Stayin' Alive in Korea

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For the past two months I have had a minor recurring problem which has given me cause to seek medical attention here in Korea.  Don't worry, it's nothing serious.  Back in The States I am one of those people who only goes to the doctor as a last resort.  I don't even have my own doctor and I revert to a "doc-in-the-box," as my mom calls it, when i'm very ill.  This could stem from my lack of confidence in the American healthcare system and my unwillingness to support it, or from my dad's stubbornness that has been passed on to me.  Either way I really don't like taking time out of my day and money from my pocket to support the medical world and more specifically the pharmaceutical companies.

As government employees here in Korea we are covered by general insurance for a small percentage of our monthly income.  When I was having problems I naturally didn't want to visit the doctor because I thought it would be even more of a pain in the ass since I don't speak Korean, but I also thought it might be an interesting cultural experience.  Plus, I felt like shit.  I had no idea where to go so I asked my coT for help.  It turns out that Koreans are very nosy and like to know everything.  Back at home it might be impolite to ask why someone has to go to the doctor but apparently here it is considered public information.  I didn't have much of a problem telling my coT because I am pretty close with her and I needed her to translate my symptoms into Korean in case the doctor didn't speak English.  Little did I know that when I got back after my appointment the whole staff would know and would be asking me questions and worrying about me for the next few weeks.  This annoyed me quite a bit.  I will now think twice (or three or four times) before telling anyone in my school about any medical issues I might be experiencing.

Koreans call all medical establishments "hospitals" so when you would need to see the doctor back home you go to the hospital here.  This was a bit disturbing at first when I told my coT about my problem and she asked if I needed to go to the hospital.  I told her "no," that it wasn't that serious but then she explained that when Koreans are sick they go to the hospital.  She contacted the "Dream Hospital" which is located just a 15 minute walk from my school and scheduled an appointment for me.  The Dream Hospital is a private medical provider that actually resembles a hospital, as it has many different medical branches all in one place.  I soon realize that no one working at the check-in counters or the information booths speaks fluent English.  I give the receptionist my translated symptoms and Korean ID card and somehow decipher from her gestures that I need to go to the second floor.  One of the nurses upstairs decides to kind of help me out and ends up being my girl every following visit.  I'm sure this is because she spoke the most English which consisted of a repertoire of about 8 words.  So I wait for at least an hour, even though I have an appointment, to see the doctor.  Once I go into the consultation room I explain my symptoms to the doctor who speaks a bit of medical English.  He tells me he knows what's wrong and in five minutes (The Korean calls this "five minute diagnosis") I am out of his office at the prescription printing counter/cashier.  She tells me it will be a little over 5,000 won for the consultation (around $4.50).  This was incredible to me.  I didn't even give the hospital any of my medical insurance information and it came out to under $5.00.  This made me question healthcare in the U.S even more.  I did find it a bit weird though that they didn't take any of my vitals and the doctor could tell what was wrong with me from a 3 minute explanation in another language.  Anyways, I head to the pharmacy next door and give the pharmacist my prescription.  I'm expecting to wait for at least 20 minutes, as it would be back home.  It is also pretty crowded so I assume I'll be there for awhile.  I'm astonished when in about 5 minutes the pharmacist calls my name, explains how to take the pills and asks for 6,000 won (about $5.00).  Again, I never gave any insurance information to the pharmacy.  This experience creates even more disdain for American pharmaceuticals.  But that's another rant.

The prescription works but it turns out that the ailment decides to come back...4 more times.  This means that I have the pleasure of visiting the Dream Hospital probably about 6 times in the next month and a half for tests and stuff.  I end up having to take 8 different antibiotics a day for 4 weeks.  The biggest problem for me is the fact that every time I go see the doctor he simply prescribes me the same antibiotics for yet another week and does not give me any explanation as to what I have or how to prevent it from coming back.  After all the visits and different tests they decide to perform I end up spending about 180,000 won ($150.00).  It's very frustrating to me at this point that because of the communication barrier I am not able to ask or understand exactly what I have or what I can do to keep it from happening again.

