Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ashcroft]

...what have your thoughts been these past 24 hours and how will you be approaching these upcoming days and weeks? Have your plans changed at all? Is it still full steam ahead with your job hunt, or, if you've already accepted a position, with your preparations to leave?

I certainly don't mean to be alarmist about the situation, as it seems unlikely that WWIII or anything approaching that level will be breaking out anytime soon, but at the same time I can't help but question whether it's worth the risk, however minimal, that inevitably comes with being so close to North Korea right now. I suppose it doesn't help when just about all of my friends and family who know of my plans have been telling me I'd be insane to move to Korea given the nuke test. Not exactly the confidence boost I'm in need of

So, uh, any thoughts? Pearls of wisdom from foreigners already over there?

[ttompatz]

[SeniorEnglish]

I was very pissed at the nuke test. I am more worried about the currency depreciation than anything else.

[CBP]

Well, that's certainly a relevant thread you've started. I'm waiting for my school to begin the visa application process. My main concern was rather selfish: How much will I lose when converting to dollars? But that concern has softened as I've really come to identify how much I look forward to teaching in Korea. At first it was the money -- so I can pay off my loans -- but more and more I'm feeling strongly called to Korea and the myriad of challenges/highs/lows that living there will no doubt encompass.

My parents are concerned about North Korea, and my dad is carefully following the news. But they're not cautioning me against it.

I was in Guatemala during some difficult months and in Budapest recently during the violent protests. In Guatemala people were doing what they had to do to survive. Many of them had lost most of their families to violence, but they still had to eat and work. They still watched television (if they had one). In Budapest recently, one minute I was watching a live CNN report from my flat across the Danube, and the next I was standing just off camera and watching that same reporter give his report. I saw first hand the angry protests, and I also saw that literally one block away you'd never have known there were any problems. It was truly life as usual. People kissing on the sidewalk, rushing to work, gossiping into their cell phones.

There was lingering fear in Guatemala. In Budapest there was dread because of how much that country has already been through. But meanwhile there were shoes to buy, websites to design, and the other stuff of life.

I'm moving to a small town in Korea. I'm excited about being fully immersed in their culture. I want to be the foreigner and to slowly learn their language and mesh a bit with some of their lives. The North Korean threat will probably get quite serious. But for now it's sanctions, weakening currency, and lots of questions. Where ever we live in the world I think we're confronted with these sorts of questions. So call me naive, but I'm not terribly worried.

[nobbyken]

For what it's worth.....

I think it is more safe to be in South Korea than other countries, but North Korea are attracting the world's media and governments to their ability to make world history by being capable of causing catastrophe. Maybe they will be included more in international talks, which is their desire.
They claim to have missiles that can reach Alaska, and were said to have tested these in the Japan sea.

I would be worried if I lived in Alaska
But not in South Korea

[Wangja]

[Summer Wine]

There are better places to discuss this, but seeming its here.

Worst case scenario is sanctions work.

NK is in a tight spot and figure it doesn't really matter whether they attack SK or not, they are going down the tube. So they do attack and hope beyond hope that it stops half way and they manage to afflict enough damage to survive.

In that case they are the wild card and all the others who predict normalcy are up the creek. So what happens? No one, really knows. Good Luck.

[Bondrock]

this Christmas, Mr. Kim will still be sitting at the kid's table. setting off firecrackers scares no one.

[princess]

I've already spent 4 years there and I WILL go back. Guess I'm nuts, but I don't like my own country anyways. I'm mainly concerned about the won dropping like it did during the IMF crisis.

[gartonator]

Well I've been in the job hunt/application/visa process for about 2 months now... think I'm finally getting a plane ticket to leave this weekend.... I THINK... I hope my boss is in better touch when I'm actually in Seoul.

Yeah, it just makes it a little scarier, never having been to Asia in the first place. My school supposedly pays me in USD, so I'm hoping to benefit from any loss of value in the Won...

After a little online research of the military situation, my assessment is that Seoul and anything near the DMZ would be pretty screwed if there's a war. Atomic weapons make no difference to the overall state of things if there's 700,000 troops within 90 miles anyway...

I'm going. I'm much more worried about finding a life there, learning how to teach, communicating with Koreans, finding other Westerners to hang with, finding a rock climbing community, not becoming an alcoholic, loneliness, doing something productive with my time off... and what I'll do AFTER Korea...

[ella]

How did you get the school to pay you in USD? Was that something you neogtiated into your contract?