Where could I teach? Businesses, public schools, universities, and hagwons all are looking for native English EFL/ESL teachers. The most common jobs are in universities and hagwons. University jobs have great hours and benefits, but they're harder to get. Most of the universities require EFL/ESL instruction degrees and/or an advanced degree. Usually they expect teaching experience, too, preferably in Korea. In fact most universities tend to hire native English teachers that are already in Korea, rather than flying them over. So, most beginning English teachers work in hagwons. The pay is lower and the hours are longer, but the requirements are less and the jobs are very plentiful.

What's a hagwon? It's a private, commercial academy. You'll see it spelled hagwan, hogwon, hagwon, and hakwon (there's supposed to be a standard for Romanizing Korean, but in practice it varies a lot). Though I'm no expert in pronunciation, I suggest "hah-GWAHN" -- add a bit of a "k" sound to the g. That should get you somewhere in the neighborhood. The Korean government says there are about 3,000 English hagwons in South Korea. They come in all sizes, from tiny mom-and-pop operations to huge enterprises teaching as many students as a small-town US elementary school. There are even corporate chains that run hagwons in multiple cities. Some hagwons actually look like schools from the outside, but most are housed in ordinary downtown buildings that could just as well be home to accounting firms or export brokerages. A hagwon doesn't have to teach English. You'll find that many of your students also go to computer hagwons and math hagwons. Some of the large hagwons teach multiple subjects.

Why does Korea have so many hagwons? For the same reason that some people want to build more private schools in the US -- Koreans think their educational system isn't good enough. They may be right, and I think it's because they're so focused on proficiency tests. Korean kids make some of the world's highest scores on them. In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) tests against other members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea took first place in science and second in math. But all that proves is that they do well at taking standardized tests. (Besides, Korea came in sixth in reading, and everything I've seen suggests that they are not a nation of readers.) Ironically, just as some people in the US have started advocating a national system of proficiency testing there, Korea has begun to realize that their proficiency tests may be hurting their kids' ability to learn much beyond how to pass the tests. The Confucian principles which make up the core of Korea's culture really emphasize education, but Koreans have been unhappy with their public school system for many years. Private teaching is thus nothing new. But when Korea's former military dictator Chun Doo Hwan came to power in 1980, he banned all private teaching, calling it "inegalitarian." You could argue that in one way he was right. The best-educated kids get the best jobs, so if only wealthy people can afford private schools, poor kids tend to get shut out of the system. But fixing inequality is easy if you equalize everybody downward, and that's pretty much what banning private teaching did. It certainly didn't do anything to fix the public schools. It didn't actually stop the private teaching, either; it just drove it underground. So finally in 1991 the government gave in, and legalized hagwons. They kept them tightly regulated, though, still concerned about undermining public education and worried that low-income Koreans would lose their shirts to huge education costs. Then, in the mid-1990s, they relaxed the laws further, and the number of hagwons ballooned. In 1996, Korean parents spent US$25 billion in private education -- fifty percent more than the nation's entire public education budget! By 1997, surveys showed that 70 percent of elementary school children and half of middle and high school students were involved in some kind of private education. Supplemental education doesn't come cheap, at least not by Korean standards. The Korean government caps hagwon fees at 85,000 won per month (about US$70), but many hagwons get away with charging considerably more, often 100,000 won or higher. These fees are not easy for families to handle. It's been estimated that the typical Korean family spends between 15 and 30 percent of its household budget on private education. But they pay them, many times for two or three children at two or three hagwons, because they feel that if they don't send their kids to private school, they're not doing their best for the kids. The honor of the family is at stake here. Of course the kids are the ones attending the schools. They spend a lot of time in classrooms -- as much as 18 hours a day, Monday through Friday, plus Saturday morning. Koreans tell their kids: "sleep five hours a night and fail; sleep four hours and pass." And they must not fail. The suicide rate goes up every year around exam time.

But why English? What's so important about it? Easy. Money talks. And it speaks English. For better and/or worse, America is the holy grail of free-market capitalism. If you want to play, you'd better speak English. So English has been taught in most major European and Asian countries for years. According to the Worldwatch Institute, 350 million people worldwide now speak English as a second language -- 28 million more than those who speak it as their native language. A recent poll by the European Union found that 70% of Europeans believe that "everyone should speak English." At least as many Koreans feel that way. English is also fashionable. Korean entertainment and culture has a heavy American flavor (with some Japanese overtones). Just look at the use English gets in advertising. Then there are the high school and college entrance exams, which measure (among other things) English proficiency. The student who does poorly on the high school test will never be able to get into a top university. On the other hand -- fair or not -- there are cases in which nothing more than a high English score has gotten second-rate students into prestigious schools. What happens to the student who doesn't do well? He ends up in a second-rate (or worse) college and gets a second rate (or worse) job. This can even affect who he or she marries, and this in turn may affect what kind of care the kid's parents will get in their old age. So parents put intense pressure on their children to perform well in their tests. And they send them to hagwons. In theory, they shouldn't need English hagwons. All Korean children study English in public school, beginning in third grade. But public school English is taught by Korean-born instructors, and they mostly teach simple vocabulary and emphasize exercises. There's very little chance for the students to actually use English in conversation. This is why hagwons are so keen to have native English speakers: they want a person who can challenge the students to apply their vocabulary and learn conversational skills. Also, with so many hagwons in business, the competition is intense. The hagwon without one or more native English speakers literally won't make it.

What kind of money can I make? This is a perfectly reasonable question, so don't think I'm taking it the wrong way. But before I actually answer it I want to spend a couple of minutes on my soapbox. First point: If how much you can make is number one on your list of questions, you're looking into this for the wrong reason. Korea is almost as aggressively capitalist as the US, and Korean business people take their profit seriously. No offense, but you probably don't have the language skills and cultural background to play the game their way on their home turf. You can earn a decent salary teaching English in Korea, but if your main objective is to rake in lots of money in a hurry, trust me - you'll be happier (and more successful) somewhere else. Second point: If you're looking into teaching English in Korea because you're unemployed and broke, forget it. Flying halfway around the world to take a job you know almost nothing about at a school you've never seen with a boss you've never met is risky enough. If you do this with no money in your pocket and no way to get home if things go sour, you're just asking for trouble. End of lecture. Back to the question. A typical hagwon salary runs 18 to 30 million won per year (roughly US$15,000 to US$25,000). Yeah, I know, big whoop. But get your mind outside of North America for a second. A hagwon salary is 1.5 to 3 times Korean per capita income. Your housing and airfare are paid. Cost of living is low. Taxes and insurance are ridiculously cheap. Korean per-capita income just recently broke US$10,000. Your hagwon salary is more than a typical Korean office worker or computer programmer makes. It's also more than Korean-born hagwon teachers earn (just so you know). It's more money than you're likely to get in most other Asian countries, in part because native English teachers are so much in demand in Korea. Korean food is mostly cheap; just learn to cook Korean and shop at the traditional market. Even if you can't cook, every block seems to have an endless supply of family-run Korean restaurants and street vendors where you can get a meal for US$3-5. Clothes are very good and on the pricey side at the department stores, but cheap at the bazaars, markets, and street vendors. Appliances and electronics used to be expensive, but prices have come down a lot in the last few years. You'll probably have to pay your own utilities for your apartment, but they're generally less than what you'd pay in most parts of the US. The actual rent most likely won't matter to you, even if you live in Seoul. The hagwon will put you up or cover your costs. If the one you're looking at doesn't, look elsewhere. Although market "reforms" required as a result of the 1997-1998 IMF bailout have eroded South Korea's social safety net, the government still keeps many of the basics affordable for the sake of low-income Koreans. A bus ride is only 700 won (about 55 cents US -- more in Seoul). There are government price controls and management schemes on quite a few essentials, from medicines to petroleum. Korean income taxes for foreigners are about 2.5 - 5 percent. Korea has universal single-payer public health insurance, which takes another 2-3 percent or so of your salary. This insurance is usually at least partly paid by your employer. Think about that: you'll typically get to keep over 90 percent of your salary. In the US a good one-quarter to one-third of your paycheck goes for taxes and insurance, to say nothing of what most Europeans pay. So while the salary itself may not sound too high, it goes a long way. Unless you're a real spendthrift, it's not at all hard to bank a nice percentage of your salary while you're in Korea. Some of the websites talk about how much you can earn by teaching private lessons. And it's true. "Privates" (yep, that's what teachers call 'em in Korea) can easily bring in more than your hagwon salary. But they're risky. Private lessons fall into a grey area of the law. Many hagwon contracts say you're not allowed to teach outside the hagwon. Your visa is based on the terms of your contract, so breaking your contract can get you deported if you're caught. Lots of teachers get away with it. But there are always rumors of "ringers" from immigration trying to catch foreign teachers by offering to pay them for privates. Personally, I'd rather take a hagwon salary, spend my spare time sightseeing and relaxing, and not have to look over my shoulder all the time. It's up to you; just make sure you know what you're getting into. You may have heard that hagwons will give you a bonus of one month's salary when you go home. Now, this is not a yearly bonus, it's a severance bonus, payable when you leave the job for good, but after your first year your bonus keeps building month by month -- so if you leave after 18 months, your bonus amounts to a month and a half's worth of salary. There is in fact a Korean law that requires a severance bonus for all full time employees. There's also a catch. The Korean courts have ruled that if you aren't actually in the classroom for at least 40 hours a week, you're not really full-time and thus you're not eligible for a severance bonus. Some hagwon directors think that preparing lesson plans and grading papers isn't real work, and I guess the Korean legal system agrees. Even if you teach an actual 40 hours per week, you can still miss out if your hagwon is very small. The law doesn't require businesses with fewer than six employees (including Koreans) to pay the bonus. Ask the hagwon director about this before you sign on. Don't let it be a deal-breaker, though.

