3rd Seoul World DJ Festival

It's time for the DJ Fest, kids!!! It starts at 2pm and goes until 6am and then picks up again on Sunday afternoon. I'll be there dancing, drinking and taking pictures. I'll have a podcast up on the shows tomorrow afternoon (unless I get home after 6am).

Stay tuned for pics and commentary!!!

Teaching Adults in Korea: Is it worth it?

Here's the question:

I've been researching about teaching English in Korea and was considering Pagoda until I began hearing horror stories. I'm also considering Asknow (I see you also suggested them) and they seem really nice and legit. I haven't heard anything bad about them. What do you think? Any helpful suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Leeh

Some of these questions are really hitting close to home and this one is just about as close as you can get. I was once a teacher for the 1:1 adult mega-hagwon Pagoda and it's sister company Direct English. And while there are some good things about the job, there are some things that one must be aware of before really considering signing the contract.

First of all, teaching adults in Korea gives you a much different perspective on the nation. You will be exposed to adults, who will obviously share their life with you, rather than kids who will most likely spill their lunch on you. However, most adult jobs offer the split shift (7-11am and 5-9pm or some variation of that). With hours like that, you will discover that weekend getaways, benders and even normal social life will be difficult. Secondly, from my experience, some of the teachers at these places have a tad more baggage (large debt, marriage, old age, unable to interact with kids etc..) than your average hagwon or school teacher. That doesn't mean you won't find some good friends though, but it might take a little digging. The shift seriously hinders your ability to get out there and interact with the Korean people and culture.

Rather than opining about the ups and downs (we will do that on the podcast which will be out tomorrow), I'll tell you my personal story from the interview to when I decided to quit.

I had just finished a couple years of working at a kids hagwon in Daechi-dong and had just gotten married, so I was looking for a job that offered more than the basic two-point-something that often comes along with teaching kids. I took a look at Daves and Worknplay and eventually was contacted by Pagoda's recruiter that I'll call "Bill". This guy was an overly friendly Canadian who didn't appear to have anything to hide. At the interview, he spoke bluntly about how teaching for his company was more about "perception", hence the coat and tie, and less about "quality instruction". He painted a picture that working there was so simple, that no matter what you do, you'll always hit the minimum or base pay of 2.4 million won a month. Of course, no one wants to do to the bare minimum, so he addressed that mindset with a quick glance at what some of his teachers were making. I saw 6.5m, 5.8m and 4.3m a month. He said they worked a lot, but not that much. I was pretty thrilled.

Between the probability of a higher salary, great chances to make close to 5m a month and a relaxed boss, I was totally pumped up. I told my wife and she was equally excited. So, I decided to take a good look at the contract. The contract is written in a very sneaky way. First of all, that minimum pay is before you pay all your bills and your rent (which they only pay 100,000-150,000) a month. Then you start to look at what they hours are, what your vacation is and how your pay is calculated. In the end, hitting that 2.4 minimum would have been a dream. Of course, I didn't know that yet. The promise of a huge ESL teacher salary blinded me from the glaring problems with such a job.

I started my first day. It was fine. I liked teaching there. I had my own office, my own computer and good students. Right away, I discovered what was going to be an issue. There is a tendency to ignore teaching English and begin teaching your life. I did this. Luckily, my students liked it and continually enrolled in my classes. After a few months, I got the highest raise possible which was an extra 1,500 per class. The management applauded my hard work and thanked me over and over again. I was proud of that of course, but when it came time to have my paycheck meeting, I always left angry. I worked there for six months and only one of the six paychecks were close to that minimum.

Why? Well, you're not paid for your time, you're paid for students. If you have a lot of students, then you'll do okay. I constantly had the most students at my branch and still had trouble keeping a full schedule. I had some days where I would work for 2 hours. Sounds good, but if you want to earn money, especially the money promised to you by "Bill", it hurts. 1:1 English is the most expensive hagwon for adults with prices typically ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 won an hour. On top of that, most 1:1 places require the students to pay several months in advance which totals between 1m to 3m won. That's a lot of money to ask students to pay BEFORE they have even had one class. This system is extremely susceptible to the economy as well. If the economy goes down, then students don't enroll and you get paid lass. I have friends who are teaching there still and they have yet to make over the minimum and have very limited and mostly Seoul-based experiences in Korea.

So I left. They tried to get me to sign a bunch of things and scare me with heavy penalties, but I did not relent and in the end I escaped having only lost 6 months of decent salary.

My advice?

Don't work for Pagoda, Direct English, or Wall Street. They promise big things, but offer nothing but low wages, bad hours and a big headache. If you want to teach adults, then stick to teaching groups, not 1:1.


If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.

Concert, Show and Music Listings in South Korea

Here's the question:

Who are people using for regular concert and show info in Korea? Nothing seems consistent. I don't find regular, credible info on concerts in Korea on any single site. Am I missing something?

