Some good things:
• food is really cheap to eat out
• bars and restaurants stay open till 3am,4,5,even 6am.
• Many places are open all night long
• You can save alot of money here (even if you spend $500-$1000) a month, you can save about $1,000 or more every month.
• The school pays for your housing
• The school pays for your roundtrip flight
• Public transportation here is great and very cheap

Some bad things:
If you live right in a busy section of downtown Seoul, the air pollution can be a little much. But living a little outside of the city is clean. If you’re from the US or Canada, it’s far from home, so visiting on holidays can be expensive and difficult.
The Italian food is not so good here, but Korean food is quite tasty.

Here are some videos about teaching in Korea to help you decide if it’s right for you:
http://budurl.com/TeachInKorea

that being said, in my city people are more blatant about how they would feel towards u as a person…where in larger cities they seem more subtle about it (maybe b/c they know the consequences of talking noise to foreigners). ex…i walked into mcdonalds and right when i came in, 3 or 4 high school or uni aged students looked at me, said stuff in korean and started laughing. i ordered my food…and strategically waited at a table where i was turned facing them. one of them had a sly look on his face, talking smack, then he turned towards me…and i dead-eyed him. he turned his head back so fast…u thought he’d get whiplash…and never looked at me again. i was ready to throw a damn hamburger in his face.lol

i guess all i can say is stand ur ground and be vigilant… people wont bother u…if it looks like u are not one to be messed with.im not a big guy (only 5′6″)…but i will protect myself.

another bad thing…sometimes its hard to find ‘real’ friends in korea…both foreigner and korean. from the foreigner end, u’ll get a lot of drinking buddies…but many times when people like that leave, u’ll never hear from them once they go back home…even if u helped them out during their stay in korea.

as far as korean friends go…some will want to practice english w/ u and see u as a commodity and not take u seriously as a person.

so now a days, when i get approached by people…i have the whole’ what do u want?’ attitude. b/c of my time in korea.

sorry ive had only enough time/space to type some bad stuff…there are many good things…one thing about korea (especially the big cities) is that there is always things to do and its not boring!

msg if u need more help…

The good: As long as you are clever and come over to a public school you will work about 20-22 hours a week for about 2 million won/month.
Living is cheap here, and so is travel. You can easily save some money and still have a lot of fun over here on an esl job. There are some groups that have regular events for english speakers here so its easy to meet people and go on adventures as long as you can get the internet. The country side is gorgeous, and the food is great. You get a lot of vacation time if you go through the public schools – if you are lucky and your school is lenient even more then your contract generously gives you. Medical care is cheap (compared to the US, etc) and easily accessible.

The bad- the apartments provided by the schools are often old, small and cheap. If you come over on a private contract your school can try to screw you over, and its hard to fight with them. There is some racism to deal with (foreigners are drug addicts, they are dirty, they are lazy) from some people. People stare at you if you look different (though my South East Asian looking friends don’t have to deal as much with that – the trade off is that people will try to speak Korean to them).

All in all, my husband and I really enjoy living over here, and so do most of the foreigners I know. I think a lot of it has to do with being smart about getting a good contract, and about coming over with an open mind and a good attitude. Most of the people I know who don’t like it here or who had issues caused most of the problems themselves.

I have bee here for over two years and enjoy it, but I’m a white American and even I have experienced racism. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen.

Just my two cents, for what it’s worth.

Now for the bad things:
- Korea has the longest working hours in the OECD by a margin of about 500 hours per year. Not kidding. And that’s including housewives that stay home all day, so you can basically assume that any serious career-track working person is doing about 60 hours a week. And this translates to every aspect of life. People are always in a hurry and push other people around and act extremely rude sometimes. People blow off stress by getting extremely drunk seven days a week, which translates to angry burnt-out people walking the street starting fights. If you’re working at a hagwon, expect to put in longer hours than any other entry-level teaching job in Asia. Sure your pay might be all right, but you’ll be working for it — longer hours than China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, etc.
- Korea has a SERIOUS racism and xenophobia problem that is much worse than any other country I’ve ever seen. Sure, the majority of Koreans don’t hate foreigners, but even if a small number hate foreigners, it can make your life a living hell. I’ve been assaulted in Seoul twice by people on the street. My foreign female friend was raped and I know two other foreign women who were almost raped (seized by a man and public who tried to drag them somewhere). In other countries like America, people might call you names or curse at you, but in Korea, they’ll just deck you. And no one around you is going to sympathize with you or try to help unless you’re dying in a ditch. You’re a dirty foreigner who deserves it. The visa process is also HIGHLY biased in favor of Korean-Americans whether they speak Korean well or not. For reference, I knew a Korean-American who spoke almost no Korean, threw cigarette butts at passing businessmen, and was a total jerk, and he got instant permanent residency. Meanwhile I lived in Korea for five years, spoke KLPT Level 5 Korean (advanced, 6,000+ words) and was denied a working visa for FIVE YEARS. Not kidding. I qualified for one twice, but both times they came up with arbitrary reasons to refuse my visa.

I’m going to have to say that despite the good parts, the racism/xenophobia issue makes Korea very difficult to tolerate. I’ve lived in five countries — the Netherlands, the US, Korea, Hong Kong (PRC), and Taiwan (just starting out). I have NEVER seen a country with the deep-seated hatred of all foreign peoples that Korea has. This is not speaking about all Koreans, but even a violent 1% can put your safety in danger, and a non-violent anti-foreigner 30% can remind you every five minutes that they don’t want you there.