Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Fat Sam]

Not only your first emails, but how naive you were when you arrived. Here is one I sent to my parents and sister on my second day here. I've added a few comments to show (hopefully) that I'm no longer that stupid.

>Subject: Chopsticks are really difficult
>Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 03:51:29 +0000
>
Hello

I arrived on time and got the shuttle bus to Suwon with no problems. Mr Kwon met me at the stop and showed me round the place but I was a bit tired after the flight so spent a few hours sleeping in the afternoon. As a result, I got up this morning at eight o'clock and have absolutely no jet lag despite being ten hours different (the jet lag would kick in -see later).

It looks as though I have been quite lucky with this particular job compared to others that I have read about or seen advertised (I took the first job I was offered and it worked out better than it could have, but there were still many problems). Mr Kwon is very nice (probably the most two-faced evil man I have ever met)(I'm going to church with him on Sunday, something which every new recruit has to go through -the service is three hours long) (how can someone so religious have absolutely no morals?) and I'm told that he doesn't put any pressure on the teachers giving us a free reign in the classroom which will make it easier to make the lessons interesting in my own style (ie there was no syllabus).

The accommodation is brand new -they only started building it in February and I have a flat on the fourth (top) floor. My room is only eight-by-eight and the whole flat is small but in a crowded city this is supposedly the norm (What is not normal in putting two people in a one person apartment -me in the box bedroom and my house-mate in the living room. Honestly, eight by eight. I could only fit my single bed in the room one way). There is, however, a massive roof which will be ideal for barbacues, sunbathing and parties. We are having a housewarming tomorrow night so that should be pretty good (the roof was free for three weeks, then they decided to build two studios on it -while I was trying to sleep during the split of my shifts. The noise was deafening -right above my head, for about two months, nine 'til five).

My flatmate is an Aussie called Sean who took me out for a drink last night and is helping me settle in. The other teachers are all okay as well and have been telling me about what it is like working here. They all say that Mr Kwon is a good employer and pays them on time each month (this was actually true, although my 1.9 got wittled down to 1.7 after 'deductions' and I know for a fact he never paid medical).

The institute is literally across the road. All of the others live at least twenty minutes walk away in older places and are justifiably quite jealous (that's right, they lived in similar sized places but had c0ckroaches and had to walk twenty minutes to work).

I sat in on a lesson this morning and will be at three more this afternoon. The students were much more shy than in Mexico but are very friendly. My hours are split with some in the morning and others in the evening although I won't know my schedule or start teaching until Monday (as the months progressed, I got given more and more strenuous schedules. In the end I worked a triple shift, starting at seven am, travelling an hour to teach one class at lunchtime, and then having five classes in the evening -finishing at ten. I did this for my final six months). Whatever they are, it will probably mean finishing at 10pm as most of the classes are between 5 and 10 but there is no Saturday work so I will look into the football scene when I have settled in later this month (never played in Korea thus am unfit).

I think that they will arrange the Japan flight for later this month so that will mean an overnight trip (that's right, I was illegal for six weeks). This weekend I will probably look to buy a CD player for my room and an alarm clock as I forgot to bring one (I didn't buy an alarm clock and was actually late for my first class, at six pm on the Monday when the jet-lag finally kicked in). I also left my toothbrush and the Korean book (you might be able to post this with my drivers license) but other than that I did quite well with my last minute packing.

I'm going to go back to my room now and learn the Korean alphabet which is supposed to be quite easy (two hours of study and I could miraculously read everything the next day).

See you later

Love Fat Sam

ps.One of the teachers, from New Zealand, did 25 hours overtime last month and gives private lessons for thirty quid an hour in between these to some of his students and friends of theirs who have heard about him. This is technically illegal but he said that most people do it and there is no problem if you're careful. As a result, he earn't two grand after tax last month so if my lessons go down well then we'll see if I can pick up a few private ones on top (that's 25 hours on top of 132 in the contract. I did pick up a few of his privates when he left but ended up passing them on as I was completely knackered as it was with my fifteen hour teaching day).

[Ya-ta Boy]

How you kept it to one page I'll never understand. I sent home an 18 pager to about 20 people. Or was that 20 pages to 18 people? Never mind.

Good post.

[Cedar]

I'm not sure I knew what email was then, and I didn't have an email address (and use it for all of like two people plus potential employers) until about 11 months after coming to Korea.

[cruisemonkey]

I've come to the conclusion that 90-93% of expat English teachers in K-land are like num knuts (OP).

[Yu_Bum_suk]

This thread inspired me to go over some of my first emails home. I was reading over them, thinking, why am I writing home about such stupid, pointless stuff? Then I scrolled down and remembered that I was just responding to my mom's stupid, pointless questions. And they wonder why I never call.

[joe_doufu]

I've told as few people as possible that I'm here. This is just a stepping stone back to Asia. I'll be gone soon and I don't ever want to remember it.

But, nice e-mail.

[hack]

[EFLtrainer]

[canuckistan]

I never forget the first 24 hours of arriving anywhere new.

[The evil penguin]

Dear Mum and Dad,

I broke up with Meagan last week. ummmmm.... I've quit my post-grad uni and I'm now in south korea (you know, near Japan)... Flew in last night.
I have a job teaching english. Should be good. Anyway, I'll be here for 12 months. Hope all is well.