Korean Job Discussion Forums

Bryan Saxton · Joined: 01 May 2009 Location: Eugene, OR

When I was in college, I met a lot of Korean exchange students who I hung out with and made some pretty good friends with. My roommate and I even hosted a Korean Exchange student in our apartment for a month or so while he looked for more permanent lodging. Anyway, a lot of these people said they'd help me learn how to get around and whatnot if I ever moved to Seoul, and now that I am [in about one month], I think I'll be getting in contact with them.

My question is this: How many Korean people did you know before you came to Korea? Did they help you get adjusted to the country after you moved?

chonga · Joined: 15 Mar 2009

Well I'm in a unique situation in that my mother's family is all in Korea and she has a large family. So I have about 20+ family members I can contact if needed.

Besides them I've made a few friends with other Americans who already teach there from chatting online, Dave's or email. I think you can find a lot of people who are willing to befriend you here on Dave's if you feel like you need a helping hand in adjusting to Korea.

SFValley · Joined: 18 Jun 2009

Like Chonga, I have extended family in Korea. However, they're all extrememly busy with working non-stop, aren't too well off, and I wouldn't want to burden them with needing help. I have a few friends there as well (expats living abroad there) who I'd get in touch with but it really depends on where I get placed and situated. Majority of my friends live in Daegu but I want to live and work in Seoul so I probably won't get to see them much. I just hope I get some really great co-workers/neighbors/fellow people at orientation. Fingers crossed!

kinerry · Joined: 01 Jun 2009

One, I came all the time with her

andrewchon · Last edited by andrewchon on Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

kinerry:
was that a nudge-nudge, wink-wink? Wink

And how many koreans do you need to change a light bulb?
Non. Korea sparkles.

My 6th graders perhaps are right. It's not that they are too dumb to get it.

Karea · Joined: 07 Jul 2009

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

Made a friend online in the early days of Yahoo chat, and she is still my friend 8 years later. When I arrived in Korea, she suggested some good areas/bad areas to work in. She came to my wedding, and has been a good friend.

Teelo · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Wellington, NZ

None. Well, the first time at least..

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

I did my last undergraduate semester in France in 1995, and I spent A LOT of time with a small group of Koreans and Japanese in the international dorm we lived in. My French was very weak, and the Asians were the only ones who'd speak French with me -- because only half of them at most were conversational in English.

We got to know each other very well, and when I got back to the US, I started looking for jobs teaching overseas - anywhere.

I didn't find good info. The Internet wasn't what it is today in terms of TESOL stuff. So, I went to graduate school. But around X-mas, I found some good information about Korea, and I got a contract.

When I called my Korean friends still studying in France -- I got a surprise...

...They told me NOT TO GO...

They said I'd end up hating Korea...

I was a bit bewildered...

When I got to Korea, only one of them was in country, and she lived near Pusan and I was in Wonju.

Her birthday was around the time I arrived in Korea, so I took the all-night train down there after my Friday classes --- and what a long trip that was...

I was so busy doing my sweat-shop hours, I never did get down there again. She came up once but then we lost contact when she went back to France for an extended vacation.

At a couple of different times, a couple of those friends and I got together. One Korean girl when she was home on vacation. One Japanese guy when he stopped over in Korea on the way to Japan for vacation.

I also spent time with him in Japan when we both had time off at the same time.

But, basically, I didn't have any help or advice (besides not going) from the Koreans I knew before arriving.

I did have one girl who I had only met briefly in France help me get my notebook computer fixed because her dad was a high level executive with IBM Korea and I had an IBM (which stayed broken more time than it worked)...

nfld_chingu · Joined: 29 Jun 2009

I didn't know any Koreans before I went to Korea, but I did know two other Newfoundlanders in Daegu, one from my hometown that I went to high school with, and another one that I met in university. And a girl from Nova Scotia that I went to university with, we kind of went to Korea together and taught at the same school.
For a place with a population of only half a million, seems like Newfoundlanders are everywhere ...