Comments on: Chaos, culture and Kim Chi: A Korean cafeteria

By: Atalie

Atalie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:12:42 +0000

Hello,

I am a high school senior this year and I plan on taking Korean as a minor when I enter college…I want to learn as much as possible about teaching English in South Korea to prepare myself in case I decide to do that as a job while I travel.

I know it might be too early to be worried about this, but I wish to just keep things in mind. I read on some of the comments about “recruiters” and my request is that if anyone has information to companies that have a good reputation for their recruiters can you please let me know??

i have plenty of time until I graduate from college, but I don’t think it’s ever too early to get connections and get associated with a completely different culture.

Any form of information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!!! ^_^

By: Jon Wick

Jon Wick — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:12:25 +0000

My blog is on the site travelblog.org. Its super userfriendly, easy to navigate and the forum is a wealth of knowledge out there for any kind of trip you’re planning. I highly recommend using it to anyone.

By: Anika

Anika — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:47:42 +0000

I love te colours and lay out of your blog, i really want to get hold of this theme, what are you using?

By: Jon Wick

Jon Wick — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:35:48 +0000

Thanks all for reading the article.
What I’ve found, even within my own little town, that there is so much variation in the system. Every school is a completely different entity playing by seemingly totally different rules. While all the public school English teachers are under the same contract with a program called GEPIK, the differences in every situation is staggering.
There are nightmare experiences, my good friend is dealing right now, but the majority of the people are enjoying themselves.
As with all experiences, do your research, be open minded, patient, practice a willingness to respectfully contribute to the place you are in as best you can with selflessness, and I’m sure good things will happen for you.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:31:01 +0000

John – Awesome article. Pretty spot on. The teachers usually have me go eat lunch with them before the students do, but honestly I’d rather be there for the time you mention, when it’s all chaos and fun.

As far as the comments go, notice how the only people with negative comments are peope who’ve never been here, while the people who have been here have positive comments. It depends on the person, of course. If you’re open minded, willing to try new things, out going, and friendly, you’ll have a good time here. If you are hard to work with, can’t make friends easily, and generally just an a-hole, sure you won’t like it. I know tons of foreigners, and the great majority like it, even ones with shitty schools, because they can find good things outside of school. Even if you do have a bad school, at least you’re making good money, and having a great experience.

By: tharp42

tharp42 — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:45:57 +0000

I’ve lived in Korea teaching English for over four and a half years. My first year I worked at a hogwon (language academy) and was treated very well and paid on time. My hours were longish (30 hours a week) but nothing I couldn’t handle. I think some of the people who whine so much about the working conditions here are kids straight out of college who have never suffered the indignity of working a shitty job back home.

I love it here. I’ve been working at a university for the past three and half years, so I have it pretty good. Most people I know here like it and are happy. A few people come here and get screwed by their employers (there are some sketchy ones), but they are by far the minority.

Koreans can be prickly to deal with at times, but I don’t mind. This place isn’t for everyone, but it’s sure worked out well for me.

Just my two cents.

By: Species

Species — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:29:05 +0000

I just got to South Korea this week, so my experience is kinda limited, but I think i can say not all jobs are the horror stories some will tell you. I have a job in a small public school just north of the Seoul city limits. I went through a recruiter to get the job and I’m the only foreign teacher there. However, everyone at the school’s been extremely accomodating, they even got me an apartment across the street from the Western Dom in Ilsan because the school’s in a poorer neighborhood and they’ve been doing everything they can to make sure that I’m comfortable. Granted, I’m kind of an easy person to please, but they’re working overtime to help me out.

I think the biggest thing to do is go through a reputable recruiter and try to hook with a public school. It’s less pay but they won’t hold you visa hostage, from what I’ve been told, and you even get more vacation days to boot (although you have to work every other Saturday for a half day).

By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:56:14 +0000

Hal is right on:

“It’s all about how much research you do before you accept a job. Yes, there are a lot of small private schools that have perfected the art of screwing foreign English teachers. However, there are also plenty of gigs in the country that will leave you with an overflowing bank account and a year’s worth of unforgettable experiences.”

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:23:11 +0000

I’ve also heard mostly negative things about South Korea. I’m currently teaching in Japan and a colleague here who’d previously been in Korea had only negative things to say about it–schools mistreat their teachers, the hours are awful, school directors would change plans at the last minute…but hopefully if you do a lot of careful research you could avoid this kind of thing. She made it sound like poor treatment of teachers was pretty common, though.

By: Hal

Hal — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:11:40 +0000

It’s all about how much research you do before you accept a job. Yes, there are a lot of small private schools that have perfected the art of screwing foreign English teachers. However, there are also plenty of gigs in the country that will leave you with an overflowing bank account and a year’s worth of unforgettable experiences.

I lived in Seoul for 2 years and can’t wait to go back (for disclosure’s sake, I worked for a publishing company, not as a teacher.)