Korea Questions Continued

Do you pay for everything in cash? What's the bank account situation?

Cash: I hardly ever use it. I use my debit card, which is widely accepted, and which draws from my Korean bank account. Getting the bank account set up was a little harder than I thought, but still not very hard, just time consuming. Although you can get a bank account with just your passport, it takes longer to set up than if you wait to do that until after you get your alien registration ID. Getting the ID takes a week, though, and you can't exchange American money at the bank until you get a bank account. It all seems a bit complicated. The way I did it (and really was not given a choice by my bosses, and was guided through this whole thing) was to get the registration card first and have one of my bosses take my money to the bank and exchange it himself. For some reason was not allowed to withdraw it from his bank account right away, so his mom gave me 100k won to borrow. By the time I got the ID card, payday had come, so I got my first paycheck, plus the money I exchanged from American money, in cash. Once I was able to take the alien card to the bank and open the account, I put some money in my account and wired the rest to my American account. I was given a debit card at the time I opened the account. During this whole process, I was with either one of my bosses or their parents to help me and translate and such.

What's with the alien registration/ID card?

When you get here, you have to go to the immigration office to register as a foreign resident. You are issued an identification card, which you need to carry around as if it were a driver license or other important ID. You use it to identify yourself at the hospital, to pick up bus or train tickets you get online, etc. You also need it should you ever get stopped by a police officer, or whatever, as unlikely an event that is. Important: I was not told I would need any more passport pictures, but you need two to get your alien registration ID. Having to get them done here delayed everything above by a couple days, because they place my boss took me to didn't have one hour photo, and I think we had to wait a couple days because they were closed on Sunday or something. Bring two passport sized photos for the ID. If you need any more photos, you can get them here for pretty cheap (ten photos for 10k won was what I got), but already having them expedites things.

Are credit cards accepted anywhere?

Visa/Mastercard seem extremely widely accepted. I carry around an American Express, and ironically, the only place that's ever been rejected was at a restaurant on the American air force base up north, which runs on American currency. You'd think the military would take AMERICAN Express. Jerks.

Is it difficult to get clothing that fits? What about shoes?

Purchasing clothes has been somewhat difficult, less because of size issues than because they're freaking stuck in the 80s here. It's hilarious and awful. I go to the stores and just laugh and cry. Since most Koreans are quite thin, most clothing here is small. There are a lot of foreigners here, though, and it seems like the country caters more and more to them as time goes on. Even if you can't find good clothing in your city, you can always try shopping in Seoul, Busan, or other big cities. Larger people be warned, though. It's difficult to find clothes that fit no matter where you go in this country, or so I hear. The two other Western teachers at my school aren't particularly fat, but have like beer bellies, and even they can't get clothes here.

It's possible that shoes would be okay anywhere. People are taller here than I expected, so that might result in larger feet. I have small feet, so I haven't noticed shoe sizes too much.

Bras could be a big problem for some women. They only have A and B cups here. So if you're bigger than that, make sure you stock up, because you'll have to mail order them if you don't. Or pay a ton from some sort of specialty store, if there are any.

Also, good luck figuring out the way sizes work here. I haven't. My shoe size is 235, my shirt size is 90, and the jeans I bought here are 71-94. The only size that makes sense is the bra size, which is measured in centimeters.

Is everything cheaper in Korea than in the US?

I originally had the idea that things cost less here than back home, but I was WRONG. I don't think I've seen a single thing in this country that costs less than it does in the US or Canada. I bet rice does, but I don't buy rice, so I don't know. Oh, and food from street vendors, but we don't have those anyway. Clothes don't cost more, per se, unless you're shopping at the department stores. Then the prices make you want to vomit. Most of what little clothing I've bought here was from E-Mart, which is like a Super Target, and an easy to find chain. You pay 15-30k won for a button down shirt, 7-25k won for a t-shirt, 10-30k won for pants, and so on. There are many American shoes here, like Converse, Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc. They seem to cost exactly the same amount as in the US.

What are the differences between public and private schools?

Let me talk about public schools first, based on what I've heard from others:

Teaching in public school involves very little responsibility, from what I can tell. As a teacher, you are mostly responsible for coming up with lesson plans and fun activities for classes. You don't have to work very much, usually between 20 and 30 hours a week, and you don't have to give or correct homework. You work with a Korean coteacher, who translates for you and runs the class. Because you have that coteacher, you can actually use your sick days if you need them, and you get plenty of them. You can also choose your vacation because the coteacher is there to conduct the class. You get a lot of days off when the school is not in session.

There are disadvantages. One is that the classes are huge and the kids don't really speak any English, unless they also go to private school on the side (rich kids). This means you don't get to talk to the kids much. That kind of sucks, I'm sure. Another is that the education system in this country is complete and utter bullshit and it gets frustrating that you have to follow such a slowly paced curriculum. For example, a teacher told me he had to spend two weeks on "hello," "hi," and "goodbye." Ouch. A major drawback I've noticed is that the contract stipulates that you have to be at school for certain times even when school is not in session, and they don't give you work to do, as far as I know. This means you sit at your desk and read or play solitaire for 8 hours a day, and you can't leave. Finally, you don't get the personal attention at a public school as you do at a private school. Consider the following example regarding a teacher in Seoul, who came here through a program called EPIK, and was placed at a public school:

One guy I talk to in Seoul said that his apartment, although I think it had everything it needed in it, was not professionally cleaned before he moved in (the school should be paying for that), and the place was a nightmare. I don't remember if he dealt with it himself or if he paid to have it cleaned, or what, but that situation was bad. Also, his landlord was bothering him a lot at first because the previous tenant (an English teacher, too) had skipped out on three months of utility bills. The school apparently didn't help him out in all this, at least not at first.

I'm teaching at a private academy (hagwon). This has its pros and cons, too, of course. The pros are as follows: I'm in charge of my classes and I do pretty much whatever I want, whether it's in the book or not. My classes have no more than eight kids. I would get a bonus each month for any class that has more than eight kids. There are only four teachers at my school, so it's all very personal, and I can get lots of help from my boss without feeling like I'm one of many teachers nagging her for something. I think private school teachers get paid a little more than public, at least at the entry level.

The cons: I have to work very, very hard, and I hardly get any days off compared to public school teachers. The first few weeks I was here, I didn't have that many classes, so I wasn't working long hours, but in March, the schedule changed, and my class load was increased by over 50%. For the first few weeks, while I was getting used to both teaching and the new schedule, I was working about 50 hours a week, because I taught about seven hours a day and corrected and prepped for about three. I've streamlined it now, so I'm only working 40 hours a week, but that's about 10 hours more per week than the average English teacher here. I do get overtime, though, so it's a good deal. For days off, I get national holidays, and one week at the end of July and one week at the end of December. This is considerably less time than public schoolteachers. I get sick days, I think, but it's difficult to use them, and I haven't used one yet. If I call in sick , my boss has to teach my classes, or cancel them. She gets kind of pissed off when someone calls in sick.