I'm def not trying to sharp shoot you here but "just go with a korean" is a fairly large assumption for someone foreign coming alone. But certainly you'll have more luck then, as you would doing anything else in Korea.

I was under the assumption that the original poster asking the question was coming for a week. Not 6 months.

Also since you mention it I'm way interested as well, the places that will rent short-term w/ low key money for prices like that to a foreigner.

well yeah i guess you're right, if you have no korean with you it can be difficult

they don't like to trust you whiteys

Haha no, I'm trusting Syous and his answer. But there's been new posters, so I thought maybe someone had another answer/option or whatever. Kind of hard for a foreigner to get any infos on this.

And to answer your earlier question, yeah I got infos on VISAS and such.

Thanks for your input.

i heard this one is in a good location: http://www.booking.com/hotel/kr/yeok...aucity.en.html

what are the rules for bringing girls into such residence(might be ok since it's not a hotel?)

maybe it's been answered already but i couldnt find: what are the good places for something similar to 200nl or ~$200 donkaments/sngs?(if there's small stakes poker in korean casinos ofc). im mostly concerned about rake/cap and public that doesnt mind playing with white internet kid

How many ****ing times has this question been answered?

Korea has casinos which have NLHE cash games on occasion. Ultra deep stack poker. IIRC the rake 10% up to 15,000W.

Foreigner bars may hold a dinky **** tournament here and there. Otherwise, that's it.

True yegor, but really. The question has been answered at least a dozen times in this thread. If you just read it, you'd find it.

Two quick questions:

This one has also probably been asked a bunch, but I was wondering what the best way was to exchange korean won back into US dollars when I return to America. I have about 8 million won that I want to exchange. I don't really want to do it at Bank of America when I return to America since I hear they charge you fees, and I think if I tried doing it at Walker Hill's cage I'd get slightly robbed by the rate, so I was wondering if anybody knew of any alternatives.

Second question: Anyone know where I could get American-region Xbox 360 games in Korea? I figure this is sort of a stretch, but I thought there was a slight chance somewhere like Itaewon might have them so I was wondering if anybody who trolled that area might know.

As a US Soldier I may or may not have procured a few American-region xbox games for friends I met that weren't soldiers. Make a soldier friend and ask him?

or make a really good soldier friend who wants to help you buy a car and save 40% (bye bye taxes). just tip him a couple % of what u saved!

KB knows of what he speaks... that one is a bit more difficult to slip past the authorities though.

I knew a guy in Ulsan who was able to copy US version Wii games. Not sure if he does XBox games. Speaks a good amount of English and is basically open 7 days a week. Otherwise, that's all I got

*bump*

Hi guys! I know it has been a while, but I am indeed going to come back to Korea for another year of teaching (two max). Just starting the application process now.

I would have been back earlier, but a car accident resulting in a dislocated hip set me back several months. Thankfully, I am now fully recovered from the accident and can get ready to go.

I'm looking into the prospects of attending a hagwon in a bigger city. Gotta keep my ass out of the countryside. Will provide periodic updates if there is any interest.

Bob, if I may say so it seems you have horrible ****ing luck. I'm interested in the entire process to be honest. Not so much as to what life is like once you arrive, but moreso where you're looking, how you're applying, with whom you're talking, priorities of the decision... etc.

Yeah, I sure do. Dislocating my hip was the worst physical pain I had ever experienced. To top that off, it stayed that way for 6 hours because the only orthopedic surgeon on call was in surgery at the time.

Last time I took a job, I picked the first job and went with it. This time, it's a different story. I have the experience, credentials and knowledge to pick my spots. I'm going to be more selective and am willing to take more time to make my decision as to where I want to go. I can also apply for individual job along with using recruiters. So, the process will take longer and I must be more careful with who I choose given how some hagwons have treated previous foreign teachers.

Basically:

-Hagwon (or a really good GEPIK public school)
-Large city environment (or Jeju)
-Same or better pay
-No split shifts
-No douchebag owners

Anyway, resume is already updated. Waiting on getting my picture taken and then I start firing away.

Have you been to Jeju? Not a whole lot there... I wouldn't recommend it as a place to be for more the 1 week max.

I was there for a weekend. Enough time for a vacation.