A friend of mine went to Seoul last year, and he said it was almost as expensive as Tokyo! Yeah, I've heard that too. These guys must be in some alternate universe. I guess if you stay at 4-star hotels, go to fancy western restaurants, and drink American booze in the Itaewon bars, you probably can spend hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars a day in Seoul. As I said before, Koreans are shrewd business people and unabashed capitalists. They know about corporate expense accounts. But even at that, it doesn't have to be that pricey. I spent a night in a Seoul hotel that my US travel agent had booked for me (the Sofitel Ambassador) and it cost me $150. That's sure not pocket change, but it's not really all that much by international standards. And we didn't do much of that business person type stuff anyway. We mostly stayed in Korean style yagwons (motels), ate in Korean restaurants, and drank soju and makkolli (when we drank any booze, which wasn't very often). I think the most we paid for a yagwon stay, even in Seoul, was 43,000 won. Most places it was more like 20,000 or 25,000. A typical meal at a family-owned Korean restaurant ran us about 3,500 to 6,000 won. Again, meal prices were a little higher in Seoul, but we seldom spent over 20,000 won on a Korean dinner for the two of us. (On the other hand, we did drop a good bit more than that on some really great dim sum once.) So, OK. Korea can be moderately expensive if you insist on living like you haven't left home. It's up to you, I guess, but personally I don't see the point to working in a foreign country if you're going to do that.

You were saying something about working less than 40 hours a week ... What, you don't like to work? ;-) Thirty to 35 teaching hours a week isn't too uncommon, and a few teachers are now working 25 hour weeks. I hope these folks realize how lucky they are, because most Koreans work a 44-hour week. (Although the government plans to gradually phase in a 40 hour work week over the next few years, a lot of Koreans still work a half-day on Saturday.) Some hagwons do make you work 44 hour weeks, including the Saturdays. That's one more reason not to take the first job that comes along. On the other hand, I'd rather work 40 or 44 hours a week for a director I really liked than 25 or 30 hours for one I hated. But that's me. Your contract will specify the length of your work week (though that's not necessarily the final word -- more on this later). But don't get too excited over a contact that says you'll teach for 30 or 35 hours a week. That's teaching time. As I said above, some hagwons don't pay you for your time preparing lesson plans or grading papers. You should expect your work schedule to change, maybe often. If a recruiter or director tells you otherwise, take it with a grain of salt; every hagwon's enrollment changes from week to week. Also, ask whether the school expects you to work "split shifts." Because many hagwons teach both children and adults, you could find yourself working part of your hours in the morning and part in the evening. Some teachers hate this; others aren't much bothered. Some actually like having a break in the middle of the day. As always, just make sure you understand what your hagwon expects before you sign on the dotted line.

What about vacation time? Most hagwons teach year-round. You probably won't be able to get enough consecutive vacation days to make a trip back home -- if you get any vacation at all -- so you should plan to stay in Asia for your entire year. However, you'll get all the major Korean holidays off. There are about 15 in all, and at least two are long holidays (3-4 days): Solal, or Lunar New Year, is in January or February; Chusok, Korea's equivalent of Thanksgiving, falls in September or October. If you want to travel in Asia or nearby during Korean holidays, make sure you get a multiple re-entry visa when you apply for your alien registration (this seems to be the standard visa for most US residents). If you plan to go anywhere in Korea over a major holiday, keep in mind that nearly all Koreans travel to their ancestral homes then. You'll need to make your travel reservations several months ahead. (Make train or airline reservations. Bus would be a last resort. Whatever you do, don't attempt to travel by car on holidays, or you'll be sorry. Traffic slows to a crawl with all those people on the road.) Some teachers arrange to spend a few weeks at home between contract periods. Alternatively, you may be able to negotiate some vacation time if you renew your contract for another term. If you're successful as an English teacher, you may find that after a year or two you can move to a university instructor position. These are coveted jobs because of their short hours (typically under 30 hours per week) and long vacations (4-8 weeks per year).

I'd have to stay in Asia for a year? If the hagwon's really desperate, you might be able to get a shorter term. But the standard contract is for a year. And you might want to think twice about working for a hagwon that's desperate. They put you under a contract because you're expensive. The hagwon has to cover recruiting costs, immigration paperwork, airfare and possibly apartment "key money." Break-even point for them usually comes about 5 or 6 months into your contract. Typically, if you break your contract and leave early, they'll make you pay part or all of your airfare, which would otherwise be free. Some hagwons hold part of your first paycheck, to offset the ticket cost in case you do split early -- another reason not to go to Korea with empty pockets. Before you even start looking for a job, stop and think: Are you prepared to spend that much time in Korea? If you've never been out of your homeland before, take a 2-3 week vacation first. If you can't go to Korea, go anywhere overseas, especially if you're an American. I say this because the US standard of living is appreciably higher than almost any other nation's. Once you've been outside the US, you've seen this, so you're more prepared for what you'll live with for your year (or more) away from home.

Is Korea's standard of living really that bad? No, not at all. It's just that Americans are used to a big, affluent country with lots of wide-open spaces. Hardly anybody else in the world lives that way. When Asians and Europeans come to the US, their first reaction is usually, "Everything's so BIG!" And it's true. Everything is: houses, vehicles, roads, supermarkets, refrigerators, schools. Even our pets are bigger. Even we are. When you go overseas, the scale is going to be smaller and the standard of living lower. For Americans who haven't travelled before, this takes a little getting used to.

I want to come back to the Korean standard of living, but first tell me more about the contract. This sample contract is fairly typical, but yours may contain other provisions. Do I need to tell you again to read it carefully before signing? Also, make sure your hagwon director has read it and remembers what's in it. This is not a joke! There have been cases in which a teacher pointed out a contract provision the director didn't know was there. I would stay away from a hagwon that wants you to sign a contract written in Korean. At the very least get a third party to translate it for you first. Even if you also sign an English contract, the Korean one supersedes it. Know what you're signing. Also, understand that a contract means something different to Koreans than to westerners. Most Korean employers regard the contract as more of a starting point than an ending point. Your contract may spell out the number of hours in your work week, for example, but the fact that your school's director later asks you to take on more work (for more pay, we hope) probably doesn't mean that he or she is trying to renege on the contract. The director sees this as normal "enhancement" of your agreement. Contract disputes are one of western teachers' biggest complaints with hagwons. I suspect that at least some of these problems arise because hagwon directors (surprise) often don't have as good a command of English as one might hope. You've read about Asian honor and pride? Well, this is a point of honor. They can't admit they don't understand without losing face. So you'll be discussing a contract "enhancement" and your director is nodding and making affirmative noises. You think he understands your answer to his proposals. Later he acts like you've betrayed him. He gets upset, you get upset, and the relationship is damaged (maybe fatally). This can all be avoided. When your hagwon director wants to tweak your contract, don't assume anything. Bring in a friend or fellow teacher with really good translation skills. At the end of the negotiations, get your director's revised expectations on paper. This may not totally prevent misunderstanding, but it could make the difference between a decent working relationship and irreconcilable differences. I know there are some teachers who say "Never give an inch." I don't agree. Koreans are accustomed to respectful negotiation, but they value cooperation and harmony in relationships. It'll do you more good than you know to swallow your pride and accept, without complaint, a few of these contract changes. I'm not saying you should yield on the major issues, just find some things you can say "yes" to. You'll build up "brownie points" that will help later when you have to negotiate something really important.

How will I get to Korea? The hagwon will usually buy you an economy-class air ticket, or else provide a transportation allowance. Once you've signed the contract, you should be packed and ready to leave, because they'll probably want you there as soon as they can book passage for you. A hagwon director without a native English speaking teacher on his staff has parents hounding him about when the new teacher will arrive. He's losing students and income, so he needs you yesterday. There've actually been cases where instructors were taken right from the airport to the classroom (not exactly an auspicious beginning to the experience). Margaret at least got to take a nap before they threw her to the pre-school wolves.

