This post doesn't fit with my theme, but I thought it would be helpful to get up to date information. I did a lot of research before I came, but not all blogs have dates. So this is current as of November 3, 2010. Follow this link to find out precisely what you need, gathering the documents can take some time.
You now need a federal background check before you can get a visa. A DUI can prevent you from getting a visa. This is a new change, I think it started in September. When I came here all I needed was a state background check. You will also need things to get an Apostille. (This information is only true for Americans, if you are an Aussie or a Brit, I don't know what you have to do, sorry.) In North Carolina this can all be done through the mail once you get everything notarized. If they try to tell you they can't notarize something tell them they can go to the state website and get a cover sheet where they fill out information about you, them and the document being notarized. There is nothing really official about a notarization expect to say that it is a true copy or signature.
If time is an issue you can go to the Secretary of State in your state and get it done that day. Once you have been issued a visa registration number you have to then go to the Korean Embassy in your district. This may require a lot of driving and possibly a night in a hotel, so be prepared. In Washington D.C. where I got mine I could only get an interview during a two hour period twice a week. After the interview I had to go back the next day to pick up my passport. On the link above is a list of the districts and their phone numbers to get the information about your particular area of the country.
I had two phone interviews with two different schools so all I can say about them is that they are easy and not worth the stress you would place on an interview at home. They ask you if you like kids, why you want to be a teacher, why you want to go to Korea (do a little research) and why you would be good at the job. Speak clearly, don't use slang if you can help it and don't speak at full speed. Don't talk slowly, you might insult them, but remember you are receiving a call from the other side of the world. I did my calls on my cell phone which I do not recommended, if you have access to a land line use that. You will also receive the call late at night due to the time change.
Now to the scary stuff. You got fired. It happens. I have heard of people getting fired in their 11th month. Be assured their is a procedure that must be followed and if it is not followed you can go to the labor board to complain. I know people who have gotten a severance from their past employer because of wrongful termination. Most employers think you don't know about the labor board or that you will be too scared to go to them. This is Korea, not some tiny backwards country no one has heard of. People on Dave's ESL Cafe recommend this firm if you do find yourself in a bad situation. But remember that coming to Korea is first and foremost a job not a vacation so don't be a jerk and make the rest of us look bad.
What to pack? I did a lot of research on this as well. Here's what I recommend.
Winter Coat- the winter here lasts 6 months and it gets really cold so be prepared
Bathing suit- it gets really freaking hot here in the summer so hit the beach and unless you are Korean sized
you won't be able to find one here
Hiking Boots- Korea is very mountainous, if your feet are on the smaller side you can get some boots here
but if you are a woman and you wear something bigger than an 8 the pickins will be slim unless you don't mind wearing men's shoes
New sneakers- You don't have a car anymore and you will walk more than you ever have in your life, be
prepared
Bras- Ladies unless you are a B or smaller you can forget about finding one here so stock up same for undies
Jeans- again the sizing is the issue not the availability
Bottom and top sheet- Get a Queen size. The beds here are longer than a full so you need the extra inches, they also don't sell top sheets here so if you want one you'll need to bring it
Towel- Koreans use a towel the size of a hand towel, so if you like to cover up after a shower, bring one
Makeup- foundation will be the tricky thing here, everything else you can get at the millions of skin product
stores
Deodorant- It's hard to find and expensive so go to Costco and stock up
Tampons- They are VERY expensive about $8 for 20, stock up and beg your mom for a care package
Toothpaste- I have used Korean toothpaste, but my students all have bad teeth. I don't know if thats all the
candy they eat to stay awake through 12 hours of school or because the water doesn't have fluoride in it or because of the toothopaste but I had a friend send me another tube last month just in case.
Variety of over the counter meds you can't live without- There are pharmacies everywhere and you can get what you need, but sometimes I just want some Nyquil or Tums or Midol because I know what these things do, its more of a comfort thing than an availability thing. You can still get tylenol here so thats a plus.
DO NOT BRING DRUGS YOU WILL GET CAUGHT AND YOU WILL GET DEPORTED OR IMPRISONED. IF YOU CAN'T GO ONE YEAR WITHOUT IT YOU SHOULDN'T COME HERE!!!!!
Other than that you should be able to find everything else that you need. If you live in a small town or village you should ask the other teachers what they think you should bring in addition to the above. Korea has a high speed train so you get to the big cities quickly if you are desperate need of something. There are also lots of western stores here. If you are overweight though, I suggest you bring as much as you can and spring for the shipping on anything you forgot, there's not a lot for those of us over a size 6.
