Korean Job Discussion Forums

[goatlord]

i have a couple of piercings - nothing big and major like ear plugs or septum rings and the such, but i do have a small, quite discreet ring in my nose that iv had in for 10 years and have become quite attached to. i also have 3 or 4 in various parts of my ear, including one in my tragus (cartilagey part at the front of the ear) that i cant actually take out, no matter how much i try. iv applied for a public school position and was just wondering the flexibility schools might have and the attitude generally towards piercings. i wouldn't have a problem with taking out the ones in my ears, but my tragus can't come out and id like to keep my nose ring in. iv taught in other schools and these havent been a problem, and i have friends who taught in korea who said their co workers had ear plugs and other piercings while teaching. any thoughts?

[guava]

I have a cow with a pierced nose

[goatlord]

how helpful

[isisaredead]

chill, dude.

i was asked back in 2007 by my recruiter to take out my labret, which i did, and i never put back in. facial piercings might be a bit much for this country.

define "small" in terms of your nose piercing. is it literally a "ring" as you stated? are you dead-against taking it out? if so, this is going to be very interesting to follow . . .

i've worked at hagwons with a gauged piercing in my ear. i take it out at the beginning of the contract for a few weeks to show them i'm professional, and to get used to me. after a while, i put it back in, and no one really notices. or cares, for that matter.

again, though, facial piercings might be completely different. personally, i would take it all out, and test the waters later once i got the position.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[isisaredead]

if you had passed an elementary level of reading comprehension, genius, you would have understood my comment to mean "piercings are not as common here as in the western world - particularly as far as facial piercings go."

i'm sorry, i'm not used to spelling things out for people who are supposed to be educators.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[therandom9]

I taught with an eyebrow piercing at a Gangnam SAT prep place a couple years back. No one ever said anything. I was kind of surprised.

[nomad-ish]

i think it might be a little different for hagwons versus public schools. i think hagwons are generally more tolerant of it because they see so many more foreign teachers at their schools (plus the korean teachers there seem generally rather young). at a public school you'll be surrounded by korean teachers; some can be quite old and traditional.

that said, i do know public school teachers here with multiple ear piercings and small, discreet nose studs, but it sounds like what you've got is a little more than them.

by the way, you might want to consider taking out your piercings for the photo that you have to send in with your application.

[guava]

[Depths of My Soul]

[goatlord]

brilliant. thanks for the expertise. you should be a psychologist instead of wasting time on forums. you've figured me out in an instant.

[vaticanhotline]

[nomad-ish]

[isisaredead]

bottom line, though, is that the OP should just take them all out (or at least most of them) and see what they can get away with first.

right?