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Why would I want to teach in Korea? Everybody has different reasons, and some are better than others. I think the best one is that it's a chance to get to know another culture and nation really well. Obviously you're immersed in the culture every day, and you'll most likely have a good 3 or 4 dozen weekends to explore and travel other parts of the country. In the west in recent years, there's been a growing interest in Asian culture. This tends to be focused on Japan (and more recently on China too), but I think Korea is a pretty good introduction to Asia. It's way more affordable and accessible than Japan, and frankly more welcoming to foreigners. Unlike China, it has a democratic government. It's more prosperous and modern than Thailand or Vietnam, or even China for that matter, which means you'll have more of the comforts of home. And (this is your mom speaking ;-) I think it's good for you. While Korea isn't as relentlessly communitarian as Japan (where, as they say, "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down"), Korean society is still more focused on the public good and less on the individual than most western ones. While I'm not sure I'd want to live my whole life that way, I think we westerners could stand to absorb at least a little of that ideal. And then there's history: if that's your interest, Korea has five thousand years of it for you to study. Korea's traditional architecture, art, and music are very different from what we're used to and can be a real treat to discover. Just wait 'til you see a Buddhist temple in the mountains, or hear a Samulnori band. Both will take your breath away (for very different reasons). Korea is a study in contrasts, with traditional culture right next to the most modern. At least for now, more traditional culture survives here than in most other developed Asian nations (but you'd better hurry, it's going fast). And while the scenery isn't always spectacular, it's surprisingly good once you get out of the big cities. Take a hike in the mountains and you'll see what I mean. Oh yeah, the pay. It is a job, after all. While you won't get rich, you'll be reasonably well paid, and your expenses in Korea are apt be pretty low. More on that subject later.
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What are the basic requirements? A hagwon is usually looking for a native English speaker with good diction. Mostly, they want you to sound like the Americans they hear in American films. They expect American standard usage and pronunciation, so if you have a strong regional or ethnic accent, work on minimizing it. If you speak rapidly, practice slowing down (but don't overdo it). It really helps to look western. Given a choice between a Korean-American who speaks excellent English and has years of formal teaching experience, and a well-spoken 100% American from the midwest with a degree in art or business, a hagwon director will take the latter every time. It also helps if you're female. Some people say that Koreans prefer female teachers because the female voice is higher and thus supposedly easier for them to understand. I'm not sure I buy that, but they certainly are used to women teaching in public schools. And, um, most hagwon directors are men. Fewer western women than men are looking for hagwon jobs. This is called a buyer's market. ;-) You do not need an education degree, though obviously it helps. However, by Korean immigration law, you do have to have at least a bachelor's degree of some kind. You have to prove it by submitting your college diploma or a notarized copy. When Margaret taught in Korea that was all she needed (well, that and a passport). Things have changed since then, and anybody who didn't see it coming back them must've had his eyes closed and his hands over his ears. There's still quite a bit of controversy over the real reasons and whether the changes are truly justified. There's even some question as to whether they'll ultimately pass muster under the Korean constitution. However, as far as I can tell, the controversy and questions are all within the ESL community. For the average Korean, it doesn't even register. Well, justified or no, constitutional or no, they're here. So now you have some exciting new hoops to jump through before you land in that hagwon classroom. You now need:
And here is what you have to send to your employer once you've landed a job. In most cases your employer will have plenty of experience in this and can walk you through it, but here's about what you should expect.
Final thoughts: I actually think the embassy interview is a good thing. In the past, hagwon owners and recruiters have been pretty spectacularly unsuccessful in judging the character of the teachers they're hiring - when they've even tried! - and some folks who probably shouldn't have gone to Korea (or indeed anywhere) have gotten jobs, with, um, less than optimal results. That said, this is a lot of running around and paperwork. And it raises some major privacy concerns, not just for foreigners starting jobs in Korea but also (and especially) for people already teaching who are (considering) renewing their contracts. It's much more than Margaret went through. To be fair, if she'd had to do this, she might not have taken the job. But then she would have missed out on the experience of a lifetime. Think about it.
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Where could I teach? Businesses, public schools, universities, and hagwons all are looking for native English EFL/ESL teachers. The most common jobs are in universities and hagwons. University jobs have great hours and benefits, but they're harder to get. Most of the universities require EFL/ESL instruction degrees and/or an advanced degree. Usually they expect teaching experience, too, preferably in Korea. In fact most universities tend to hire native English teachers that are already in Korea, rather than flying them over. So, most beginning English teachers work in hagwons. The pay is lower and the hours are longer, but the requirements are less and the jobs are very plentiful.
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What's a hagwon?
It's a private, commercial academy. The Hangul (Korean writing) for it is
The Korean government says there are about 3,000 English hagwons in South Korea. They come in all sizes, from tiny mom-and-pop operations to huge enterprises teaching as many students as a small-town US elementary school. There are even corporate chains that run hagwons in multiple cities. Some hagwons actually look like schools from the outside, but most are housed in ordinary downtown buildings that could just as well be home to accounting firms or export brokerages. A hagwon doesn't have to teach English. You'll find that many of your students also go to computer hagwons and math hagwons. Some of the large hagwons teach multiple subjects.
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. You'll see it spelled in English as hagwan, hogwon, hagwon,
and hakwon (there's supposed to be a standard for Romanizing Korean, but in practice
it varies a lot). Though I'm no expert in pronunciation, I suggest "hah-GWAHN"
-- add a bit of a "k" sound to the g. That should get you somewhere in the
neighborhood.|
Why does Korea have so many hagwons? For the same reason that some people want to build more private schools in the US -- Koreans think their educational system isn't good enough. They may be right, and I think it's because they're so focused on proficiency tests. Korean kids make some of the world's highest scores on them. In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) tests against other members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea took first place in science and second in math. But all that proves is that they do well at taking standardized tests. (Besides, Korea came in sixth in reading, and everything I've seen suggests that they are not a nation of readers.) Ironically, as proficiency testing has caught on in the US, Korea has begun to realize that their proficiency tests may be hurting their kids' ability to learn much beyond how to pass the tests. The Confucian principles which make up the core of Korea's culture really emphasize education, but Koreans have been unhappy with their public school system for many years. Private teaching is thus nothing new. But when Korea's former military dictator Chun Doo Hwan came to power in 1980, he banned all private teaching, calling it "inegalitarian." You could argue that in one way he was right. The best-educated kids get the best jobs, so if only wealthy people can afford private schools, poor kids tend to get shut out of the system. But fixing inequality is easy if you equalize everybody downward, and that's pretty much what banning private teaching did. It certainly didn't do anything to fix the public schools. It didn't actually stop the private teaching, either; it just drove it underground. So finally in 1991 the government gave in, and legalized hagwons. They kept them tightly regulated, though, still concerned about undermining public education and worried that low-income Koreans would lose their shirts to huge education costs. Then, in the mid-1990s, they relaxed the laws further, and the number of hagwons ballooned. In 1996, Korean parents spent US$25 billion in private education -- fifty percent more than the nation's entire public education budget! By 1997, surveys showed that 70 percent of elementary school children and half of middle and high school students were involved in some kind of private education. Supplemental education doesn't come cheap, at least not by Korean standards. The Korean government caps hagwon fees in an effort to keep it more or less affordable. In 2000, when Margaret was teaching, the ceiling was 85,000 won (about US$70) per month per student, but I think since then it's been raised to 120,000 won (about US$100). Some hagwons get away with (illegally) charging even more. These fees are not easy for families to handle. It's been estimated that the typical Korean family spends between 15 and 30 percent of its household budget on private education. In 2008, the total spent reached 18.7 trillion won (US$15 billion). But they pay them, many times for two or three children at two or three hagwons, because they feel that if they don't send their kids to private school, they're not doing their best for the kids. The honor of the family is at stake here. Of course the kids are the ones attending the schools. They spend a lot of time in classrooms -- as much as 18 hours a day, Monday through Friday, plus Saturday morning. Koreans tell their kids: "sleep five hours a night and fail; sleep four hours and pass." And they must not fail. The suicide rate goes up every year around exam time.