Where will I live? Though free housing is becoming somewhat less common in Seoul thanks to skyrocketing costs (up 40% from 2000 to 2002), most hagwons will still put you up as part of the package. It's usually one of three arrangements: a small private apartment, a larger house or apartment shared with other teachers, or (rarely) homestay with a Korean family, perhaps another hagwon employee. Some of the big hagwons have their own apartments. Most teachers think they want a private place right away, but that's not always the best choice. Sometimes you're better off living with someone who already knows his or her way around, at least at first. But if you have your heart set on having a place to yourself, make sure your director understands that and puts it in the contract. Don't be too upset if you don't get it the very day you arrive, but also don't let your director forget that he or she promised. And now a word about Korean apartments. That word is "small." Like Japan, Korea is a crowded nation. It packs 48 million people -- roughly the populations of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania put together -- into a country about the size of Indiana. Your apartment will be smaller than what you have at home. What Americans would call an efficiency or studio apartment is typical, particularly in larger cities such as Seoul and Pusan, where housing costs are high.

I don't have an education degree. I've never taught anybody anything. Would they still hire me? Well, you do have to have a college degree (so says Korean law). Obviously, an education degree would help you in doing your job. But the Korean government doesn't care what subject you studied, as long as you made at least a bachelor's degree. And your prospective Korean employer probably won't consider an education degree necessary at all. A hagwon is usually looking for a native English speaker with good diction. Mostly, they want you to sound like the Americans they hear in American films. They expect American standard usage and pronunciation, so if you have a strong regional or ethnic accent, work on minimizing it. If you speak rapidly, practice slowing down (but not unnaturally so). It's hard to overemphasize the importance of your native language. Let's put it this way: given a choice between a Korean-American who speaks excellent English and has years of formal teaching experience, and a well-spoken 100% American from the midwest with a degree in art or business, most hagwon directors will choose the latter. One more thing: it helps to be female. Koreans prefer female teachers because the female voice is higher and thus supposedly easier for them to understand. They are also used to women teaching in public schools. And, to be blunt, male hagwon directors just like to hire young women. Since fewer western women than men are looking for hagwon jobs, this makes it even easier for you to get a gig.

I was born in France (Italy, Norway, Taiwan, etc.) but I speak excellent English. Will I have trouble finding a job? "Have trouble" doesn't begin to cover it. It doesn't matter how good your English is, if you don't at least have a passport from some country where English is the native language, you're just about out of luck. About the only thing you can do is enter under a tourist visa and try to get some illegal private tutoring jobs. That's pretty risky and I don't recommend it. Sorry.

I'm an American, but a minority. Will I do OK? What I'd like to answer is, "In Korea we're all minorities." This is true, strictly speaking. Korea is gradually becoming more diverse, but basically it's a homogenous society, so historically they haven't had to deal with anyone who looked very different from the norm. As in Japan, the word for foreigner, weiguk, means "outsider." The "outsiders" they've had the most dealings with have been white Europeans and Americans, so these are the ones they're most comfortable with. These are also the foreigners they mostly want teaching them English. They'd also prefer that you were young, female, slim, and attractive, but they'll compromise on those. If you're of African descent, though, I'm sorry to say you have an steep (though not impossible) climb ahead of you. In the smaller cities, you'll get a lot of stares. Many Koreans will actually be afraid of you. In cosmopolitan Seoul it's a little better; they're more used to seeing people from all over the world. Korean rugrats being what they are, they'll stare, point, and chatter no matter what city you're in. Even in Seoul, expect your job search to take a fair bit of time. Looking from overseas isn't of much help; almost every hagwon director will want to see a photograph before even talking to you. If you somehow manage to get hired without sending a picture, there's a chance you may be canned on some pretext soon after you arrive. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about this. Korea doesn't have any anti-discrimination laws that protect you (or me, for that matter). What few laws it does have are mostly aimed at protecting other Asian nationals working in Korea. Unskilled workers from China and the Philippines do many of Korea's dirty and dangerous jobs -- sound familiar? Some writers blame Koreans' negative attitudes on Spike Lee movies, and there's probably some truth to that. Koreans do get some of their impressions of the west from films, and the Hollywood action movie image of African-Americans is not very flattering. But I suspect the attitudes go much farther back, at least to the 1950s, the Korean War, and the way Koreans saw white American GIs treat black American GIs. Actually, though, African Americans aren't alone. You'll also have fewer job offers if you're Hispanic or -- believe it or not -- Asian-American. Even Korean-Americans have it tough. Hagwon directors want native English speakers who are immediately identifiable as such, before they even say a word. I know, all this sounds discouraging. That's not really the way I mean it, because it's not impossible for members of minorities to get teaching jobs in Korea. I won't tell you that you'll have all the opportunities that other people will, but I do know of some who've gotten jobs. It just takes persistence. What else do you need? Start with a pretty good self-image and a very thick skin, because Koreans, especially kids, won't much attempt to hide their negative initial reactions to you. They'll make extremely insensitive comments (mostly in Korean, but you'll know). You'll also have to have a white-bread middle American just-like-the-movies vocabulary and diction (sorry, no Ebonics). If you can deal with all that, go get your passport now! There are a few progressive hagwon directors in Korea. With lots of patience, it is possible to find a job. And while it may not be a breeze, I think it's the right thing to do. The only way to change Koreans' attitudes is to show them that diversity is a good thing.

I don't speak any Korean at all! What will I do? Despite what some recruiters may tell you, it does help to speak and/or read Korean - not so much in the classroom as out of it. It's frustrating to walk into a restaurant and not have any idea what the menu says. You can't even guess, because Korean script, Hangul, is utterly unrelated to any western alphabet. It's humbling to always have to call on a Korean friend to set up your phone and internet service, tell the taxi driver your destination, or figure out which of the cartons in the store's cooler is half-and-half. At school or at social events, sometimes you'll feel left out when the other teachers are chattering away in Korean. I'm not going to tell you there are no frustrating moments. But you can get by. A hagwon is an English school, for crying out loud. The other teachers, the director, and even your older students will help you. The Korean teachers and your director will answer the telephone and deal with parents. They'll also usually help with discipline problems. (No, Korean kids are not quiet little angels. Sorry.) As for teaching, you'll be surprised how often you can get your point across to both children and adults with few (or no) Korean words. In fact, even if you know Korean, your hagwon director may tell you not to admit it to your students. Your job is to challenge them to speak English. There's also more English than you might expect. Every Korean schoolchild learns it at some level. Over your first few months, you'll pick up a few Korean words and phrases. Half and half Korean and English conversations sound weird, but they do work. If you carry an English-Korean dictionary with you, you can also look up keywords and point when you have to. I also recommend that you learn the basics of Hangul before you go. Learning Korean can take years, but you can pick up "survival Hangul" in a couple of weeks. You'll find some online Hangul resources on our weblinks page. Hangul works differently from the western alphabets, but it's probably the world's most rational one. Unlike most of them it didn't just evolve. It was deliberately designed (over 600 years ago) to be easily learned, because it was originally meant for people with very little formal education. Learn Hangul and you'll be able to read signs and (maybe) write down words you hear. Now, granted, you won't have a clue what the signs and words mean, but at least you'll be able to figure out that the destination on the bus sign is (or isn't) the one you want before you get on.

What are Koreans like? Just like us. I'm not being glib. They want the same things from life that we do -- happiness, wealth, comfort, love. Of course their traditions and ours are half a world apart, so they tend to pursue those goals differently. Some of the cultural differences can lead a first-time western visitor to think of Koreans as rude or thoughtless. The classic example is crowd behavior. The English form nice polite queues for everything; Koreans just shove their way through. Try to make a line at a ticket window and there's a good chance someone will just push you aside and step right up. He will not apologize. In crowds (which you'll run into just about everywhere in Korea, since it's one of the world's most densely populated places) you're going to be jostled and bumped and pushed. No one will apologize. This is probably considered rude where you come from. But this is not home, and these are not westerners. Your manners and rules don't apply. Pushing and shoving is not considered rude here. Read that again. One more time. I'm constantly amazed that westerners can know this is Korean custom, and they still get miffed about being jostled and pushed. Why? Get used to it! This is Korea, and they're not being rude. Nor is it rude for you to do it here. Go ahead, give as good as you get. Same with table manners. Some westerners think Koreans are crass because they slurp up noodles, tip their soup bowls to their mouths, and suck the meat off their stew bones and spit the bones out on the table. Well, guess what -- some Koreans think we Americans are crass because we hold our McDodo-burgers right in our filthy bare hands. They hold them with the paper wrapper. Customs differ. We're appalled at the way they treat dogs, they're appalled at the way we treat old people. Be a little more broad-minded, OK? (Blink twice. Think "cultural difference." Smile. There you go.) They may eat dogs, but they treat foreigners really well. If you look lost, a Korean will stop and ask if you need help. He may walk you to your destination even if it's out of his way, call a cab for you and tell the driver where to take you, help you buy a bus ticket and see that you get on the right bus, or even drive you to your destination in his own car. All of these have happened to us. Your students and colleagues will take you out to dinner, invite you to their homes, and ask you along for sightseeing or hiking. They'll teach you about their culture and religions if you ask (and often if you don't). They'll tell you how proud they are of their country and its success (Korea is now the 13th largest GDP in the world). All of these have happened to us. If you let yourself, you will feel at home in Korea, I promise you. We did. What if you're one of these people who say "I'm a foreigner, and they should expect me to act like one"? Well, let me ask you this: what would you think of a Korean who came to live in the US, and pushed his way through crowds and cut into lines like he was back in Korea? Now guess what Koreans will think of you if you don't at least try to play by their cultural rules. You really need to know the basics of behavior before you go. You'll make mistakes anyway. We all do. But Koreans are tolerant of foreigners' mistakes. If you accidentally break the social rules, most likely one of your Korean friends will take you to one side and explain how you should be acting. Believe me - this person is doing you a favor. I know, sometimes it doesn't seem that way, especially when his English isn't that great. You may feel that he's treating you like a child. Give him a break - he probably doesn't know the more diplomatic language that you'd normally use in dealing with an adult. But he's trying to help you. You would probably do exactly the same thing for him if he were the visitor in your own country. So listen to him. If you consistently refuse to listen to your Korean friends when they give you guidance like this, you'll find that after a while you don't have Korean friends any more. Things won't go so easily for you after that. This isn't a threat, it's a fact. If you think you can go to Korea and act like you've never left home, then do yourself -- and the rest of us -- a favor. Stay home. Trust me, Korea doesn't need you that badly. But if you're open minded, polite, thoughtful, and willing to learn, come on over. You'll do fine. And that's all I'll say about that.

