SEOUL - OCTOBER 7, 2000
Just hung out with my friend Keith, his girlfriend Ah-mi from KwangJu, his sister from Milano, Italy, and his mom from Cape Girardeou, Missouri. By chance, his sister, who is a professional model just finished working in Australia for one month. She had a return ticket through Seoul on her way back home to Milano. Since Keith and his sister were going to be in the same place, their mom flew from Missouri to meet them in Seoul. This was also the first time I'd seen Keith in over three years, and the first time I've met his girlfriend or part of his family. His mom graciously took us out for a delicious lunch. (I should explain who Keith is! He was one of my co-workers back in 1996-97, we worked at the same school at the same time. After Pusan, he went to Graduate School in the States, then about one year ago, he started teaching at Chonnan University in KwungJu, South Korea. Its about two hours south of Seoul).
Well, I'm settling into my new apartment in Seoul. I bought a small table and some chairs to place in front of my window. I'm sitting at that table right now typing. The natural light that comes in is really beautiful, especially after my last apartment in New York which was extremely dark, and my own bedroom in the place didn't even have a window. This is a very welcome change. My room is really small, but such a great window view and a great location in Seoul. The landlord gave me a free television with cable for my room. I'm currently watching an Asian Music Television Station based out of Hong Kong. Also, Korean TV looks pretty good. There are a few of those Candid Camera Asian-style shows, and all your basic dramas, soaps, talk shows, music dancing shows, and all the regular tv stuff, although of course, its all 100% Korean with Korean celebrities and such. I also have CNN and AFKN (the latter is a TV station from the US military). Alot of the Korean shows look pretty good though, too bad I can't understand Korean, but eventually I hope to. One of the TV stations is just devoted to Pa-Duk (Korean chess).
I also posted my resume on the web for part-time jobs, but I've been offered mostly all contracts jobs, which I am hoping to avoid. A contract job gives you a work visa, a free apartment, and often times round-trip airfare. They are great situations, and they pay equivalent to $1,500 a month. I taught like that in Pusan several years ago, but 30 hours a week really burns you out teaching. Plus I never really learned Korean, as I was so absorbed into the English Teacher Social Life and English-speaking students, that it kept me from having to learn or study any of the Korean language. This time I just want to absorb the language and keep my teaching to a minimum. Its very possible to just setup private teaching jobs, without having to resort to the contract. The downside of not signing a contract is that you are in Korea on a tourist visa, so you must leave the country every three months to renew it. If you sign a contract, you will receive a one-year working visa.
Most people I know would only sign contracts. Its a great situation overall. The school that hires you will take care of nearly all of your needs from the moment you arrive in Korea, until the day you leave. Its a great setup, its all legal, and the schools usually have a great assortment of interesting foreign teachers who almost always become your closest friends. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to live abroad, but is extremely cautious about doing it themself. Korea is also one of the safest countries in the world next to Japan. If anyone is interested, there are probably close to 100 jobs posted at any given time on Dave's ESL Cafe.
I'd also like to do a plug for PusanWeb, which is a website for English teachers based in Pusan. There are many pictures, many of the people I knew when I was living there several years ago. One of the guys on there is Rolf Potts, who has been travelling around the world with the money he made from working in Pusan for two straight years. He's written alot of articles which have been posted on Salon.com and many other travel writing sites. Recently he was interviewed by NPR (National Public Radio) about his traveling and writing career. I have never personally met him, but have kept in correspondence with him about Pusan and about travelling. Pusan was a very large city, but held an amazingly tight expat community. So if you spent some time there, any other foreigner who had been there, regardless if you knew him at the time or not, is practically family.
Also, speaking of which, another good friend of mine from the Pusan expat community is Carl Moore. I'd like to bring up his name, because we lived in the city at the same time - 1996-1997. Amazingly, a couple years later, we were both creating graphic presentations on computer at an investment bank in New York City, at Goldman Sachs. By coincidence, we were both placed to work on the same floor and in the same room. In a round-about way we found we had both been a part of that same community. It really is a small world sometimes. After Pusan, he went to Graduate School in Connecticut, and then moved to New York City.
On a further note, many of my friends and co-workers at Goldman Sachs may be reading this right now. (Hey Paul, I had a great time my last night in NYC hanging out with you and Kelly)! Anyhow, by a strange chance, there is a Goldman Sachs office in Seoul. From New York, with the help of some very helpful (higher-ups), they assisted me in contacting the GS-Hong Kong office which in turn put me in touch with the GS-Seoul office. I thought by chance there might be an opportunity to do Graphic Presentations in Seoul, just like I did in New York. They did offer an interview, and I was the talk of their office that day. They were amazed to meet me, and hear my story. Actually, it seemed more social, than job-related. They were extremely nice, but they really didn't have the same job position in Seoul. They told me that they would like to expand their operations, and hire perhaps one or maybe two people to do some PowerPoint. I told them my PowerPoint skills weren't very strong, and they then asked if I'd had experience in Production. Maybe I would like to do that? It was kind of comical. Overall, they still seemed rather interested, but realistically, I am probably not suited to their needs, and financially and time-wise I'd be better off teaching English. They also preferred a full-time employee, where I was hoping to just work part-time, keeping my options open.
On an additional note, I also posted an Internet message regarding my interest in designing web pages in Seoul. One English School inquired how much time I would need and the total cost. I quickly emailed my friend Han, a Korean-American who currently lives in Paris employed as a Web Designer. (He is a good friend of mine from New York, who was initially my roommate in 1992 during a summer of working in Yellowstone National Park). Anyhow, he suggested that I not charge anything less than $8,000 and a one-person job would take 3-4 weeks. I am still debating about suggesting the price and time range necessary to the English School. I think if I put my full-time energy into it, I could do it without much difficulty, and it would be great job experience. But, unfortunately, I have a feeling I will be consumed with Korean Studies, and I really don't need too much more commitment than that outside of maybe ideally teaching a couple hours in the evening. It is pretty tempting to pursue, and I do have all of the web page professional software including DreamWeaver, Flash, and Fireworks. Ultimately, if I do choose to pursue this avenue, I would, for my own peice of mind, do a much more interesting website if I knew some Korean. (Although of course I could always hire a "Korean/English Consultant" if I had to). Anyhow, it is an interesting possibility, and maybe I will think more seriously about pursuing that realm at another time. Realistically, even if I do offer to build their website, they may not like the steep price involved. Although, I think I'd probably charge about 3/4 of the going rate since it would be my first professional website.
Continue to Next Journal Entry: 10/10/2000
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com
Website of the Pusan Expat Community:
PusanWeb
Teacher/Traveler/Writing Extraordinaire:
Rolf Potts
Great website for teaching abroad jobs:
Dave's ESL Cafe
My Friend Brad's Website:
Tripping
with Brad