When the problem comes back for the 5th time (!) I decide I need to try something else.  I begin looking up medical facilities with international clinics where at least some of the employees speak English and cater to foreigners.  It turns out that most of the university hospitals here in Daegu have international clinics but their hours are limited.  This means that you must go during work hours or run the risk of really pissing them off, which I may very well have done.  I arrived at Yeoungnam University Hospital at 5:00pm, 30 minutes before closing.  The ladies at the International counter tell me I am very late and begin frantically filling out papers and running around the hospital asking the doctors to hold on for a few minutes to be able to see me.  I feel really bad that they are doing this all for me but relieved that I had actually found people that speak my language.  The young nurse who is running around asks me to fill out some very short paper work and then instructs me to follow her.  She takes my blood pressure, which provides me with small feelings of relief since the other doctor did nothing of the sort, and accompanies me into the doctor's office to talk about my symptoms.  The nurse is a really sweet young woman who, after chatting her up a bit, tells me that she studied in Vancouver, Canada.  She speaks almost perfect English and seems very sympathetic and nonjudgmental which makes me feel much more comfortable with the whole situation.  Throughout the whole process she acts as a guide and translator for the few doctors that I talk to.  Literally running through the hospital we make it in time for me to complete the whole process in about 30 minutes.  The upside to going to the public hospital was that I could finally communicate my problems and concerns to a woman who spoke good English and with whom I was comfortable.  It seemed like she genuinely wanted to help me as much as she possibly could.  The negatives were the price (consultation, test and prescription were about double the cost of the private) and that the doctor gave me about as much preventative instruction as the doctor at the Dream Hospital.  The doctor was a young man who could have been just out of medical school.  When I asked him multiple times about prevention methods he pretty much told me, without actually admitting it, that he had no idea and would Wikipedia it and get back to me in a week.  Obviously this was pretty frustrating to me.

The coolest part was the futuristic prescription printing robot (I guess you could just call it a machine).  All you had to do was scan your receipt, hit a few buttons and your prescription was being printed within seconds.

Although I had issues with both hospitals, for me the most important thing was being able to communicate and feeling comfortable enough with the nurses and doctors to express myself.  Even though it was more expensive I will definitely return to Yeongnam U. Hospital, mostly because of the sweet little nurse that helped me out a lot.  I also think that it would be beneficial to check out other university hospitals with international clinics.  Consulting with English-speaking doctors and nurses is essential in a non-Korean-speaker's attempt to heal.

Paz

Teaching for EPIK: Pros and Cons

It's that time of year here in Korea when a whole group of new EPIK teachers will be arriving all around the country to start their year-long contracts.  EPIK takes in teachers twice a year: in March and August.  This is also the time that prospective teachers will be applying for the August take-in.  For those of you applying or thinking about applying to teach English in Korea, I decided to write a post about the pros and cons of teaching in a public school in Korea (EPIK) as opposed to at a private academy (hagwon).  As all I know about teaching at a hagwon is second hand, I really can't give my opinion on that but I will include information that I've received via hagwon teachers or other secondary sources.

Pros:

1. The benefits.  Native English teachers in Korea receive a pretty good bundle of benefits whether they are working for EPIK or a hagwon.  The flight is paid for and our apartments are covered.  All we have to pay for ourselves are general utility bills, cell phone, internet and whatever other extra things we decide to spend our money on.  When we complete our year long contract, we receive an extra month's pay (severance).  This last bonus is a really awesome thing if you're planning on traveling a bit through Asia after your contract expires and you haven't saved up as much money as you had planned.
2. Vacation/sick days.  As EPIK teachers we complain a lot about having to go to school and "deskwarm" when school is not in session.  Yes, it sucks and I am often bored out of my mind during these long hours.  My mind definitely wanders into unexplainable territory and I find myself getting dumber with each minute I watch exquisitely horrible reality television.  But compared to hagwon teachers we do get a better deal when it comes to vacation days.  During Winter Vacation we are allotted 10 paid business days for vacation with 8 during Summer Vacation.  I've heard from several hagwon teachers that they don't get vacation days.  Because I played my cards right I was able to use my 10 vacation days (14 with weekends) and tag on Lunar New Year, which is a national holiday to actually get 18 days of vacation time.  This gave me plenty of time to head down to the Philippines for two and a half weeks.  Pretty awesome.  We also get paid sick days and apparently hagwon teachers do not.
3. Support system.  As an EPIK teacher you participate in orientation before your contract begins.  During this time it's really easy to meet people and develop relationships with other teachers that will be working in your city and throughout Korea.  It's awesome to know that you will have people to talk to and meet up with when you get to your designated city.  I think this was one of my biggest concerns coming to Korea.  Hagwons are often small private academies that only have a few native English teachers.  I've heard from hagwon teachers that it takes a bit more time and effort to meet people who you'd actually want to hang out with.  Our coTs (coteachers) are also essential people in our lives when we first get here and throughout our year.  They do lots of stuff for us and help us out whenever we need it.
4. The job is generally easy.  On average we teach about 4 to 5 classes a day which totals 160-200 minutes a day.  I split my classes 50/50 with my coTs so I really only end up teaching 80-100 minutes a day.  Elementary school teachers must follow the government text books so the curriculum is planned.  We usually just have to create a game and some supplement materials for each class.  I've heard that hagwon teachers usually teach by themselves, spend lots of time planning their lessons and teach the entire time they are at work.