Brit

I talked about this here already and I figured I would add a little more to this. I have a feeling that I'll be answering a lot of these questions and since I seem to be getting a lot of hits from people searching for music in Korea, I should address those searches. I did find some more info, but as the questioner said, they're just isn't much consistency. I have noticed that the admins at Dave's tend to delete concert info, so cruising the forums there usually don't produce many results.

This is the best list I can come up with and I hope to continue adding to this as time goes by.

• Expat Advisory: They do a good job of listing some gigs around Seoul.
• Interpark: This Korean language site lists a bunch of artists, but most of the artists are Korean.
• Dope Entertainment: They seem to do pretty well with keeping metal listings current.
• 02Pro: It certainly isn't the clearest site, but if you're into electronic music then give it a try.
• Korean Punk: It's a Facebook site, but it lists some good sources for punk music.
• Festivals and Events in Korea: Another Facebook site. This one, however, is not that great and mostly ignores decent music.
• Broke in Korea: This is easily the best resource for punk music in Korea.
• Korea Gig Guide: My personal favorite for all types of tunes on the peninsula.
• Jambase: While it is easily my favorite music website, it just doesn't produce much for Korea.
• Worknplay: Most people use it as a job resource, they also have an entertainment page that is okay.
• Party Luv: The site is in Korean, but it is great for the club scene.
• Daejon Concerts: Another facebook group that is helping make the music scene in Daejon more accessible

I'm going to try and keep this list as current as possible and might even start a weekly update combining all the shows from those sites.

If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.

Camping and Old Pictures of Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Here's the question:

Where can I find old maps of Pyeongtaek, or even southern Gyeonggi-do (1800-1990)? Are there any websites that provide camping areas or information for all of Gyeonggi-do? Any help is appreciated!

Joel

Tricky one here. My source for old Korean pictures varies greatly and there is no set site that I go to. However, I would suggest taking a look at Gusts Of Popular Feeling though. If you click here you can see a few of his photo history's on the Joseon Era. You could also take a look at his Post 1945 Era and Colonial Era pictorials as well. In fact if I were you, I would suggest sending him an email and asking him through his comment section what his source is and maybe he (Matt) could point you in a sound direction. Perhaps stopping by the ROKDrop would yield some good info as well. As I said in the intro, sometimes I don't know the best answer and I know that these guys do.



Of course, you can always spend hours on Flickr and Google, but that's not too reliable.

I can help with the website though. First, take a look at the Gyeonggi-do website and get better acquainted with the whole area. As far as camping goes, you should look at the "Natural Wonders" section found on the "Tourism" page and read through each profile. I ran through the list and saw a handful that offered camping or some sort of mountain lodging. The best way to do it would be find the location you want to go, and then do some detailed research about how to get there and what they offer at each destination.

Interesting question.

If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.

South Korea Weather and the "Four Distinct Seasons"

Here's the question:

What's the weather like in Korea? All the travel books say that it's the same as Washington DC (I'm from Baltimore) and the seasons are about the same as well. What's the monsoon season like?

Daniel

As I was reading the question I was really hoping that a "four distinct seasons" line would be in there, but I assume the season's comment was a reference to that. As most people do before coming to Korea, purchasing a travel book is always a good idea. And when you start reading it, an absurb fact that has been mocked over and over again for years and years among the expat community is revealed: KOREA HAS FOUR DISTINCT SEASONS. Despite that there is nothing unique about this weather pattern, Korea seems to like push the line. New K-Blog, Dong Chim, takes a nice shot at the claim here.

Unlike those guide books and even the graph to the right, I would say that Korea (or at least the northern regions) has closer to two seasons. The summers are long, wet and hot and the winters are long, cold and dry. Spring and fall are essentially short transitional seasons that experience very unsteady and drastic temperature changes. This winter, for instance, was very long. It started to get really cold last October and was still near freezing this April. In fact, according to Gangwon Notes, it snowed on April 26th in Gangwon-do. Last May, I went camping just north of the Han river and it was literally below freezing at night.

However, you can escape the weather in the north simply by heading south. I might be partial since I had an amazing trip the south last weekend, but Jeollanam-do is really beautiful and the weather seems to be more steady as well as all the other southern islands and cities like Busan, Daegu and, of course, Jeju. That's not to say they don't get cold, they do, but really anywhere in the Gyeongsangnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do usually experience warmer weather. Or since you're an American, I'll put it this way: If you live in northern South Korea, then expect Midwestern US weather (Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri etc...). If you decide to stick to the south, you can expect southern US weather (Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina etc...)

The monsoon season can be bad and it has been known to flood some regions south of Seoul, but for the most part it just means a wet walk to work for about two or three weeks in July or maybe August. In my opinion, like the Yellow Dust issue, the monsoon season tends to be greatly exaggerated.

I'd say that it's nothing that you should be concerned about. Just read the averages and pack well.

If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.