But living there would be pretty cool. They pay extra there (at least for public schools).

And the Korean government continues to make things really difficult for people by adding on the prerequisite that applicants get FBI criminal record checks before getting a ARC in Korea. Now, a state record check is not sufficient. They also now require that documents are no older than 3 months rather than 6 months. Seeing that it takes 3 months to get the FBI criminal record check, you can see the tight timeframe.

Until January 1st, you get a job and visa with just a state record check. But you can't get the ARC without a FBI check. After January 1st, you need an FBI check just to get into the country.

You'd think that they would just be more selective when choosing teachers. Instead, they make the process as difficult as possible to reduce the applicants. This forces out experienced teachers who have options and leaves a bunch of 20-somethings like me who can't seem to get a decent job in America.

On the other hand it filters out people with federal criminal records (and there are tons of them in Korea) that might not appear on the state/local background checks that were previously accepted. FBI check is for the best -- for Korea and the job market.

Exchange for USD at any bank or wire the money to your US checking account. Never bring KRW out of Korea.

Though looking at the post date, I hope you figured that one out by now.

Tons of them? Where is your evidence on that?

What crimes would pop up on an FBI record that wouldn't on a state record? Unless you're talking about treason or espionage or some other rare crime, the FBI and state records will be the same.

I think it's worse for the job market. It chases away teachers who have options beyond Korea. Yeah the pool is reduced due to the FBI check, but the skill level of the teachers as a whole will be worse. No experienced teacher is going to put up with this nonsense paperwork process. So, you're left with the less experienced, less educated teaching candidates.

They claim that just doing the FBI paperwork makes things easier for applicants, which is bull****. They're just trying to weed out the applicants by making the application process as frustrating and difficult as possible. They even reduced the validity of the documents needed. It used to be 6 months. Now if a document is more than 3 months old, it is invalid. It could take 3 months for somebody to get their FBI background check. By then, the previous documents could be useless and they'd have to be sent out for again. If I knew about these changes in advance, I would have applied earlier.

I'm in Korea on a background check from my home county. This is the county that my parents live in that I haven't lived in for 5 years. It's not even a state level check. My record is clean anyway but it just goes to show how easy it is to manipulate the background check requirement. I simply got the county check because it was easiest, cheapest, and my recruiter said it was good enough.

I know plenty of people that got state background checks from their home state and admitted to me that they have a criminal record in a different state they went to college in/lived in.

I suspect Korean immigration is aware of this loophole and the FBI requirement seems like a natural step to take. Getting the FBI check isn't really that difficult anyway. I know a few people who got an FBI check in the first place because they figured it would be the most legitimate document to have.

More red-tape sucks but I really think the FBI check is better for Korea and for people looking for jobs who really want one (like you said it will reduce the number of applicants.) I'm going to call BS on your claim that the FBI check "chases away" experienced teachers. I don't believe your complaint has anything to with what's best for Korea but rather your own self-interest. Korea is simply making American E-2s present the federal level check the same as every other country has always had to do.

I don't think it is really going to take 3 months to get an FBI check. My friend said it took 3 weeks when he got one last year.

You still haven't provided evidence on these "tons of people" that have criminal records. I'm going to assume that's either hyperbole or that the majority of foreigners you are talking about spend every weekend in Itaewon trying to get Korean women blackout drunk so they can drag them over to a love motel and bang them. Contrary to what many Koreans think, that is not the typical foreigner. I have not befriended anybody in South Korea who fits that mold. Outside of my time spent in Itaewon and to a much lesser extent Haeundae Beach, I haven't met anybody like that.

The FBI check isn't the biggest problem. It's changing the recency of the documents combined with the FBI check. It used to be that if the documents were less than 6 months old, you were okay. But now it's 3 months. Combine that with the FBI check taking up to 3 months and there are a host of problems that could arise. It also means I have 3 months as of getting my paperwork to look for a job rather than 6 months.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on the part you call BS on. No teacher who has options to get a job in their home country is going to wade through 3 months of paperwork to get a job.

I'm using personal examples of people I know (not friends) to illustrate how big the loophole was. It seems that you don't want to acknowledge that for the sake of your argument but I'm just pointing out the flaw in the state level criminal check.

You're right though. We'll have to agree to disagree on this. Good luck with your job search.