Seoul Immigration Office in Mokdong
So you want to teach in Korea...
Two important things to consider before coming here to teach are legality, and of course the students. There were a couple of stories in the recent media that can help people overseas get a view of what to expect on both of these counts and I wanted to pass them along.
The building in the photo above is the Immigration Office in Mokdong. If you don't know where that is, I can tell you it is in the exact opposite corner of Seoul from where I live. It has always been the source of many complaints largely due to the fact that it is the only such office in Seoul to handle all of the city's ex-pat population and people in the office enjoy artistic license when interpreting Korea's laws. Many people suggest that you should understand the laws of your destination country clearly when traveling abroad. That won't always help you here.
More important than anything are the students however. Who will you be teaching? JoongAng Ilbo published a story today which gave the results to a recent polling of school children in Korea. I encourage you to check it out.
Maybe the most ironic, nay strange, story I read today was this one. As more and more teachers leave the West to come teach English in Asia, American schools are being left with no one to staff their ESL programs. English teaching is becoming a two-way street and teachers from the Philippines, which boast a high level of English literacy, are enroute to work there in exactly the same sort of jobs that we Westerners are employed doing here.
On a more local note, things are changing. Work has changed with the addition of new teachers. The neighbourhood has changed too. There are two new sanga buildings being constructed on our block and lots of new stores are popping up along the street, which itself is being made wider. (Though I never really though the traffic was much of a problem, on my 20 minute cab ride to work). Possibly, this is in relation to the new plans of the Seoul City planning office. Over the next couple of years they are planning new townships and major expansions to areas in Seoul that are north of the Han River. This is to compensate for the heavy development that has gone into the southern Kangnam area in recent years. I guess Nowon must be one of those affected areas. Kangnam has a tonne of entertainment, shopping, dining, and other assorted fun things (It even has a Hello Kitty cafe). Nowon on the other hand, doesn't seem to have as much along those lines, which is odd since residentially, it is one of the more densely populated areas in Seoul, being largely an area of those domino-like apartment buildings like the one I live in, and like those that you see in many of my pictures.
For now, it's off to do dishes and head out the door for an early class at 4pm but I have an hour break on Thursdays, so I might have time to pop out for sushi.
0 Comments
Post a Comment
Home