After my last post, I received several "why can't you just quit" emails. Well, to break it down, the school owns my ass. Unlike many foreign countries, when you work in Korea your employer owns your visa. Meaning, if I was to quit or get fired, I would have to leave the country immediately. Now, if I was to immediately find another job, I could ask my school to release me early from my one year contract and then I could transfer my visa to new employer. However, chances of them cooperating when I am basically bailing are slim to none. What normally happens if you are so miserable you have to quit, is you find a new employer that is willing fly you to Japan to chill for a few days while a brand new visa is processed and then you return to go to your new job. In the meantime, you are contractually obligated to repay your previous school the airfare they spent to fly you to Korea (about 1k) and repay any vacation days or holidays you have used (about 2 weeks total right now). Plus you have to move out of your apartment and store your stuff with a friend, or lug it all to Japan with you. Oh! And since most jobs here have one year contracts, if I was to quit now and start a new position April 1, that would mean I have just committed to another year in Korea. So, that's the 411 there. And no, none of that is going down.
With that being said, the blog is being temporarily discontinued for a bit. Please email or FB to keep in touch during the interim.
xoxo
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