why are you an english teacher and not a poker player?

r u stupid?

or are you doing it for the kids

Yes. It was worth the experience. Wouldn't like to live here though. Takes a certain personality to be able to do it.

Where did I say that? I play poker.

Want to add on to this.

A friend of mine had a 6-month contract and after that tried to go for a public school contract. But 6-month contracts actually work against you if you're looking for a position in a public school because they fear that you're unreliable. Yeah, it's Korea.

Basically to stay in the PS system, it looks like you have to bend over for the education system. Seems that everybody gets bent over at some point and then goes to a hagwon or leaves the country. Knock on wood, I have avoided this so far. Not that the education offices care anyway. They could fire all of the foreigner teachers in Korea and have replacements ready for every single one of them.

Yikes. Can't read. Disregard my last response to you housenuts.

It depends on what you want. If you work at a hagwon, the country is your oyster. If you want to work at a public school, stay out of the big cities because they pay way less and have a more costly standard of living.

I haven't been everywhere in Korea. But I've seen a lot of it. Ideally, I'd love to work at Jeju-do. Then again, who wouldn't?

Read through the 2010 EPIK contract. They're just making things harder and harder for prospective and current employees. Notable changes to the contract:

-3 less vacation days (18 rather than 21)
-Hours of time missed due to tardiness, early departures or other absences are deducted from your paid vacation days for every 8 hours
-After 3 sick days, future sick days require doctor's notice
-Special leave (death in family, marriage, maternity) now requires employer consent
-Duties changed to include English camps and after school classes
-Can be made to work holidays and/or weekends if a temporary English program you are participating in is running during that time. Will be paid OT for it.
-A broadly defined dress code has been included in the contract
-Required to attend a training orientation before and during your contract
-A bonus can be given to a teacher who has made great contributions to the employer and the school (*ahem* bribes)

As you can see, none of these changes favor the employee. It's getting harder to get a job here and the conditions and circumstances of it are slowly getting worse. The POE is always looking to give more power to the employer. Still a better deal than anything I could get in America. So, it won't stop me from trying to come back. Just concerned that my seizure condition would prevent me from doing it. It didn't the first time, but again they're more selective. Even with a year of experience here and a CELTA, it still might not be enough.

Worst case is that I go for GEPIK or a hagwon. Otherwise, off to another Asian country for a year.

To clarify about my contract statements:

I should have put the changes in better context. Some of the changes are pretty inconsequential and nothing that would really piss me off. I'm just stating that the changes are doing no favors to the employee and just giving more power to the employer to control you.

Regardless, it makes an already difficult work environment more difficult. The excessive perks exist as a way to compensate for such difficulties and give incentives to come here. After all, your bosses generally don't speak English. Your co-teacher isn't always very good at translating or understanding English which can affect your relationship with your superiors. The quality of teachers as a whole in this country appears to be below average. The above people can be petty, vindictive and vengeful. You're treated in a more inferior fashion to your co-workers, creating another barrier between you and them. It is clear that many of our superiors do not want us here and would prefer to have all Korean teachers. After all, we're foreigners.

Is it still a nice deal? Yes, better than what I can get in America at the moment. Since I'm better armed with information and knowledge, I can increase the likelihood of getting a better deal and avoiding the bad hagwons and crappy cities. I have experience teaching here and my teaching skills have improved. But nothing is changing in favor of the employee and it likely never will.

oh wtf now im confused

why do u live in a city that isn't seoul

You're kidding. Have you read anything in this thread?

Public school jobs in Seoul are extremely difficult to get. The competition for positions is intense and my lack of experience would make it near impossible to get a job. Even if I do get one, it'd be 2M won/month plus a higher cost of living. I could work at a hagwon, but most hagwon jobs are ****.

Teachers who work outside of the major cities make more money and have a lower cost of living.

I am considering going with GEPIK and working in Gyeonggi-do, which is more lucrative and a subway trip away from Seoul.

Just out of curiosity, what cities have you been to aside from Seoul? What are your opinions on those cities?

so you are a teacher and not a poker player??? didn't u just say ur a poker player..stop confusing me lol

ive been to daegu kwangju pusan incheon jeju and all over seoul obv...jeju was pretty nice for a quick vacation spot, pusan i like a lot, the other places are all pretty much bleh as they don't fit my lifestyle...but if i had never been to seoul before i probably would have loved those places anyways

Half of this thread has been about teaching.

