Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Henry_J]

I recently obtained a year contract with GEPIK , and had some questions regarding my position abroad. Its my first time traveling to Korea, and have done as much research I can through threads about living abroad. Please excuse if these have been discussed, but after searching high and low on the forums, I wasnt able to find the answers to my questions:

1. Although not stated in my contract, I assume that I cannot go home during Christmas break?
2. Can I have friends stay with me in my apartment if they are visiting from abroad?
3. What is the dress code for teachers in public schools?
4. Are there any surprises with GEPIK that I should know about?
5. Are there any governmental restrictions on internet or downloading in Korea?
6. Is there a place in Seoul that I can purchase arduino boards and electronics you can find at radioshack?
7. If my vegan friend comes over, should he bring his own food?

[ttompatz]

[Skippy]

1. On the forums already. Very likely no on going home! Christmas is not as important as back home. Expect to get Christmas and New Years Day nothing more. Maybe you can go home in January or February but vacations and that are getting tricky with public schools.

2. Probably somewhere on the forums. Follow the advice of "it is better to ask for forgiveness then permission." Your friend can likely stay but do expect questions as many Korean from your coteacher to landlady/lord can be snoopy. but you can also get the we don't care route too

3. ALSO on the FORUMS. Smart casual. Try to avoid jeans and T-shirts. Thru some teachers can get away with that. Koreans can be very snappy dressers. This topic comes up at least once a month.

4. ALSO ALL OVER THE FORUMS! Come on did your really look? Every school hagwon and EPIK, and SMOE will have wonderful surprises for you provided by the program to your coteacher to the students to general life.

5. ALSO ON THE FORUMS. Try the technology forum! No real restrictions overall. You might get a Korean Police website popup once in awhile that is just usually going to the wrong site usually got to do with gambling. Baby I have been downloading in Korea for years and we are taking Terabytes here and I have had not troubles!

6. Ok that is a bit more tricky and is probably not really answered on the forums. Do not expect any electronic stores like Radio Shack in Korea. But your will very likely find some one who can probably point the way.

7. AGAIN, ON THE FRIGGING BOARD. This topic comes up at least once every two weeks in one form or another. No your friend will likely not need to bring his own food but eating out get difficult as many resturants just love the meat and meat products. Plus many Koreans can be pretty down right dense about the concept of vegan and vegetarianism.

6 out of 7 have been answered before.

Hope I answered some of your questions. But please go back and read the forums some more. Really peruse the FAQ sections and the Job Related sections.

One more hint the search function of eslcafe really sucks. try using google with the following line

site:forums.eslcafe.com/korea "WORDS TO SEARCH"

[Henry_J]

Thank you both.

The revised searching in google helps.

Trying to not lug my electronics (arduino, soldering tool and electronics) over to just experiment with electronics over there.

[ttompatz]