[Jordan]

I started this week getting a job for a live seafood store on Granville Island called "the Lobster Man". My job consisted of selecting live shell fish, lobsters, and crabs. After selecting them for the customer, I could give it to them raw OR cook them, gut them, clean them, and sell them. (to rich assholes)
16 bucks for 1 lb of lobster, and the smallest lobster is 1.5 lbs

The whole store stunk of brine and dead seafood. I dry heaved a couple of times. 30mins into the job on monday I decided I would quit first thing in the morning. I could not take the job, especially the stupid questions by the customers which consisted of and not limited to:

"how cold is this water?"

"how much for a lobster?" (Nice sized sign right in front of the tank)

"Do gallo or penny coast mussels go good with soup?"

"Can I watch you kill my crab?" (*in the back of my mind "fuck off")

And most of the customers drive off in land/range rovers, mercedes and whatnot.


So I quit on tuesday at 9:00 AM. I was then jobless. At 9:50 roughly, my pal calls me up.

"Jord, do you want a job?" "yes" "you want to go to Korea and teach english for 2500 a month, free car, apartment" "yes" "ok call this person" "ok"

I got my passport yesterday, and am leaving on sunday. PROVIDING, I get a contract from these people. They're in dire need of someone, so I'm forcing them to give me a contract. I don't want to fly 18 hours over there and get screwed.

Anyone know anything about Korea? I'm going to Pusan, the second largest city in the country. (next to Soeul)

I dated a Korean for 3 years, but we never talked much about her mother land, nothing that could aid me there.

I wonder if the girls dig white guys? Actually, that's all I really care about.

[Despondent]

God Bless. And I was going to rant about the local lobster house with minimum 3 or 4 pound lobsters.

Good Luck. Hope you can fill us in on things. What a step, and dappled with adventure I'm sure!

[Ninja Duck]

Incredible.

Cheers.

[Heccubus]

Yay for Jordan!
Anyway, good luck, and you'd better still pop online regularly.

[Just your average movie goer]

You're in luck, Jordan. I am teaching in Korea right now.

I can tell you a little bit about it but I can't say what your job will be like because they're all going to be different, depending on the company. I'm assuming you'll be teaching in one of those little private schools (Hagwons).

I teach in one that caters for kindergarten students and elementary school children. Given the choice, I would rather teach adults because these young children are pretty obnoxious (although a few of them are quite nice) - that and I taught adults last year in Japan.

As an American, you are lucky - you have a lot more choices. I am Australian and as such, many job openings were instantly closed to me. To some of these employers, a green card rates higher than teaching qualifications specific to the field of English as a Second Language and experience. Anyway, I digress.

Good luck with the job part - I hope your employer is honest and reasonable. Some are, some aren't (it does pay to do your research - see if you can contact teachers who work or have worked in your school and ask them what they thought of it). In my case, I found that the company was reasonably honest. They do get me to do some unsavoury things (feeding little kids every lunch hour) that were never mentioned in the contract or the interview. The main grudge I have was with my recruiter, who in his haste to get me to take the job, told me false information about the company. I went to Korea thinking I would be working for a woman who'd lived in Australia for six years and spoke good English, and an Australian academic director. Instead, my boss speaks almost no English and the academic director is a Korean (but he does speak English fairly well).

As for Pusan... I'm sure that would be a lovely place to work. It's on the eastern side and therefore has the prettier coastline. You might be able to swim there in the summer. I think it'd be great.

I work in Seoul so I cannot tell you much more than that. But Seoul is great. Korea is great - it is a fantastic place to live. It's very lively. The people are amazingly friendly. Everyone says hello. There's lots to do here - mountain climbing, bike riding, going to markets, playing outdoor games, going to lovely parks, rivers, etc... I'm sure you'll have a good time.

It's interesting that you dated a Korean. Was she a native Korean or was she a Korean-American? I'm dating a Korean too (native Korean) - in fact, it's the whole reason why I'm here in the first place. I met this girl and ended up turning my whole world upside down - best thing that ever happened to me. It certainly forced me to grow up a lot faster. International relationships will do that.

You may well find a nice Korean girl here. If you do, however, I must warn you to be patient when it comes to meeting her family. I've met my girlfriend's mother, sister and brother but I still haven't met her father. For a long time, I was worried about this until I learned that Korean men don't meet their future sons-in-law until 6 months before they marry their daughters (and this is the same for Korean and western sons-in-law). Also, they're a little bit concerned by girls marrying westerners but if you're a good guy and your girlfriend loves you, it'll be okay. So just be patient.

Also, in terms of the language, it is one of the most difficult languages you could ever come across. You may want to see if you can get some good language books while you're still in America because native Koreans aren't the best at making language books. In one of the ones I purchased, lesson 2 was "So, what does your father do for a living?" I'd rather start with hello and work my way up from there.

However, Korean (and this is amazing for an Asian language) has a completely phonetic script, using a very scientifically designed alphabet. They do have Chinese characters (for university textbooks and some newspapers) but you won't need to learn them. Almost everything you'll ever see will be written in the phonetic script.