I brought a book of DVDs with me for when I get homesick. I was pleasantly surprised to find several stations on TV that show American shows in English with Korean subtitles here. They also show movies on the weekends. The theaters usually have the big movies from home with subtitles of course though sometimes they come out after they do at home. Then there is downloading. I cannot advocate it, but it is a common practice here.
The subways are great and they are in English. The buses are a different matter, though that is slowly improving. You can get KTX tickets online and the trains run, in Daegu at least, every 15 minutes. There are also slow trains, but they are more difficult to get information on. They are improving the KTX site though, so who knows by next week it could all be easy as pie.
There are lots of ex-pat bars and sometimes I forget I am in a foreign country because there won't be a Korean in the place expect for the bartender. You should make a Korean friend though, more if you can. they will invite you over for dinner, show you the ropes, tell you the good places to go and help you translate when you are trying to travel or book a hotel. I don't know what I would do without my Korean friends. The YMCA is a great place to learn the language, I wish I had done it sooner. Good luck.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
One year in Korea, the possibilities are endless
I am a notoriously unlucky person. I am famous klutz. When you look up Murphy's Law in the dictionary there is a picture of me. I've been given various nicknames over the years, Grace Kelly, KellyOhNo!, and Spill Girl to name a few. Hence the title of my blog.
As everyone knows the economy is in the crapper and good jobs are hard to come by. i had one of these "good jobs" working for a small bank in Greensboro, NC. I use quotation marks because this job was hell on earth. A daily reminder of how stupid people are and a constant drain on what little patience I possess. It was the same thing day in and day out. Even a promotion didn't brighten my outlook at work. It was almost a 10% raise, but when you make $11 an hour, $12 doesn't make that big of a difference. i had health insurance so i really shouldn't have complained, but none-the-less I did.
A job like this is enough to pay the bills, but not enough to pay down debt or make life interesting. Forget about saving for retirement. Nope, I was in a dead end job. It was a struggle to get up in the morning and drag my ass in there. As my discontent grew, a plan started to form in my head as to how I could break out of rut and on to an adventure.
I have traveled abroad before, I even lived in Germany from 89-91 and saw the Berlin Wall come down. But that was when I was 11. Now I am 31 and I realize that I'll be settling down soon and I haven't realized a single one of my dreams. I am still waiting to grow up and figure out what I want to do with my life. I needed something to make that transition, and frankly get my shit straight.
A friend of mine went to China to teach English for a year and inspired by him I started clacking away at the old Google. Honestly, before my friend Dan, I didn't even know that this was something that you could do. Luckily my boring job allowed me ample time to do plenty of research on teaching English abroad.
I have a lot of debt from college as well as student loans. So I had to figure out a way to get to another country and make enough money to pay down the debt, save, live and travel. A tall order, I know. I quickly learned that China is quite an inexpensive place to live, but the pay is also quite low. Then, I found a recruiting agency that sent people to Korea. I signed up with the recruiter, Footprints Recruiting and started the long process of gathering the documents required to get a work visa in Korea.
So I got all of my paperwork together and had my phone interview with a school in Icheon. They decided to hire me and sent me a contract. Once you get the contract and all of your documents you have to scan copies to the recruiter and then also FEDEX them to the school. I put in my two weeks notice at work so I would have time to travel around and see all of my family before I shipped off.
The day before my last day of work I was eating lunch when my phone rang. It was my recruiter, and before she said a word I knew that she had bad news. Thus begins my misadventure, but not a time to laugh. She told me that the school had needed two teachers when they "hired" me. After they offered me the job they found a couple who wanted to come to his school. Couples are great for Hagwons because the school only has to pay for one apartment. I was shocked, angry and really scared. All I could think was that in 24 hours I would be unemployed. Then I wondered what happened to that famous Asian honor and pride that was supposed to be a cultural norm where there simply weren't exceptions? (More on that later, but to get a taste read this.)
Luckily the agency felt terrible about the situation and all of the recruiters were sending me links to other jobs. Then I found one that was perfect. I woudl be teaching Kindergarten, working Monday thru Thursday with a field trip every Friday, and I would only have to work 6 hours per day. Also the pay wsa significantly higher than any other job I had seen. The job was in Cheonan. The school's director told me it was 30 minutes from Seoul, but he failed to mention that was by high speed train, the town was really an hour and a half from Seoul.
