Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

A trip down memory lane..

I was dropped off at a yeogwon in the middle of the night in the back of the most active back alley I've ever seen in my life up to that point. I ventured out and was overwhelmed by the variety of food and people in this tiny little back alley I found myself in.

Then in the early early morning hours - like 6am, while in the shower, I had intense knocking on my door. I got out of the shower completely naked to find out what was going on, only to have an ajumma barge in carrying some pizza-looking object to place on a table while I was standing their stark naked surprised she'd barge with such emergence just for that.

Little did I know that shortly after that I'd be teaching a triple split schedule from 7am to 9pm for the rest of that initial 24 hour period with all my bags thrown out across the teacher lounge floor - interjected once by the director that if I took a certain bus, I'd easily be able to find my apartment at the end of the work day.

[SuperFly]

I thank my lucky starz when I think back and realize just how good I had it compared to 98% of the other people I met in Korea.

[ilovebdt]

[hogwonguy1979]

[eamo]

I arrived at Kimpo in October 2000. Incheon wasn't open then. My first impression after my director took me out to his car was that it was pretty hot!!! In October!!! Boy did I melt that following Summer.

I didn't have to teach the day I arrived. Phew! I think hagwons/schools who ask teachers to work on the day they flew in are the real bottom of the barrel.

My first night pretty much set the standard for my whole Korean experience. There was a welcome dinner for me after everybody finished work and we went for galbi and soju!!! I remember thinking cooking the meat at the table was cool and being blown away by the fact that the side-dishes were free and unlimited.

The Korean staff were really nice to me and the foreigners were all cool too. In fact, Gang ah jee was the whitey who first welcomed me there.

ECC Seongnam.

The recruiter described Seongnam as a surburb of Seoul. Which I guess it is. But where I come from suburbs are quiet, sleepy places with leafy streets and a complete lack of bustle.
When the director said, here it is, this is Seongnam, I was totally shocked. It was like Times Square on a Saturday night!! Millions of neon signs and music blasting from every shopfront. Crowded sidewalks.

[WorldWide]

First day on the job for me, 3 minutes after arriving in the school for the first time:

Owner: "Welcome... go teach!"

Me: "Whaaa?"

Owner: "Class waiting, teach, teach!"

Me: "I haven't got any material or..."

Owner: "Teach now! Go!"

[red dog]

Well, I guess my experience was a lot better than some of yours -- but still, it wasn't exactly the ideal introduction to a new country and continent. For my first few days in Seoul I had to sleep on the floor of an apartment shared by two other teachers. The woman who picked me up was a bit strange, but not nearly as bad as the puky, whiney foreigners I worked with, who just wouldn't stop complaining about everything -- the country, the kids, me taking up space in their living room ... ugh ...

I also didn't care for the neighbourhood (Mok-dong) at first, although I kind of miss it now. I did find the people very friendly, but not being able to talk to anyone or read anything was very frustrating. Anyway, I ended up staying in Korea for five years and had a pretty good life there, but I often wonder if I could have found a way to go without ever getting into the EFL racket/business. I doubt hagwon teaching gives foreigners an accurate picture of Korean culture or society -- more likely it skews the experience toward the negative side. When I had a chance to meet some foreigners who were over there studying the language, the difference was unbelievable -- they had really positive attitudes and were all having a great time.

Full-time study wasn't really an option for me, but I made a decent living for a while and met some cool people, so I'm glad I stayed past the first year. If I had to do it over again, though, I just don't know if I'd do the hagwon thing.

[Qinella]

I was met at the airport by my two Korean co-teachers, who the boss made go all the way from Daejeon to Incheon to pick me up. We took a 3-hour bus ride back to Daejeon, which was spectacularly agonizing seeing as I'd just finished 24 hours of flying and just wanted to stand.

Got to the hagwon (around 8pm), where we met the boss, who took us out to a seafood restaurant. Then he took me to my apartment and left. I walked around town, realized I was in a tiny ass little village and certainly not what I had been told by the recruiter, bought some soju thinking it was water, went home and took a big sip, almost threw up right there.

The next day, a Saturday, my boss took me out shopping for furniture and stuff, and taught me some basic Korean. Then he cut me loose and I walked around allll day, and all day Sunday.

That was about it. No horror story. Went pretty smoothly.

The second time around was much, much different.

[helly]

First 24 minutes:

Picked up by the hagwon minibus, piled in the luggage, pulled out of airport road into traffic and immediately hit by another car.

