Jumping into the deepend again

April 12, 2009 7:41 PM

KOREA FILTER: Help me decide if I should leave my current Korean university and move to Seoul to focus on Korean language learning.

I have come upon a fork in the road and would greatly appreciate any advice. I am Canadian exchange student trying to decide if I should stay a third semester at my country-side Korean university or move to a Seoul university/academy. I am a bit atypical since I am in Korea as a student and not as a teacher; therefore, I need to be a little bit more money cautious and careful with my choices. I actually have it pretty well now where I am so want to make sure I do things right if I’m going to change.

I am on my second semester here at Soon Chun Hyang University which is in Asan and quite far away from everything. The biggest problem is that there are many cultural exchange courses that I feel to be a waste of time for my own goals and would like to focus entirely on Korean language courses. At this time my university looks after me quite well with free tuition and many other perks. They also help me with my student visa.

This has all been fine; however, I believe I have gained as much as I can and feel that I should move on. If I leave my university I will have to apply for a new visa and I do not know exactly how this works. Does any body know how many extensions one can get on a visa and how easy it is to switch between student and tourist visas and perhaps back again? Currently my student visa is for one year but I’d like to stay two years total (or more). What might be the best way to do this? I don’t know if I should enroll in a university language program and get a student visa or get a tourist visa and find other kinds of classes.

If I move to Seoul I would like to find good Korean language courses. Does anyone have any recommendations of universities or academies? Also, does anyone know how many hours one needs to be enrolled in classes for a student visa or what the other restrictions are? Do academies count or only universities?

I will also need a place to stay if I move to Seoul; therefore, I am curious as to how easy it is to find an apartment and where and how to look. Does anyone have any experience with this? I was thinking around Hong-dae area; however, I am fully open. As it is now, I spend at least three hours travelling one way to Seoul once or twice a weekend, so I won’t mind travelling a bit in the future to work or wherever.

Although I am here as a student I would like to be able to teach in the future so if anyone knows of any reputable TESOL or similar courses that are of high quality and that I can do online I would love to know of them. I suspect that I won’t find anything too good since these types of classes would seem to need classroom and hands-on experience to be successful; however, I’d like know if my notion is correct or not.

Lastly, if I am to move to Seoul I will have to deal with this cough that has been hounding me since I got here. The pollution is killing me and I really need to find a good doctor how will help me find out what is wrong and won’t just throw medication at me. Anyone know where I might find a good doctor who can also speak English?

This is all hard to put into words, but I thank everyone for taking the time to help me. I appreciate it~

posted by Knigel to education (4 comments total)

Yonsei University's Korean Language Institute is probably the best known of the university-based Korean language courses. It seems nearly every foreigner I ran into in Seoul had spent some time at Yonsei's KLI. Their website provides information on student visas, too. Your plan to look for housing in the Hong-dae / Shinchon area would work well for Yonsei.

Seoul National University's Language Education Institute also provides Korean language instruction. This is not as well-known as Yonsei's, but hey, it's got the SNU cachet, which can't hurt. Location-wise it's in Gwanak-gu, south of the river, so this could mean longish subway rides if you like hanging out in the Hong-dae area.
posted by needled at 8:24 PM on April 12

Here are some links on courses from the Korea forum at Dave's ESL Cafe, but yes, if you're really interested in TESOL you need to do a good in-person certification or MA. I have no idea if their links on Korean language programs are any good. If you go up a level to the FAQs they have links on doctors and housing as well. Be wary of bitter and cranky and prone-to-exaggeration posters.

Disclaimer: Never been to Korea; have an MA in TESOL and a good friend recently moved to Korea to teach there so I've been reading up on it because of this. I'm sure other people have better info. :) (Said friend got pertussis/whooping cough during her last stint in Korea. :o Hope you haven't gotten anything like that!)
posted by wintersweet at 9:06 PM on April 12

There are English speaking agencies for foreigners looking for apartments. Not sure if you're aware of this, but you'll need key-money, i.e., a big whopping amount of cash to make a down-payment on an apartment. If you were enrolled with a university, they'd probably take care of this for you, or only charge you the monthly rent. Try Craigslist -- somebody out there is probably renting out a spare room.

There are English speaking doctors as well, but they're a mixed bag. I haven't needed to go to one yet, but word-of-mouth would be your best recommendation. Again, I'd try Craigslist maybe.

I'm not one-hundred percent certain, but I wouldn't get too cute with the visa situation. Either you're a full-time student, a full-time employee (typically of a hagwon or university as an English instructor), or you're a tourist, and you won't be able to study full time or work. Korea is pretty hardcore about tying your visa to your sponsor institution, be it a university of an English school. So if your visa is sponsored by University X, and you drop out of University X, your visa is no longer valid and you are effectively an illegal alien. This is how it works with E-2 visas and employers, and I doubt student visas are much different.

Language partners are very easy to find in the paper or again, through Craigslist. I have one, and we meet for a few hours each week so she can practice English and I can practice my (very weak) Korea. I've seen tons of Korean language programs, a few of which are even free (although I've also heard you get what you pay for).

Hongdae is nice to visit, but make sure you aren't near one of the hundreds of bars or clubs. I'd bet it's pretty noisy on the weekend.
posted by bardic at 1:18 AM on April 13

Yeah, Asan - a wonderful little area almost 2 hours away from Seoul...

From a recent open house visit at a grad school in Seoul, I was told that a D-2 visa is for students - and an SD visa allows a student to work up to 20 hours a week during the semester and unlimited hours during your breaks...

Nthing craigslist as THE place to go for apartment, room-shares, etc. That they typically don't ask for key money (just a small deposit) is nice, and their terms are usually more flexible.

Regarding Korean language programs: ask yourself what your goal is. Do you want the certificate / degree or the experience of learning Korean? There's tons of Koreans ready to do a language exchange to practice English with you.

Doctors? Itaewon. 'Nuff said. You'll pay more, but most major hospitals can handle foreigners. If you get stuck, dial 1330 for English translation.

As an aside: I teach English to adults full-time - my experience in Korea and experience teaching adults (along with the usual Bachelor's degree) was enough to get a job here. While teaching at a university has been getting a little more competitive, there's still plenty of jobs. There's PLENTY of jobs - and not just of the teaching kids kind. Feel free to MeFi me if you'd like some more pointers.

Best of luck :)
posted by chrisinseoul at 6:30 AM on April 13