Anyway! I thought it might be useful to post my reply to her on my blog. When I was researching Korea and TEFL, I happened upon several blogs that had useful information. So for anyone who happens to...um...happen upon my blog in their quest for knowledge, I thought I might offer up a little advice. Plus, it might be interesting to my loyal readers back home to know how my thoughts about this job market are running these days. Or not. But maybe! Or maybe not. We'll see.
For the purposes of Google searches, I shall now say many meaningless things that might make this entry more find-able for someone who could use it: teaching English in Korea, what to pack for Korea, things to bring with you to Korea, TEFL in Korea, TESL in Korea, advice on living in Seoul, teaching abroad, thinking about teaching abroad, teaching ESL in Korea, teaching EFL in Korea. Ok, there...done!
Here's the e-mail. Enjoy! Or maybe don't. :c)
Hi!
How exciting that you’re looking into coming to Korea! It is quite an interesting place, for sure. I have a lot of work to do this morning before I teach (it’s 10:19am right now), but I wanted to at least give you a quick reply while I was thinking about it. I’d be more than happy to have a longer conversation(s) with you about it, though.
Some thoughts.....
My reasons for coming here were sort of similar to yours. I’d studied abroad (in Germany) and loved it, so I wanted to travel again on a grand scale. Teaching English is a good way to finance that, and Korea has lots and lots of jobs with good pay and pretty decent benefits. Plus, I’d also never been to Asia, so Korea fit my dual criteria of “kind of far-flung and different” yet “unlikely to force me to dodge bullets on a daily basis or import basic food supplies from the States.” That was the initial attraction, but once I put my ear to the ground about Korea, I started learning about how it’s in such an interesting position right now. It’s hugely modern in a lot of ways—home internet access, global business, robot-like cell phones and skyscrapers are all ubiquitous—but it’s also a very, very old culture (the second-oldest continuous civilization on earth, in fact), so those two faces of Korea often intersect in strange and interesting ways. For instance, business relationships are highly Confucian-based, with lots of formality and hierarchy and deference, but the pop culture is really really sugary and seizure-inducing. Korea’s only existed as a democracy for about 15 years, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds...but there are also some not-so-awesome vestiges of the past. Like extreme national pride bordering on jingoism and an ugly amount of racism. (I wrote a blog entry about that.) So at times I adore Korea, at times it frustrates me, and at times it’s normal and comfortable...but it’s always interesting and edifying.
How exciting that you’re looking into coming to Korea! It is quite an interesting place, for sure. I have a lot of work to do this morning before I teach (it’s 10:19am right now), but I wanted to at least give you a quick reply while I was thinking about it. I’d be more than happy to have a longer conversation(s) with you about it, though.
Some thoughts.....
My reasons for coming here were sort of similar to yours. I’d studied abroad (in Germany) and loved it, so I wanted to travel again on a grand scale. Teaching English is a good way to finance that, and Korea has lots and lots of jobs with good pay and pretty decent benefits. Plus, I’d also never been to Asia, so Korea fit my dual criteria of “kind of far-flung and different” yet “unlikely to force me to dodge bullets on a daily basis or import basic food supplies from the States.” That was the initial attraction, but once I put my ear to the ground about Korea, I started learning about how it’s in such an interesting position right now. It’s hugely modern in a lot of ways—home internet access, global business, robot-like cell phones and skyscrapers are all ubiquitous—but it’s also a very, very old culture (the second-oldest continuous civilization on earth, in fact), so those two faces of Korea often intersect in strange and interesting ways. For instance, business relationships are highly Confucian-based, with lots of formality and hierarchy and deference, but the pop culture is really really sugary and seizure-inducing. Korea’s only existed as a democracy for about 15 years, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds...but there are also some not-so-awesome vestiges of the past. Like extreme national pride bordering on jingoism and an ugly amount of racism. (I wrote a blog entry about that.) So at times I adore Korea, at times it frustrates me, and at times it’s normal and comfortable...but it’s always interesting and edifying.
A couple “before you come” ideas. There are some great books out there that I’d recommend, especially “Learning to Think Korean” by L. Robert Kohls. I’m actually partway through it right now, and it’s been fascinating and extremely useful to me. He talks about the way Koreans think, contrasts that with the way Americans think, and recommends ways of conducting yourself (particularly in a business situation) that will give you the most success in Korea. The insights are absolutely invaluable. It was published in 2001, and much of the author’s experience with Korea is from several decades ago, so I sometimes get a sense that modern Koreans have traveled quite a bit further on the Western trajectory than he describes them, but the insights are useful nonetheless. (I’m also working with lots of people who have studied or lived abroad, so that probably gives me a skewed sense of how Westernized the average Korean is.) A couple other indispensable resources for me were some podcasts. (If you don’t listen to podcasts now, they’re easy to get and free; just search for them in iTunes. You can listen on your computer or on an iPod.) I listened to Seoul Survivors for about a year before I came; it’s discontinued now, but it was a great podcast where two or three English teachers in Seoul would get together and chat about teaching, living in Korea, and the Koreans. It was frequently funny and always useful. Now, two of the Seoul Survivors alumni are doing a podcast called (creatively) Seoul Podcast; I haven’t listened to that one much, but it seems to be less teaching-focused and more life-in-Korea-focused. I’d highly recommend both of them; they’re great (and free!) sources of information on Korea as it stands right now—and it’s truly a moving target, so any book more than a few years old will be at least a bit out of date. Oh, and speaking of which....don’t spend too much time on Dave’s ESL Café (known as “Dave’s Negative Circle-jerk” by one of the costs of the Seoul Podcast). The expat community in Korea can be really complain-y, and the forums on Dave’s tend to make teaching in Korea sound like the worst decision you could ever make. It’s true that some people have bad experiences, but there are far more people who have good experiences...you just won’t hear from them nearly as often on those forums. So take everything with a grain of salt, or else don’t use that website as a source of information at all.
