The length of her tourist visa will depend on her native country. Contact the immigration office and ask about her particular country.
2. Yes, she will have to leave the country periodically to renew her tourist visa. As far as I know, there is no limit to how many times she can do that.
3. Coping/Dealing This one is the real problem. Isolation is possibly the biggest problem foreigners have with living in Korea. Your g/f will be even more isolated than most because she won't be working where she will have interactions with other people. On top of that, she doesn't speak much English. That will be even more isolating. When you add culture shock to the mix, there is very likely to be a big problem. What's going to happen when the two of you have a spat?
Tell her to bring lots of hobby type things to do to keep her entertained in her hours alone everyday.
Have you thought about her teaching Spanish/Portugese? |
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ChimpumCallao
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: your mom
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| Where in South America??????? |
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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 7:55 am Post subject: |
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| IMO - bad idea. |
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turtlepi1
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| Hanson wrote: |
| IMO - bad idea. |
Only the OP knows that for sure, but my gut feeling is bad, bad idea.
Good luck if you go down that road...
Some questions you might want to think about.
Why did you accept a job without scoping this out first?
Are you planning on marrying the girl?
Have you thought about it as a vacation for her with the intention she can leave anytime or is the intention for her to stay the entire time?
As pointed out is teaching Spanish a possibility?
Pohang, maybe a plus because it is not as big as Busan/Seoul.
Are you loners or do you hang out with a lot of friends?
Does she have very close/big family?
How long have you known her?
Etc, etc...(I'm not expecting you to answer these questions here, but from them you can get my drift I hope...) |
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globalnomad
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 11:04 am Post subject: |
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Hi all,
Well I was hoping to hear from the girlfriend of someone that was actually in this position to get some first hand feedback.
A lot of you mention the option of teaching Spanish......Do you mean legal jobs....or...illegal privates....I don't want to do anything illegal, but I would be willing to look for a legal opportunity for her, though she doesn't have any experience I could probably prep her for it. BUT I though that E-2, the relatively easy ones to get, were only issued to the 5/6 big English speaking countries?
She is Venezuelan.....AND she doesn't have a Univ. degree, she's currently in her 3erd year at the Univ. IF there were a chance for a Legal Spanish Job what kind of Doc. is she going to need to have (to take with her) to apply for a visa over there (S.Korea). |
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just because
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964
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| Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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I have known 3 couples in the same situation...
Boyfriend worked and the girlfriend came out and just lived with him, one girl was from Canada, another Thailand and another Japan........
It went Ok, as all couples had been going out for quite a while and the japanese girl got a special visa exemption for some reason(don't know)..
Anyhow, the biggest problem was just the girl was so bored after a while and had nothing to do as she wasn't working but not really at home and has no friends(except for the Canadian girl who just worked illegally and made more than her boyfriend on the E2)....anyway, the boredom caused the Thai and japanese couple to get a bit angry after a while and both went back home..
Also, because the girls had no other friends they would be in each others face all the time and there wasn't much private time outside work for the guy as the girl would be quite annoyed about it...it caused problems
Just get her to come and visit for a while. |
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margaret
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:23 am Post subject: |
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My boyfriend is here with me. I'm teaching and he's not. So far so good. He likes to travel and use the internet and we do stuff together everyday and on the weekend. I'd say if she's the type of person who can find stuff to do by herself it could work out fine.
Margaret |
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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| I heard it's virutally impossible for a Thai to come here, unless she has money back home... is that true? |
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turtlepi1
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
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| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| margaret wrote: |
My boyfriend is here with me. I'm teaching and he's not. So far so good. He likes to travel and use the internet and we do stuff together everyday and on the weekend. I'd say if she's the type of person who can find stuff to do by herself it could work out fine.
Margaret |
hehe...so let me get this straight...
Just so I understand.
You are at work all day and your boyfriend is running around all day in the land of MILF that either is interested in the "white meat" because he is not an "AJOSHI!!!" or they are interested in "english" lessons.
(Looking back to Just Because's AVATAR...)
And you think this is the same situation as the OP?
Sorry Margaret...just having a bit of fun with you...
As long as you are happy at your job I'm sure it will remain ok...it becomes a problem when you don't like going to work and you look over at him and he gets to kick back.  |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:23 am Post subject: |
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| globalnomad wrote: |
| She is Venezuelan.....AND she doesn't have a Univ. degree, she's currently in her 3erd year at the Univ. IF there were a chance for a Legal Spanish Job what kind of Doc. is she going to need to have (to take with her) to apply for a visa over there (S.Korea). |
Get her to enroll in a Korean university. She would have a student visa, and it would give her something to do while you are working. |
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waterbaby
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie
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| Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:31 am Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| Get her to enroll in a Korean university. She would have a student visa, and it would give her something to do while you are working. |
Trouble is though, not much choice around Pohang to do that - do they even have a Korean language program there at one of their uni's? there's POSCO and I'm not sure what else... some Christian University in the boonies?
I lived in Pohang for a year and hated the city (so small & dirty!) - though it was very easy to meet people because it was so small! Did meet some grand people during my time there (2001-2002) many of whom I'm still in touch with today.
I'm looking forward to revisiting Pohang later this year to see how much it's changed. Probably same old, same old no doubt! |
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mike123_ca
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Location: wandering between Chonan and Asan
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| Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 1:20 am Post subject: |
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Hi
I live about 20 to 30 km south ( hw 31 ) of Pohang. My wife is Thai, so she speaks Thai and English. She is here on a f-3 visa, but she is not allowed to work. I will admit she is very bored living here in the boonies. Maybe it might be different if we were not the only Wagukins in town. If you can get her to work in your hagwon, that might make her life more easier. If she gets homesick, South America is not very close, it could get expensive. If you want to send her home for a couple of weeks or months. |
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globalnomad
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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Hi all,
Anymore opinions???? |
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