Korean Job Discussion Forums

[HanlSky]

title question.

Where are the most amount of jobs? I just recently learned that China pays about the same and has very low cost of living so I am leaning towards China.

[metalhead]

Actually, you have to be in China already for these high-paying jobs over there that you talk about, and the Chinese pay for ticket either at the end of the contract, or in monthly dividends.

So, like Japan, you need more money for start-up costs. A lot of teachers in Korea are fresh out of uni and don't have that much cash to begin with, hence their choosing Korea.

[HanlSky]

Oh I see. Thanks. Why does Japan need high start up costs?

I just saw this teach English in Japan job:

http://www.aeonet.com/application/contract.html

And the pay is really good, like 42k USD, but you have to pay your own rent. (What is like the cheapest rent you can get in Japan?) Even if you spend like $700 that's still thirty-something k, at least 10k more than Korean teaching job. I suppose the competition must be that much more fierce? Why do they give so much more money?

[qcat79]

[HanlSky]

[jzrossef]

[earthquakez]

The first ever job I had in Japan made me pay my own way, I also had to pay a deposit for the housing, pay my own rent and pay for the boss' furniture etc because he was moving out of the house. Can you understand why more people teach in Korea?

That was in the days when there were more jobs in Japan just about everywhere. 9 times out of 10 you paid rent and utilities - I only ever heard about people getting free or subsidised housing when they worked at a college or university. Now the job market is fairly flooded because Japan has more long termers there who aren't married to a Japanese person.

The visa freedom is wonderful especially compared to the Korean way of straightjacketing E-2ers. However, what it does is allow people to stay for years in Japan without getting permanent residency or getting married - and this just increases the pool of people competing for the fewer jobs there now.

A few years back Nova, a big chain employer of foreign English teachers, closed down, so did a few other former employers of English teachers in fairly big numbers. Many of them were on 3 year visas which you can get in Japan after your initial year there and guess what? Instead of nearly all of them going back home, they stayed around on their visas to look for work.

Back in the 90s was the time to go to Japan. Far more jobs, far more money paid by those jobs. If you want to go to Japan to look for work, better make sure you have at least 5,000 pounds UK (about 10,000 US, sorry if my exchange rate is off beam) if you have nowhere to stay for free. Then once you get a job you might have to pay up to 3,000 pounds/6,000 dollars in putting down about 2 months' rent, 'gift money' to the landlord and other payments.

I honestly don't think Japan is worth it anymore. It's a pity because it's a fantastic place to work, with less of the strains of daily life in Korea such as noise where you live at all hours (in Japan there are neighbourhood associations in apartments and housing areas consisting of residents who will deal with noisy and selfish people disrupting the peace), J kids with very few exceptions will bow to you, greet you or smile and don't run around following you or shouting insults, and there is a public civility that tends to make you feel more relaxed. Japanese people tend to let you be with far less or no invasive questions of the kind some foreigners are surprised to be confronted with by Korean workmates, students or Korean strangers.

But a big downer is the fact that if you don't live in Tokyo but another city or place outside Honshu (the island which has Tokyo and Osaka) like Hokkaido or Kyushu or Okinawa, chances are you might never see Tokyo because the transportation in Japan is far more expensive, crazily so in some cases.

Contrast that to Korea where you can live at the other end of the country and still visit Seoul with regularity on your weekends for less than a quarter of what it takes to go from the same distance in Japan to Tokyo.

[ThingsComeAround]

I was wondering the same thing...

Glad to read the responses about Japan, I am still interested in working there-- however given its equal uncertainty and higher start-up fees China is looking better and better.

[creeper1]

China does offer the opportunity to learn a really useful language in an emerging superpower. However if you actually check the salary that is offered to English "teachers" you will see it is a pittance when converted to US dollars, euros whatever. I will admit that you can lively comfortably IN China.

I think many foreigners work there in other careers and get more money and respect.

[ttompatz]

[earthquakez]

To be fair to Korea, the police in Japan are much more invasive although the nationaisticl chauvinism of both Japanese and Korean police is on the same level. Never once in Korea have I been asked for ID except for normal things like opening an account or legit travelling reasons.

In Japan I was 'gaijin carded' a number of times, meaning you get stopped by police when you're doing absolutely nothing suspicious and you're asked why you're there and you have to show ID - your foreigner card or your passport. It was especially unwanted when I was riding a bike (bicycle, not motorbike) as riding a bike is far more common in Japan because of the safer roads (although there are drivers in Japan who can be pretty bad in the Korean sense of 'I don't know you so I don't see you').

Koreans also are far better in their attitude to foreigners speaking Korean. I speak fluent Japanese but I'm sure on my next visit to Japan I'll get the same old frozen look by older Japanse people in their stores etc when I speak fluently and with little foreign accent to them. A lot of Japanese have the view that foreigners really can't speak Japanese and some of them don't seem to equate speaking it to them fluently as equalling the fact that you're proving their theory wrong in front of them.

Unlike in Korea where older people are mostly happy to hear Korean coming out of your mouth and most Koreans see the fact that you know Korean as respectful of their culture.

I forgot to add that you're more likely to see your deposit returned by a landlord in Korea though you should always go to the local city hall and lodge documentation of the fact you paid the deposit. Japanese landlords are infamous for keeping too much or all of the deposit under fake excuses like the one I encountered in my 2nd job in Japan. The landlord had let the place I live in get rundown in terms of repairs and then tried to keep my money to pay for them, accusing me of not doing anything when holes appeared in the ceiling, glass windows were already cracked etc.

[jzrossef]

[HanlSky]

[hagwonnewbie]

How old are you?
Are you married?
What is your religion?

[shostahoosier]

Part of what makes Japan so popular is its pop culture and the people who super-romanticize it.

They'll crawl over broken glass to achieve their dream of living in the land of manga, anime, and endless amounts of cute bunnies. I've met a few people like this in Korea who are bitter that they arent teacher there and to them Japan can do no wrong.

Japan is a great place though, but I'm not sure if the start up expenses, living expenses and competition make it worth it anymore. Who wants to "work to live"? I'm fine just visiting my friends there...not that they can do much since most of their money goes towards Japan's high cost of living.

I'm sure living in Japan is wonderful...but I'm very happy in Korea - AND I have money left over to pay off student loans, travel, and buy things (i.e. electronics) that I dont necessarily need....AND I still have money to spare after that. To each their own I guess.