Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jambon]

I'm looking to teach English in Korea in the summer or fall of next year and have been doing much research over the past 6 or so months.

I'd like to get a guidebook/tourist-type book and was hoping someone could recommend one. I'm not certain as to where exactly in Korea I'd like to teach, so a book that details all of the major cities would be good. Other features I'm looking for are maps, history, a very basic alphabet/language guide, restaurants, markets, prices, etc., etc. I've been looking at some books and the Lonely Planet guide seems pretty good.

Does anyone have any other recommendations?

[Zed]

The Moon Guide has more detailed information on historical aspects and on smaller locations.

[Swiss James]

everyone slags it off but the Lonely Planet has all your basic needs covered, including a bit of a language guide.

I'd recommend getting a book on modern Korean culture as well, something like [url]"Ugly Americans, Ugly Koreans"[/url] or "Culture Shock!"- I read a couple of these things and they made daily life much more enjoyable.

I'm not exactly unbiased here but you could also do a lot worse than read Shawn's books on his time in Korea
http://www.lulu.com/korea
They'll probably give you as realistic an idea about day-to-day life as a waegookin as anything, possibly more so.

[trevorcollins]

LP is okay, but due to Korea not being such a big tourist destination isn't updated very often. hence a lot of info is out of date.
My biggest gripe about the LP for Korea is that they appear to have completely ignored mention of love hotels, rather only directing people to hostels or tourist hotels, ignoring the best and most prevalent form of accomodation in korea.

[just because]

[skookum]

There is an edition of Moon's Korea that came out about the same time as the current Lonely Planet. I would've bought it had I known but had gotten the LP book already. I've seen it in the stores and, yes, it does have a lot more information.

[Free World]

jambon:
You live in Mississauga? If I was you I would stop by the Canadian College of Educators (on Dundas just west of Hurontario).
I took a Tesol course there and they had a shit load of Korea Travel Guides that the Korea National Tourism Organization sent to them. I'm sure they could hook you up with one plus one of the guys that works there has worked in Korea for a while so you could ask him some specific questions.

[just because]