OutsideInKorea

Here’s a braindump of some tips and tricks for getting a job in Korea, and keeping it once you’re here. I’ll add to it periodically as I think of more. If you have any specific do or don’t questions, or you disagree with any of my advice, feel free to leave a comment. Don’t forget to check out my Teaching In Korea — The Skinny as well, if you missed it the first time.

1. Do not get too excited at an offer — if you have a pulse and degree, you’ll get an offer.
2. Do apply for several jobs that look interesting.
3. Do ask for contact information for previous or current foreign teachers at the school. If it’s refused, walk away.
4. Do understand that most hagwons (private schools) are run in what you may perceive to be an unprofessional, haphazard manner. Part of it is cultural — leaving things to the last minute and then PANICing is a time-honoured Korean tradition. How much of this you think you can endure is up to you.
5. Do be wary of agents and recruiters. They don’t have their spotty reputation for nothing. You will be better off in many (if not most) cases by being in contact with your potential employers directly.
6. Do make sure you get a contract to look over before you agree to anything.
7. Do ask old hands to look over your contract at Eslcafe or Koreabridge.
8. Do your research. Forums like Eslcafe and Koreabridge can help you prepare and answer a lot of your questions.
9. Do read the forums and try and triangulate what a standard contract looks like.
10. Do be aware that forums like the ones linked above are chock full of negativity and resentment.
11. Do be aware that many of the other foreigner short-timers you meet are also full of negativity and resentment.
12. Do be professional and firm in your dealings with your potential employer. Know what you want, but know also what is standard
13. Do not get involved with drugs. Just don’t. Develop a love for booze.
14. Don’t show up at work drunk or disheveled.
15. Do dress the part of a teacher, even if you don’t feel like one. It will be noticed and appreciated.
16. Do get a feeling for some of the concepts that underpin Korean culture and you’ll be miles ahead of most new arrivals.
17. Do make sure that your employer is meeting regulations in terms of pension and national health deductions.
18. Don’t worry about teaching. If it’s kids you’ll be wrangling, you’ll be doing more wrangling that teaching.
19. Do teach as much as you can, even if you feel like a babysitter.
20. Don’t make the rest of us look bad.
21. Don’t worry about getting food and stuff from home. These days there are box stores in most places where you can buy imports even if you’re outside the mjor cities, and websites where you can order them.
22. Do bring shoes if you have big feet. Outside of the major centres it can still be hard to find size 11s or 12s, and any bigger is effectively impossible.
23. Do plan ahead for the possibility that things don’t work out. Do be aware of the consequences of a midnight run. If you can’t bear it, give notice, get a release letter (you can find one at Koreabridge to print out), and keep your options for the future open.
24. Do make sure you are willing to accept the terms of the contract as written. Be aware that you will be held to them, even if your boss may feel that he or she is not similarly beholden. Be aware that emphasis on personal relationship as overriding contract paper is a part of Korean culture, but that this can be used against you in a Catch-22.
25. Do not teach private lessons on an E2 (teaching) visa. It’s against immigration law.
26. Don’t try to sneak a fake degree past the authorities. It’s a major cause celebre these days with both famous Koreans being outed and scam-artist ‘teachers’ being deported. You will almost certainly get caught.
27. Do make sure you have multiple original copies of your documents when possible.
28. Don’t go out and get drunk and disorderly in Itaewon. Don’t be that guy.
29. If your primary reasons for coming to Korea are any two of women, beer, and money: go somewhere else. The expat community has too many of you already.
30. Do make an effort to learn some Korean, even a few phrases at the beginning. Koreans have problems with nonstandard pronunciation of their language (there have traditionally been very few non-native speakers), so work hard on that.
31. Do learn to read the alphabet. It’s only a matter of a few hours, and is quite elegant both orthographically and philosophically.
32. Do be aware that when people laugh at you, it’s almost always out of embarassment on their part, not maliciousness.
33. Don’t get overly offended at what seems like excessively blunt comments (’It must be hard to be fat’) or personal questions (’Why aren’t you married?’). Despite the way it seems, they are actually efforts to become closer, rather than the opposite.
34. Don’t overpack. Especially if you’re in any of the cities, you’ll be able to buy most everything you need (bar clothes, perhaps, if you’re XX-large).
35. Don’t take promises that you will receive training on arrival too seriously. Chances are it will involve a tour of the classrooms and then a drinking session (if you’re lucky).
36. Be aware that Korea, even with its burgeoning Protestant Christian communities, is a drinking culture. If you are asked to socialize with your coworkers (and there is every chance that you won’t, but if you’re lucky) it will almost certainly involve food and drink. If you are puritanical in this regard, you may not be asked out again.
37. Don’t criticize Korea in front of Koreans, at least until you are certain that you are friends, and probably not even then. It achieves nothing but bad blood, and Korean people are fiercely proud, even as they are as aware as you are of all the problems. Do as they do — if you can’t say anything nice, say ‘well…’ and change the subject, and say something positive. If you feel compelled, match your criticism with some similar failing of your home country. I can’t emphasize this enough: be gracious and civilized, even if you don’t think the people around you are.
38. Don’t argue in public with your boss. If you disagree, fine, but be firm and professional, and take any disagreement to a private location. Do not make him or her look bad in front of others, or they will bear you a grudge.
39. Do be aware that no matter what you’re going through, other people have lived through it too. Reach out, either online or off-, to other expats if you feel like you’re going to lose it. Everybody feels that way sometime.
40. Don’t give in to culture-shock inspired despair. If it’s your first time overseas, it’s going to bite you hard after a few months. It passes, but never goes entirely away.
41. Do learn a little history of Korea — a little goes a very long way with Koreans, who will be pleased and surprised at any effort in that direction.
42. Do some reading around the Korean expat blogosphere. Personally, I come away angry and depressed every time I do it, but if you’re still keen on coming to Korea after a few hours of reading the K-blogs, you’ll be just fine.
43. Do travel around Korea a little — it’s not easy, but outside of the cities, it’s really quite a lovely place.
44. Korea’s still a pretty hard place for expats, but it’s nothing like it was a decade ago, so don’t whine. Seriously. Just don’t.

I’ve known literally hundreds of people here in Korea over the years from stressed-out newbies to multi-year old hands whose distress and grief could have been avoided by following some of these simple tips.

Your mileage, as they say, may vary.