Knowledge Drop #1

For anyone looking to come to Korea to work, here is the deal with a few necessary items:

Health Check: 

Yesterday, I was accompanied by a co-teacher to the hospital for my blood and drug test. This is necessary in order to receive your alien residency certificate. Make sure to go to the hospital with a Korean speaker because it will make the process that much smoother. Everything cost me around $24. Your results typically take 2 days to come in. 

**For all the bud smokers out there, I am not sure if they test for marijuana yet. Our recruiter said in his email signatures that the board of education no longer tests for cannaboids, supposedly because they began to hire a large amount of Canadians and were running into problems. Regardless, it's probably not worth the risk. Plus, I am not totally sure of this yet but it doesn't seem as if there is a whole lot of weed out here anyways, so you might as well get used to it. So reach into the stoner bag of cleansing tricks and take your dose of Niacin or whatever to get clean.  

Bank Account: 

Today I went to the bank with a fellow co-teacher to establish an account. Make sure to bring a trustworthy Korean native along with you to do this because chances are once again that no one will speak English. Note that no one at the bank is trying to screw you over, it's just that you could end up signing the wrong thing which could cause some later problems. Upon setting up the account, you will receive a bank booklet from the bank which I am pretty sure allows you to pull out money from the bank teller. However, you will need to show the bank your alien residency certificate in order to be issued a debit card which then takes 7-10 days to be mailed. I have not yet received my certificate so there is an obvious delay. Case in point, get started on this early because of the amount of time for the process. 

You may be asking why it is necessary to set up a Korean account at all, which is good. Technically you could set up a credit card in the states that has no foreign transfer or withdrawal fees and simply pay off that, which is a great idea. However, you will soon find that your school likes to pay you directly via your account. I was not able to receive my 300,000 Won stipend or airplane ticket refund until I had an account for them to deposit it into.

Alien residency certificate:

You may be wondering about the process for this alien residency certificate that I keep referring to. Apparently, once you have entered the country, tested negative for TB, HIV, and drugs you will need to go to the immigration office to receive this certificate. Because it is September/October an appointment is necessary considering all of the other native teachers trying to do the same thing. This certificate is necessary in order to receive the debit card for the Korean bank account and also for any pre-paid phone plan, so be sure to get on it.

Cell phone:

Today, I was accompanied by a co-teacher to obtain a cell phone. There pretty much two stores that I have seen; LG and SK Telecom. Apparently LG is cheaper so start there. After having my co-teacher talk with both companies because, guess what? no one spoke English, several options arose. The best program for a native teacher planning on being in the country for one year is pre-paid, however an alien certificate is necessary and pre-paid buying locations are limited. In my case, I must travel 40-50 minutes by bus to a certain galleria in order to find one. If you are in Seoul, this might not be the case. I then inquired about the one-year plan. Today, I would have to pay 120,000 Won ($120) for a phone and 30,000 Won ($30) for the start up fee. But note that apparently, phones become cheaper later in each month. Towards the end of September, I could have spent 40,000 Won ($40).

I know this sounds really complicated but I have had a lot of help along the way so it's not that bad. 

If I do any more administration stuff in Korea, I will be sure to drop more knowledge.