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Back in the day, every website had links. Now that websites are mostly trying to sell you something, or at least get you to look at their ads, they don't want you leaving. Thus, links pages are an endangered species. Really, who even makes websites about stuff like this nowadays? ESL teachers mostly write about their lives in Korea on Facebook or Twitter. That stuff you can find yourself. You don't need us to show you where they are. But we qualify as netgeezers now, so here's our invitation to go exploring. Bon voyage! May you always know what's new and what's cool, you Netscaper you.
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| Gangwon Notes | Brian taught at Kwandong University in Kangnung (Gangneung) for about 5 years, from 2004. University hours and benefits are usually better than hagwon hours and benefits. With a little luck and dedication, a year or two of hagwon teaching may get you there. |
| Teaching in Wonju | Canadian Christine DeMerchant taught for a year (1998-99) at a hagwon in Wonju. Christine had the same advantages that Margaret had: she was older than many folks who do Korean ESL gigs, her boss had lived in the US, and Wonju is a small town. Her site is obviously dated, but worth reading for info on Korean food and on what to pack. |
| Doug's Ugly Fish | Douglas Thompson spent 2 years teaching in Daegu (1997-1999). It's another old site, but still worth a look for background on living in Korea and getting a good teaching job. |
| Adventures | This was one of the first Korea ESL teaching websites. It dates from 1997. This one closed the sale for Margaret. It's anonymous, since the author asked me not to use her name. |
| The View from Gangwon | Michael Levy's blog covers his gig with EPIK, teaching English at public schools in Dogye, a couple of hours from Kangnung (Gangneung). Michael's also taught at a hagwon, so he has lots to say about how public school teaching differs from hagwon teaching. |
| Morning Calm | Rob Price taught at a public high school in Seoul from 1996 to 1998, under the auspices of KORETTA (Korean English Teacher Training Assistant), now the EPIK program. |
| John's Essays | John Howard worked at Seoul hagwons in 1995 and 1996. He wrote these short essays for a US public radio station. |
| The Korean Blog List | This was once a motherlode of what-it's-like reading, 300 blogs that the site's author said were well-established and regularly updated. It's been neglected for a while and many of the blogs are gone, but some that remain are still worth checking out. |
| University Teaching | How to get a job, and what it's like. This is a local copy of an article originally published in The Exit, March 1999 issue. |
| Public Schools | Teaching in a Korean girls' middle school, under the auspices of EPIK (also see Rob Price's and Michael Levy's pages). Another local copy of a piece originally published in The Exit, June 1999 issue. |
| Dealing With Your Boss | Some thoughts on why Korean bosses act the way they do, and how to use that to your advantage. This is a local copy of an article originally published in The Exit, forerunner of Pusanweb, June 1997 issue. Contact the original source for more information. |
| Marrying Your Boss | Here's a western teacher who negotiated the cultural and legal hurdles, more or less successfully, to date and - although he doesn't say so in this page - eventually marry a Korean woman. To make things even more complicated, she was his boss! This is a reconstruction of an old (1998) Geocities page. |
| Dave's ESL Cafe | This is one of the venerables. You'll find job listings and useful advice. The discussion forums have always had a somewhat bleaker outlook than we have. As I write this in January 2024, though, those forums seem to be in Covid-19 suspended animation, with no posts since 2020. But give them a spin. Maybe they've returned to life by now. |
| Pusanweb | This was one of the first web guides for English speakers in Korea. It sort of grew beyond its original author's time and patience, and it's been mostly absorbed into Koreabridge (see below). |
| Koreabridge | At one time the Pusanweb idea was extended to sites supporting ESL teachers in Ulsan, Daegu, and Daejon. These sites, like Pusanweb, all seem to have been snarfed up by Koreabridge. Koreabridge also claims to provide support for English speakers in Pusan (Busan), Kwangju (Gwangju), Incheon, Chegu (Jeju), and Seoul. Tall order. |
| Fulbright ETA Program | If you're interested in public high school teaching, rather than hagwon instruction, you may want to check out this program. It's a bit restrictive - only for graduating college seniors and recent graduates, unmarried, without dependents, and under age 30 - but that profile fits a lot of folks interested in Korean ESL anyway. |