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But why English? What's so important about it? Easy. Money talks. And it speaks English. For better and/or worse, America is the holy grail of free-market capitalism. If you want to play, you'd better speak English. So English has been taught in most major European and Asian countries for years. According to the Worldwatch Institute, 350 million people worldwide now speak English as a second language -- 28 million more than those who speak it as their native language. A recent poll by the European Union found that 70% of Europeans believe that "everyone should speak English." At least as many Koreans feel that way. English is also fashionable. Korean entertainment and culture has a heavy American flavor (with some Japanese overtones). Just look at the use English gets in advertising. Then there are the high school and college entrance exams, which measure (among other things) English proficiency. The student who does poorly on the high school test will never be able to get into a top university. On the other hand -- fair or not -- there are cases in which nothing more than a high English score has gotten second-rate students into prestigious schools. What happens to the student who doesn't do well? He ends up in a second-rate (or worse) college and gets a second rate (or worse) job. This can even affect who he or she marries, and this in turn may affect what kind of care the kid's parents will get in their old age. So parents put intense pressure on their children to perform well in their tests. And they send them to hagwons. In theory, they shouldn't need English hagwons. All Korean children study English in public school, beginning in third grade. But public school English is taught by Korean-born instructors, and they mostly teach simple vocabulary and emphasize exercises. There's very little chance for the students to actually use English in conversation. This is why hagwons are so keen to have native English speakers: they want a person who can challenge the students to apply their vocabulary and learn conversational skills. Also, with so many hagwons in business, the competition is intense. The hagwon without one or more native English speakers literally won't make it.
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What kind of money can I earn? This is a perfectly reasonable question, so don't think I'm taking it the wrong way. But before I actually answer it I'm going to be annoying and spend a couple of minutes on my soapbox. First point: If you skipped over everything else above to get to this question, you're looking into Korea for the wrong reason. Korea is almost as aggressively capitalist as the US, and Korean business people take their profit seriously. No offense, but you probably don't have the language skills and cultural background to play the game their way on their home turf. You can earn a decent salary teaching English in Korea, but if your main objective is to rake in lots of money in a hurry, trust me - you'll be happier (and more successful) somewhere else. Second point: If you're looking into teaching English in Korea because you're unemployed and broke, forget it. Flying halfway around the world to take a job you know almost nothing about at a school you've never seen with a boss you've never met is risky enough. If you do this with no money in your pocket and no way to get home if things go sour, you're just asking for trouble. End of lecture. Back to the question. A typical hagwon salary runs 18 to 30 million won per year (roughly US$18,000 to US$30,000). This may not sound sensational, but when you figure in Korea's cost of living and low taxes, I estimate that this can be worth as much as a US salary of $32,000.
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I've heard that the real money is in private teaching. Well, yes and no. Some of the teachers' websites talk about how much you can earn this way. And it's true. "Privates" (yep, that's what teachers call 'em in Korea) can easily bring in more than your hagwon salary. But they're risky. Private lessons fall into a grey area of the law. Many hagwon contracts say you're not allowed to teach outside the hagwon. Your visa is based on the terms of your contract, so breaking your contract can get you deported if you're caught. Some teachers get away with it. But there are always rumors of "ringers" from immigration trying to catch foreign teachers by offering to pay them for privates. Personally, I'd rather take a hagwon salary, spend my spare time sightseeing and relaxing, and not have to look over my shoulder all the time. It's up to you; just make sure you know what you're getting into.
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Isn't Korea expensive? A friend of mine spent his vacation in Seoul, and he said everything cost almost as
much as in Tokyo! Yeah, I've heard that too. These guys must be in some alternate universe. I guess if you stay at 4-star hotels, go to fancy western restaurants, and drink American booze in the Itaewon bars, you probably can spend hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars a day in Seoul. As I said before, Koreans are shrewd business people and unabashed capitalists. They know about corporate expense accounts. But you can do that anywhere. And believe me, Korea doesn't have to be anywhere near that pricey. In May of 2000, I spent a night in a business-class Seoul hotel that my US travel agent had booked for me (the Sofietel Ambassador) and it cost me $150. That's sure not pocket change, but it wasn't really excessive by international standards of the day. I'd say Seoul is about comparable to a midrange American city, such as Detroit or Tampa. We don't do much of that business person type stuff anyway. We mostly stay in Korean style yagwons (motels), eat in Korean restaurants, and drink soju and makkolli (when we drink any booze at all, which isn't very often). I think the most we've paid for a yagwon stay, even in Seoul, was 43,000 won, though admittedly that was a few years ago. Most places it was more like 25,000 to 30,000. A typical meal at a family-owned Korean restaurant usually runs us about 3,500 to 6,000 won. Again, meal prices are a little higher in Seoul, but we've seldom spent over 20,000 won on a Korean dinner for the two of us. (We did drop a good bit more than that on some really great dim sum once, and Sanchon in Seoul was a brisk and bracing 35,000 won per person -- uh, again, once.) So, OK. Korea can be moderately expensive if you insist on living like you haven't left home. It's up to you, I guess, but personally I don't see the point to spending a year or more in a foreign country if you're going to do that.
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Can I send money home? Sure. Go to a bank and have them cut you a bank draft in dollars (or whatever your currency is). They'll look at your passport and charge you a few thousand won. Mail it home. Done. Some banks will stamp your passport if you wave more than about a million won at them. Like the US, Korea has laws that require banks to notify the law when someone is moving around large chunks of cash (the idea being that it might be drug money, I suppose). If that bothers you, just spread your transactions out to different days and different banks. I definitely recommend this if you're teaching a lot of (illegal) private lessons (see above). You can also bank your money in Korea and take it home with you after you leave your job. There's no longer a legal limit on how much cash you can take out of Korea, but you'll have to declare large sums to customs at both ends (it's US$10,000 when you enter the US; I don't know what the threshold is for Korea). Just be aware that, with the current legal climate in the US, entering the country with a large fistful of cash may generate some questions.
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You were saying something about working less than 40 hours a week ... What, you don't like to work? ;-) Thirty to 35 teaching hours a week isn't too uncommon, and a few teachers are now working 25 hour weeks. I hope these folks realize how lucky they are. Although Korea now officially has a 40 hour work week, that's fairly recent. When Margaret was there, the standard was 44 hours (half a day on Saturday) and lots of people still work something of the sort. Some hagwons do actually make you work six-day weeks, including Saturdays. That's one more reason not to take the first job that comes along. On the other hand, I'd rather work 40 hours or even 6 days a week for a director I really liked, than 25 or 30 hours a week for one I hated. But that's me. Your contract will specify the length of your work week (though that's not necessarily the final word -- more on this later). But don't get too excited over a contact that says you'll teach for 30 or 35 hours a week. That's teaching time. As I said above, some hagwons don't pay you for your time preparing lesson plans or grading papers, so you can easily end up with a 40-hour (or more) week. You should expect your work schedule to change, maybe often. If a recruiter or director tells you otherwise, don't believe him. Every hagwon's enrollment changes from week to week. You also want to find out whether the school expects you to work "split shifts." Because many hagwons teach both children and adults, you could find yourself working part of your hours in the morning and part in the evening. You may even get split shifts in a hagwon which teaches only kids. Worse, you could end up teaching adults in the early morning before they go to work, and again in the evening after they're done for the day. Some teachers hate split shifts. Others aren't much bothered. A few actually like having a break in the middle of the day. Just make sure you understand what your hagwon expects before you sign on the dotted line.