I moved home with my parents where I would be storing my things while I was living in Korea. I was assured that my documents were already in Korea i would be leaving in about two weeks. So I breathed a sigh of relief and started packing.
Well, two weeks turned into a month. I emailed the recruiter once a week asking for updates. Every week he told me 10 more days. Then the truth came out, this awesome school in Cheonan wasn't open yet and the director was waiting on a license from the government before he could process my visa application. But I was assured he would have the license in 10 days. After 8 weeks of this I finally lost it and the recruiter acted quite indignant when I suggested that I was being strung along. He assured me that he was only telling me what the school was telling him. The time difference wasn't making things easier. The east coast is 12 or 13 hours behind depending on the time of year.
He found me another job and this time I didn't have to interview and the school quickly processed my paperwork. I had my visa about 10 days later. And then came some more waiting. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the director had to fire two teachers which was why he had hired me. I also had to wait on the other teacher who couldn't seem to get her paperwork in order. At this point I had been unemployed for three months.
I finally got my e-ticket and I thought I was ready to go. Then I got a call on Monday night asking me if I could fly out on Tuesday morning. I refused and ended up leaving on Thursday. When you fly to Asia there is a 12 hour time difference plus one day. So I arrived in Daegu on Friday night, at long last.
The lesson I learned here was a cultural one. Koreans believe in keeping face, its called kibun. Basically it means that Koreans will tell you a white lie in order to keep face. They will tell you what you want to hear so they don't reveal any shortcomings on their part. This has popped up time and time again while I have been living here. It may sound PC, but I don't ever believe what I have been told until the deal is sealed. I was aware of this aspect of their culture, but I didn't realize how strong a cultural norm it was.
So my advice to those thinking about coming to Korea to teach English. Don't quit your job at home until you have the ticket in your hand. That may mean that the school will have to wait and extra week or two before you arrive, but I found out that the debacle I went through is all to common. Once they have gotten your visa for you they are kind of locked in, though they can revoke it if they choose, so be nice about it when you tell your director that you can't come for another two weeks.
You may say, "Oh I have savings, I'll be fine." I had savings too, but I didn't get paid for six weeks. This is done to prevent what is called a "midnight run." Sometimes people come to Korea and the culture shock is too much for them and they leave the day after they get paid. If the school paid you on the first then there is no incentive for the homesick to stay. So most schools don't pay you until the 10th or 15th. The later into the next month it is the more likely it is that the school had been burned by a runner in the past. Be careful of these schools, email another teacher there and if possible try to get the email of an ex-teacher who has nothing to lose or gain by telling you the truth about the school. You can also search blacklists. But read what they write carefully, a crappy teacher may have gotten fired for being crappy not because its a bad school. Also there are a lot of franchise schools, one location may be on the list, but that doesn't mean that all of them are bad. Use common sense is my best advice.
As everyone knows the economy is in the crapper and good jobs are hard to come by. i had one of these "good jobs" working for a small bank in Greensboro, NC. I use quotation marks because this job was hell on earth. A daily reminder of how stupid people are and a constant drain on what little patience I possess. It was the same thing day in and day out. Even a promotion didn't brighten my outlook at work. It was almost a 10% raise, but when you make $11 an hour, $12 doesn't make that big of a difference. i had health insurance so i really shouldn't have complained, but none-the-less I did.
A job like this is enough to pay the bills, but not enough to pay down debt or make life interesting. Forget about saving for retirement. Nope, I was in a dead end job. It was a struggle to get up in the morning and drag my ass in there. As my discontent grew, a plan started to form in my head as to how I could break out of rut and on to an adventure.
I have traveled abroad before, I even lived in Germany from 89-91 and saw the Berlin Wall come down. But that was when I was 11. Now I am 31 and I realize that I'll be settling down soon and I haven't realized a single one of my dreams. I am still waiting to grow up and figure out what I want to do with my life. I needed something to make that transition, and frankly get my shit straight.
A friend of mine went to China to teach English for a year and inspired by him I started clacking away at the old Google. Honestly, before my friend Dan, I didn't even know that this was something that you could do. Luckily my boring job allowed me ample time to do plenty of research on teaching English abroad.
