Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tesseract]

I know the experience can vary, but I'm just curious - what are the first few days in Korea like? I expect someone to pick me up from the airport, but after that I'm not sure what will happen. Does the director/boss/other total stranger you just met help you to adjust in any way? Will I be dropped off at the door to my apartment with a "see ya at work" or will someone help me to exchange money at the airport and point me in the general direction of the nearest restaurant or grocery store for a meal? Just wondering how much help I will have when I get there.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Good luck.

The most likely scenario will go something like this:

You'll stagger off the plane, jet-lagged to the max, and get through customs and immigration bored, stressed, confused and hungry. You will be able to exchange money inside the terminal.

You'll come out the door to the main area to a sea of faces and lots of signs. Once you locate the sign with your name on it and meet whoever was sent to pick you up, they'll probably feed you some Korean food, leaving you to wonder where you can get a good hamburger or something else recognizable.

They'll drop you off at your apartment and point vaguely in the direction of your workplace and tell you to get some rest. You'll be too hyped up to relax and sleep, not to mention jet-lagged. Alternatively, you could be hauled down to work and told to start in immediately--all you have to do is 'talk'.

You'll go outside and panic because you are noticing so many signs in Korean and not English, walk around and explore, hoping not to get lost.

You'll ask someone at work how you get your internet connection. Someone is guaranteed to point vaguely at a phone and tell you to call. At that point, you will notice that phone books almost do not exist and are near useless when you can find one. You will also realize that you don't speak Korean and have just been told to call someone who most likely doesn't speak English and you need to explain something and make an appointment. Welcome to the land where some basic facts of life just don't compute with very many people.

If you are lucky, there will be someone at work who is friendly and will help you by showing you where the grocery store is and help you get started. But don't count on it. Some co-workers are quite bizarre.

A good idea is to ask your students for a lot of basic information...unless you are teaching little kids. Students are a gold mine and are often very willing to help.

[VanIslander]

[seoulsista]

My rule of thumb is not to rely on Hagwon admin. to do any sort of planning or thinking things through. So make sure you get all these details hammered out before you come here.

I got here on a Sunday night both years and started working Monday morning. I was picked up at the airport both times. I had some cereal and milk in the fridge. They must have been told "give them milk and cereal, no gochoojon."

Whoever brings you to your place probably won't know much about the area you live in. If there's no food in the fridge ask them to bring you to the grocery store really quick and pick up some stuff - that will be another bit of shock and dissapointment all onto it's own.

[Katchafire]

" See ya at work "

[tiger fancini]

My experience: Arrived after a 12hour journey from London, tired, hungover and jet-lagged. Breezed through immigration, got my luggage straight away (an all time first for me), changed some money on the way out and headed out of the doors. There I saw the crowds of people with name cards, scanned around and spotted "tiger fancini" in bright red letters. The guy who met me worked for my recruitment agency, and he put me on the airport limo bus, made a phone call, and vanished!

So I was alone on the bus, but felt ok as the bus was a hundred times more spacious and comfortable than the cr@ppy KLM airplane I'd just spent ten long hours on. After a 40minute drive, the bus stopped at a huge Lotte hotel (later I learnt that this was Jamsil) and the driver motioned me to get off. So I left the bus, and stood and waited. And Waited. And waited. 5 cigarettes later I was starting to panic a wee bit, and was feeling pretty rough (and looking it too), getting strange looks from the smartly dressed folks going into the hotel.

Then after about 30mins a dirty black car pulled up, and a man leant out shouting "fancini! fancini!" He introduced himself as the director of the recruitment agency, and bade me enter his car. He then drove me to my town, and told me we were going straight to school. My heart sank. I looked like shite, I stunk, I was disorientated, and really didn't feel able to face my new employees. I was also a little worried as I had heard of people being asked to teach, literally straight away.

Luckily that didn't happen. The recruiter took me to the school, took me up to the staff room, had a quick chat with the vice principal, then vanished too! My co-teacher then took over, and even though she was very kindly, and told me not to worry about anything, I just wanted to get to my apartment and sleep. She spent about 2 hours running around doing stuff, while I just sat in the staff room smiling weakly at everybody. We finally went to my apartment, they took me up to my room, made sure everything was working, then said see you tomorrow - 9am!

[milf]

I'm guessing you probably don't get around much or just bored?

Most likely than not... it's "See you at work, have a good rest". Won't you be dog-tired after a long flight? Are you thinking of sightseeing or shopping straight off the plane?

An airport private pickup to hotel/apartment would be the best.

For directions to work the next day or so and anything urgent, do ask your immediate peers or check out the many info in this forum.

Have fun.

[SPINOZA]

The first thing to expect is that Korea looks like a mixture of a holiday resort on Ibiza (or other common-denominator resort) with all the concrete tall buildings (hotels in Ibiza, apartments in Seoul) and somewhere frightfully ordinary. It doesn't look like somewhere in the Far East. It doesn't have that 'oriental' look to it at all. And why should it? Most of what we see standing in Korea has been standing for 30 or less years. Seoul won't blow you away with its beauty, but there are far worse sh1tholes in the world. Don't really know what else to predict for you.