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What about vacation time? Most hagwons teach year-round. You probably won't be able to get enough consecutive vacation days to make a trip back home -- if you get any vacation at all -- so you should plan to stay in Asia for your entire year. However, you'll get the major Korean holidays off. Usually, there are twelve, one for each month of the year. But note that they might not be paid holidays for you. Korean law doesn't actually require that employers provide paid holidays for folks who work less than 40 hours per week, and remember what I said are typical classroom hours. At least two holidays are long ones (3-4 days): Solnal, or Lunar New Year, is in January or February; Chusok (or Chuseok), Korea's equivalent of Thanksgiving, falls in September or October. If you want to travel in Asia or nearby during Korean holidays, make sure you get a multiple re-entry visa when you apply for your alien registration (this seems to be the standard visa for most US residents). If you plan to go anywhere in Korea over a major holiday, keep in mind that nearly all Koreans travel to their ancestral homes then. You'll need to make your travel reservations several months ahead. Make train or airline reservations if at all possible. Bus would be a last resort. Whatever you do, don't attempt to travel by car on holidays, or you'll be sorry. Traffic slows to a crawl with all those people on the road. Some teachers arrange to spend a few weeks at home between contract periods. Alternatively, you may be able to negotiate some vacation time if you renew your contract for another term. If you're successful as an English teacher, you may find that after a year or two you can move to a university instructor position. These are coveted jobs because of their short hours (typically under 30 hours per week) and long vacations (4-8 weeks per year).
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Would I really have to stay in Korea for a year? If the hagwon's really desperate, you might be able to get a shorter term. But the standard contract is for a year. And you might want to think twice about working for a hagwon that's desperate. They put you under a contract because you're expensive. The hagwon has to cover recruiting costs, immigration paperwork, airfare, and possibly apartment "key money." Break-even point for them usually comes about 5 or 6 months into your contract. Typically, if you break your contract and leave early, they'll make you pay part or all of your airfare, which would otherwise be free. Some hagwons hold part of your first paycheck, to offset the ticket cost in case you do split early -- another reason not to go to Korea with empty pockets. Before you even start looking for a job, stop and think: Are you prepared to spend that much time in Korea? If you've never been out of your homeland before, take a 2-3 week vacation first. If you can't go to Korea, go anywhere overseas, especially if you're an American. I say this because the US standard of living is appreciably higher than almost any other nation's. Once you've been outside the US, you've seen this, so you're more prepared for what you'll live with for your year (or more) away from home.
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Is Korea's standard of living really that bad? No, not at all. It's just that Americans are used to a big, affluent country with lots of wide-open spaces. Hardly anybody else in the world lives that way. When Asians and Europeans come to the US, their first reaction is usually, "Everything's so BIG!" And it's true. Everything is: houses, vehicles, roads, supermarkets, refrigerators, schools. Even our pets are bigger. Even we are. When you go overseas, the scale is going to be smaller and the standard of living lower. For Americans who haven't travelled before, this takes a little getting used to.
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I want to come back to the Korean standard of living, but first tell me more about the contract. This sample contract is fairly typical, but yours may contain other provisions. Do I need to tell you again to read it carefully before signing? Also, make sure your hagwon director has read it and remembers what's in it. This is not a joke! There have been cases in which a teacher pointed out a contract provision the director didn't know was there. I would stay away from a hagwon that wants you to sign a contract written in Korean. At the very least get a third party to translate it for you first. Even if you also sign an English contract, the Korean one supersedes it. Know what you're signing. Also, understand that a contract has a sort of different meaning to Koreans and westerners. Most Korean employers see a contract as more of a starting point than an ending point. Your contract may spell out the number of hours in your work week, for example, but the fact that your school's director later asks you to take on more work (for more pay, we hope) probably doesn't mean that he or she is trying to renege on the contract. The director sees this as normal "enhancement" of your agreement. But should you want some changes to the contract, good luck! Is this a double standard? Yep. So it goes. Contract disputes are one of western teachers' biggest complaints with hagwons. I suspect that at least some of these problems arise because hagwon directors (surprise) often don't have as good a command of English as one might hope. You've read about Asian honor and pride? Well, this is a point of honor. They can't admit they don't understand without losing face. So you'll be discussing a contract "enhancement" and your director is nodding and making affirmative noises. You think he understands your answer to his proposals. Later he acts like you've betrayed him. He gets upset, you get upset, and the relationship is damaged (maybe fatally). This can be avoided. When your hagwon director wants to tweak your contract, don't assume anything. Bring in a friend or fellow teacher with really good translation skills. At the end of the negotiations, get your director's revised expectations on paper. This may not totally prevent misunderstanding, but it could make the difference between a decent working relationship and irreconcilable differences. I know there are some teachers who say "Never give an inch." I don't agree. Koreans are used to respectful negotiation, but they also value cooperation and harmony in relationships. It'll do you more good than you know to swallow your pride and accept, without complaint, a few of these contract changes. I'm not saying you should yield on the major issues, just find some things you can say "yes" to. You'll build up "brownie points" that will help later when you have to negotiate something really important.
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How will I get to Korea? The hagwon will usually buy you an economy-class air ticket, or else give you a transportation allowance. Once you've signed the contract and waded through the immigration paperwork, you should be packed and ready to leave, because they'll probably want you there as soon as they can book passage for you. The reason is that a hagwon director without a native English speaking teacher on his staff has parents hounding him about when the new teacher will arrive. He's losing students and income, so he needs you yesterday. There've actually been cases where instructors were taken right from the airport to the classroom (not exactly an auspicious beginning to the experience). Hagwon directors who haven't flown halfway round the world the way you just did don't have a clue about jet lag. Margaret at least got to take a nap before they threw her to the pre-school wolves.
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Where will I live? In the city where you work. Duh. (Sorry.) Almost all hagwons will put you up as part of the package. It's usually one of three arrangements: a small private apartment, a larger house or apartment shared with other teachers, or (rarely) homestay with a Korean family, usually another hagwon employee. Some of the big hagwons and chains have their own apartments. In the early 2000s I heard of some Seoul hagwons cutting back on their housing benefit because of what it cost -- rent and key money (a cash payment you put down with the apartment owner so the interest on it can pay part or all of the rent) increased 40% between 2000 and 2002. I haven't heard much about that lately, which figures. There's still so much competition for teachers that not many hagwons could afford to drop that perq. Most teachers think they want their own private places right away. But keep in mind that living with someone who already knows his or her way around can really help you get up to speed in Korea. If you're sure you want to go it alone, the best way is to negotiate a housing allowance in your contract. This means you're completely on your own, including finding your own place to live. Unless your Korean is really, really good, you'll need a trustworthy Korean friend to help you make the arrangements. This may give you a little more privacy, but don't count on the same level that you get at home. Your landlord will know who you work for. Not to scare you, but if you get into a tiff with your boss, you can't expect the landlord to automatically take your side. If the hagwon director wants to get into your apartment to snoop or see if you're hiding out, most likely the landlord will let him, whether he paid the key money or you did. And now a word about Korean apartments. That word is "small." Like Japan, Korea is a crowded nation. It packs 48 million people -- roughly the populations of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania put together -- into a country about the size of Indiana. Your apartment will be smaller than what you have at home. What Americans would call an efficiency or studio apartment is typical, particularly in larger cities such as Seoul and Pusan, where housing costs are high.
