Goodbyes!

Only 5 days to go! Over the past few weekends we have been saying our goodbyes to friends and family at various nights out and partys', including a memorable night at WHP and a Christmas themed weekend!! We are really going to miss everyone, wish they could come with us, thank goodness for the internet!

Just about to tuck into a pretty good roast dinner, even if I do say so myself!

Warehouse Project with random guy in the background!

Visas

This is just a quick post about getting your visa processed in the UK. When we first started looking into teaching English in South Korea I found that several websites stated that the a visa for teaching English in South Korea for UK nationals would be around £27.50 however this is not the case, it is in fact £80! Follow this link for more information http://www.mofat.go.kr/english/visa/apply/index.jsp or phone the consulate. We decided to send our visa to the consulate as neither of us live near London, this took around 2 weeks to process, this wasn't a problem as our job starts in December. Once we received our visa the recruitment agency organised for flights to be booked, so now it really is official, as of 2nd December we will be off to South Korea for a year, eeek!

Attempting to learn Korean!

In preparation for our year in South Korea we have decided to learn some of the Korean language otherwise known as Hangul. I have read that it is not essential to learn the language, but having travelled before I feel that locals always appreciate it when a foreigner  tries to learn their language. Also, having done some research I feel that it will make our time it Korea a little less challenging and more enjoyable. Starting to learn Hangul at first seemed extremely daunting especially when I realised we would have to learn the alphabet instead of just learning phrases. However, after following a few easy to follow videos, see: http://www.seemile.com/renewal/package_list.jsp?pkg_no=21  for some great Korean teachers) I found that the Korean alphabet can actually be learnt quite quickly, this doesn't mean to say however that I am any good at it yet! Jack and I feel we have mastered some of the basics but we are yet to see whether these will work in practice! Another great language learning resource is the Rosetta Stone programme if you can get your hands on it.

A Couple in Korea: My first post: Why write a blog?!

A Couple in Korea: My first post: Why write a blog?!: Having made the exciting but scary decision to go and teach English in South Korea with my boyfriend Jack, I began to research the applicati...

The interview!

At last we were asked to have an interview, arranging this interview was harder than I first thought. There is a large time difference between Korea and the UK often this means interviews take place early/mid morning. When one of you is working full time this is particularly difficult to arrange. I managed to organise my interview in the morning and Jack squeezed his in on his lunch break! The interview seemed to go well, the interviewer was very friendly. I followed some advice I had been given and smiled away to the phone! This took place on a Thursday, Friday came and no news, things weren't looking hopeful, I thought we would never find a job. Finally on Monday after a few hours away from the computer an e-mail was awaiting us saying we had got the job! Woo hoo time for a celebration!

Recruiters: Who and how many?

Recruiters aren't for everybody and there are other options when looking for a job in South Korea such as going straight through a school. As a couple however it is a lot more challenging to find jobs and I found recruiters tend to have more couple jobs. At first we only signed up with one agency following a recommendation from some one who had also taught in South Korea. However, I soon realised that in would be beneficial to sign up with more than one. Don't get despondent if some recruiters don't get back to you, I think I might contacted at least 15 in the end! We had some mixed responses, some we clicked with straight away, others never got back to us and some were really enthusiastic but never sent us a job! My advice to other couples looking for a job would be to maintain contact with those recruiters who get back to you and give them regular updates as to where you are with documents etc. until you have all the documents together they will find it hard to get you a job. They may also want you make a Youtube video so schools can listen to your accent, we did this although it turned out it wasn't really necessary and it won't be something I am posting on this blog! Some companies may encourage you to get a TEFL or other teaching qualification, I am sure this would be helpful but as we didn't have the funds needed to get one we decided to have a go without it. We now have a job so it is possible! Just don't give up!

Paperwork Paperwork!

After making the decision that we definitely wanted to teach English in South Korea, it was time to tackle the paperwork required for the E2 Visa. Most recruiters outline the paperwork required for teaching in South Korea, for example:  http://www.flying-cows.com/index.php/visa_process.html  and http://www.asknow.ca/visa.aspx . I would recommend getting these documents together as soon as you have decided that you want to work in South Korea, as I discovered, the process can often take a lot longer than anticipated.  We experienced some confusion with the following documents:

1. An apostilled/notarized copy of your degree - When I first read this I had no idea what  apostilled or notarized meant when I first read this! After a bit of research I found the website for the Foreign Commonwealth Office http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/what-we-do/services-we-deliver/legal-services/Legalisation/ . This website outlines how to get your documents notarized and you can apply via this website to get your documents apostilled. It's not free! First you need to photocopy your degree and get it certified as a true copy of the original by a solicitor or notary, if you know anyone who is a solicitor they might be able to do you  favour! You can then send this off to be apostilled.

2. An apostilled/notarized criminal record check - At first I thought I was covered when I saw this as I has several CRB checks for various jobs, however, they were all over 6 months old and therefore not valid! As you can't get a CRB check unless it is through a company based in the UK we weren't sure what to do next. I e-mailed a couple of recruitment agencies who told us to get a Disclosure Scotland certificate which you can get through their website http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/ .  We acquired these (again you have to pay), I then spoke to a solicitor about getting it notarized, who informed me that because it was an original it did not need to be notarized. We then sent these off to be apostilled only to get them refused because they weren't notarized! Very frustrating! In the end I took the Disclosures to a notary (your local one can be found via the FCO website) who certified the actual document as the original copy. This wasn't cheap so phone around to get an estimate before you get it done! This was then accepted and apostilled, yay!

Hopefully this post will help others who are struggling with their visa documents!