| EPIK | Here's another program which places westerners in Korean public schools. As with any such organization, be sure to investigate thoroughly before signing up. Rob Price got his job through EPIK's predecessor, KORETTA, and his page is worth a look. |
| Lonely Planet | A traveler's introduction to Korea. |
| One Stop Korea | American Scott Fisher lived in Korea for over a decade. He has some great stories and plenty of tips. |
| Korea Factbook | A stack of statistics from none other than the US CIA. |
| Axel's Korea | Here are nicely composed photos from a German student's 3-month visit in 2000. This site includes a fair selection from different regions, including Seoul, Pusan, Cheju, and Kangwon Do, each with a bit of descriptive text. |
| Flavours of Korea | Marc & Kim Millon explore the world of Korea's specialties, with some side trips into the country's culture. They provide a few recipes for you to try. Be sure to read Halmoni, My Grandmother. |
| Korean Recipes | Prepare yourself for what you'll find in Korea, with these suggestions from AsianRecipe.com. |
| Seoul Eats | Once you're there, this website (as in "Seoul eats," and also "Eats you can get in Seoul") will be your guide. Thank goodness they didn't call it Seoul Food. It's not just restaurant reviews, it's a "foodie" view of Korean and Seoul culture. |
| The Korea Herald | An English language newspaper, published in Seoul. Some people say this paper is a "mouthpiece" for the current political administration, but it seems to be the one that's most popular with foreigners. This is where Margaret found the inspiration for most of her weekend sightseeing jaunts. |
| The Korea Times | This English language newspaper is said to be more impartial than the Herald, but I haven't seen all that much difference. |
| Joong Ang Daily | Another English Language Daily. |
| Dong-a Ilbo | Yet another newspaper with English pages. |
| Brother Anthony | Brother Anthony represents something of a rarity in Korea - a western-born Korean citizen. Born in the UK, he moved to Korea in 1982 and became Korean in 1994. He retired from Sogang University's Department of English Literature in 2008. Brother Anthony is a fine writer, with keen observations on Korean culture, and he's translated a fair amount of Korean literature in a highly accessible style. He has his own Wikipedia page too. |
| Korean Language | This is a brief description of the Korean language's origin and that of its script, Hangul. It also has a section on how to form Hangul characters, and another with some basic Korean vocabulary and phrases. |
| Introduction to Korean | An excellent tutorial on basic phrases, with clear, fast-loading sound clips to help. It even has beginning Korean grammar, for the stout of heart. |
| Romanizer | Want to see how some Hangul is pronounced, without poring over the charts? This page will Romanize a pasted-in line of Hangul. By the way, just to be clear, Hangul ≠ Korean. Korean is the language. Hangul is the Korean alphabet. |
| De-romanizer | This page does the opposite of the one above -- it'll take a Romanized text and try its best to display its equivalent in Hangul script. It makes no guarantee that the results will have any actual meaning in Korean, though, so if you're not pronouncing it right or Romanizing it right, you may not get anything useful. |
| Simply Translate | Simply Translate is an anonymous, ultra-lightweight web proxy that gives you Google's sometimes-useful Korean translations without handing them your life story. |
| Simply Translate Android App | Like the above website, this app hides your identity from Google, while letting you use Google's Korean (and other languages) translations. You'll need to sideload it. |
| Android Dictionary | QuickDic is a free, open-source dictionary app for your Android gadget. Once you have it installed, you can download a Korean-English and English-Korean dictionary. This app is totally off-line, so if you're stuck somewhere with no mobile data service, you can still get word help. For more privacy, get it from F-Droid. |
| NJStar Communicator | If you know some Korean and want to type it, but don't want to buy a special keyboard for your desktop or notebook computer, check out this Windows (only, alas) program. It's a bit pricey by current standards, but it gives you an on-screen Hangul keyboard. There's a free trial download. |
| Kangnung Weather | From the Weather Underground. Or see what it's like right now in Seoul, Ulsan, Cheju, or Kwangju. |