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Can I get decent Internet service? Uh, I think so. Korea is way ahead of the US in broadband access -- in fact late in 2008 they moved into first place, passing Hong Kong and Japan. Over 90% of their homes are wired. In Seoul the percentage exceeds 100% because some homes actually have more than one connection. Actually "wired" is not quite the right word, since roughly half of those broadband connections are mobile wireless. DSL is next, and then cable. Cost is 25,000 to 30,000 won per month (about US$25-30). You'll probably need some help from a Korean friend when you sign up. Chollian used to have an English page with signup instructions, and claimed to have an English speaker on their staff. Thanks to them, I was actually able to set up Margaret's dialup service from the States (back in 2000, it still made sense to use a dialup). But their English page seems to have vanished, and I don't know of any other ISP that's ever catered to English-speaking foreigners. If you do, please let me know. Most likely, your hagwon will have a broadband connection you can use for webmail. But ask your director before assuming it's OK, and remember that you don't have a lot of privacy with great bunches of Korean rugrats bouncing around you (to say nothing of your director and the other teachers). You'll be pretty much left alone in a PC-bang (literally, a "PC room" or what we'd call an internet cafe). There you can use a computer for 1000 won per hour. This is great for traveling light, but it has some disadvantages:
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Will my mobile (cell) phone work in Korea? Probably not. Korea uses a different system from almost every other country. A typical $50 unlocked world phone (multi-band GSM) will work just about anywhere - except in Korea (and Japan). A few of the 3G phones do work in Korea, at least in theory. They don't cost $50, but you can generally find one in the $120-150 range without too much trouble. Look for a phone that says it supports WCDMA 2100. But the phone isn't the problem. The problem is the cellular service providers. The big ones are SK and KTF, with LGT on their heels. The problem is also the Korean governement. Unlike the EU, where mobile service is a utility like water or electricity, in Korea there aren't any laws (at least none that are really enforced) that make it easy to switch providers. You can't just walk up to a street kiosk and buy a cheap prepaid SIM card the way you can in Europe. The Korean service providers act like US cellular companies did a decade ago. They want to sell you the handset and lock you into their plan. So you can take your 3G smartphone to Korea. But can you make it work? Don't bet on it. SK, KTF or LGT will gladly sell you a handset to use with your own "world SIM," but good luck on the vice-versa. You don't need them to sell you a handset anyway. You can use your own with that world SIM, if you really want to. But why would you? They cost anywhere from about 20 cents to a couple of dollars (!) per minute. You might be able to put up with that for a 2-week visit, but I doubt that you'd want to go a year that way. And if you think it's expensive for you, just wait until you see what it costs your students to call your foreign number. Not too practical. Your best bet will most likely be to buy a mobile phone after you get to Korea. As with so many other matters (sigh), the process goes much more smoothly with the help of a native guide. Card phones aren't too tough to get, but if you want a contract plan, your Korean friend may have to countersign for you or even pay the monthly bill for you. You'd better be very good friends. If you want to try flying solo, Galbi Jim has a fairly detailed guide to the where and how of mobile phones. These folks claim to be good English speakers, but I have no experience whatsoever with them and they spam the ESL forums pretty regularly, so caveat emptor.
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I was born in France (Italy, Norway, Taiwan, etc.) but I speak excellent English.
Will I have trouble finding a job? Sorry to say that it doesn't matter how good your English is, if you don't at least have a passport from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, or South Africa, you're out of luck. About the only thing you can do is enter under a tourist visa and try to get some illegal private tutoring gigs. That's pretty risky and I don't recommend it. I wish I had better news for you, but that's the way it is. See the requirements above for more information.
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I'm an American, but a minority. Will I do OK? What I'd like to answer is, "In Korea we're all minorities." This is true, strictly speaking. Korea is gradually becoming more diverse, but basically it's a homogenous society, so historically they haven't had to deal with anyone who looked very different from the norm. As in Japan, the word for foreigner, weiguk, means "outsider." The "outsiders" they've had the most dealings with have been white Europeans and Americans, so these are the ones they're most comfortable with, and the ones they mostly want teaching them English. If you're of African descent, you'll have some challenges, but they're not insurmountable. If you have a thick skin and plenty of patience, you can find a hagwon teaching job.
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I don't speak any Korean at all! What will I do? Don't worry so much. Most of the recruiters will tell you not to worry at all, but in reality it does help to speak and/or read Korean - not so much in the classroom as out of it. It's frustrating to walk into a restaurant and not have any idea what the menu says. You can't even guess, because Korean script, Hangul, is utterly unrelated to any western alphabet. It's humbling to always have to call on a Korean friend to set up your phone and internet service, tell the taxi driver your destination, or figure out which of the cartons in the store's cooler (if any) is half-and-half. At school or at social events, sometimes you'll feel left out when the other teachers are chattering away in Korean. I'm not going to tell you there are no frustrating moments. But you can get by. You are, after all, working for an English school. The other teachers, the director, and even your older students will go to great lengths to help you, as long as you treat them nicely in return. (Give them small gifts as thanks now and then.) The Korean teachers and your director will answer the telephone and deal with parents. They'll also usually help with discipline problems. (No, Korean kids are not quiet little angels. Sorry.) As for teaching, you'll be surprised how often you can get your point across to both children and adults with few (or no) Korean words. In fact, even if you know Korean, your hagwon director may tell you not to admit it to your students. Your job is to challenge them to speak English. In theory, every Korean schoolchild learns English, so you'd expect that most adults would know it. You would be wrong, which is one reason Korea wants you to come over and teach English. Korea's public school English teaching system is broken. However, many business people and a surprising number of college kids speak English at some level, because they have to. Over your first few months, you'll pick up a few Korean words and phrases. Half and half Korean and English conversations sound weird, but they do work. If you carry an English-Korean dictionary with you, you can also look up keywords and point when you have to. I also recommend that you learn the basics of Hangul before you go. Don't freak! Although some people use the words "Hangul" and "Korean" interchangeably, they're not the same thing. Korean is the language and learning it can take years. Hangul is the alphabet and it's not tough at all. After all, it was deliberately designed (in 1446) so that anybody could learn it, including Koreans with very little formal education. It has some quirks, but it's still probably the world's most rational alphabet. You can pick up "survival Hangul" in a couple of weeks. You'll find some online Hangul resources on our weblinks page. Learn Hangul and you'll be able to read signs and (maybe) write down words you hear. Now, granted, you won't have a clue what the signs and words mean, but at least you'll have a shot at figuring out whether the destination on the bus sign is the one you want before you get on.