I guess by your lifestyle, you're pretty spot on. Honestly, I haven't seen too many places that I wouldn't mind living in. Just that the one I'm in now happens to be one of them.

Though it could be worse. Could be living on Yokjido. Ewwww...

Ah, interesting note I found. I think I alluded to it as a recommendation

When applying for a position via a recruiter, be sure not to use recruiters who work with the same area.

If you find out that somebody works specifically with public school jobs in Gyeongsangnam-do, then you'd want to tell other recruiters that you do not prefer those areas. If somebody only works with public schools in Gyeonggi-do, then don't go to another one that does the same thing. The redundancy just wastes the time of the recruiter and makes a worthless redundancy in the system.

bob, what do you think about gepik? i just read their new 2010 contract. don't really have much else to compare it to.

i just find it funny i was talking with a recruiter and she says no more than 22 hours of work a week. but then you look at the schedule and it's 9-5 m-f. assuming 1 hour lunch that's 7 hours of work a day for 35 hours. she must mean 22 hours of teaching a week, but whatevs, i assume you'd still be working when you aren't teaching.

do most gepik schools have a curriculum or do you have to figure out your own classes to teach?

the contract said something about they can ask you to work up to 6 more hours per week. is it standard that they would abuse this power and basically just throw on an additional 6 hours each week?

do you know much about sungnam or bucheon? i was given a list of 25 places to choose from and those sounded the best.

ESL Cafe breaks down the contract

Yup, yup. Teaching hour in a public school = 45 minutes. So, 22 classes.

I don't know. Varies from school to school for both EPIK and GEPIK. I have to create my own material, which is daunting at first. However, once you get the hang of it you'll never want to go back to using textbooks again, especially since they're all ****.

If they grant you OT pay for anything above 22 hours, they could make you work 24/7 if they wanted to.

Sorry, I really haven't been in Gyeonggi-do too often. That's probably something that would be better answered in the other SK thread. As a general note, I'd recommend being sure that the city you choose (if you choose a city) is directly connected to Seoul via subway or some other cheap, effective transportation.

And your choices really don't mean anything. They're just going to fit you into whatever position is available. After all, they make money by inserting people into the program, not by meeting the foreigner's preferences.

Going back to America has made me realize how much I enjoy Korea.

I need to make the trip to refresh myself and remove the cynicism from my system that has been brewing up ever since I got sick of my new bosses.

Korea FAQs

There are a bunch of questions that I have been asked often and I think it'd be good to answer most of them in one shot. Please chime in or correct me as my knowledge in all of these areas is not particularly vast. I won't be doing one regarding teaching just yet.

1. How do I pick up a Korean girl?

Rekrul is probably best accustomed to answering this question as I am not very good with women, but I'll toss in my two cents. Certain unique physical features such as hair/eye color, skin color or your height will gain some recognition. I found that speaking some Korean can be enough to draw the attention of a girl. I assume that the better you speak Korean, the better the chance you have of getting a girl.

Overall, Korean girls seem to be drawn to similar things that western girls are. Be interested in the culture, keep the focus of the conversation on her, use positive language and be an active listener when she is speaking. An occasional piece of flattery is greatly appreciated as well.

2. How is the cost of living?

For a single foreigner, living in Korea can be very cheap. Utilities are fairly cheap and if you are a teacher with an E2 visa like me, your rent is paid for. I pay 36,300W/month for my internet connection and ~20,000W for electricity. I pay a similar amount for heat. My biggest expenditures are food (specifically alcohol) and transporation. You can save half of your paycheck without really trying to be a penny pincher.

3. How are the restaurants in South Korea?

They are everywhere. You can eat like a king for dirt cheap prices at some Korean restaurants. Side dishes like kimchi and cucumbers are provided free of charge and are refilled at request. Water is also free and can be refilled (though some restaurants use those tiny metal cups). Although samgyupsal is delicious, I wouldn't recommend eating it everyday as you can gain significant weight from it.

