Dragon Ball Z Uncensored

[Mike Dunn]

So I was thinking about teaching English in Korea in February. I know very little about Korea or the process of attaining one of these jobs. Here are some pertinent questions.

1. Should I go through gone2korea or are there more reputable agencies who might be able to get me higher pay/a better apartment?

2. What city should I live in? I enjoy going to bars and restaurants, and I prefer locations I can kind of just wander through (i.e. there is cool shit to look at). I'm not a big clubber, but I will probably want to hit up a nightclub at least a couple times during my stay.

3. What should I expect when it comes to interacting with Koreans. I assume they'll all know English, but will they be pissed if I try to order everything in English at a restaurant? Should I learn some rudimentary Korean before I even start this process?

4. If I decide to leave Korea less than a year into teaching there will I be able to do so freely? Will they still pay for my flight home? I know I probably won't get severance but I at least want to not be stranded in a foreign land.

That's all I can think of right now. Feel free to post any other advice you may have.

[Mike Dunn]

Oh yeah, should I go for public school or private school jobs?

[Ryoko's Biatch]

I think you should be asking Outland these questions, he's the real expert.

[Theldorrin]

What's the Korean equivalent of gweilo/gaijin?
_________________
@}-,-'- *~*~* Member of the FTU Elegant Tea Party Society *~*~* -'-,-{@

[Mike Dunn]

Hey MHH, I see you there, browsing this forum. What better time than now to participate in this thread?

[My Head Hurts 90]

1-2. All of these jobs more or less pay the same (2.1-2.6 million). The best place to go is Dave's ESL cafe because that has a million job postings. Although some recommended places to get a job are: Seoul, Busan (near the beach), Sokcho (ditto). All of those cities have a million things to do in them. You may make more money if you go to some hicktown though.

3. Korea is pretty English friendly place. You could probably get by just by pointing at stuff and saying chuseyo (can I have). That being said, life becomes a lot easier if you can phonetically read hangul (this is really easy, there's only like 20 characters), count to 10, and know the various dollar amounts. Waegukin means foreigner. Chincha means Really? Ne means yes. Anniyo means no. Jogi means here. Eodie means where.

4. Yes, to the first question. No to the second question. If you leave before a certain amount of time (depends on the contract, usually a couple months) you might have to pay them too.

From what I understand teaching at public school sucks because the class sizes are pretty damn big (like 30 or 40). You do get a stable salary though and lots more vacation. Hagwons (private institutes) have smaller class sizes and easier students (as in, they are older and have a higher level), but you'll probably get a split schedule, and an inconsistent salary because they go by hourly rates (you are guaranteed a minimum 120 hours a month though). Plus, you get paid to go eat and drink with your students at the end of the month (not officially, but most places let you get away with this).

Make sure you look over your contract carefully to make sure you're not waiting an unnecessarily long time for your pay or something.

There's a ton of art/music stuff in Seoul. It seems like every other week there's some festival going on. It helps to get a Korean friend because things are much easier to do. Korea is a pretty group oriented place anyways, so I wouldn't try to do to many things by yourself besides shopping/walking around. Still, I highly recommend coming here, even if the exchange rate sucks right now.

[Fagzilla]

If that old lady had snagged you in marriage, it would have been a Hag-win.

[My Head Hurts 90]

Oh yeah, make sure you bring enough money with you to live for a month (6-800 should do) because you don't get your airfare back right away.

And bother the hell out of people on how to get your money back or else they won't tell you you have to get your alien card, make a bank account first, etc...

[Seru]

What exactly do you teach them, anyway? Just the basics? Something from an already prepared lesson plan?

[My Head Hurts 90]

There's a book that we use, but I only use it if I feel it's necessary (it sucks shit).

I mostly just come up with things that get them to talk a lot since that's the way they're actually going to learn. But yeah, if you wanted to, you could stick to the book 100 percent of the time and no one would complain.

At the higher levels we're basically just doing current events/articles. I did a short story from my anthology one time, but that's only for an extremely high level class.

Every institute has their own book/plan though and some of them are actually good because they're discussion based. Pagoda is a really good hagwon.

[Ryoko's Biatch]

You should have your students talk about Starcraft.

[My Head Hurts 90]

I should also explain that all of the students at adult hagwons already have studied English for a couple of years. Although the lowest levels that I teach can still pretty bad since they only answer in monosyllabic responses.

It's in the public schools where things start to get pretty dicey though. One of my colleagues jobs was teaching English to 6 year olds and it sounded like a nightmare. However, by middle/high school, they all should have some basic understanding. It's not like you're expected to know Korean or anything.

[8 bit orgy]

I think you're logistically retarded.

[My Head Hurts 90]

k

[Big Fagot]

Eight hundred dollars to live for a month.

[My Head Hurts 90]

Yes, that is what I said.

[Theldorrin]

Peter is just thinking about how that's only a quarter of his rent.
_________________
@}-,-'- *~*~* Member of the FTU Elegant Tea Party Society *~*~* -'-,-{@

[Mike Dunn]

Thank you Brett, this is all very helpful. So you would recommend living in Seoul over Incheon? I only ask because from what I understand Incheon is on the coast, connected to Seoul, and has a cheaper cost of living than Seoul. Would a train ride from Incheon to downtown Seoul be more of a nightmare than it seems?

[Mike Dunn]

Ok I checked out Dave's ESL cafe and it looks like all his postings are for positions starting in september. I need a few months to save up money so I want to start in January or February. I'm thinking of putting in an application through Tiger English but I want to make sure it's not a scam. Are there any agencies you know for a fact are reputable and won't give me a shitty contract?

[Action Hank]

Let's all go to Asia and drink tea. It will be like a party.