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What are Koreans like? Just like us. I'm not being glib. They want the same things from life that we do -- happiness, wealth, comfort, love. But they are not us. Their traditions and ours are half a world apart, so they pursue those goals differently. Some of the cultural differences can lead a first-time western visitor to think of Koreans as rude or thoughtless. The classic example is crowd behavior. The English form nice polite queues for everything; Americans stand around somewhat impatiently; Koreans just shove their way through. Try to make a line at a ticket window and there's a good chance someone will just push you aside and step right up. He will not apologize. In crowds (which you'll run into just about everywhere in Korea, since it's one of the world's most densely populated places) you're going to be jostled and bumped and pushed. No one will apologize. This is probably considered rude where you come from. But this is not home, and these are not westerners. Your manners and rules don't apply. Pushing and shoving is not considered rude here. Read that again. One more time. I'm constantly amazed that westerners can know this is Korean custom, and they still get miffed about being jostled and pushed. Why? Get used to it! This is Korea, and they're not being rude. Nor is it rude for you to do it here. Go ahead, give as good as you get. Same with table manners. Some westerners think Koreans are crass because they slurp up noodles, tip their soup bowls to their mouths, and suck the meat off their stew bones and spit the bones out on the table. Well, guess what -- some Koreans think we Americans are crass because we hold our McDodo-burgers in our bare hands. They hold them with the paper wrapper. Customs differ. We're appalled at the way Koreans treat dogs, they're appalled at the way we treat old people. Be a little more broad-minded, OK? (Blink twice. Think "cultural difference." Smile. There you go.) They may eat dogs, but they treat foreigners really well. If you look lost, an English-speaking Korean will stop and ask if you need help. He may walk you to your destination even if it's out of his way, call a cab for you and tell the driver where to take you, help you buy a bus ticket and see that you get on the right bus, or even drive you to your destination in his own car. All of these have happened to us. Your students and colleagues will take you out to dinner, invite you to their homes, and ask you along for sightseeing or hiking. They'll teach you about their culture and religions if you ask (and often if you don't). They'll tell you how proud they are of their country and its success (as of 2007 Korea was the 13th largest GDP in the world). All of these have happened to us. If you let yourself, you will feel at home in Korea, I promise you. We did. What if you're one of these people who say "I'm a foreigner, and they should expect me to act like one"? Well, let me ask you this: what would you think of a Korean who came to live in the US, and pushed his way through crowds and cut into lines like he was back in Korea? Now guess what Koreans will think of you if you don't at least try to play by their cultural rules. You really need to know the basics of behavior before you go. You'll make mistakes anyway. We all do. But Koreans are tolerant of foreigners' mistakes. If you accidentally break the social rules, most likely one of your Korean friends will take you to one side and explain how you should be acting. Believe me - this person is doing you a favor. I know, sometimes it doesn't seem that way, especially when his English isn't that great. You may feel that he's treating you like a child. Give him a break - he probably doesn't know the more diplomatic language that you'd normally use in dealing with an adult. And he's trying to help you. You would probably do exactly the same thing for him if he were the visitor in your own country. So listen to him. If you consistently refuse to listen to your Korean friends when they give you guidance like this, you'll find that after a while you don't have Korean friends any more. Things won't go so easily for you after that. This isn't a threat, it's a fact. If you think you can go to Korea and act like you've never left home, then do yourself -- and the rest of us -- a favor. Stay home. Trust me, Korea doesn't need you that badly. But if you're open minded, polite, thoughtful, and willing to learn, come on over. You'll do fine. And that's all I'll say about that.
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I'm a woman. What are Korean men like? Uh, well, mostly somewhat sexist. Confucianism is not based on equality. Confucian rules sort people into a strong column and a weak column. The weaker person is subject to the stronger one; the strong one is obligated to protect the weaker one. Women are supposed to be dominated by their fathers, boyfriends, and husbands. This is obviously very different from western ideals. (Understand, I'm not advocating this, just telling you how things are. Don't shoot the messenger.) Korean women have made tremendous gains in recent years, but feminism has a long way to go in Korea. Women are just now beginning to hold positions of authority in business; they're still seen primarily as wives and mothers. A woman's status in Korean society is almost always lower than a man's. Meanwhile, a good marriage is important to a Korean man's status. There also seem to be quite a few Korean men who think that all western women are promiscuous, like the ones they see in films. So:
But date them? Marry them? Well, that depends on what you want from a relationship. In my opinion, what makes most relationships work are common interests, common background, and good communication. You're going to be lucky to get two out of three with a Korean mate. If you think western men can be uncommunicative, try adding some Confucianism and a language barrier. So is a romantic relationship impossible? Of course not. But if you're going to Korea because you think you'll come home with a husband (or wife), I think you need to find another reason to go. But, hey, I'm a middle-aged man and I already have a mate, so who am I to say?
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What about Korean food? What's it like? Not too subtle. They tend to go for strong flavors, including red pepper and garlic. There are very few choices for vegans, but you'll probably be OK if you can eat fish. |
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Do they really eat dogs? Yeah, but you don't have to. Boshintang (dog meat stew) restaurants are usually off the beaten path and are easy to spot -- they generally have pictures of dogs on their signs. Read more here.
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I hear Koreans smoke a lot. Oh yeah. They're some of the world's most enthusiastic puffers. That may sound good to you if you're tired of the second class status smokers seem to hold in the US, but it's not quite as simple as that. And if you're a nonsmoker you may be thinking this isn't a place you want to live -- but, uh, it's not as simple as that either. Margaret and I are both lifelong nonsmokers, and we don't much care for inhaling other people's smoke. The interesting thing is, we were "smoked out" of buildings (such as restaurants) a lot more often in Italy, France, and Spain than we were in Korea. About a third of Koreans are smokers, but hardly anyone lit up around us. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. An obvious one is that we didn't spend much time in bars, where smoking seems to be pretty free. (We did find that the PC-bangs - which most westerners would call Internet cafes - got pretty smoky by late afternoon.) I think the more important reason is that Koreans are very conscious of image and status. In Korea it's considered rude to smoke in front of someone of higher status (older, wealther, whatever). They didn't know us. We were obviously not all that young (in our 40s), and we were also clearly westerners and probably Americans. I suspect that not being sure that it was OK, they chose to refrain until we were out of sight. I'm not positive this is what was going on, but whatever it was, we didn't have much discomfort from cigarette smoke in Korea. I'm not sure how this will work for you if you're obviously younger than the potential smokers around you, though. You're a smoker? Well, in the paragraph above lurks a lesson for you. Korea is not necessarily a smoker's paradise. You are well advised not to light up in front of your boss, even if he does. Before flicking that Bic, you need to be somewhat aware of what the Koreans around you are doing, and what their status is compared to yours. One thing more. Antismoking sentiment isn't yet as strong in Korea as it is in the US, but it's growing. More public places are banning smoking (though the bans aren't always enforced). The government has been running ad campaigns to discourage smoking, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that the government also owns Korea's largest tobacco company. It's working. When Margaret was there in 2000, 35 percent of Koreans smoked, down from 40 percent in 1992 (the first year they kept track). By 2003, the rate had dropped to 29 percent, and in 2009 it's 22 percent. By the way, if you're a woman and you smoke, you'll really stand out in Korea. Only 4 percent of Korean women smoke (or at least only 4 percent admit it). |
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Will I be safe? The crime rate in Korea has risen slightly in recent years (there are actually police surveillance cameras in some of the rougher Seoul neighborhoods now), but it's still one of the few places where you can walk pretty much anywhere, any time, and not have to worry. But don't forget to lock your doors, and watch out for drunk drivers. |
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What about North Korea? Are they going to start another Korean war? South Koreans don't think so. Ask them, and most will just dismiss it with a wave of the hand. I'm not quite that confident, though I twist in the wind as the news changes. Overall, I think there's more danger of war today than in 2000 -- though it's hard to say whether it's actually worse than in 1994, the last time there were US mutterings about invading Korea. North Korea almost certainly does have a few nuclear weapons, but I think they're unlikely to use them as anything but bargaining chips. The situation changes every few months. The six-nation talks are on again, there's progress; then they're off and North Korea or the US is backpedaling. Kim Jong Il is quiet for a while, then he drops another bombshell on the west. (Oops, bad metaphor. Sorry.) In general, there are some good reasons for North Korea to tread lightly. One is the fairly certain knowledge that if they were to attack anyone, the US - which in spite of differences with South Korea, still is firmly on their side - would bomb them into the stone age. The other is that the north's mutual defense partner, China, doesn't want any more trouble in Asia and is getting a little tired of North Korea's behavior.
