Korean Job Discussion Forums

[KiwiRob]

Just curious about how many teachers were hired outside of Korea their first year and how many flew over first then looked for work. Also If you were hired out of country how did you find your first work place experience.

[KiwiRob]

For the people who voted outside of country how did you find the job even though you couldn't have a look around and meet the workers first?

[chrisblank]

i answered an ad in the back of a travel magazine. the company was called Pacific Rim Recruiting. no e-mail, just an address in Calgary, i believe. there was virtually no internet in the ROK at that time. did the visa dance, then i was sent a plane ticket and a start date via courier.

i arrived at Kimpo airport (Incheon Airport was little more than an idea at that time) and was met by a bus driver who did not speak English. we drove to an apartment in Incheon where i was dropped off and given a note : "be ready Monday at 10:00". and that was it. on my own from Saturday morning until Monday.

no cell phone, no computer, no VCR, no food, no local money...just a black and white TV with a dozen channels.

Monday morning rolls around and get on the school bus and go to teach kindergarten. some students literally pissed themselves when i walked in the room. they had never seen a foreigner before. the second morning a boy actually pooped his pants when he saw me. he cried uncontrollably until mom came to get him. i never even said a word to him, i walked in the room, sat down and when he turned around he was just so completely shocked to see a foreign face that he dropped a load in his pants.

i was the only foreigner within three dongs. the closet was about a 15-30 minute maul bus ride away.

i was often left alone in a room with 16 4 year olds, screaming and running around. i ended up just playing with them most of the time as an actual class was impossible. but it was alright. i worked from 10 to about 7:30. no split shifts. very few students per class in the afternoon. each class lasted about 20 minutes, so prep time was minimal.

but money was tight: each month when payday came around i would notice things disappearing: one month i came to school and saw three large TVs were gone. the next the big air conditioners were gone. then the next month a big set of Disney books and tapes were gone. the place went bankrupt in the fall of '97 at the height of the "IMF" crisis. luckily for me the guy who bought it out was a decent business man.

he convinced me to stay on and that it would get better. at the end of '97 we had about 30 students at the school. 10 were elementary and 20 were pre-school. when i left the school in 2003 there were three different buildings: a kindergarten, an elementary school hogwon and and a middle school/high school hogwon with a total of about 500 students.

in the interim my salary more than doubled, my hours were cut by a third, i was able to take on part time classes for the city government and a nearby university. when it came time to move on my boss called the uni and spoke with the ugiwon director to make sure i got hired without a hitch.

i guess i found the job to be ok

[KiwiRob]

thank you Chris that was a good read glad to hear you stuck with it and things got better!

[Threequalseven]

It's pretty easy to find work from outside the country. Go to Dave's ESL Korean job board, find some ads that don't look sketchy, and start writing emails. When you get an interview, be sure to prepare questions for the person interviewing you. (Are they leaving, if so why, how is the director, etc)

[KiwiRob]

[Threequalseven]

For me, it was the teacher I replaced. I think this is often the case (for hagwons anyway). This was nice because I could ask him questions about the job.

[Zyzyfer]

Out of country, in 2001.

[ttompatz]