Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. -Anne Tyler
I'm finally doing it. I have been thinking about it for a year now, and I know I would have always wondered "what if" if I didn't go. There are around 50,000 expatriates living in South Korea, so I know I'm not alone and this plan isn't that crazy. It's pretty safe for an adventure.
I'm excited about living in a big city again. Ever since I left London I've wished I could move back, and I have a feeling I'll feel the same about Seoul when I leave. The good thing about that is Seoul is much less expensive than London so I can stay for two years if I want, or longer. I could even try Shanghai or Hong Kong or Tokyo if I never get tired of being a poor traveling English teacher.
Getting a job to teach in Korea isn't too difficult. All you need is a recruiting agency, unless you want to do an overseas job search all by yourself (and I know some people actually choose this route). I found a company in Canada that basically does all the work for me. There are a lot of agencies based in Korea; this was the only one I found based in an English-speaking country. The agency will get paid by the school for finding me, so it's an extremely helpful service that doesn't cost me anything. The people who run the agency used to teach English in Korea, they've been through the same thing I will go through, and they help me step by step through each part of the process.
So, if you meet the following requirements you can teach in Korea (and probably China and Japan):
-have a four-year degree in any major
-don't have a criminal background
-have a passport (or plan to get one quickly)
-are a native English speaker from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, or South Africa
Essentially, the only thing I needed to do is to pay for my own criminal background check. They need that now in order to get my visa, but until recently it was even easier to get a teaching job in Korea because the background check is a pretty new requirement. I had to go to Reisterstown, which is a couple hours away, to get fingerprinted and to purchase the background check. Tomorrow I go to Annapolis to get an apostille for that check, which arrived in the mail a week after I paid for it. This has been the hardest part, and while it is inconvenient, it is easy too, so I can't complain. Overall the process has been just like—if not easier than—applying to study abroad.
I know one of the last steps is going to be to go to the Korean Embassy in DC to get an interview with a consulate, and that will probably be the hardest step. It is just as new as the background check. Before recently you didn't need to do this either, but the Korean government is making it slightly more difficult after discovering there were people teaching English who had created fake diplomas or had criminal backgrounds.
Anyway, this is what I've done so far to get ready:
I have two travel guides for South Korea, one for Seoul, one Korean phrasebook, and a book on Korean customs to help prevent horrible culture shock. I'm waiting for one book about women traveling alone to come in the mail. There are a lot of books written on this topic, which gives me courage to go for it.
Learning Korean will be like learning Spanish, only with an extra step because I have to learn a new alphabet first. I have Rosetta Stone and have already started teaching myself the alphabet. I still only know how to say a few words and phrases, but learning how to read the language has helped a lot even though I have no idea what what I'm reading means yet.
I made a packing list with basically a year supply of anything I know they don't sell over there. Every website with advice on what to bring made sure I knew they don't wear or sell deodorant in Korea. I wasn't surprised, though, because my Korean friends over the years have already told me they don't need it because they just don't get B.O.
I'm going to be writing this blog to help me remember everything for when I'm an old lady, because I wish I had done something like this when I was in London. I'm also going to use this to keep in touch with family and friends. So far away from home, I figure I will feel closer to the people I love knowing they are reading this. I'll write more soon. Within a couple weeks I should know details about where I'll be living and working in Korea.
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