Cons

1. Deskwarming.  As I briefly stated earlier, "deskwarming" is an issue that every EPIK teacher faces.  It pretty much means that you are sitting at your desk with absolutely nothing to do, but can't go home because it's in your contract that you are at work for 8 hours a day.  It seems that Koreans don't really understand the phenomenon of deviation.  Doing anything different from the norm or the rules is just not really even thought of.  This is not only applicable in the work place but in everyday life.  When you go to a restaurant don't be surprised if the server literally just does not understand why you want to substitute a side dish for something else.  Korean culture is about conformity, not difference.  This means that during the time that students are not in school and we are not taking our vacation days, we will be on Facebook for 8 hours straight.  It's pretty funny to see your friends on Facebook go from 50 down to 16 at exactly 4:30.  At least I can stay caught up on Jersey Shore, The Bachelor, 30 Rock, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Parenthood, and Portlandia.  You are reading this blog post courtesy of deskwarming.
2. Korean culture can be hard to understand.  Because we are often times the only native English teacher at a school full of Koreans we develop relationships with a lot of our coworkers.  We are expected to go to school dinners and on school hikes.  These can be really fun but also a pain in the ass when they tell you an hour before that you will be going out with the school all night long to dinner and the norae bang.  It is not looked highly upon to miss a school function so you will have to cancel all your Friday night plans.  It is common for Koreans to change plans at the last moment during school too.  You will have planned a lesson the week before and 5 minutes before the class starts your coT will tell you that you're not doing that lesson anymore.  The end of this semester is on Wednesday and most of us will be getting new coTs next semester.  I asked my coT from this semester when I will know who my new coTs will be and she said, "I don't know.  Maybe next week?"  These little things about Korean culture can get frustrating after awhile.  I've just learned to go with the flow and never expect anything to be set in stone until it has already happened.
3. The curriculum is horrible.  From improper English to useless topics, the Elementary school curriculum is a laugh.  I can't speak for middle school or high school but the things we have to teach can be irrelevant or even completely incorrect.  A lot of us have to follow the books to a certain degree which can be really hard to teach.  It is also pretty boring it's a challenge to keep the students entertained.  Next semester there are new English books for elementary school so hopefully there is at least some improvement.
4. The variation.  Each EPIK teacher's situation is different.  Since your school makes most of the decisions regarding your job, housing, etc., no one can ever be sure of what their situation will be like.  I have a friend with a hole-in-the-wall studio apartment where her bed barely fits and another friend with a 4 bedroom "apartment" that's actually more like a house.  Your coteacher can be a huge factor in your happiness during your year in Korea.  If you have a coT that barely speaks any English, is old and conservative with a minuscule sense of humor, you may have a difficult time.  On the other end your coT might be 26 and down to party with you on the weekends.  I work at a low level school which can prove pretty difficult at times, as some of my students can't understand a word of what i'm saying and don't really care.  Usually at hagwons the level of the students is higher which I would guess could be more fun as you are more able to develop relationships with people that you can communicate with.

If you are a prospective English teacher in Korea I hope this helps you to make an informed decision!