4. How is the internet in South Korea?

Absurdly fast. If memory serves, South Korea has the fastest and thus most cost-effective internet broadband connections in the world. I can download music and movies at over 1 MB per second through uTorrent. I also don't see any bandwidth caps like some internet providers in America implement.

5. What do South Koreans think of North Korea?

Depends on who you ask. My students are genuinely interested in North Korea and actually requested that I do an English lesson on North Korea/South Korea. Some South Korean citizens actually work in North Korea and are given special permission to work there. Some people were alive when Korea was one nation and may actually refuse to talk about it all together. It's in the news, but a lot of it is so routine that many Koreans here don't bat an eye at it. In short, there's no blanket statement that can be used to answer that question.

6. What about prostitution in South Korea?

I only know about prostitution in Masan. Though it is technically illegal, the government has no qualms turning a blind eye to it so long as it is controlled to a certain degree.

Most of the prostitution is kept in one area of Masan called Shimpo-dong. It is one long strip that wreaks of cheap perfume. Lady pimps (mostly retired prostitutes themselves) stand outside of their "store" and try to draw customers to their women. The women either sit or stand behind clear, body-length glass windows. The large majority of them in Masan were quite ugly in the face department. It was interesting to see some in more kinky outfits such as school uniforms, nurse outfits and even sailor-type uniforms.

The walkway was large enough for cars to go through. You can often see middle-aged businessmen staring out of their luxury car windows sizing up the prostitutes (I guess they have standards). They pick up the prostitute and take her to one of the many nearby love motels and have sex with them. According to one of my Korean friends, the going rate is 18,000 won per 10 minutes or 100,000 won for an hour.

7. Is Starcraft really that popular?

Not as popular as people make it out to be. But yes, it is rather popular. If I talk about it at all in any of my all-boys classes, around 35-40% of my students will say that they play it on a regular basis. Great way to start English conversations. It is also aired on television, most notably on GOMtv.

8. Is Korean easy to learn?

You can learn to read and write Hangul rather quickly if you are committed to it. Took me a couple of weeks and I'm a slow learner when it comes to languages. I know friends who learned how to read it on the plane ride to Korea. I'm not quite sure on the speaking part since I just started that. So far, the grammar seems to be easier than English but like any other language, you have to work hard at it to gain any proficiency in it. This goes doubly so for languages like Korean because they are so different from English.

9. How much money do you make as an English teacher in South Korea?

I work at an EPIK (English Program in Korea) public school. The pay scale is listed here. I make 2.2 million won per month. I am a level 3 worker in an outer province. Since I work at two schools, I got a 100,000 won monthly bonus.

10. What are the most popular sports in South Korea?

There are several popular sports in South Korea. On the professional level, baseball and soccer are very popular. The Korean Baseball Organization is basically the MLB of South Korea. There are 8 teams in the league. The team nearest to me is Lotte Giants, which plays some of its home games in Masan.

As for soccer, The K-League is the country's professional soccer league, which has 15 football clubs. The team closest to me is Gyeongnam FC, which plays some of its home games in Changwon.

Basketball is also increasing in popularity. A professional basketball league (Korean Basketball Association) was started in 1997 and contains 10 teams.

Popular recreational activities include badminton, golf, bowling and of course Korea's national sport, taekwondo.

11. How is the nature? Do you have some nice mountains to trek in, beaches, national parks, or is the country very urbanized?

Although South Korea is quite urbanized, there are still plenty of mountains and hiking scenes available. After all, Korea is basically one huge mountain range as 70% of the country is comprised of uplands and mountains. The tallest mountain in South Korea, Hallasan is located on an island off the coast of South Korea called Jeju-do and measures in at 1,950 meters. A notable park that I've been to is Dalseong Park which is located in Daegu. It is both a park and also contains a small zoo. Haeundae Beach in Busan is a well-known hangout for foreigners and a popular vacation spot for tourists.

12. How is the clubbing scene?

Awesome. If you're into that kind of stuff, Seoul and Busan have a great nightlife. Although I am not one for clubbing or dancing, many foreigners and Koreans are. Rekrul is probably more of an expert in this area. But if you like a busy environment with plenty of things to do, look no further than Busan or Seoul.