I have a lot of debt from college as well as student loans. So I had to figure out a way to get to another country and make enough money to pay down the debt, save, live and travel. A tall order, I know. I quickly learned that China is quite an inexpensive place to live, but the pay is also quite low. Then, I found a recruiting agency that sent people to Korea. I signed up with the recruiter, Footprints Recruiting and started the long process of gathering the documents required to get a work visa in Korea.
So I got all of my paperwork together and had my phone interview with a school in Icheon. They decided to hire me and sent me a contract. Once you get the contract and all of your documents you have to scan copies to the recruiter and then also FEDEX them to the school. I put in my two weeks notice at work so I would have time to travel around and see all of my family before I shipped off.
The day before my last day of work I was eating lunch when my phone rang. It was my recruiter, and before she said a word I knew that she had bad news. Thus begins my misadventure, but not a time to laugh. She told me that the school had needed two teachers when they "hired" me. After they offered me the job they found a couple who wanted to come to his school. Couples are great for Hagwons because the school only has to pay for one apartment. I was shocked, angry and really scared. All I could think was that in 24 hours I would be unemployed. Then I wondered what happened to that famous Asian honor and pride that was supposed to be a cultural norm where there simply weren't exceptions? (More on that later, but to get a taste read this.)
Luckily the agency felt terrible about the situation and all of the recruiters were sending me links to other jobs. Then I found one that was perfect. I woudl be teaching Kindergarten, working Monday thru Thursday with a field trip every Friday, and I would only have to work 6 hours per day. Also the pay wsa significantly higher than any other job I had seen. The job was in Cheonan. The school's director told me it was 30 minutes from Seoul, but he failed to mention that was by high speed train, the town was really an hour and a half from Seoul.
I moved home with my parents where I would be storing my things while I was living in Korea. I was assured that my documents were already in Korea i would be leaving in about two weeks. So I breathed a sigh of relief and started packing.
Well, two weeks turned into a month. I emailed the recruiter once a week asking for updates. Every week he told me 10 more days. Then the truth came out, this awesome school in Cheonan wasn't open yet and the director was waiting on a license from the government before he could process my visa application. But I was assured he would have the license in 10 days. After 8 weeks of this I finally lost it and the recruiter acted quite indignant when I suggested that I was being strung along. He assured me that he was only telling me what the school was telling him. The time difference wasn't making things easier. The east coast is 12 or 13 hours behind depending on the time of year.
He found me another job and this time I didn't have to interview and the school quickly processed my paperwork. I had my visa about 10 days later. And then came some more waiting. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the director had to fire two teachers which was why he had hired me. I also had to wait on the other teacher who couldn't seem to get her paperwork in order. At this point I had been unemployed for three months.
I finally got my e-ticket and I thought I was ready to go. Then I got a call on Monday night asking me if I could fly out on Tuesday morning. I refused and ended up leaving on Thursday. When you fly to Asia there is a 12 hour time difference plus one day. So I arrived in Daegu on Friday night, at long last.
The lesson I learned here was a cultural one. Koreans believe in keeping face, its called kibun. Basically it means that Koreans will tell you a white lie in order to keep face. They will tell you what you want to hear so they don't reveal any shortcomings on their part. This has popped up time and time again while I have been living here. It may sound PC, but I don't ever believe what I have been told until the deal is sealed. I was aware of this aspect of their culture, but I didn't realize how strong a cultural norm it was.
So my advice to those thinking about coming to Korea to teach English. Don't quit your job at home until you have the ticket in your hand. That may mean that the school will have to wait and extra week or two before you arrive, but I found out that the debacle I went through is all to common. Once they have gotten your visa for you they are kind of locked in, though they can revoke it if they choose, so be nice about it when you tell your director that you can't come for another two weeks.
You may say, "Oh I have savings, I'll be fine." I had savings too, but I didn't get paid for six weeks. This is done to prevent what is called a "midnight run." Sometimes people come to Korea and the culture shock is too much for them and they leave the day after they get paid. If the school paid you on the first then there is no incentive for the homesick to stay. So most schools don't pay you until the 10th or 15th. The later into the next month it is the more likely it is that the school had been burned by a runner in the past. Be careful of these schools, email another teacher there and if possible try to get the email of an ex-teacher who has nothing to lose or gain by telling you the truth about the school. You can also search blacklists. But read what they write carefully, a crappy teacher may have gotten fired for being crappy not because its a bad school. Also there are a lot of franchise schools, one location may be on the list, but that doesn't mean that all of them are bad. Use common sense is my best advice.
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