LEARN that script. It's easy (took me two days) and it will help you a lot in learning new words. Romanised versions of Korean words do not help you pronounce the words correctly. For example, my girlfriend lives in a place called Koi-yo-dong (this is my own romanisation of it). The official romanisation of it is "Geoyeodong". So you can see why it's better to read the Korean writing (Hangul).

Hangul was designed by a very intelligent man called King Sejong in the 1400s (I think). He designed it specifically to represent the sounds of the Korean language and to promote literacy for everyone. In short, he designed it to be easy to learn. And now Korea has a 99% literacy rate. When they were first introduced, members of King Sejong's court called them 'morning letters' because they could learn them in the space of a morning. So learn those letters.

Okay, that's about all from me. When you get the internet up in Korea, maybe we can keep in touch. I can see how you're going and help you out.

It's a fantastic country, with wonderful people, and I sincerely hope that coming to Korea will be a rich, enjoyable experience that will stay with you for life. And who knows, you may even stay on longer than you thought you would. Good luck!

[Reader]

I bloody envy you both, JYAMG and Jordan.

Anyway, Jordan, you must live in the West End. Can you give a hint as to where? For instance, i live on Bute st. Just curious, anyway.

[Jordan]

Holly crap! thanks for the info JYAMG. That was VERY helpful! I've just finished reading some horror stories about directors who don't even pay their workers. I'm kinda parinoid now. I'm going to start the research tonight. And even called my contact and prosponed my flight by a couple of days.

JYAMG- Do you have a degree in English? Cause I can speak it, and write the basics. But if they ask me what a faulty discombobulated adjective is....well.... I'm screwed!

Not but 3 minutes ago a gang of Korean girls and boys ( sounded about 16) called my up and said " Herro JordeN" And then laughed for about 1 minute and said "no english this is Korea" and "ok now we go" and click.

I don't know if that was the kid of the director or what. But what the fuck was that all about!!!!!!!!!!

My Uncle lived in Korea for 3 years as the head of trades commision for Canada. He married a Korean just after he left ( I think she saw the green card but meh)

Reader~

I live on Drake St.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 06 June 2004 - 01:50 AM

[Emu]

Wow! Congratulations on the new job! I would imagine that it is going to be a lot better than your former one. And you get to go to Korea!!!

[Chefelf]

Two people on this forum teach English in Korea? What are the odds?

Where do I sign up?

Can you telecommute?

[Gleffnork]

Wait, do you not have to also be able to speak Korean should you wish to teach English in Korea?

Maybe I am just taking crazy pills?!!

[Jordan]

You don't have to speak any Korean. Just have a perfect accent and understand the basics (for the most part). I get paid 2.2 millions wan a month, and all accomodations are taken care of.

Chef if you want to do it, just type in a google search "english teaching in korea" a well known organization is JET. They do the same thing but in Japan. And if you really want to go to Korea then I think it's a 2 hour flight from tokyo.

[Just your average movie goer]

All you Americans would have no trouble getting a job over here. I was applying for work while I was finishing up a job in Tokyo - with a teaching degree specifically in the fields of English and ESL (English as a Second Language), a TESOL certificate and a solid year of experience - and half the people I applied with said they weren't interested, once they found out I was Australian.

Am I bitter about this? Yes, of course.

But anyway, it means that you guys should have no trouble getting work over here if you should so desire it. You don't need a teaching degree - any degree will suffice. You don't need to speak the language (in my school, we aren't allowed to use Korean in the classroom).... although it would be a hell of a lot easier to teach the students if you could. It is a really difficult language to learn though... but I intend to get there eventually (maybe in about 50 years, I will be able to hold basic conversation in Korean).

And Jordan, you don't need to be an expert on grammar. But if the job requires a bit of grammatical explanations from time to time, get yourself a grammar book.

I recommend The Good Grammar Book by Michael Swan or Understanding English Grammar and Usage by Betty Azar.

You can probably buy them over here - I've seen them in Seoul anyway. And there's no need to weigh your luggage down with heavy books when you don't even know if you'll need them or not.

As for the horror stories, sadly there are a few of them. The best you can do before you arrive is find out as much as you can about your school - and you should be fine. If you do run into trouble, then that's what your nearest embassy is for. Although it's best to talk any problems over with your employer beforehand as some problems are really just misunderstandings. Remember, these places will be a little different from your typical western workplace (which may or may not be a bad thing).

As for any other people who are interested in this lucrative profession, go to the Korean Job Board at Dave's ESL Cafe - http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/.

And good luck, Jordan. It's no small step you're making.

This post has been edited by Just your average movie goer: 07 June 2004 - 12:31 AM

[barend]

"Can I watch you kill my crab?"


fucking rednacks!!!

[Gleffnork]

Oh Movie goer, that is so sad! We feel your pain.......oh yeah and yours too Jordan!

[Just your average movie goer]

Ah, don't feel bad for me. I may not have the best job in the world but I'm right where I want to be - and that's more than most people can say.