Korean Job Discussion Forums

fozziejr2 · Joined: 05 May 2008 Location: soon to be korea (august 08)

Hello all!
I recently decided that I am going to be teaching in South Korea starting this August for at least a year. I have had a realllllly hard time trying to prioritize the potential cities I might be placed in and do NOT want to randomly pick a city that I might hate. I was hoping for any sort of advice on what people thought of some of these cities.

I am a 24 year old, work hard, play hard type of personality. I am outgoing, love meeting new people and hope to travel all around Korea and to outlying countries . I absolutely do not want to be isolated or somewhere I will be alone, so looking more towards the bigger cities. I try to run or exercise everyday, and I got to find a city where I can do this (gym or outdoors I don't care) and also be able to go out and have a good time. From what I have read, most people don't speak very much English, but are there any cities where people might know more? Is it hard to meet people only knowing English?

I am most likely going through EPIK and their top 5 placement cities are:
1. Busan
2. Incheon
3. Jeju
4. Daegu
5. Gangwon

Any advice? Also I have heard very little from people about the EPIK program and I'd like to hear anything from somebody who has either worked through them, or know people who have.

A little tedious for a first post, BUT ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

VanIslander · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject:

Jeju and Gangwon-do are NOT for you.

Jeonju and Jinju have nice riverside parkland for jogging.

Daejon is pretty central for travel around the peninsula though no place is that far from any other place (except for Jeju and east coast Gangwon).

All roads lead to Seoul and Incheon airport so no need to live in too close a proximity of those, though it sounds like Seoul and Busan will best give you what you are looking for.

fozziejr2 · Joined: 05 May 2008 Location: soon to be korea (august 08)

Yeah I currently have Busan as my #1 preference, but have heard a ton of things like it is horribly dirty and nobody has been saying much in the way of positive things about the city. I guess on these forums though you have to take everything with a grain of salt, I have heard far more criticisms than positive aspects of teaching there, but people still sound happy overall.