You’ll need to bring enough money to keep you going until your first pay day. Gone2Korea strongly advises all teachers to bring $1500USD minimum to get started, but closer to $2000USD is best if you can manage it. All schools pay their teachers a monthly salary, therefore, your first pay day won’t happen until 6-8 weeks after you arrive and having enough money to keep you going during this period is necessary.
Having a credit card will allow you to setup accounts with online stores. For example, if you want to order groceries online, you’ll need a credit card to do it. Certain debit cards will also work, such as Visa Debit or Master Card Debit. Bringing a credit card isn’t a necessity, but it will give you more freedom to do things online.
There are 4 distinct seasons in Korea so you’ll need to bring suitable clothes to accommodate the weather changes. More importantly, you’ll need to bring proper work clothes; most schools have a business casual, or semi casual dress code. This basically means no lounge wear, no shorts or sandals, no ripped or torn clothes, no hoodies and no hats.
Korean pharmacies carry similar drugs and medications as the West, however, the brands will likely be different. If you require a very specific type of medication, or you need to stick with a certain brand, then make sure to speak with your family doctor before departing.
When travelling abroad, it’s wise to have copies of your important documents. Before you depart, make sure to photocopy all of your important documents, or scan and save them to your cloud service (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.). What should you copy? Your passport, credit card, license, bank card, work visa and anything else you plan on bringing. You essentially want to make copies of anything that can potentially get lost or stolen during your travels. We also recommend leaving a set of photocopies back home with someone you can trust like your parents or sibling.
Your school will help you setup a Korean bank account shortly after you arrive. However, if you plan on wiring money back home, you’ll need to provide the Korean bank with all of your home country banking details. This will included the bank name and address, account number, transit number and branch number.
We suggest loading up on stickers, pencils and erasers that have logos and symbols of things specific to your country and/or home town. These items make great prizes for your students and you can give them away after tests, quizzes and games. Stock up on things that have your favorite sports team logo on it, your country, state or provincial flag, your university emblem, etc. The kids will love them!
Bringing some multi-vitamins is a smart decision. It will likely take your body a month or so to adjust to the new environment and taking a multi-vitamin will help. You can find western vitamins in Korea but your first few weeks will likely be hectic and that’s when you’ll need them the most!
There’s a difference between an adaptor and a converter. Adaptors are small prong like objects that you place on the end or your electric device in order to make it fit into the foreign electrical socket – adaptors don’t alter the wattage going into your devices. If you plan on bringing small objects that don’t require specific power amounts, using an adaptor will suffice. If you plan on bringing larger electronic devices which need specific wattages, you’ll want to invest in a power converter; assuming the devices power supply isn’t equipped with a converter (most laptop charging cords have a converter these days). Failing to use a converter for larger devices may permanently damage your electronics. Note: Most modern electronic devices, such as laptops, have a power converter attached to the power cord (that little black box). You can find adaptors and converters at most major electronic stores in Korea. Adaptors are quite cheap, only $1 – 5$ USD but converters are substantially more. How much the converter costs usually depends on the size; the more compact the converter is the more expensive they become.
Large or tall people often have difficulties finding suitable clothing in Korea. Koreans are noticeably smaller than westerners, therefore, many of their stores don’t carry larger sizes. You can usually find clothes in Korea that fit, although it can take a while to locate stores that sell the sizes you require in the styles you prefer.
If you have large feet, you’ll want to bring some extra shoes to Korea. Anything larger than US size 11 for males and US size 8 for females is difficult to find in Korea.
You can buy deodorant in Korea – obviously – but the selection is somewhat limited. If you have a preference for a specific brand of deodorant, you’ll need to stock up before departing.
Most international flights allow passengers to bring 23 kilos of luggage on the plane, some allow slightly more and some slightly less. If your luggage exceeds the weight restriction, you’ll need to pay extra money (by the kilo or pound) when you check your bags at the airport. Note: Airlines can only accommodate so much extra weight. If you check in late the airline may deny your additional luggage and ask you to reduce the weight of your bags to the maximum amount.
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Gone2Korea is your connection to full-time teaching jobs in South Korea. Western graduates, primarily from the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, use our services to secure jobs with trusted Korean schools, and schools use our services to find and hire enthusiastic teachers from the West.
Worth noting: We’re not a job ‘sourcing’ agency or recruiter that finds new schools on the fly. On the contrary, we work with a select group of schools and programs that we know and trust.
In addition to helping you land a job, we’ll also be helping you with your work visa, departure, arrival, and offering support for the entirety of your contracted term.
Prior teaching experience and related degrees are NOT prerequisites for teaching in Korea. Here’s what you’ll need in order to qualify.
Korean schools and programs offer western English teachers highly competitive benefits packages which includes:
