Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Francis-Pax]

Has anybody thought about or actually taken a year off from full-time work to take a Korean language course in Korea?

[kalkamagi]

How about doing both at the same time? It's very possible.

Morning: Korean Class
Late Afternoon: Teaching (Full time.)


You can do it if you're ambitious enough, and you find a decent job. I did that when I first got here. Took a semester or two off Korean class in between, though. I was lucky to get 2.0 million/4 teaching hours a day.

[Fresh Prince]

Right now, I'm studying Korean everyday before work for an hour or two. I don't think taking a year off would help that much. For me, an hour a couple hours a day is about the limit as far as retaining anything long term.

[CGully]

I teach full-time at a hagwon 5 days a week, and do three hours of evening classes three of those days. It's tough to keep up, but it's possible and rewarding. Plus the amount of money coming in from the job makes the tuition feel like a drop in the bucket.

If you take a year off, you'll learn a helluva lot. But I wouldn't say it's necessary, and may just be a waste of money in the long-term.

-CGully

[Qinella]

[Ilsanman]

I work 4 jobs on my F-2 visa (about 40 teaching hours a week) and I am starting to 숙대 next week.

I will try to keep up, but I expect I will have to quit one of my jobs.

I studied at Sogang in 2004, but I had to quit for financial reasons. Study was not the problem. Not working was. You will be surprised how fast money disappears.

[VirginIslander]

I am moving to Guatemala to study Spanish for ten weeks: five hours a day, five days a week, one teacher-one student, homestay and free food for $1,250. But, for every week I stay there, I loose $500 in potential savings in Korea. I would love to stay lthere onger and study but Korea has made me selfish and money-oriented.

If you plan on living in Korea for the next ten years, study for six months. There are some pretty good jobs for bilingual teachers. But, if will be moving away in two years, such a decision would be analogous to taking a year off to build a boat and then moving to the desert two years later.

[princess]

If I married a Korean man I would study Korean all day for a year while he worked, then I would go back to work. But alas, that will not be happening anytime soon...so I just have to study as much as I can when I am not too tired.

[princess]

If I married a Korean man I would study Korean all day for a year while he worked, then I would go back to work. But alas, that will not be happening anytime soon...so I just have to study as much as I can when I am not too tired.

[Homer]

It can be done if you saved and planned it and preferably if you are married/in a couple and have a second income....
It would mean a big leap forward in language ability if you dedicate time to it.

[kotakji]

Honestly though, unless you have a real knack for language and are willing to cloister yourself away, one year of Korean is probebly not going to reap the rewards you might expect. I think back now on how easy Spanish was to learn back when I half-assed studied it for requirements in university. Its really no comparison. With a Romance or Germanic language you could probebly come off relatively fluent in a years time, in Korean... well its a long road.

[SuperHero]

I know of at least one person who worked for a year saved a shit load of money and then studied for a year, repeat, repeat.

[yesman]

[Ginormousaurus]

[thebum]