13. Poker?

There's live poker here. You can find goofy games at expat bars, but they are rarely serious enough to play.

For casino play, Walker Hill and Lucky Seven in Seoul will be your fix. The game that I most often see is a 1,000/2,000W blind table with players who are on average 200 BB deep, sometimes way more than that. Due to the exorbitant rake and my teacher's salary + financial circumstances, I am not rolled to play any poker in casinos. For those who do, the players are horrific. Even the regulars are mediocre players. The rake (10% up to 15,000W) offsets that to a certain degree. But it is a beatable game for a small profit if you're good enough.

For online poker, Stars is available as are (I believe) most other online poker sites. If you wish to play on Full Tilt, you will have to do so via a proxy server as that software is blocked in South Korea.

14. Do you feel welcome as an American in South Korea?

Most of time, yes. Koreans don't roll out the red carpet for me, but most of them aren't hateful, ignorant people. If they are, they tend to keep it to themselves. Ultimately, it's like every other country. Every country has unbelievably nice and helpful people while some can be total *******s. But overall, most people tend to have neutral responses towards you.

Teenagers and young children will be in awe of you. Talk to young children in Korean and they will be very stunned and sometimes they scurry back to their mother. Teenagers in Changwon would walk up to me, say something in English and get all excited when you respond to them.

Old people tend to have more of a superiority complex when dealing with foreigners. This is partly because seniority and respecting elders is a huge deal here. But there are times when that doesn't apply. It is quite flattering to see a senior citizen bow towards you. This happened when I saw a student of mine with his father and grandfather outside of a local convenience store. The student waved to me and greeted me. His father slapped him lightly on his upper arm. The student apologized and then bowed. The father and grandfather followed suit. Naturally, I returned the favor and spoke my miserable Korean which impressed them to a degree.

15. What is your social life like?

Your social life is what you make of it. Mine is really good. There is rarely a weekend where I am not doing something. There's a small, loosely knit group of expats who all teach English in South Korea. We get together for dinners, hiking, drinking and things like that. But if you come here to make any actual friends, then you'll leave disappointed. That's not the way things work here. Friendships here are normally very shallow though there are definitely exceptions to the rule. So, you really can't rely on anybody but yourself. You do things together, but nothing really scratches the surface of anything beyond a loose association. People come and go in a year. So, why go through the trouble of becoming a close friend with somebody?

If you go into South Korea with the right social mindset, you'll love it. If not, well then you can be like some of the other expats I know and lock themselves in their apartment for the rest of their contract.

16. Do you like Korean Pop (K-Pop) music?

I do not like most K-Pop music. However, I do admit that it is very catchy. As a teacher, this is bound to happen to you because you'll constantly be exposed to it. Your students will gobble up K-Pop music and ask for seconds, thirds and then some more. When something becomes big here, it becomes HUGE. I can't go anywhere without hearing songs from 2NE1 or 2PM. My students will make references in class. I say the word "Nobody" and students will chant the refrain of the song "Nobody" by Wonder Girls. They sing the songs in group and perform the dances in the music videos with almost perfect choreography. The first time I saw one of my all-girls classes perform "Gee" by Girls Generation, I thought it was cute. When they do it everyday, yeah it wears on you.

17. Describe your best and worst moments in South Korea.

My 5 day hospital stay was horrific. Granted, I am partly to blame for being there as I decided to ignore the symptoms of my inner ear infection until they became unbearable. The hospital was ****, not very sanitary and their medical practices were questionable at best. I would ask for help with something and doctors and nurses would just walk right by me. Getting a diagnosis from a doctor was like pulling teeth. Even with my co-teacher present, he still wouldn't give a clear answer. The diagnosis was bull**** and they gave me medication for it. Of course they didn't tell me the side effects and I started getting kidney pains from it. I immediately stopped the medication and the pain completely went away.

My best moment was definitely my trip to Haesindang Park (called "Penis Park" by my friends).



18. What is the healthcare system like in South Korea?

South Korea has a single payer healthcare system not unlike Canada's system. For basic, conventional health care service, Korea's system is great. It's sufficient for your average, healthy person. It's inexpensive and practical. But for emergency and specialized treatment, America is the way to go. America has the best doctors and most advanced medical technology in the world. And they aren't "little improvements", I can assure you of that.