I'm a woman. What are Korean men like? Uh, well, mostly somewhat sexist. Confucianism is not based on equality. Confucian rules sort people into a strong column and a weak column. The weaker person is subject to the stronger one; the strong one is obligated to protect the weaker one. Women are supposed to be dominated by their fathers, boyfriends, and husbands. This is obviously very different from western ideals. (Understand, I'm not advocating this, just telling you how things are. Don't shoot the messenger.) Korean women have made tremendous gains in recent years, but feminism has a long way to go in Korea. Women are just now beginning to hold positions of authority in business; they're still seen primarily as wives and mothers. A woman's status in Korean society is almost always lower than a man's. Meanwhile, a good marriage is important to a Korean man's status. There also seem to be quite a few Korean men who think that all western women are promiscuous, like the ones they see in films. So: Korean men have higher status and rigidly defined roles, which makes it hard to be friends. Single men are in the market for nice, prestigious, quiet, submissive wives. Some of them have heard western women are easy, and they want to find out if that's true. So if you want to just make friends with a Korean man, you sort of have 3 strikes against you from the start. But it's not hopeless; there are Korean men who are progressive enough (or western enough). Margaret had a very good friend in her student Randy. But date them? Marry them? Well, that depends on what you want from a relationship. In my opinion, what makes most relationships work are common interests, common background, and good communication. You're going to be lucky to get two out of three with a Korean mate. If you think western men can be uncommunicative, try adding some Confucianism and a language barrier. So is a romantic relationship impossible? Of course not. But if you're going to Korea because you think you'll come home with a husband (or wife), I think you really ought to to find another (uh, maybe better) reason to go. But, hey, I'm a middle-aged man and I already have a mate, so who am I to say?

What about Korean food? What's it like? Hot and spicy, with lots of red pepper and garlic. OK, not all of it, but the flavors tend to be really strong and bold. If you can't handle heat, you're going to need some guidance from your Korean friends or a savvy westerner at first. They'll help you learn which dishes you can take, and negotiate special treatment from the waiter. Of course, if you like it hot, Korea is the place to be! Korean meals always include rice. Usually there's also a main dish and several side dishes. The fancier the occasion, the more side dishes you get. The main dish is often fish (South Korea is on a peninsula and is about the size of Indiana, so no city is ever very far from the ocean). In fact fish shows up often in side dishes and snacks, too. You may even learn to like dried squid (chewy) and dried anchovies (nothing like the salty tinned ones Americans put on pizza). Beef, pork and chicken are common too these days. Korean meat consumption has increased quite a bit (and the kids are taller for it), but Koreans still eat more noodles and rice, and less meat, than most Americans. But note that when Koreans eat an animal, no part is wasted. You may be served chicken feet, or an entire fish, complete with head (the best part, they say). The side dishes usually include various vegetables and seafoods, often with soybean or sesame oil based sauces. They always include at least one type of kimchi. This is peppery, sour pickled cabbage (and sometimes other vegetables), put by in gallons every autumn after the cabbage harvest. The tartness comes from fermentation. It's made with salt, plenty of red pepper, garlic, and some kind of fish or fish sauce. It's been called Korea's sauerkraut, but it doesn't taste anything like sauerkraut. Koreans credit kimchi for their good health. They also claim it's addictive. Is it? Probably not, but if you give it a chance you may find you like it. We do. If you're a vegetarian, I hope you're not too strict about it. Yes, there are lots of apparently meatless Korean dishes. But sauces and flavorings tend to have meat or fish as an ingredient, so vegans have a tough time in Korea. Even kimchi is usually made with fish sauce or shrimp. It's slowly getting better for vegetarians -- very slowly. There are now a few vegetarian restaurants, at least in Seoul. Sanchon, in the artsy Insadong neighborhood, is run by a former Buddhist monk and specializes in temple food. It's supposed to be good (and pricey), but we haven't tried it yet. So far, in most Korean cities, there really aren't enough vegetarians to support specialty restaurants and markets. Maybe in a few more years. About dining: Koreans hardly ever dine alone. (In fact, in almost everything, they seem downright gregarious compared to Westerners.) This community spirit extends to restaurants. Unlike in the west, everyone gets the same thing. If you try to order different main dishes for different diners, you'll confuse the waiter. The guidebooks say Koreans don't talk much during meals, but we didn't find that to be true. They love company at the table, and jabber about as much as we do. Koreans eat with a spoon and metal chopsticks. Wood chopsticks are generally available and are often easier for westerners to handle. You get your own rice bowl, but everyone eats side dishes (and sometimes the main dish) from the same plates or bowls. That is, you don't take a serving from the side dishes and put it on your own plate. The tables are small; you just reach for a bite with your chopsticks. This can be a bit off-putting at first for westerners, who tend to be unduly worried about germs. Deal with it. I think the pepper and garlic kill off the germs anyway. If you cook, you might as well learn to cook Korean; western ingredients are hard to find and pricey. Chances are you won't be able to bake because few apartments have an oven (they have a small fish broiler instead). Fortunately, Korea has wonderful bakeries. Caution: anything baked that looks like it has chocolate filling in it probably doesn't. It's more likely sweetened red bean paste. It's not bad, but it's also not chocolate. If you get a hankering for Western food, you can always visit one of the pizza, spaghetti, or fried chicken chain restaurants. There are high-priced Italian and French eateries in most cities, and mid-price "American" restaurants which serve a strange menu which seems to be adapted from similar places in Japan. You'll find breaded veal cutlets and lettuce salads drenched in what appears to be a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise. I'll take kimchi, thanks.

They really eat dogs? Yeah, but you don't have to. Boshintang (dog meat stew) restaurants are usually off the beaten path and are easy to spot -- they generally have pictures of dogs on their signs. Read more here.