[mithridates]

I was on my way to Japan in 1999 and stopped off in Seoul for a night, because those were the tickets we had arranged with the company. Since I didn't know anything about Seoul at the time but it was May 26 and quite warm, when I went for a walk around the hotel just up the hill from Itaewon (didn't know where Itaewon was at the time) I found a bridge that led over the road and into a small park that went up a hill and into a residential area. The feeling I got from the place at that time is kind of the same vague feeling I get now when I think of Vietnam (that I've never been to) - warm and humid, and foreign, and full of bamboo. I actually found a little bamboo fountain in that park that I was in so my first impression certainly had nothing to do with hagwons or E-2 visas.
My first time here on purpose was in August 2001 when I first started studying the language in Japan, and I had a ferry over from Fukuoka to Busan where I took the Mugunghwa-ho into Seoul. I remember soldiers on the train drinking banana milk, and the ajosshi next to me noticed me with a Korean newspaper, put his face right down into the newspaper, looked at me and said 한국말 잘하시네요! - which I didn't. Then we talked all the way up but I only caught about a fifth, but it was fun because he would say words like 사고 and I'd think sagosagosagosago...sa is ji, go is ko, jiko! Ah, boom, sago! 네 알았어요. 아...일본어로 지코! 한자. er...

One reason I like the place might be that the first four times I came here were just to hang out and/or study.

[sojukettle]

I first arrived in Korea for a short visit in 1983.
Stayed in the Hamilton Hotel where I was amused by the sign in the lift detailing various rates from 1-3 hours, 6 hours and full overnight.

Went by bus to the Korean Folk Village - the roads were empty, there were pillboxes with sandbagged gun emplacements ( no guns visible though). No concrete dividers as they were built to be used for airstrips.

There were air-raid drills during the day, the sirens sounded so we jumped, almost had a heart attack and then headed into the nearest bar until the (presumed) all clear sounded.

SK

[periwinkle]

- I remember that there was no shower- just a drain in the floor, so I was a bit shocked at that. Also, I was slightly disappointed there was no oven.

- Went out for ddalk kalbi with some of the other teachers, and was a bit surprised that Koreans ate raw peppers- thought I was going to die when I tried one (it was a little one, and you know sometimes it's a crap shoot with peppers when it comes to the heat factor).

-was suprprised that there was no soy sauce for the rice. Also surprised at the reaction of the server when I asked for kang jjang.... I didn't understand why she made such a big deal about it, and why she didn't want to give me any. (I never make special requests at restaurants now. Never.)

-surprised at how hostile one of the other teachers was. He arrived that same night, too- had an attitude that he had been in Korea for years and knew eveything. I couldn't understand why he was so nasty when he didn't even know me ( found out shortly thereafter that he absolutely despised Americans). I'd never dealt with anti-Americanism before.

- surprised at how much Korean everyone knew, and got a bit worried about my propensity to learn Korean. Was told I needed to learn it quick, as no one spoke English (this was Inchon, btw). I couldn't believe that there was such a lack of English ability, even though I was told people had studied for years....

- Got really, really worried the next day when I went to restaurants and saw that all the menus were in Korean, and there was no explanation (esp. at kim bap jips).

*This was 5 years ago (um, I still put soy sauce on my rice, although I stopped asking for it at restaurants by the time my 2nd month rolled around...)

[flakfizer]

I also had a good first experience. If I had had my second boss first, I might have lasted here just one year-or less. When I came in 1994, my boss picked me up at the airport but he was an hour late. The explanation for this was that they had changed the terminals. A guy there that saw me waiting asked if he could call someone for me (he had a cell phone back when almost everyone else had pagers or "bbee bbees"). My boss drove me to the hagwon (in a very overheated car) to meet the American manager who hired me. I'd not met her before but she was the friend of a friend of mine from back home. They gave me one of those Mini-mart "hamburgers" and some banana milk. I didn't touch either. Then they took me to my apartment which I shared with 3 others but it was huge-fifty some pyeong and with a great view. Two people were a married couple who occupied the master bedroom which had its own bathroom. My boss' junior partner "lived" in the smallest room and was almost never there spending his time at work and at his parents' house. I went to work the next day for about 2 hours just to observe. I didn't have to teach until a week had passed. My boss was always kind to us and drove me back to the airport after my year was up and said farewell to me only after I had checked in and was about to go through immigration.

[merlot]

[ForceOne]

I remember thinking..."man, there are A LOT of barbershops here!"