I was very lucky. A co-teacher and a guy from admin at school picked me up at the airport (I was an hour late because Immigration took fooking ages). Quite honestly, I just wanted to go back home. I felt physically crappy for various reasons AND my entertainment system on my flight from Dubai to Korea didn't work - so I was bored sh1tless for an 8 hour flight! Emirates are *beep*. Korean Air next time. My flight from England-Dubai-Korea felt like 2 weeks. Anyway, chatted to co-teacher for the hour-long car journey (I remember thinking her English was crap, but I don't anymore - either her English has improved or I've just got used to her). Got to my apartment and was pleasantly surprised - opposite a giant Emart and not a bad place, not too small. I had 3 days to find my feet before my job orientation started, whereupon I met 100 other waegukins, so it was all okay. Not knowing any Korean whatsoever was hard at first because I hate not being able to perform the simplest task or ask the simplest question, simply.

[RACETRAITOR]

I arrived at 4am and found the airport very empty. My ride was late so I called one of my emergency contacts, who didn't speak English. I had to borrow the phone from a cab driver. Finally the guy arrived and drove me to Seocho, where I got a sandwich from a 7-11 and was booked into a cheap love motel. After that I had three days (plus a weekend) of "training."

[Paddycakes]

My "first time"...

Got off the plane with my K-wife, breezed through immigration, went to K-wife's brother's apartment in Incheon.

Got to the apartment, not 10 minutes later my little Korean nephew is in tears. Why? Because the other kids in the apartment are making fun of him because he's with a "foreigner". Welcome to Korea!

Woke up the next morning and stood on the balcony and went: "What the h*ll is that weird smell?"

Yes, it was the Korea smell, fortunately after a few days you'll get used to it and stop noticing it. Think it's the pollution.

[tesseract]

Wow...the responses so far have been somewhat less than reassuring...

[Corporal]

It'll most likely be fine. Don't let everyone scare you.

Got off the plane, boarded another one, got to my city about 10 pm on a Thursday. The FT manager and another employee was waiting there to meet me. They drove me to Walmart, where I waited in the car while they ran in and got some groceries (jam, bread, milk). They then drove me right to my apartment. The next day, I had a bit of orientation/training at the school, was brought back to my place early evening, and had the weekend to recover and explore my neighborhood.

[bobbyhanlon]

yeah its not exactly reassuring, but sadly it is true. the first few days can be extremely disorienting and strange. however, once you get past the first week or so, everything gets a million times better.
in my case i had a monster flight from london to incheon, then another one on to kimhae (busan), where i was met in a van by the hakwon owner and an american teacher who turned out to be a good guy (the owner, not quite so much..) . i arrived in a place named jangyu, the centre of which was full of neon lights- naturally i assumed that this was some awesome clubbing area, but later i realised that most of those signs were for dentists' offices, opticians and so on..
i was taken to a shared apartment and given a room that you couldn't swing a cat in. then, still groggy, i was dragged to kimbap nara (cheap korean restaurant) and given bibimbap, something i like today but hated back then.
signs of course were all in korean, which made me feel totally helpless- learn hangeul, the alphabet, as soon as you can by the way- and then finally i went home and slept for an eternity.
i woke up feeling lonely and wondering whether i had done the right thing or not by coming here. there wasn't much time for that though, as i had to get to the school, where my 'training' consisted of sitting in a few classes given by other teachers, and then going and doing it myself in the afternoon. if you're teaching little kids, nothing can prepare you for this experience. they are a nightmare!
so anyway.. you might have a bad first week or so. that's perfectly normal and understandable.. but once you get a bit of a clue, things will improve quickly.
in my case, i came to love living here, but hated the small town i was in. i upped sticks and came to seoul after a few months (managing to get out of my contract, thats another story..); i've been here two and a half years now, and i just got a job as an investment analyst so i suppose that means i'll be here a lot longer too. when i first arrived, i didn't know if i'd last the week; then, it became, 'i'll see the year out and then go back home'; and now, it's, 'i'll stay until i get fed up of it', which hasn't happened yet.

[SuperFly]

They wanted me to stay in quarrantine because I'm a black skinned dog! The bastards didn't know who they were dealing with!!

I told them I'd sic iteawon guy on them!!!

They let me out on da skreet after that!!!

Yeah!

[edith]

I got off the plane having slept the whole way, I was really groggy and stunned.
I got through immigration fine and when I got my bags there was a guy waiting past the double doors with my name on a board. he took my bags and led me to his car, we went straight to the Hagwon ( it was Sunday) my director greeted me and then advised the driver to take my bags to my apartment. My director then took me to a lovely Italian restaurant and then to Woori mart to stock up on water, milk, noodle pots, fruit and veg and an international phone card (he paid).
he then advised me to be ready for 1pm the next day. He collected me as agreed and I spent around 4 hours at the school introducting myself to the staff and children. That evening we went for a Korean meal with all the teachers.

I can't fault anything they did to welcome me....