As somebody who has a seizure disorder, the health care system here has been woeful for me. Given my experience in a Korean hospital, I would have no qualms paying for America's health care service if I had to make a long-term stay at a hospital.

19. What is the crime rate in South Korea?

I do not know the exact crime rate. But violent crimes are minimal in South Korea. I think it can be owed heavily to the very strict restrictions on firearms and illegal drugs. Honestly, I feel safer walking down streets in South Korea than I do in America.

20. Lastly, what is your overall impression of South Korea?

I'm having fun here. Sometimes, the country can wear on you emotionally and can throw you into a bit of a rut. Being a foreigner in a very homogeneous nation does take its toll. But if you're resilient enough, you can recover and get back to normal. Going on a vacation is extremely helpful to recovering from that.

However, I would not want to live here and I would definitely not want to raise a family here. I simply don't fit in and there's very little room for foreigners to make their mark. No matter how accepted you may feel, you are ultimately a second class citizen and when push comes to shove, you will be treated as one.

---------------

I'll do one on teaching when I gain the motivation. I'm really tired now though.

im happy i found your thread. i will be graduated at the end of the summer with my bcomm and was thinking about teaching english in korea. i have a friend who is currently doing it and to be honest the money doesnt sound great but the experience seems like something that would be very worth while.

do you have any pictures of your city?

not sure if this was answered - how are the beaches and the moutains? have you been?

The FAQ above your post pretty much answers all of the notable questions asked in this thread in a more effective manner.

Not sure you're leveling me or anything. But I did answer the question in the FAQ right before your post.

As for pictures of Masan:



That's a skyline view of downtown Masan from a mountain I frequently visit.

My neighborhood isn't even in this picture. It more to the north and east of it.



I believe this is Dekkori, a fairly busy section of Masan. There are two foreigner bars in that area almost right next to each other (both are off screen).



This is Yongji Park in Changwon. Changwon is a city that is literally right next to Masan.



This is Jinhae. Jinhae is a city that borders Changwon. Jinhae is known for its cherry blossoms. Great place to take a girl.

The city councils of Jinhae, Masan and Changwon have approved the merging of these three cities into one large city of a bit over one million people. Once the provincial council approves it, it will be put into action. The city does not yet have a name.

This isn't really a Korea-specific question, but I didn't really know where else to ask it.

So I'm going back to America in about a week. I was only here for a month for winter break and I made about $3500 playing a little poker, which I've already exchanged for USD at this point. Is that a small enough amount of money where I can just have it in an envelope in my backpack and the airport won't care?

You only have to declare cash if you are carrying $10,000 or more.

Jesus, the douche level on Dave's ESL Cafe is way too high! Seriously, having a bunch of English teachers together on one forum creates a grammatical bitchfest. Correcting grammar on an internet forum is bad enough, but then insulting the person for using inconsistent verb tenses or a missing punctuation mark is absurd

It's a shame because there's a lot of information that can be drawn from that site. Seeing that we're pretty much unprotected by the laws of this country, a community like that could be a great thing. But it just fails on many levels.

So I will be visiting a friend in a few weeks in Seoul and have a few questions.

1) Does anyone have any experience with the lotte hotel http://www.lottehotel.com/

2) She says she lives "south of the river all the way to the east" and was wondering if anyone know of any hotels down that way either that would be a good option.
-edit: looking at a map that is a terrible description and won't be much help so I will try to get a better location from her tonight.

3) I am there for a Saturday night without her and would like to party who is in?

I am sure I will have more questions soon once I get through the last few pages of this thread and actually figure out where I will be staying.

1. I stayed at Lotte World Hotel in Jamsil (Songpa-gu) and it was wicked good, especially for its price. From what hear, LWH is a bit more upscale than LH. However, I am convinced that LH is pretty good.

2. In all actuality, the described location I think is Songpa-gu or Gangnam-gu. So, I do recommend LWH

3. I'm kind of far away for that

You can also visit the Seoul thread if you want more info (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...-korea-581050/)

does anyone have advice on getting a cheap one-way ticket to Seoul-Incheon from US?

so far, i've found one for $500 on cheapOair, leaving from LAX...

I found one here