Will I be safe? If you're talking about crime, there aren't many places that are safer - Korea's crime rate is amazingly low by international standards. In 1997, the US had 258 robberies per 100,000 people. Germany had 86. Korea had 9. Nine! Korea's murder rate is one-fourth that in the US, probably because it's very hard to buy a gun there. Even auto theft is rare; when we were in Kangnung in 2001, we sometimes saw cars with keys left in the ignition, something I haven't seen in the US since I was a little kid in the 1950s. (If you get a car, I don't actually recommend doing this. On second thought, the way Koreans drive, you might be safer if someone stole your car.) One thing that's a troubling for the long term, though, is that petty crimes and what you might call "kid crimes" seem to be on the increase. I've heard of teachers having bicycles stolen. Margaret almost lost her wallet to some kid who lifted it from her tote bag when she wasn't looking (he gave it back when he was confronted, claiming it was a joke). We also had an umbrella taken from beside the door of a cafe -- a little thing, but disappointing. I'm afraid this means that Korea will eventually catch up with the west in the crime department. I'll be sorry to see that happen. Also, some critics say there's more assault and rape than the statistics show because a lot of it goes unreported. Ask your Korean friends about this, and what you should do to be safe. If you're fresh off the airplane, just act like you would in Europe. That is, don't be careless, but don't be paranoid either. Public drunkenness. Ah, now that's another story. It's not illegal in Korea. But if you like to party, don't celebrate this too much -- just wait until you step in a puddle of vomit or urine some early Saturday morning. Seriously, drunken men of every nation behave unpredictably, and there be dangers here. I'd like to advise staying away from bars. But drinking is a big part of social and professional life in Korea, especially for men, and when somebody invites you to have a drink with him, it's rude to refuse. So you'll almost certainly be going to a tavern with your colleagues, students, or even your boss. You've read about those western men who get into scraps with drunken Koreans? You don't want that to happen to you? (Actually, that should be a statement: You don't want that to happen to you.) First off let me tell you that it's not as common as the websites would lead you to believe. But in part because of some issues associated with the US military folks who are stationed in Korea (we'll go into this more later), there are some Korean men who may get belligerent with westerners, especially Americans, when well lubed. The way to minimize the risk of this problem is to stay calm, and as sober as possible. Take advantage of the Korean tradition: "Never allow your friend's glass to be empty" also means "Don't fill it until it is empty." So just don't drain your glass. And when you go out, make sure at least a few Korean friends are with your party -- they're better prepared to help handle any situation that comes up. When it's time to go home, you have to deal with possibly drunken driving. This is a major problem in Korea; sobriety checkpoints and big penalties haven't stopped it. Your best strategy is probably to steer the group to a bar within walking distance. As this suggests, by the way, Korea is a dangerous, dangerous place for a recovering alcoholic. Speaking of driving, as I suggested above, Koreans are some of the world's worst (and craziest) drivers. It's really weird. A major tenet of Korean culture is that the good of society is at least as important as the good of the individual. But you put a Korean in a car or truck or bus and he's a completely different person. He might as well be the only driver on the road. I've never seen such aggressive driving anywhere else (well, maybe in Italy). Then there's skill. From 2000 to 2002 the number of cars per hundred Koreans increased from 22 to 27. This means that almost 20% of those cars are driven by people with less than 2 years of driving experience. About three-quarters of the drivers have less than 10 years of experience. The upshot of all this is a death rate of 5.5 per 10,000 vehicles, compared to 2 in the US and 1.2 in Japan (the latter is probably the better comparison, given the relative sizes of Korea and the US). The numbers tell one story, but here's what it was like for us. Some of the other teachers' web sites talk about wild bus rides and insane taxi drivers. You might think this happens all the time. Well, maybe we were just lucky, but we had very few that were like that. Now, I did have one taxi driver who took some rather frightening risks passing on the 2-lane road to the airport. Several times, we saw bus drivers tailgate dangerously closely, then swing out and cut off cars that were going too slow for their tastes. I also watched one bus driver talk on his cell phone most of the way from Seoul to Kangnung -- about 3 hours! (Fortunately he was using a headset.) And both of us rode with some "civilian" drivers who drove too fast and, shall we say, not very accurately. But most of our taxi rides were no wilder than the ones we've had in Europe, for what that's worth, and most of the long distance bus rides were fairly calm. So while driving lunacy does happen, it's not as bad as it's sometimes made out to be. Wear your seat belt anyway.

What about North Korea? Are they going to start another Korean war? I hate having to answer this question. I want to say no, and in fact two years ago that's what I said. As we head into late 2003 I still don't think so, but I have to admit I'm not quite as confident as I was. Things were looking pretty good for a while. Former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his "Sunshine Policy," which reopened the lines of communication between the North and South. Tourists from the South were traveling to the North's Mount Kumgang, construction had started to reconnect the North and South by rail, and Kim Jong Il had proposed a Hong Kong-style independently governed industrial region in North Korea. But then a new US administration took over. In his first State of the Union address the new US president made his infamous "Axis of Evil" remark. (It turns out, by the way, that he apparently dropped in North Korea beside Iraq and Iran at the last minute, just to add a non-Mideast reference and make the "axis" a triangle like the axis nations of World War II.) Then, late in 2002, he told the news media that he "loathed" Kim Jong Il. That kind of talk is not the way to build relationships with Asians. The US was also careless about their part in the Agreed Framework of 1994, brokered by Jimmy Carter. In this pact, the North agreed to shut down its breeder reactors (which could make nuclear material for bombs) if the US and South Korea would help them build new light water nuclear reactors (which couldn't). North Korea desperately needed energy, but the US (and possibly South Korea) dragged their feet. Eight years later reactor construction was at a standstill. Then came the US drive toward war with Iraq, a war which many international observers, surely including Kim, believe was unjustified. It's hard to say whether Kim was frightened at the idea that he might be next, or whether he was emboldened by this distraction for the US. Either way (or both), challenged by the US, North Korea admitted in October 2002 that they were indeed thinking about restarting their breeder reactors and had embarked on a new nuclear weapons program. The US responded by promptly cutting off fuel oil shipments, also part of the 1994 Agreed Framework. Since that oil was going to fuel power plants, this gave North Korea a perfect excuse to restart their breeder reactors, which of course also produce electric power. Now, I'm not very sympathetic with the North, but put yourself in their place. They haven't gotten the promised light water reactors. The US cut off their fuel in a cold winter. They're worried that the US might attack them next. While in my view the US hasn't handled the situation very well, North Korea is hardly blameless. They've made threats to turn South Korea and Japan into a "sea of fire," fired test missiles into the ocean, suggested they might junk the armistice, abrogated the nuclear test ban treaty, and threatened US spyplanes in international airspace. This is not a strategy for peace. But then the North has always indulged in this kind of breast-beating. Every now and then they send a ship across the Northern Limit Line (which they've never officially recognized) just to see what happens. In June of 2002 they did this and it went well beyond bluster -- they fired on (and sank) a South Korean gunboat. Four South Korean seamen were killed and 19 were injured. Another serious clash happened in 1999, and in 1996 North Korea managed to beach a sub on the East Sea shore (it was captured). Kim Jong Il maintains one of the world's largest armies -- over a million soldiers, by most accounts -- allowing his citizens to starve so he can pay the military bill. I still haven't answered your question, have I? Honestly, I can't tell you for sure what will happen next. But I really don't think that Kim Jong Il wants a war. I think he wants to stay in power; he wants world recognition; he wants the US to sign a non-aggression pact. He wants the US to keep its promises. He wants South Korean businesses to invest in North Korea instead of China. I'd like to think he wants more food for his starving people, but I'm not so sure about that. Kim also knows that if he ever breaches the DMZ and launches a major invasion, or sends missiles into South Korea or Japan, the US has the firepower to turn his land into rubble. Unfortunately, Kim Jong Il is unstable and unpredictable -- and stubborn. So is the current US administration. In spite of a brief and unproductive meeting in China this spring, they essentially refuse to negotiate with North Korea until the North shuts down its nuclear program and disarms. North Korea won't disarm until they get a negotiated non-aggression pact with the US. Stalemate. Recently the US announced that it's moving its troops out of Seoul, where they've been stationed for 50 years, and taking them to a base about 75 miles to the south. There are differing opinions about what this means. One is that the US is just doing what Koreans have been asking them to do for years (lots of Koreans resent the US holding on to prime land in Seoul). Another is that the US is punishing Korea for voting for a progressive, peace oriented president. Yet another is that the US is moving the troops because, in spite of their assurances to the contrary, they plan to attack North Korea and want their own guys out of missile range. And recently Jaewoo Choo suggested in Asia Times that the new location, close to China, is a more suitable one for establishing a "Star Wars" missile defense system. No matter what the reason is, a lot of analyists think that with all the tension in Korea right now, this is a truly lousy time to make such a move. On the other hand, the US doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry to carry it out. They said in early June 2003 that they'd definitely be moving the troops, but they didn't say when. Nor have they allocated the several billion dollars required for the move. I'm not too worried -- yet. I think there's definitely more danger of war today than 2 years ago -- though probably not more than in 1994, the last time there were US mutterings about invading Korea. North Korea probably does have a few nuclear weapons, but I think they're unlikely to use them as anything but bargaining chips. And in the summer of 2003, there were some encouraging signs as Pyongyang showed some willingness to compromise, and sat down to negotiate not only with the US but also with South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan. There's no place in the world that's truly safe. Some places are safer than South Korea, some much more dangerous. You have to decide for yourself whether you're OK with the level of risk in South Korea. Here are some online articles that may help: BBC: Nuclear Standoff Q and A BBC: Fear and Loathing in North Korea Foreign Policy in Focus: Washington vs. Seoul Asia Times: Can War Be Avoided? (Part 1) Asia Times: Can War Be Avoided? (Part 2) Sydney Morning Herald: What Happens if Kim Jong Il's Regime Collapses? Japan Times: How the US Piqued Pynogyang In These Times: Understanding North Korea In addition, you might want to monitor these publications for progress. I've found that Asia Times is especially good at analyzing the meaning of developments in this situation. If you go teach in South Korea, you should be carrying a mad-money, Get Out of Korea Credit Card anyway, in case your job goes sour. This means you should be able to book a flight out in a hurry if you really have to. If you're still worried, you could look for a job in southern Korea or on Cheju Island, farther away from North Korea.

