Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ella]

Is there anything I should buy at home before I leave here? Record book, games, flash cards, activity books, etc.? I've been looking around in the teaching supply stores but since I have no idea what age I'll be working with, I've been reluctant to get anything.

[alabamaman]

[Captain Corea]

I always grab a whole bunch of board markers (not black,red,blue). I'm a fan of using different colors when teaching.

[teachingld2004]

That is a hard question to answer. If you do not know what age group, how can you bring anything? Adults will not like simple flash cards. You can down load almost anything.

If you like certain pens, you can bring a pack. (But the pens here are cheap) Just you may not find the pen you are used to. Do not bring your favorite file folders. A4 paper is not the same size as 8 1/2 X 11.

Bring with you 5 dollars worth of new pennies. They are great for teaching aids, and you can give them out as prizes for any age, people love foreign money. Also bring change. No matter what age you teach some how you most likey will need it. 2 nickels equals a dime. 2 dimes and one nickle equal a quarter. Its good to have money as a hands on tool. Bring a one dollar bill, a 5 dollar bill, and a twenty dollar bill.

Bring photos of your neighborhood, your friends, and your relatives. Take a picture of the supermarket, laundry, bakery. Show them how these places look differet. Take pictures of fast food places. McDonals here looks the same as it does at home. Take photos of every day life.

Bring some menus. Thats a great idea. Bring some cash receipts from the supermarket. Bring the flyer from the supermarket. And bring me some cottage cheese. I would love some cottage cheese and pineapple right now.

[bluelake]

Bring one of those stamps that you can rotate with different messages, such as "good", "excellent", "poor", etc. They are useful in classes with students from kindergarten on up through university. Some you need a stamp pad, while others are self-inking.

[heydelores]

Can they give you some sort of idea of what age you're teaching? I teach kindy and brought a bunch of inexpensive (<$5) CDs of children's songs. Definitely worth it for kindy.

[jlb]

[teachingld2004]

oh yea, that avitar reminded me.bring some stamps and if you can a few diffrerent maps, bus, subway...

I download music all the time from the internet nd I make cd's.

[riley]

The board marker comment is true, there's only blue, black, red, and green. If you want to use other colors, tough. I'd reccomend finding a bookstore and looking through the teaching section. Look for activity books, photocopiable books, and even PE books (could be good with younger kids).

[ella]

When you talk about board markers, you mean wipe boards?

It isn't that my employer hasn't told me which ages I'll be working with- I don't have an employer yet.

[Hotpants]

Without knowing who you're going to be teaching, I think it's probably not worth stocking up on a whole load of stuff that you might never use. Just about everything you'll need for teaching is here - including those inkstamps. Color board markers? What if your school has a chalk board?

Especially, if you're going to be located in Seoul or Busan, the bookstores and stationery stores are seriously full of English teaching resources.

The only thing I've used in class that I brought from outside Korea are some Mr Bean and Fawlty Towers videos - English TV series other than Friends and Sex in the City are hard to find here.

Save your luggage space to bring over some of your well-loved foodstuffs - they might be harder to find than any teaching material.

[kiwigirl :O)]

cadbury's caramello chocloate!!!! yummy!!!

blistex...you cannot buy it here (its the same as carmex)

lingerie and pjs (they are really hard to get here!!)

in terms of stuff for teaching....bring over some of your currency from home...i bought some old coins from home and the kids love them!!! stickers with your countries flag or any novely stickers are good....

i did buy a grammar book just so i could familiarise myself with terms such as gerund ......

[ChopChaeJoe]

A couple good sets of ABC flashcards will come in handy. Bring the music you can't download. Bring some great books, you won't find them here. Some other excellent ideas so far as well. Leave the junk food at home. There's food here. Plenty of clothes too, unless you're fat (6', 190 lbs) like me.

[jlb]

Forget the teaching supplies. Any decent school (and hopefully you'd be working for one) should have everything you need. Heck, even my crap hagwon my first year teaching had plently of stuff.

You're finding a job in Korea right? So if this is the case, you'll probably be given a tour of the school. On your staff room perusal, take a look around and see how many resources there are and factor this into your decision.

[jellobean]

Stickers... Kids love American stickers....