John Morgan Recruiting

Generally you will want to have enough to last about 4 weeks. In Korea payday is once a month, usually in the first part of the month. Your payday will be clearly stated in the contract. You should prepare about 500,000 won to tide you over until the first payday. This would allow you to comfortably settle into your new environment. If you plan on making any expensive purchases (like electronics), you might want to bring a little more. If you have a credit card that you can use in case of emergencies, that is always useful as well.

Our Orientation Package is prepared to make it easier for new teachers coming to Korea. As such it contains a few basic items that will make the transition easier. It contains an international phone card so that teachers will be able to call home, a subway card, a basic learn Korean textbook and a New Teacher Guidebook which contains information about living and teaching in Korea.

We consider preparation to be a big part of the process. We spend a lot of time communicating with teachers before they come to Korea answering whatever questions they have. Also, we have prepared an Orientation Package for new teachers to help ease their transition into Korea.

Besides preparing your visa documents there are other things that you can prepare to make your stay in Korea more comfortable. We would recommend bringing the following things:

• Winter clothes: It does get cold in the winter and you will need warm winter clothing.
• Clothes: Bring clothing for 4 seasons but remember not to pack too much as there are great places to shop and buy clothes.
• Deodorant: You may want to bring this as it is hard to find in stores here and is expensive.
• Vitamins: Some teachers like to bring vitamin supplements with them.
• Personal items and teaching materials: Photos of your family and hometown, games, DVDs. These items can be useful when teaching but are also nice to have around to remind you of home. I would recommend though not to pack too much as most things are readily available in Korea.

Other things you can do to prepare yourself to come to Korea might be:

• Tutor a Korean student: try to meet Korean students at your university. Get them to tell you about Korea and ask them questions about Korea. It would probably be possible to exchange some basic Korean lessons from them in exchange for some help in English. I did this and found it was a great help before I came to Korea. I just put an ad on the campus bulletin board and within a day I had received a response. It was nice to be able to get so much information about Korea from him and he was more than happy to talk about his home country.
• Learn a few basic expressions: I find this makes a difference too. If you do meet a Korean student before coming, try to practice a few basic Korean expressions. Even being able to greet someone or say thank you will make a difference in how you are received by people in Korea.
• Ask us questions: That’s what we are here for. We consider it part of our service to prepare you to come to Korea. Make a list of questions you have and ask away.
• Use the links section: check out some of the links that we have prepared. There is a lot of useful information in the links including information about the city you will be living in, things to do and places to go in Korea.