I received an email from an individual who is looking into whether coming to work in Korea is something he wants to pursue. He has a list of 5 questions and I'm going to put them here along with my answers to his questions because I feel they can be of assistance to anyone else who wants to determine if Korea is the right situation for them at this moment. Hope this helps some people out.
1) What was your work situation like? Was it satisfying? Was it a reputable school? How were your boss and other staff members? Were the students well behaved?
I'm currently in Korea working at an academy called ELC in Ulsan. This particular school has been around for 8 years with 2 foreign teachers along with 4 Korean teachers, a director and the owner. My boss is fantastic, very hands off and courteous, although his English is fairly limited. He spends his time working on getting more students to his academy and lets his staff focus on teaching and the curriculum. My director speaks english well and is in charge of the day to day operations of the school. My co-workers are excellent, other than one of the teachers, the other 3 Korean teachers' level of English is rather limited but they are very friendly and are always available for help.
Just to give a glimpse into my day. At my school there are 4 Korean teachers and 2 foreigner teachers. While the foreigner teachers take care helping the kids with pronunciation and reading skills, the Korean teachers help the students with grammar and vocabulary. Each student has about 1 hr of English class per day. They spend half the time with an English speaking teacher and half the time with a Korean teacher. I have 8-9 classes per day M-F that are 30-35 minutes beginning at 2pm and ending at either 7:20 or 8:00 depending on the day. In my early classes there are younger kids, from ages 7-9 at different English levels. Then its 10-12 yr olds and ends with 13-15 yr olds later in the day. Basically all I do all day is recite words, sentences and phrases all day, pretty much the same ones too. It’s really repetitive, its not hard whatsoever but the kids have such bad pronunciations sometimes I may have them repeat words or sentences 10 times in a class and even then they still make the same mistakes the next day, it’s a little frustating but then again, its nothing too I get worried about, some kids will get it, some won’t. The issues I have a problem with are the same ones we all kinda know about already, the have problems with TH, R, L, V, F, P, say (gurl instead of girl, full instead of fall, birsday instead of birthday.)
The kids in the first few hours are probably the worst because they have a really bad grasp of English and are just barely learning, most of what they know is the alphabet in some cases. There’s a communication breakdown so they tend to talk amongst themselves, act out in class or just avoid doing anything. Usually there’s always 1-2 bad kids that ruin it for the rest of them. (Each class I have can have anywhere between 3-12 kids in it) I’ve taken to some tactics such as moving kids from their seats, making a few kids sit in the corner and stair at the wall and as a last resort I call in the reinforcements: the Korean teachers, whom the kids have a deep fear of. They don’t hit the kids but they do things such as make the kid stand with their hands in the air for 5 mins or in some cases, make the kids stand while holding their chairs for 5 mins. They can scare the kids because if they don’t listen the teachers threaten to tell their parents.
I like about half my classes with some students who really do want to learn and speak English more proficiently which makes for a great class. The older students are sometimes ‘too cool for school’ and are lazy but I just make them read if they don’t want to talk or don’t answer my questions. With the older kids I’m supposed to focus more on vocab and having conversations. Sometimes they want to talk, sometimes they don’t, no big deal to me. I don’t really have a curriculum with that last hr, so I can decide what they do and if they want to be little brats, well they get to read.
2) What is the housing like? I’m not looking for something luxurious--clean, comfortable and sufficient will do. Was it these things? Were you within walking distance from your school? How was the neighborhood?
Here I refer you to a youtube clip I made of my place http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=QpzmFHg02-4.
My place is a small studio that is clean, comfortable and sufficient. It's got heating (gas is $5 a month), a washer, cabinets, desk, TV, exceptionally fast internet (you pay $30 a month for that), electricity ranges from $9-15 a month and it was already fully furnished along with pots, pans and plates. It takes me about 7-10 minutes to get to the academy on foot. The neighborhood is fine, there's really no crime in Korea, its safe to walk anywhere at just about any hour and you even see young children walking around alone at night at 10. It's a little dirty here but there are a lot of people who live in Korea and its still on the verge of becoming a 1st world country so don't expect things to be spotless but its by no means filthy. Around the neighborhood are plenty of large apartment complexes because there's just so many people but not enough space to accomodate them so they have to build up. There are little shops, bars and restaurants just about everywhere you turn.
3) Did the school or recruiting company follow through on all the contract matters (severance pay, round trip airfare, etc.)? Were the utilities expensive? Could you save a lot of money if you wanted?
I'm only 4 months into my stay and am confident that the school with follow through on the contract. So far they have paid for my airfare here and I am paid promptly every month without fail. Utilities are cheap here, I mentioned earlier but you can expect to pay anywhere from $70-85 a month for 5 things (gas, water, electricity, management fee and internet access). You can definitely save a lot of money here because your place is free and utilities are low. All you have to worry about is food and maybe some clothing as well as the occasional night out to eat and/or drink which also is cheap. You could get by easily by spending only $300-500. Be warned though, the won has dropped significantly against the dollar, especially since I've been here which means the 2 million won they offer per month no longer is equivalent to $1900, right now 1000 won is equivalent to about 74 cents which means that for every 2 million won you make, your making $1480 a month. Obviously if your not looking to transfer money back home any time soon, the exchange rate can change back up to the point where the won has strengthened against the dollar but there's no real way to tell. You can still save a good amount of money here even with the weakened won, can bring home anywhere from $10-15k after your year is up.
4) How did you find living in South Korea? How did you find the Korean culture?
Not many Koreans where I live speak much english so if you think you'd get very frustrated by the lack of english spoken by the locals then you shouldn't come here. I don't mind living here, the pollution is definitely a burden but its not as bad as some people have said according to the forums I've read. However, I am from Los Angeles and used to varying forms of pollution so my opinion may not be of service on that front. Some kids like to use the streets like their own personal trash cans however there are always elders who go around collecting trash and recycle. I personally don't find too much trouble living here, even though there's a big language barrier and I'm finding it difficult to learn the language, you can still communicate with the people. Koreans out and about, especially the ones in their late 30's to 50's can be a little rude. For example, they will bump you from time to time when your out. It's not you, its their society, everyone seems to be on the go somewhere and they always want to get there fast.
One-on-one, Koreans are very polite, you see that where ever you go and there is a great deference to those older than you. When you do meet new koreans, they are very kind people who want you to feel happy in their presence and theyre very generous, always wanting to pay for you where ever you go.
What I don't like about the culture is their driving habits. Koreans are awful drivers, there are lights and cameras in some areas but drivers and cyclists tend to bend the rules. They cut off other drivers, change lanes 2 at a time, cyclists run red lights, they can stop in the middle of traffic. I think of it basically as controlled chaos. I have pretty bad road rage back home so a lot of what happens here infuriates me even as a pedestrian but you do get used to it somewhat. I've been told that there are rental cars available to foreigners but I'd advise not using them, be happy with their bus and taxi systems which are fairly efficient and if you by chance get placed in a city that has a subway system (Seoul, Daegu, Busan), even better. I wouldn't wish forcing someone to drive in S. Korea on my worst enemy.
5) Would you recommend this experience overall to a relative or friend? Why or why not?
I would recommend this experience to a relative or friend because its different from life where I'm from and its interesting to see how the other side of the world lives. You can find some joy through teaching the kids, traveling this country and seeing remnants of its deep history, or just doing things you've never done before and/or never imagined seeing/eating/doing.