I'm reading about anti-American demonstrations. So do they hate us now? The short answer: Anti-Americanism is nothing new. It's been around Korea for a very long time. It's nothing personal. They don't hate you (providing you're not a military person). If you're polite and a good listener, you'll do fine. The long answer: Koreans are demonstrating against US policy and the US military, not against US citizens. And while some of them may say they hate what America does, they still want to learn English. Most of them would still leap at the chance to visit, study, or live in the US. In fact the number of Korean students traveling to the US to study has actually increased by almost 30 percent over the past year, even though overall tourism is down. So to cut to the chase: if you're open-minded and willing to listen when your students vent their grievances, without getting defensive, you shouldn't really have much of a problem with this. On the other hand, if you're very patriotic or feel a really strong need to defend the US, you might want to wait a few years until things settle down. I suppose I could stop right here, because that's probably about as much as you really want to know. But I'm going to write some more (OK, a lot more) about this issue, and I hope you'll take the time to read it, because I think it'll help you understand Koreans better. I want to start with a sort of a disclaimer. Everybody involved in this discussion, myself included, has an opinion. Most of what you'll find on the web is written by people with very strong opinions, those who are close to one side or the other. Quite a few of the English-language webpages that talk about anti-Americanism are written by US military people stationed in Korea. And let me tell you, they have opinions. To get the other side, you really should read something written by Koreans. Unfortunately, the most influential Korean websites don't speak English. OhMyNews and Voice of People literally changed the outcome of Korea's presidential election in December of 2002 by mobilizing anti-US voters. And let me tell you, they have opinions. But unless your Korean is really good, about all you can do at is look at their pictures. So what you can actually read in English about this tends to be somewhat one-sided. The upshot is that, by comparison with most of what you'll find in English, I might sound like I'm anti-American myself. I really don't mean to. I'm just trying to see both sides of the dispute. When it comes to the background and the implications for you as a (potential) teacher, I'm calling it as I see it. Understand, I don't claim to have all the answers or to fully understand either side. But I hope you come away from this with a slightly better idea of what's going on in Korea. And if you're close enough to the situation to disagree with me (either way), then you probably don't even need to read this -- you already have all the information you need to make your own decision. The relationship between Koreans and the US military is complex, and this is not by any means the first spat. You have to realize, though, that while there's plenty of Korean grumbling about the US military, American soldiers originally came here over 50 years ago to do a job. They did it pretty well. No matter what their real motives may have been -- and that's a topic of endless debate -- the US effort during the Korea war is the main reason that South Korea isn't ruled by the North's totalitarian regime. If not for them, things would be very different in South Korea. It'd be more like China -- at best. And in fact most Koreans agree with that. It's what the US did before and after the Korean war that they take issue with. They blame the North-South division itself on the US. And well they should; it was designed by the US and the other Allied powers after World War II, as a way to keep the communists contained. There are also several other events in Korea's history that make the US look like bad guys. One is an early 20th century deal with Japan, in effect trading Korea for Hawai'i (Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to 1949). Another is the US military's role in the 1980 Kwangju Massacre, in which as many as 2,000 Korean pro-democracy demonstrators were killed. The US also gets some of the blame for the extremely unpopular IMF (International Monetary Fund) "reforms" after the 1997 Asian fiscal crisis. The Clinton administration was in fact behind the IMF one hundred percent. (If you want to find out just how much Koreans hate the IMF, some time just mention those three letters around some of your adult students and watch the fireworks). The US's defense against the North's invasion in 1950 created a large reservoir of good will. That's especially true among older Koreans, those who were around to see how bad things were in the war and immediately afterward. They consider North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il an enemy, and they think of the 37,000 troops the US stations in Korea as protection. They believe the US military should be respected, just as they'd respect a parent. This is very much a Confucian idea. But in Confucianism, respect is supposed to be repaid with protection. Older Koreans now are joining younger ones in wondering whether current US policies are really doing that. There's a perception that the US is only looking after its own interests, and some observers think that that the US actually wants to maintain the North - South division for its own political and military reasons. In particular, South Koreans are tremendously worried about the US's handling of the nuclear crisis in North Korea. Right or wrong, the majority of South Koreans believe that former president Kim Dae Jung's Sunshine Policy improved North-South relations and reduced the chance of war -- and in fact Kim received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. But since 2001, the Bush administration's hard-line approach has made the North pull back. The US won't rule out an attack on the North, and many Koreans think that this is making another war on the peninsula more likely. They're not so sure this is the kind of protection they want. And then there's the generational difference. Confucian ideals are weakening, so the automatic respect for the US is too. Although Koreans in their late 30s and 40s still have a moderately strong anti-North, pro-US stance, South Koreans in their teens and twenties mostly don't. They didn't experience the Korean War. They've never seen anything but prosperity in South Korea. A lot of them can't imagine that the North would ever do anything to hurt them. "Hey, come on, they're Koreans just like us," they say. Another issue is crimes committed by US service people. There are about 2,000 cases every year, although a lot are minor offenses such as selling PX goods on the black market. And environmental damage: a couple of years ago the US base in Seoul dumped a large quantity of formaldehyde, which ended up in the Han River. (Not to excuse the US military, but is it possible that Koreans don't know about the awful chemical soup that their own industries dump into their air and water?) And there's land usage. Koreans don't much like the way our troops are holding on to valuable public land for army bases. Yongsan, for example, is on prime real estate right smack in the middle of Seoul. There was even talk for a while of the US taking even more land for military use, which really made Koreans livid. But recently the US has said they're going move their troops out of Seoul, reduce the number of bases from 41 to 23 by 2011, and cut land usage by 50 percent. Not much is written about it in the mainstream media, but in talking to Koreans I've picked up a frustration with the US military's attitude. They see it as condescending. And after talking with a few army people, I think they might be right. There seems to be an idea among military folks that Korea is one of the worst places to be stationed. Such attitudes, right or wrong, can get recycled through generations of recruits and become self-fulfilling prophecy. The same thing happens to newbie foreign teachers if they hang around with disgruntled foreigners too much. Regardless, it seems that a lot of the US troops don't much like being in Korea, and a fair number of Koreans don't much like them being there. So it doesn't take much for any incident to become a major issue. In sum, anti-US sentiment is nothing new to Korea. But with the political backdrop already in place, it notched up in 2002. In February came the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake city, and the controversy over American speed skater Anton Ohno's victory after his South Korean opponent was disqualified. Korea flew into a rage, mostly directed at the US (even though the judge involved wasn't American). Singer Yoon Min Sook composed a fairly nasty tune blasting the decision (F---ing USA) and the name "Ohno" entered the Korean language as a curse. That furor was just beginning to die down when the US military was involved in a tragic accident. On 13 June 2002, a US mine clearing vehicle, operating in a small village north of Seoul, struck and crushed two 13 year old Korean schoolgirls who were walking along the side of the road. Apparently the vehicle was a huge and unwieldy machine, requiring two people in constant communication to keep it under control, and somehow the communication broke down. The operators of the vehicle were charged with negligent homicide and tried by a US military court. They were acquitted. Many Koreans thought that the soldiers should have been tried by Korean courts under Korean law. They were outraged. They mounted huge demonstrations and candlelight vigils. Signs saying "No Americans" went up in a few bars and restaurants near the bases in Seoul. Soldiers and even non-military male foreigners started getting more dirty looks. Some were spat on. They got into fights with young Korean men (not that that was anything new). There was even a very high-profile incident in which a US soldier was grabbed off the subway by a mob of Korean youths, dragged to an anti-US demonstration, and forced to make a statement and apology for American actions. Ultimately the anti-US-military attitudes made possible the election of a progressive (by conservative Korean standards) president, Roh Moo-hyun, who promised he'd work toward a more evenly balanced relationship with the US military -- a promise on which he's been back-pedaling almost since the election, by the way. Nothing in recent memory has held on to Korean sensibilities quite like this accident. One of the things that really seems to upset Koreans is that the outcome of the investigation into the deaths of the girls, Shin Hyo Sun and Sim Mi Son, was about what they expected. According to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Korea, even if US military personnel break Korean law, Korea can't prosecute them. They have to take their complaints to the US military courts. The result usually isn't very satisfying to Koreans. As in this case, often the alleged criminals are acquitted. Even if the military courts find them guilty, many times they get just a slap on the wrist, or get shipped off to somewhere else. This isn't a big deal for black market trading and other victimless crimes, but when it's a high-profile crime like murder, assault, or rape -- or even a serious accident like this one -- Koreans are angry, perhaps understandably so. In all fairness, I should note that US service people don't by any means commit a large percentage of the crimes in Korea. But this problem has been building for a long time, and now it's like an open sore. Every offense, or perceived offense, drives the two sides farther and farther apart. So what does this mean for you as a teacher? Remember what I said -- they're upset with the American military and American policy, not with American teachers. (At least so far. Behave yourself.) So I suggest you don't dress or act like a military type. If you're a man, don't wear your hair too short. As long as they don't think you're a soldier, the worst that's likely to happen to you is that you'll get asked what you think about all this, or why the American military acts this way, or why Washington does what it does. How should you respond? You may not agree with me, but I don't think I'd try to defend the military. They do that pretty well themselves. In fact, I think I'd try to avoid the subject. If I were pressed, I'd probably tell the Korean asking that I thought the soldiers and the Washington politicians don't really understand Korea or its culture. (Which is generally true, by the way.) I'd try to find some common ground, something we could both agree on. This is a hot issue, and it's best to cool it down if you possibly can. Try to listen more and talk less. This is probably also a good strategy for dealing with questions about the recent US actions in the Mideast. I'll keep my personal opinion out of this and just recommend that you listen and don't argue. That's what they want more than anything else. If someone insists that you explain why the US invaded Iraq I'd tell them, "It's about oil," even if you don't think so. You might as well; that's what most of the world, including Korea, thinks anyway, and you're not likely to change their minds. You don't agree with me? That's OK; I told you I was putting a lot of my opinion in here. But you still have to deal with this issue if you go to Korea. You have a couple of choices. You can come up with your own response which won't cause more controversy among Koreans. Or you can stay home. I mean that. As I suggested above, emotions run deep and wide over this. If you feel a really strong need to stand up for the US or the US military, you are just going to make trouble for yourself in Korea. Life's too short for that kind of stress. Stay home and hang around with friends who agree with you. But if you're a good listener, you'll discover that while Koreans may be angry at the US and its military, they're plenty friendly toward ordinary US citizens -- especially the ones who teach them English.

