Contract Week Part 3 (Accommodations)

Hello,

                My name is Wintermute and today we will continue Contract Week with day 3, “accommodations”. It is the schools’ responsibility to provide you with a place to live. Being a foreigner you yourself cannot rent out an apartment and it’s just much easier for the employer to pick one for you. It is possible to ask for a specific apartment as long as they agree.

                This is one part of the position that can go oh so many different ways. I have watched hundreds of youtube videos of new teachers’ apartments, and there are a fair share of great and not so great. But how will you know which you’ll get before going? One way to insure you are well accommodated is by picking a well known recruiting company such as EPIK. They tend to make sure that their teachers are well provided for, schools want to continue working for companies like EPIK and so they make sure to keep their teachers happy.  

          
                One thing you can do for yourself is to ask for pictures of the apartment complex, sometimes the school will provide it, and sometimes the school will provide stock photos of studio apartments which will do you no good.  One thing you should always do is ask for the e-mail address of one of the foreign teachers, I have never been denied this and it can give you a lot of intel.

                Some basic things your room will include are, a bed, a gas stove, a t.v., a mini-fridge, a washer (Korea has no dryers), maybe a desk and couch. That’s about it, you could get lucky. You could get a modern apartment, that has closets, a shower, a loft, and maybe even curtains over the window, but I wouldn't hold my breath. And just so you know, typically in Korea there are no shower booths, instead you shower hose is hooked up to your sink next to your toilet, meaning  you turn the sink on and that’s your shower, there is a drain on the floor, so basically your whole bathroom is a shower room.

 Another thing you need to make sure is crystal clear is the distance from your apartment to the school. A lot of times they will say it’s a 5-10 minute walk. What they mean is, 5-10 minutes to the nearest bus stop/subway that will take you to your school. I was about an hour away from my school walking distance. Now Korea is a beautiful country so a nice morning and evening walk home was no problem for me, however I would have liked to of been told this prior to going to Korea. And I figure I should mention this for those who don’t want to walk for an hour.  Thank you all very much for reading this and I will see you tomorrow!

Your friend,

Wintermute