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I've read about anti-American demonstrations. So do they hate us now? The short answer:
We were in Korea in 2004 and 2006, and although I'll admit we weren't in Itaewon (the military area of Seoul), we were treated about as well as we've ever been in Korea. We were approached on the street by a couple of elderly men, though, who insisted on telling us repeatedly how much they appreciated the US's military presence and protection. Koreans (like most of the world) were, and to some extent are, demonstrating against US policy and the US military, not against us as US citizens. And while some of them may say they hate what America does, it's funny - they still want to learn English. Most of them would still leap at the chance to visit, study, or live in the US. In fact, in 2003 the number of Korean students traveling to the US to study actually increased by almost 30 percent over 2002, even though a shaky economy kept overall tourism down. Bottom line: Defending the US's policies is pretty much a non-starter. You'll find that even if you can make yourself understood, the words will fall on deaf ears. So if you're a strongly patriotic American, you may want to sit this one out at home. If you're willing to listen when Koreans vent, and you have the self-control to not get defensive, you'll probably be fine. [Details, AKA The Even Longer Answer]
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Isn't Korea a poor country? Not any more. Korea has grown rapidly in the past 20 years. Although their per capita income is still lower than in the US, it broke US$10,000 in the early 2000s and by 2007 had passed US$21,000. In 1990, Korea had one automobile for every 22 Koreans; in 2000, the ratio was 1:6. By 2009, Korea had one vehicle for every 2.8 people (over 17 million vehicles). There are plenty of Koreans below the poverty level (and a growing gap between rich and poor). There are people whose homes don't even have indoor plumbing. But the typical middle-class Korean owns a small modern apartment of several hundred square feet, drives a Hyundai Sonata, watches an LG (Goldstar) television, and talks on a Samsung cell phone. Korea went through some rocky times in 1997 and 1998 because of the recession which affected all of Asia. They sold their soul to the IMF in return for a quick recovery, and since then their economic growth has been mostly respectable if variable. But they haven't been immune to the global recession, and they're expecting 2009 per capita income to fall to around US$15,000. What's worse is that they've used up most of their growing room. Koreans used to be some of the world's biggest savers, with sizable savings accounts and not much debt. They've literally spent this capital. In 1998 the Korean government encouraged Koreans to spend their savings to help bring the Korean economy out of its doldrums. They also reduced credit regulation so more people would qualify. Koreans, at least the older ones, are pretty compliant when their government suggests something - especially when it's as much fun as spending money. So this campaign was a smashing success. Regrettably, it had some side effects besides the ones your adult students will gladly tell you about, rather loudly, if you mention the letters "IMF" in class. By the beginning of the new millenium, Koreans, who used to carry around big pocketfuls of cash, were carrying credit cards instead. When their savings were gone, they kept on spending -- on credit. Oops, time to pay the bill! From one of the world's highest savings rates (25.2 percent in 1988), Koreans have gone to one of the lowest (projected to hit 3.2 percent in 2010) and one of the highest credit default rates. Almost 4 million Koreans - nearly 10 percent - have defaulted on a credit card or some kind of loan. Household debt is now 140 percent of individual disposable income. That beats even us spendthrifts in the US (we're at 136 percent). This has hurt Korea's economy - the cheap money that businesses used to borrow just isn't there any more - and I can't claim that it hasn't affected English teaching either. Korean spending on private education was down 10 percent in 2004. Some hagwons have closed, some have merged, some have cut staff and expenses. But don't get too worried about this. English and hagwon education are still priorities for Korean parents, and Korea is still in first place when it comes to per-capita spending on private education. Things will have to get a lot tougher before the hagwons quit hiring native English speakers. |
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What about medical care? South Korea has a national single-payer medical insurance system. Either your hagwon will pay for your health insurance, or you'll split the cost with them. Figure on about 2.5% of your salary. This insurance is serviceable -- probably not up to the quality of Canadian or European national systems, but I'd say it's comparable to a minimal US private policy. It covers most medical needs, but not all. For example, if you want cancer coverage, you have to pay extra. It also doesn't cover injuries in automobile accidents (regrettably, Korea has lots of them -- accidents, I mean). The drivers' private motor insurance is supposed to pay for patching them up. Like most US plans, the patient usually has to pay part of the cost, typically 20 percent, for each treatment. The government controls drug prices, so many are cheaper than in the US. That's a sore point for American drug companies who want clearance to charge more; how this will shake out remains to be seen. Between mid-2000 and the end of 2002, Korea's medical system underwent tremendous change and upheaval. For years, doctors had dispensed their own prescriptions, and pharmacies sold just about any drug you could want over the counter. Much of the doctors' income came from selling medication, so they tended to over-prescribe. In 1999, the Korean government announced reform measures. The plan was to transfer most drug dispensing rights to the pharmacists -- essentially the American system. It was supposed to take effect in January 2000, but the doctors made a fuss, so it was postponed. In the spring of 2000, the new effective date, Korea's doctors went on strike to protest their potential loss of income. The government offered some concessions, but wouldn't back down on the reforms. There are still some periodic strike threats. But for the most part, the strikes seem to be over. The Korean government settled things by allowing increases in the doctors' fees. This meant a deficit for the national health care system, in spite of higher medical insurance premiums. So what's the result? Doctors still over-prescribe, maybe by habit or maybe because the patients are used to getting a drug for every visit. They still complain of lost revenue. Patients can't get prescription medication from the pharmacist any more. It's hard to say whom, if anybody, emerged from this affair a winner. One interesting alternative which Korea offers is Chinese medicine. This is based on traditional herbal and animal preparations, and many Koreans prefer it. However, before using these practitioners, you may want to look into the environmental impact of the way in which these herbs and animals are gathered.
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What if I have to go to the hospital? Some western teachers complain about Korean hospitals. I can't really speak to this very well, since we don't have any personal experience with them, but I can make some guesses about it. We westerners tend to ask our doctors lots of questions. Koreans don't. If you do, a Korean doctor will think you're questioning his competence. But how do you know for sure that the doctor understands your problem? Even when Korean doctors know English, their vocabulary is too often deficient in the health area (you'd think ... oh, never mind). So you're ill, in a strange environment, and you're barely able to communicate with a doctor who won't answer your questions even if he does understand. This is where your Korean friends and associates come in. If you need emergency medical care in Korea, call a Korean friend to take you to the hospital and interpret for you. Actually, your hagwon director may be your best bet in this case; Korean employers feel a strong (sometimes parental) sense of responsibility and obligation to their employees. Korean hospitals differ in one other important way from most western hospitals. In the west, professionals provide all the care. In Korea, it's assumed that the patient has friends and family, and they're expected to perform some of the non-medical chores. Similarly, while Korean hospitals seem to be about as good as most countries' at making you well, they're not quite as apt to make you comfortable. Thus a little -- uh -- stoicism might be necessary. Korean nurses probably will not tend to your every need, as nurses would at home, and might get miffed if you ask them to. The word is that there's not much privacy, either. I think this is another cultural difference. These are people who are used to wandering among acres of naked flesh of all ages and shapes in the mogyotang, or public bathhouses (although unlike in Japan, they're not co-ed). Korean men, mostly when drunk, sometimes turn their backs to the street and urinate next to the sidewalk -- this isn't illegal, though it is considered kind of gauche. The little kids -- both sexes -- don't even bother with turning their backs. Parents change their kids into bathing trunks right on the beach. While Koreans (especially older ones) are still pretty conservative about sex, I think they just don't equate nudity with sexuality, and it isn't a taboo. Parts are parts, everybody has 'em; and by Confucian principles if it's someone you don't know, you pretty much ignore him anyway, so what's the big deal? This so-what attitude is pretty common in Europe, but for some of us raised with typical American prudishness, it takes some getting used to. Anyway, all that is to explain why your doctor is likely to examine you without worrying much about curtains or about who might be nearby. If you have to go to the hospital, I hope you're not too bashful. For all the western gripes about hospitals, Koreans' life expectancy barely differs from US residents' -- 78 years versus 77 years. That's a difference of less than 1 percent. So although it may not always be as comfortable, I doubt that Korean medical care is much inferior to ours.