Isn't Korea a poor country? Not any more. Korea has grown rapidly in the past 20 years. Although their per capita income is much lower than in the US, it's recently broken $10,000 and is still growing. Traffic is thickening, a sure sign of prosperity. In 1990, Korea had one automobile for every 22 Koreans; in 2000, the ratio was 1:6. And the vehicles are getting bigger and more expensive. There are plenty of Koreans below the poverty level (and a growing gap between rich and poor). There are people whose homes don't even have indoor plumbing. But the typical middle-class Korean owns a small modern apartment of several hundred square feet, drives a Hyundai Sonata, watches an LG (Goldstar) television, and talks on a Samsung cell phone. Korea went through some rocky times in 1997 and 1998 because of the recession which affected all of Asia. They sold their soul to the IMF in return for a quick recovery, and since then their economic growth has been respectable if variable. Right now (2003) they're feeling the effects of the global uncertainty generated by America's overextended foreign policy. Korean economists expect 2003 to show the weakest growth since 1998. But the Japanese economy is beginning to show some signs of recovery, and if other Asian economies do well, that should help to stabilize Korea's. Their high savings rate is a plus, too, even if Koreans aren't quite as thrifty as they used to be. The fact that Korea has such a huge appetite for native English speakers to teach says a lot about their affluence. Korean parents want their children to succeed in life, and they can afford to invest in hagwon education.

What about medical care? South Korea has a national single-payer medical insurance system. Either your hagwon will pay for your health insurance, or you'll split the cost with them. Figure on about 2.5% of your salary. This insurance is serviceable -- probably not up to the quality of Canadian or European national systems, but I'd say it's comparable to a minimal US private policy. It covers most medical needs, but not all. For example, if you want cancer coverage, you have to pay extra. It also doesn't cover injuries in automobile accidents (regrettably, Korea has lots of them -- accidents, I mean). The drivers' private motor insurance is supposed to pay for patching them up. Like most US plans, the patient usually has to pay part of the cost, typically 20 percent, for each treatment. The government controls drug prices, so many are cheaper than in the US. That's a sore point for American drug companies who want clearance to charge more; how this will shake out remains to be seen. Between mid-2000 and the end of 2002, Korea's medical system underwent tremendous change and upheaval. For years, doctors had dispensed their own prescriptions, and pharmacies sold just about any drug you could want over the counter. Much of the doctors' income came from selling medication, so they tended to over-prescribe. In 1999, the Korean government announced reform measures. The plan was to transfer most drug dispensing rights to the pharmacists -- essentially the American system. It was supposed to take effect in January 2000, but the doctors made a fuss, so it was postponed. In the spring of 2000, the new effective date, Korea's doctors went on strike to protest their potential loss of income. The government offered some concessions, but wouldn't back down on the reforms. There are still some periodic strike threats. But for the most part, the strikes seem to be over. The Korean government settled things by allowing increases in the doctors' fees. This meant a deficit for the national health care system, in spite of higher medical insurance premiums. So what's the result? Doctors still over-prescribe, maybe by habit or maybe because the patients are used to getting a drug for every visit. They still complain of lost revenue. Patients can't get prescription medication from the pharmacist any more. It's hard to say whom, if anybody, emerged from this affair a winner. One interesting alternative which Korea offers is Chinese medicine. This is based on traditional herbal and animal preparations, and many Koreans prefer it. However, before using these practitioners, you may want to look into the environmental impact of the way in which these herbs and animals are gathered.

What if I have to go to the hospital? Some western teachers complain about Korean hospitals. I can't really speak to this very well, since we don't have any personal experience with them, but I can make some guesses about it. We westerners tend to ask our doctors lots of questions. Koreans don't. If you do, a Korean doctor will think you're questioning his competence. But how do you know for sure that the doctor understands your problem? Even when Korean doctors know English, their vocabulary is too often deficient in the health area (you'd think ... oh, never mind). So you're ill, in a strange environment, and you're barely able to communicate with a doctor who won't answer your questions even if he does understand. This is where your Korean friends and associates come in. If you need emergency medical care in Korea, call a Korean friend to take you to the hospital and interpret for you. Actually, your hagwon director may be your best bet in this case; Korean employers feel a strong (sometimes parental) sense of responsibility and obligation to their employees. Korean hospitals differ in one other important way from most western hospitals. In the west, professionals provide all the care. In Korea, it's assumed that the patient has friends and family, and they're expected to perform some of the non-medical chores. Korean nurses will not tend to your every need, as nurses would at home. The word is that there's not much privacy, either. I think this is another cultural difference. These are people who are used to wandering among acres of naked flesh of all ages and shapes in the mogyotang, or public bathhouses (they're not co-ed though). Korean men, mostly when drunk, sometimes turn their backs to the street and urinate next to the sidewalk -- this isn't illegal, though it is considered kind of gauche. The little kids -- both sexes -- don't even bother with turning their backs. Parents change their kids into bathing trunks on the beach. While Koreans (especially older ones) are still pretty conservative about sex, I think they just don't equate nudity with sexuality, and it isn't a taboo. Parts are parts, everybody has 'em; and (by Confucian principles) if it's someone you don't know, you pretty much ignore him anyway, so what's the big deal? This so-what attitude is pretty common in Europe, but for some of us raised with typical American prudishness, it takes some getting used to. Koreans, like the Europeans, are probably emotionally healthier for it. Anyway, all that is to explain why your doctor is likely to examine you without worrying much about curtains or about who might be nearby. If you have to go to the hospital, I hope you're not too bashful. For all the western gripes about hospitals, Koreans' life expectancy isn't much less than US residents' -- 76.53 years versus 77.14 years. That's a difference of less than 1 percent. So although it may not always be as comfortable, I doubt that Korean medical care is all that much inferior to ours.

Will I need any shots before I go? Not really. Korea's a pretty healthy country. But if you're planning to travel elsewhere in Asia while you're in the neighborhood, you might want to get hepatitis A and B vaccines, and maybe tetanus and diptheria boosters. Now and then there's an outbreak of malaria somewhere, probably because they have such problems with mosquitoes (thanks to all those rice paddies). The cities fog for mosquitoes periodically, which helps. Last time I checked the US Department of Health didn't suggest that malaria is a concern in Korea, so maybe it's no big deal. It might influence where you travel, though. Some people say you still need to boil the water in Korean cities. I've drunk it with no ill effects, but you might consider this anyway. You could just drink bottled water -- or tea.

What about SARS? I hear it was bad all over Asia. SARS apparently originated in Guangdong Province in China. It's been a major problem there and in Hong Kong, but Korea was never one of the "hot spots." Actually, right now, there aren't any hot spots anywhere. SARS seems to have either died out or gone into remission. Keep an eye on the travel advisories, but so far it looks good. I think that even if it resurfaces next winter, you're unlikely to run into trouble with SARS unless you visit China or Hong Kong on your way to Korea or while you're there. During the outbreak of winter 2002, I heard that some hagwon directors actually tried to keep their foreign teachers from going to SARS hot spots! This may sound they're sticking their noses into their teachers' private lifes (and they probably are), but once you understand Korea bosses -- Confucian traditions tend to make them rather parental -- it makes sense even if it is annoying. And look at it this way. I suppose it's not exactly the same thing, but in the US some employers make their workers take drug tests. In other words, not only do they have to be straight on the job (which makes sense), they have to prove that they're straight on their own time too. A surprising number of American employees don't even think twice about this.

I hear the pollution's pretty bad in Korea. You hear right, I'm sorry to say. That miraculous economic growth came with some price tags attached, and pollution is one of them. The big push for industrial development came in the 1970s and 1980s, and the South Korean government didn't give much thought to what all this was doing to the environment until the 1990s. Since then they've clamped down on industry to some extent, but vehicles are still a big problem. A growing population of Diesel buses and trucks (and increasingly private Diesel vehicles) belch forth about 40% of the emissions. Most of the older gasoline fueled passenger cars have relatively crude emissions control hardware. Seoul's air is some of the world's worst, even surpassing Tokyo's. Pusan's isn't much better. Ulsan is heavily industrialized, and goodness knows what kind of chemical soup pours out from those factories into the air and water. If you have allergies or respiratory problems, you'll want to look for a job on the east coast. Kangwon Province, right on the East Sea, is Korea's cleanest. There the air is about comparable to that in a medium-sized midwestern US city -- not exactly crystal clear, but tolerable. For a little more detail on Korea's pollution problems and what's being done about them, read this.

