Phew. Okay! I will totally contact you, but I figrue I'll address some stuff here:
A few things to consider. First: what kind of school will you be teaching at? Is it a public school, a university or a private academy (hagwon)? What age groups will you be teaching?
Have they specified your monthly compensation? You want to be making at least 2 million won a month, but ideally you'll be making more than that. 2.3 a month seems to be the going rate for new teachers in the hagwon system. University and corporate gigs can pay quite a bit more. Some public schools offer less than 2.3, but public school jobs tend to give you a lot more vacation time, which will allow you to do quite a bit of traveling. Japan is just a <2 hour plane ride away, and you'll also be within easy reach of China, India, Bali and lots of other cool places. Also, you want to find out about the apartment that the school is providing for you. Make sure it's big enough, etc. Also, see if they'll hook you up with cellphones when you get there. It'll make your life a lot easier.
It's a Public school, I'll be making 2.1 mil, my wife will make 2.4 with her MA. The recruiter said with overtime we may average 2.5-2.8, but I'm not holding my breath. At the moment, this is like 1500-1600$ a month each. That's 36k a year which is not a ton of money, but given that we live in New York now and we won't be paying rent, that's like an additional 12k. So it'd be like earning 50 here and I expect from what I've read that we'll save quite a bit on cost of living, as well as on taxes.
I'll be honest- I think we're doing this for the same reason a lot of people do it. We have student loan debt that we can barely even touch here in the US. Sitting behind a desk is eating us up. We keep talking about wanting to travel more and so it came to a point where it was like "Okay, man up and do it or shut up and go back to work". So the money is nice, especially given how much of that is take home, and I feel like "Spent a year (or more) in Korea teaching English" is way more resume valuable and, more importantly, life-valuable than "Was Marketing Director for blahblah".
I think we get 3 weeks of vacation, which is 2 weeks more than I get now, haha. The master plan is to take off after the year and travel for awhile. We're good at keeping costs rock bottom (We did Europe and North Africa for 6 weeks on like 2100$)
The people are friendly enough, but there's definitely an "us and them" mentality that you don't really find in a lot of western countries. If you're not Korean, you're a foreigner. It's difficult to explain all the connotations that come with "foreigner" here. It's not negative per se, but you'll understand soon enough. A lot of people, especially the younger folks, will be quite friendly. If you have buzzed hair, they'll probably assume you're U.S. military, which has its own connotations, some good, others bad. There are a lot of U.S. soldiers in the country, and for whatever reason a lot of them are violent drunks who also spend a lot of money.
Spending time in Morrocco was the most isolating experience of a lifetime. I had one of those moments where like. Have you ever seen a western where the sheriff walks into the saloon and everyone stops and stares at the door? That was me. I was the sheriff. That said, I was on vacation and I could leave. And aside from being a curiosity, most people were incredibly nice. I am a little afraid about being somewhere for a whole year, it can just be really tiring, even after only a few weeks. I'm usually really good natured about these things, but being somewhere utterly foreign just has a really depleting effect. Still, it has to better than sitting at a desk.
Intra-country travel is quite easy. There's an excellent bus and rail system that can get you just about anywhere you need to go. Unlike Japan, traveling across the country by train is quite cheap. There's a high-speed rail service called the KTX that connects a lot of the major cities. Within the cities themselves, you'll have access to an excellent metro system. You should be able to get to just about anywhere you need to go. The subways are generally closed between about 12-5am. At this point, you take taxis, but these are very cheap compared to America or Japan. It helps if you write down where you want to go, because some destinations can be hard to pronounce, and if you're just slightly off, the driver will have no idea what you're saying.
My wife is a walking encyclopedia of global public transport systems. She will like this. Also: BURRET TRAIN
Food is pretty good. Koreans think that they're tough guys when it comes to spicy stuff, but in reality they're total spice wimps compared to Thai or Cambodian people, or even Mexicans really. You shouldn't have any trouble in that regard. Bring some immodium just in case, but you'll probably be alright. You can find a lot of stuff to cook with at the supermarkets. There are some big chains called Home Plus and E-Mart that should have what you need, and a lot of times you'll find people selling fruits and vegetables on the street. Make sure you inspect them first. I'd recommend getting a rice cooker if the apartment doesn't have one, because rice is cheap and goes with almost everything.
I'm a hugely adventurous eater. If we end up not going to Korea, I'll probably just finally go to culinary school. I'm not super spooked, but I imagine I'll want a few home comforts. I'm also really sensitive to spicy stuff, as is my wife. I guess we'll toughen up, haha.
The language is a bit of a challenge. I'd recommend learning the Korean characters as quickly as possible. The alphabet is quite easy and almost completely phonetic. Most of the letters are similar to sounds within the English alphabet, but slightly different. Pick up a Korean language book that has some cds you can listen to. You can get around with a few key phrases. However, like I said earlier, if you're just a little bit off, they won't understand you at all. English speakers are very used to hearing foreign accents, but this is absolutely not true in Korea. Your pronunciation has to be near perfect. Even if you pronounce things well, a lot of Koreans will giggle or laugh when you speak to them. This really annoys me, but for some reason it's a trip to them to hear foreigners speak their language.
This is my worst nightmare, haha.
The only thing that I typically caution folks about is that a year is a lot shorter than you think. You might find youself just starting to get comfortable at that point. It all dependsd on whether you start getting comfortable or not (i.e. acquiring furniture etc). If you are pretty strict about living out of a suitcase and leaving at the end of your contract, you'll save a bunch of money. If you start getting depressed because you don't have a sofa or an Xbox after 6 months, you'll be more inclined to spend money on that stuff, which means you'll take longer to break even on the trip, which means you might end up extending your contract. If you do, you'll probably find yourself even more comfortable at the end of your second year, because hey, now we can speak some of the language! The mindset becomes 'Everything is just starting to open up. Let's get a bigger apartment more in line with what we had in the US and maybe we can stick it out here a bit longer and save some more money...'
Nothing wrong with that, really. But bear in mind that English teaching is not something that's worth staying in for more than a few years because it's essentially worthless on a resume (better than a blank space but not much moreso). And your conditions won't improve much. An experienced teacher won't get paid much more than a rank beginner. So beware the trap of staying too long.
I, on the other hand, came to Japan with the expectation of staying a long time, so I started getting settled in asap. Didn't focus on saving money at all. I've seen LOTS of people come over with strict timetables for leaving and end up staying for 5-plus years though. Just something to keep in mind.
I'd say we're open to staying. My wife really wants to get her PhD, but she's only 22 and has her MA, so she's not in a rush. Our thinking is just like. Someday we'll have kids and commitments and lots and lots of time to stay in one place. While we're young we'd like to see more of the world, save a little scratch and take some time for ourselves. I realize it's not quite a resume builder, but I feel like it at least makes you look like an interesting person. We've also discussed the possibility of joining the Foreign Service and this would be good for that, I suppose.