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Will I need any shots before I go? Not really. Korea's a pretty healthy country. But if you're planning to travel elsewhere in Asia while you're in the neighborhood, you might want to get hepatitis A and B vaccines, and maybe tetanus and diptheria boosters. Now and then there's an outbreak of malaria somewhere, probably because they have such problems with mosquitoes (thanks to all those rice paddies). The cities fog for mosquitoes periodically, which helps. Last time I checked the US Department of Health didn't suggest that malaria is a concern in Korea, so maybe it's no big deal. It might influence where you travel, though. Some people say you still need to boil the water in Korean cities. I've drunk it with no ill effects, but I have a pretty sturdy stomach. When in doubt, drink bottled water. Or boil the water. While you're at it, make a nice pot of tea.
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What should I pack? You can really go overboard if you're not careful. Things have changed since Margaret went to Korea. She wrestled bags she could barely lift onto the airport conveyors, at least on the way home, and nobody said a word. But these days an oversize bag can drain your wallet, which can be a disaster if you expected to live on that money during your first month in Korea. Just remember, the folks at home can always ship stuff to you if necessary. Clothing: Take 2-4 outfits to wear in the classroom. By this I mean business casual or nicer. If you're a man, take a necktie and maybe a sport jacket, in case your hagwon director wants you to wear them. If you're a woman, modestly counts - no sleeveless tops, no very short shirts, no short-shorts. Strictly business. Koreans have gotten taller and bigger in recent years, so the range of sizes is much better than it was 10 years ago. So unless you're exceedingly tall or large, you can get almost any other clothes you need at a fairly reasonable price in the traditional markets or even from street vendors. They sell basically the same stuff you'd get at K-Mart at home. Quality varies; caveat emptor. The department stores sell very nice, high quality clothing at a much higher price. From what I can tell, this stuff is mostly bought as gifts (and the price tags are always left on; that's the Korean way, and Japanese too, I think). Some midprice stuff is available from the growing number of big-box-ish stores, usually found out at the edge of the city. If you're a man with US size 11 or 12 feet, you'll still find the shoe selection pretty limited. If your size is larger than that, most likely your only hope will be Itaewon, the foreigners' district in Seoul, which caters to the US military. Bras that fit and are comfortable are a problem for women. Take a few. (Yes, you need to wear one, sorry.) You'll see more T-shirts and jeans than we did back in 2000, but you'll probably still be accepted better by Koreans if you also wear business casual (or something close to it) on the street. Definitely leave the T-shirts with patriotic pictures and slogans at home. They can get you noticed in the wrong way in Korea. Toiletries: Deodorant is still hard to find and limited in selection. I guess Koreans don't sweat as much as we do. Bring enough to last, or expect to have your favorite brand shipped to you. Sunscreen is also hard to find. For western women, the shortage of tampons in Korea is a longstanding gripe. Supposedly they're now easier to find than they were 10 years ago, but you still won't find anything like the variety of styles and absorbencies you're probably used to. If you're even a little bit fussy, I suggest packing a couple months' worth of your favorite brand. Before you run out, try the Korean ones. The most common Korean brand is called Tempo. They're available in pharmacies (you'll probably have to ask for them) and lately even in some convenience stores and grocery stores. If you don't like 'em, you can have somebody at home ship you some of the brand you like when you need more. International airmail takes 7-10 days, and isn't too expensive for light stuff. If you use pads, you should have no problem at all in Korea. There's a wide variety available in the convenience and grocery stores. Linens: Take a couple of bath towels. Korean towels are about the size of western face towels. Pack a set of cotton bedsheets for the dog days of summer when your air-con (if your apartment even has it) has broken down and it's 90 degrees F and 90% humidity at 3am. Food: If you cook and don't want to learn to cook Korean, you'd better take spices. Make sure they're in sealed containers to avoid uncomfortable situations at the airport (on either end). You won't find the stuff you're used to anywhere but in the big-city import shops, and then in very limited selections at high prices. My opinion is that you're better off going native, but it's up to you. Gifts: Having a few little trinkets from home to pass out can really make you popular. You might take some T-shirts or sweatshirts with your town's or university's logo on them, or packaged food that your area is known for. Don't try to take produce or other "raw" items as customs will just take them away from you at the border. Electronics: Take a small battery operated alarm clock. Maybe a digicam, if yours is small. A laptop is really nice to have. Computers tend to be more expensive in Korea and they speak Korean (I mean both the computer sales people and the computers). Leave the cell phone at home. There's a 99.9% chance it won't work in Korea, even if it works in Europe and Africa. Almost anything else electronic that you might want, you can probably buy in Korea at a fairly reasonable price, now that nearly every medium size city has a E-mart or something similar. Besides, some items from home will need an adapter, since Korea household electricity is 240 volts. Books: Don't bother. They're not worth the weight. You can always take the bus to Seoul and visit Kyobo, which has a decent English section. From what I saw, quite a few of the Engish books there seemed to be UK editions. Exceptions: take a map of Korea and one of Seoul. Maps in any language but Korean can be hard to find. You might also want a small guidebook, something like the Korea Lonely Planet Guide or their Korea Survival Kit. A pocket-size Korean-English dictionary is likely to come in handy, but keep in mind that you can get very good ones in Korea very cheaply. Money: Take enough cash or traveler's checks to live on for at least 2 months. Also take a credit card with no balance on it (keep it that way) and a high enough credit limit to buy a full-price airline ticket home ($1500-2000 - yes, it can be that expensive!). I don't mean to alarm you -- there are enough other people who will do that, thank you very much -- but as my ex-military friends say, it's always a good idea to keep your back away from the door no matter where you go.
