Korean Job Discussion Forums

bish · Joined: 09 Jun 2007

I'm trying to decide on this one at the moment. I'm pretty happy with my job here and haven't really been screwed around but I'm looking for more money. I could get more in Seoul or make the move to Shanghai and try it there...

I'm worried the value of the won might get even lower whilst I'm trying to save and I also think there's money to be made in China on Privates without the hassle from Immi.

However, I think finding a reliable Chinese employer from outside China is possibly even more difficult than Korea...

Are many other people on here thinking of going to China?

thatwhitegirl · Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Location: ROK

Came here from there (2 years in China). Unless you get really lucky, you'll be hard pressed to make more than 7,000-10,000 RMB a month (depends where you live). I can't say say about Shanghai, but in other larger (eastern) cities most ESL teachers earn between 6,000-7,000 RMB.
You can live wonderfully off that kind of money, but you won't be able to save half as much as you do here.
I like it here better. Quieter, people are more polite, more money...the food is MUCH better in China though, and I think Chinese is an easier language to learn than Korean.

Snowkr · Joined: 03 Jun 2005

Totally agree with the post above. I've worked in both countries and "thatwhitegirl" couldn't have said it any better.

If it's money you want, stay here... at least for now.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Just out of curiosity, how do the Chinese react to the whole interracial dating thing? Are they guys interested in Western women? Chinese girls in Western guys?

thatwhitegirl · Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Location: ROK

The last school we were at was a private K-12 school. There were 3 other (male) foreign teachers there, and they all had Chinese girlfriends. We were in Hangzhou, which is a fairly big city, so they got less flak. However, the girls told me that some Chinese people (men/older people) would make very rude, degrading, and hurtful comments.
In the (very small, rural) town before that, there were 2 western girls who had Chinese boyfriends, and 2 guys with girls.

I would imagine that is fairly similar to Korea, except for that whole 'pure race' thing.

Taiwantroll · Joined: 10 Sep 2006

Why not go to Taiwan? It has all the benefits of China and you make considerably more money. There, I can save as much as I can here because the cost of living is much cheaper than here.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

What's the Hong Kong teaching scene like? What's required? Would an MA in TESOL be enough to secure a decent job there? Might be one of the few cases where a CELTA could pay off, but if I already have an MA/TESOL, it might not be necessary.

My wife's company is based in HK, and her boss said opportunities to transfer are sometimes available.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

KoreanAmbition · Joined: 03 Feb 2008

I believe in Hong Kong your academic background must be education-focused.

Basically you need to be a real teacher, and to get a job where you can actually live half-decent you need to have a few years of teaching under your belt. I'm not sure how they consider Hagwon teaching.

However, with that said, I was checking before several months ago and if you had good qualifications you could land some really good jobs there. And I spoke with actual people from Hong Kong who agreed that the free housing combined with the wage was an excellent combo that was being offered.

If you want more info, go on the International Board here.

For the record, I wanted to go into Hong Kong but I have an MBA which won't get me jobs there. They are truly looking for real teachers, and from my research they have the highest standards of almost anywhere in Asia.

(I'm sure I've made an error or 2 in my analysis but I think it's rather accurate for the most part. Cheers.)

branchsnapper · Joined: 21 Feb 2008

When I was in China last, I worked in Jiangxi province. One of the "worst" places.

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=394366279

Can Korea match that?

MollyBloom · Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Location: James Joyce's pants

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

For one thing, there are no tenses in Mandarin. This makes it a lot simpler as you don't have to memorize a bunch of past/future inflections.

Sentence structure is the same or similar to English, so once you get the basic vocabulary down, you're good to go.

Korean.........aigoo. After 6 + years here I am still at a very basic level,

even when I know the vocabulary, trying to fit it all into that reverse structure makes things a lot harder.

I don't know Mandarin, by the way....I'm just going by what others have said.

There is a free, on-line, introductory Mandarin couse by BBC Languages if you want to check it out.

Just google BBC languages, you should be able to find it.

maximmm · Joined: 01 Feb 2008

Umm.... there is an excellent free course for learning Korean. Search for sogang virtual university on yahoo and you'll find it in no time.
Reverse grammar structure is also used in Japan. The biggest problem with Korean is the vast vocabulary needed to communicate and pronunciation.
Spoken Japanese is easier than spoken Korean. Spoken Chinese though, with its tones and sound variations, I'd think is more difficult than Japanese and Korean. Then again, I don't have any experience learning Chinese.