I've been reading the discussion forums on some of the ESL websites, and I see many teachers complain about their jobs and about Koreans in general. Do they have valid gripes? Sometimes. Hagwons are a business, and just like any other country, Korea has business owners who will take advantage of you. Some teachers end up in situations varying from unpleasant to ugly. It's hard to tell just how widespread this is. If you make the (fairly safe) assumption that satisfied teachers aren't as motivated as dissatisfied ones to speak out, and count the thousands of foreign teachers in Korea (some estimates put the number at about 20,000), you might conclude that the troubled teachers are a minority. It's also possible that at least some cases result from simple communication problems. Honor and dignity are important to Koreans, and hagwon directors sometimes try to hide the fact that their English isn't as good as it should be. The result is that Western teachers sometimes think they are understood when they're not. Probably some of the misunderstandings also come about because of cultural differences. Although Korea is rapidly becoming westernized, these changes mostly are taking root with younger Koreans. There are still significant differences, and they're more pronounced for the older generations (hagwon directors tend to be older). This makes for cultural pitfalls for the unwary, but most of them are not all that hard to avoid.

OK, how do I avoid problems with cultural differences? Any suggestions? You know me by now. I always have suggestions. ;-) You have to learn something about Korean culture before you go. You don't have to make a career of it, but you really do need at least an introduction. Start by reading our Westerners' Guide to Korean Culture and Approximately Correct Social Behavior. You might also try reading a few handbooks for doing business in Korea (after all, that's a hagwon is). Look in the business publications section of large bookstores. Most of what you find will probably be somewhat dated (mid-90s), but what they say is generally valid, at least for dealing with Koreans in their 30s and older. If you can find a copy of Min Byoung-chul's Ugly Americans, Ugly Koreans (based on a Korea Herald series published some years back) you'll find it an easy read. There isn't much in it that we don't have here, but at least the cartoons are funny, and paperback books are more portable than computers. I've never seen it at a US bookstore, but you should be able to find it at Kyobo Bookstore in Seoul. (I just found out that Hanbooks sells it by mail order - but when I asked they weren't sure their edition was in English! I'll let you know when I find out more.) For a really painless way to pick up on basic customs and courtesy, just watch a few Korean films. Don't know what to choose? Try Darcy's Korean Film Page for reviews and top-whatever lists. If you live in a big city with a significant Korean population (Los Angeles or Chicago, for example) you can probably find video rentals in the Korean neighborhoods. Be careful - although most DVDs probably will have English subtitles, VHS tapes almost certainly won't and VCDs may not. If you can't find any rentals, you can order Korean DVDs from YeonDVD, Yesasia, or DVDAsian. You can find them on Ebay too, but prices are about the same, except for the (generally rather bad) pirated editions from China and Hong Kong. Prices for decent (and legal) transfers vary from around $8 for VCDs (most computers can play them with the right software, and many newer DVD players can too) to $15 - $30 for DVDs. The lower end of the DVD price range is usually "export editions" from Hong Kong. The ones that I've gotten haven't been quite as sharp as the Korean editions, and the colors aren't as true. They generally have both English and Chinese subtitles, for what that's worth. Most DVDs from Korea (and Hong Kong) are region code 3, so you'll need a region free DVD player to play them. VCDs have no region coding, but their quality is lower than DVDs (on a par with VHS tapes). No matter how, take the time to study Korea's customs before you go there. Dig down a little so you understand why they're customs and what they mean. Then do your absolute best to live by them. Knowing the culture and trying to live by it is one of the most important differences between the teachers who have a great time in Korea and the ones who hate the place. It's not that tough, and it's worth it, believe me.

I can't believe this. It sounds like you're saying that job problems are always the employee's fault, and hagwon directors are all saints. Of course the "PC" thing to say is, "The problems are nobody's fault. They're caused by cultural differences." And sometimes that's true. But substitute "ignorance" for "differences" in that phrase, and you're getting closer to the truth. I think that a lot of hagwon directors get a bum rap. I think this because while I've met some great westerners teaching English in Korea, I've also met an appalling number of losers. They're self-centered, thoughtless, and largely clueless (and the ad-sponsored webservers make it easy for them to throw up webpages whining about how tough they have it). They're in Korea not because they're interested in the country or the people, but because they heard there were lots of jobs and you could make decent money without working very hard. If hagwons weren't so desperate for native English speakers, they'd still be at home, unemployed, or working at jobs where having an attitude doesn't cause too much trouble. I don't have a lot of sympathy for these people. But if you've read this far, chances are you're not one of them. So you should know that there are slimy hagwon directors who rip off foreign teachers, practice sexual harassment, and invade their employees' privacy. Actually, most of them treat their Korean employees about the same, so I guess you could chalk this up to cultural ignorance - they don't realize that westerners aren't brought up to accept that kind of treatment, while Koreans are more sanguine about it. But regardless of how well he or she understands western culture, a really good hagwon director treats all the teachers decently - whether they're Korean or foreign. And there are good hagwon directors out there. Obviously that's the kind you're looking for, so (surprise!) I have another homework assignment for you. I'm amazed that some westerners will sign a contract for a year with supervisors they've never met, in facilities they've never seen. Don't go into your job blind! Interview your director as closely as he or she interviews you. If possible, get a friend with good translation skills to help. Go to Korea and visit the place if you possibly can. Get the name and contact information for a current or former Western employee of the hagwon, and talk to that teacher. Note: former is better, because a former teacher is more likely to speak freely about the hagwon. A current teacher may be concerned about his or her job or working conditions. Unfortunately, ESL teachers move around quite a bit, and the hagwon may honestly not know how to contact any former teachers. If you have to speak with a current employee, at least make sure you call her or him at home, not at work. He or she may not be able to speak freely with the hagwon director nearby. If the hagwon won't put you in touch with anyone, present or past, look elsewhere. Without telling him or her why, ask the director how much the hagwon charges the parents. As of 2001, Korean law capped hagwon fees at 85,000 won per month. Some hagwons break the law and charge more. While that doesn't necessarily mean they'll rip you off, it might be well to proceed cautiously. Give extra consideration to a hagwan where at least one of the Korean teachers or (better yet) the director has lived in the west. Such folks are more likely to understand your language and your expectations. Look for a hagwon director of your own sex. For women teachers, this should negate sexual harassment concerns. (In our admittedly limited experience, it appears to us that the teachers who've been happiest -- regardless of sex -- have been the ones working for women-run hagwons.) Though I can't back it up with hard evidence, I think the honest and fair hagwons are easier to find in the smaller cities. Seoul and Pusan are exciting places to live, but they may not be the best places to teach. Watch out for paid recruiters. No doubt many of them are reputable and want you to be satisfied. But others will collect their fees from the hagwon and vanish. Get references, or get away! Don't leave home without a valid credit card with a generous credit limit. Keep the balance on that card at zero. That's your escape ticket. Chances are, you won't have to use it. But just having it available, along with a few hundred thousand won or so in cash carefully hidden, will give you the confidence you need to handle just about anything.

If I shouldn't use a recruiter, then how should I look for a job? Probably the best way to get a Korean teaching job is on direct reference from a current or former teacher at a good hagwon. If you don't know one, do plenty of research on the internet. One good place to start is Dave's ESL Cafe, which always has quite a few job listings. There are blacklists and greylists on the internet too, but I don't know how much you can count on them. A lot of the posts in them are pretty old, and the hagwons may have since changed owners and/or directors. Work up a short list of candidate schools. Ideally you'd fly to Korea on a tourist visa and visit each one. Obviously this isn't cheap, but it isn't impossibly expensive either -- if you travel during the off season (between October and May), you should be able to find round trip airfare for $750 or less. A hagwon you're interested in may be able to suggest a travel agency that specializes in Korea. One I've heard of from a Korean businessman (but haven't tried and so can't endorse) is Sharp Travel in Chicago (800 222-3586). Local travel agents familiar with consolidators and bucket shops can often get you a good deal, too. Another approach is to buy a one-way ticket and take enough cash to live for a few months. You start looking for work once you're in Korea. When you find a job, you'll have to leave the country temporarily to get your visa, but that can be a short, inexpensive hop to Japan. The usual destination is Fukuoka, which is close and has a sort of assembly line set up for these "visa runs." Or you might see if you qualify for one of the sponsored teaching outfits, such as EPIK or the Fulbright ETA Program. If you go with such a program, you may make less money (which in my book is not that big a deal). They also can't really guarantee a good experience, but sometimes they may have systems in place to act as your advocate in case things do go sour. If you still want to get a hagwon job before you leave home (remember that Margaret did it this way, with fine results), make sure you follow all the suggestions above. And trust your instincts. If something doesn't feel right about your interview with the hagwon director or the foreign teacher reference(s), move along. I can't emphasize this enough -- if you take a job anywhere overseas, don't leave home without an emergency credit card and enough cash to live for a month or two. If you're so broke that you can't afford to do this, don't go to Korea. Don't go anywhere. Stay home, get a job, save some cash. When you have enough in the bank to live for at least a month without a salary, and also to buy a return airline ticket if things don't work out, then you're ready to consider working overseas. Not before.