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I hear the pollution's pretty bad in Korea. You hear right, I'm sorry to say. That miraculous economic growth came with some price tags attached, and pollution is one of them. The big push for industrial development came in the 1970s and 1980s, and the South Korean government didn't give much thought to what all this was doing to the environment until the 1990s. Since then they've clamped down on industry to some extent, but vehicles are still a big problem. A growing population of Diesel buses and trucks (and, increasingly, privately owned Diesel vehicles) belch out about 40% of the emissions. Most of the older gasoline fueled passenger cars have relatively crude emissions control hardware. Seoul's air is some of the world's worst, even surpassing Tokyo's. Pusan's isn't much better. Ulsan is heavily industrialized, and goodness knows what kind of chemical soup pours out from those factories into the air and water. If you have allergies or respiratory problems, you'll want to look for a job on the east coast. Kangwon Province, right on the East Sea, is Korea's cleanest. There the air is about comparable to that in a medium-sized midwestern US city -- not exactly crystal clear, but tolerable. For a little more detail on Korea's pollution problems and what's being done about them, read this. |
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I've been reading the discussion forums on some of the ESL websites, and I see
a lot of teachers complaining about their jobs and about Koreans in general. How do
you square that with Margaret's experience? First of all, remember that hagwons are a business. Just like any other country, Korea has some business owners who will take advantage of you. Now and then, teachers end up in situations varying from unpleasant to ugly. It's hard to tell just how widespread this is. When we first started looking into hagwon teaching in 1999, I'd have to say that most of what we read on the web was really negative. I think that was mostly because of the 20,000 or so foreign teachers in Korea, the dissatisfied ones were most strongly motivated to post to forums and build websites. These days social networking and blogging sites make it easier to post your experiences, so you don't have to be quite so motivated. And what do you know, there are more positive reports out there now. Make of that what you will. That said, I do think that Margaret had one of the better situations. That was partly because of the job, and partly because of who she is.
His customers are the kids' parents. They, like your director, don't care whether you teach your students the American (Canadian, English, Australian, New Zealand, etc.) way. They want their kids to learn the language. They're paying something over $100 a month per head so their kids will ace the English part of the high school and college entrance exams, get good jobs, marry some nice Korean boy or girl, give them a couple of cute grandkids, and support them generously in their old age. And of course some of the misunderstandings between foreign teachers and hagwon directors are simple cultural differences. Korea is becoming very westernized very fast, but the changes are mostly among younger Koreans. There are still significant differences for the earlier generations (that would be your hagwon director). This makes for cultural pitfalls for the unwary, but most of them aren't really all that hard to avoid. |
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OK, how do I avoid problems with cultural differences? You have to learn something about Korean culture before you go. You don't have to make a career of it, but you really do need at least an introduction. Start by reading our Westerners' Guide to Korean Culture and Approximately Correct Social Behavior. You might also try reading a few handbooks for doing business in Korea (after all, that's a hagwon is). Look in the business publications section of large bookstores. Most of what you find will probably be somewhat dated, but what they say is generally valid, at least for dealing with Koreans in their 30s and older. Before she left the States, Margaret read Min Byoung-chul's little paperback Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans (based on a Korea Herald series published some years back). It's a quick and easy read. Alas, it's out of print. You might luck out and find a copy gathering dust in the English section of a Korean bookstore, though. Culture Shock Korea, by Vegdahl and Hur (Cavendish) is way more comprehensive, maybe more so than you really need. I've just started it, but so far it seems like it'll be a fair replacement for Min's book. It's also more up to date, since the latest edition is from 2008. Too much? For a painless way to pick up on basic customs and courtesy, just watch a few Korean films. Try Darcy's Korean Film Page for reviews and top-whatever lists. If you live in a big city with a significant Korean population (Los Angeles or Chicago, for example) you can probably find video rentals in the Korean neighborhoods. Be careful - although most DVDs probably will have English subtitles, VHS tapes almost certainly won't and VCDs may not. If you can't find any rentals, you can order Korean DVDs from Yesasia or DVDAsian. Mr Kwang also carries a small stock of Korean DVDs. You can find them on Ebay too, but prices are about the same, except for the (generally rather bad) pirated editions from China and Hong Kong. Prices for decent (and legal) transfers vary from around $8 for VCDs (most computers can play them with the right software, and many newer DVD players can too) to $15 - $30 for DVDs. The lower end of the DVD price range is usually "export editions" from Hong Kong. The ones that I've gotten haven't been quite as sharp as the Korean editions, and the colors aren't as true. They generally have both English and Chinese subtitles, for what that's worth. Most DVDs from Korea (and Hong Kong) are region code 3, so you'll need a region free DVD player to play them. VCDs have no region coding, thank goodness, but their image quality is lower than DVDs (on a par with VHS tapes). No matter how you do it, take the time to study Korea's customs before you go there. Dig down a little so you understand why they're customs and what they mean. Then do your absolute best to live by them. Knowing the culture and trying to live by it is one of the most important differences between the teachers who have a great time in Korea and the ones who hate the place. It's not that tough, and it's worth it, believe me.
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It sounds like you're suggesting that most job problems are caused by teachers, not
hagwon directors. Well, no. I don't have those kinds of numbers. But I do think that we shouldn't give the teachers an automatic pass, just because they speak our language better than the directors do. While I've met some great westerners teaching English in Korea, I've also met a few class A losers. I don't just mean the obvious dregs of society, the boozers, the addicts, the child molesters - the screening that Korea now requires should keep them out. I'm talking mostly about self-centered, thoughtless, culturally ignorant people. These guys aren't in Korea because they're interested in the country or the people, but because they heard there were lots of jobs and you could make good money without working very hard. If hagwons weren't so desperate for native English speakers, they'd still be at home, unemployed, or maybe working at jobs where having an attitude doesn't cause too much trouble. I don't have a lot of sympathy for these people. They hurt not only themselves, but all of us. A hagwon director who gets a few of these types is going to get the idea that we're all like that. But if you've read this far, chances are you're not one of them. So you should know that yes, there are hagwon directors who range from clueless to criminal. Some have been known to rip off foreigners, hit on women teachers (or worse), and invade their employees' privacy. For what it's worth, most of these scumbuckets treat their Korean and foreign employees about the same. A really good hagwon director treats all the teachers decently, honestly, and fairly. They're out there. Let's see if we can help you find one.
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If I shouldn't use a recruiter, then how should I look for a job? Probably the best way to get a Korean teaching job is on direct reference from a current or former teacher at a good hagwon. If you don't know one, do plenty of research on the internet. One good place to start is Dave's ESL Cafe, which always has quite a few job listings. There are blacklists and greylists on the internet too, but I don't know how much you can count on them. A lot of the posts in them are pretty old, and the hagwons may have since changed owners and/or directors. Work up a short list of candidate schools. Ideally you'd fly to Korea on a tourist visa and visit each one. Obviously this isn't cheap. Bare-bones airfare these days typically is $800-1200, depending on the season, fuel costs, and competition. It can go way up from there if you're in a hurry or don't have a flexible schedule. This is another reason I say that if you don't have some cash in the bank already, Korea probably isn't for you. Don't assume that the lowest ticket prices will always be on the internet. Try a travel agency that specializes in Korea. (Yes, they still exist.) Look in Korean newspapers, if you can find someone to help you read them. Check the newsstands and convenience stores in Korean neighborhoods for ads and posters. If you can't manage a trip, but you're still burning to try teaching English in Korea, you might see if you qualify for one of the sponsored teaching outfits. Organizations such as EPIK and the Fulbright ETA Program usually pay less, but they're more structured. While they can't guarantee a good experience, they usually have teacher advocate systems which can help if things go sour. Above all, trust your instincts. If something doesn't feel right about your interview with the hagwon director or the foreign teacher reference(s), move along. Don't let anyone pressure you - there are plenty more hagwon jobs. Finally, I know I just said this in the last answer, but it's really important, so I'll say it again. If you take a job anywhere overseas, don't leave home without an emergency credit card and enough cash to live for a month or two. If you're so broke that you can't afford to do this, don't go to Korea. Don't go anywhere. Stay home, get a job, bank some cash. When you have enough saved up to live for at least a month without a salary, and also to buy a return airline ticket if things don't work out, then you're ready to consider working overseas. Not before.
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