Oh man—I gotta wrap this up! Ok, as for things you need to bring with you: the main thing everyone says is deodorant. Koreans don’t wear it, so it’s hard to find; before I came, everyone told me to bring several sticks of it. As for other toiletries, you’ll have no problem whatsoever finding them here, and probably in the brand you use at home, so don’t waste a lot of suitcase space on stockpiles of shampoo and eyeliner. (Incidentally, someone told me that Korean tampons are weird, but I haven’t had to buy them yet, so I don't know. There’s always Costco, though; you can get lots of stuff there that you’re used to, and memberships are cheap.) I’ve found it useful to have a couple of those seven-pocket accordion file things at school for teaching, so you might want to bring a couple—you can get them at Target—though they’re by no means necessary. I’m also really glad that I brought a ton of stickers, because they’re great for keeping my kids motivated in class. I got a box of 2000 stickers at the dollar store, and the kids love them because they can’t get those exact stickers in Korea; I’d recommend bringing some stickers with you if you’re gonna teach, but don’t waste your money on fancy ones. Hit up the dollar store if you want to bring some. Movies are also good; I brought a CD sleeve thingy full of DVDs. And books! I’d plan on bringing about 5 books you haven’t read yet. There are some good English bookstores here (though you might have to travel a bit to get to them), but the prices are elevated. Check out the websites for What The Book, Bandi & Luni’s and Kyobo to get an idea of the prices of English books and decide how many you want to bring with you. Definitely don’t plan on buying a digital camera or computer here; everyone thinks they’ll be so cheap since Korea makes a ton of electronics, but for whatever reason, they’re not. You’ll get a better deal back home. And once you get a job, ask about what people typically wear to teach. I brought too many clothes, especially dressy clothes; I usually teach in jeans and a t-shirt or casual cotton top. Skirts are good, though, for hot days; I can’t wear shorts to work, so it’s nice to have a couple skirts when it’s particularly hot. Your school’s dress code may differ, but again, just ask. I thought I’d have a hard time finding clothes in my size (I’m a size 8 jeans and a medium shirt), but apparently Koreans aren’t as tiny as Chinese people are; I haven’t really had trouble. Plus sizes are really hard to find, I hear, but standard small-medium-large kinds of sizes aren’t really a problem. Koreans DO have smaller feet, though; I wear an 8.5, and I’ve been able to buy sandals that are a bit short but okay (probably a size 8 American--it was a 250 Korean), but that was the largest size available. I’ve only bought shoes in subway stations—subway shoe-shopping is one of my favorite things about Korea—but it’s possible that larger sizes are available in actual shoe stores. Itaewon is the international area of town, and they have the most selection for larger American sizes of clothes and shoes, but if you wear a large-ish size in either thing, it might be wise to pack accordingly.
Ok, I need to run. (Well, I needed to run about 45 minutes ago, but I’m hopelessly long-winded.) Feel free to add me as a friend on facebook, Skype me, and/or send me your phone number so I can call you sometime. I hope this has been helpful! Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you. :c)
--Lori
P.S. Oh oh—one more thing! Calling the States from Korea (and vice-versa) is way cheaper than you’d think, which might be useful information to have before you come. You can get a monthly Unlimited U.S. subscription with Skype for $5.95/month that will let you call any US phone for free....and with that, you get voicemail and a SkypeIn number, which is a US number that someone can call and it’ll ring your Skype. Mine’s 678 [REDACTED--way to go me, being smart!], so someone in Atlanta can call that, and I can answer on my Skype...and it’s free for me, and like a local call for them. Also, I have a Korean pre-paid cell phone (I got the cheap one for $40, plus about $10 of pre-paid minutes every three weeks or so), and I set up Skype to forward to my cell phone if I don’t answer within ten seconds. It costs me 2 cents per minute for call forwarding, but it makes it so that my friends and family can call 678[redacted AGAIN!] and talk to me on my cell phone, halfway around the world, for free (for them) and 2 cents/minute (for me). You can’t find a better deal than that! You can also pretty much plan on getting a cell phone here; everyone has them, and the general consensus is that pre-paid is the best way to go for foreigners. If you end up in Seoul, just go to Technomart (in Gangnam); it’s easy to get one.
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1 comment:
Here's my question. When are you coming home? Yo Momma
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