Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Barneybee]

Hello there,

My wife and I are both looking to start teaching English and we've been advised by friends (who spent a year teaching in Korea) that South Korea can be the best place to start, assuming we find the right employers.

However, we have a young child and my wife, understandably, needs reassurances that we're not going to find it too hard to get advice/ medical assistance in case our littl'un needs it. Can anyone advise me on whether there is English language medical services or whether there is an ex-pat community of parents out in South Korea with toddler groups etc etc.

Are any cities more child friendly than others? Any general advice on English language parenting in South Korea would be most appreciated.

Many thanks, Barnaby

[cdninkorea]

I should start by saying I have no children, so I don't know first-hand with regards to medical treatment and children.

But I can tell you that the big hospitals here are top-notch and many doctors speak English. A lot of them got their MDs from American or other Western universities. Whenever I've had to see a doctor or go to a hospital, I've never had a problem with regards to language.

Again though, take whatever someone with children says over what I said.

[johninmaine]

...check out these two threads i started the last couple months --

or, do a search on my name "johninmaine" you'll see a bunch of posts --


http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=97640&highlight=

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=97640&highlight=

[peppermint]

you'll want to ask about it here, http://www.eslcafe.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=52

Tons of posts from expectant folks, new parents, and old hands.

I'm not one of them, but I do know that the textbooks in Korean med schools are written in English for the most part, so doctors have to be able to read English at a minimum

[Cater]

We have a 17 month old girl and we've had almost no trouble at all finding and dealing with doctors and hospitals. There's a great children's doctor within walking distance who speaks fairly good English. We've been to her a number of times when our daughter had bronchitis and an ear infection. Large hospitals are good about setting you up with a doctor who speaks English and they're usually quite good with kids.

As far as play groups with other foreigners; we live in Daegu and we don't know any other foreigners with young children, let alone play groups. So that's a bit of a downside.

[Young FRANKenstein]