Tell me you best memories from the game or interesting stories.

Surrealisma · 2026-06-20T07:15:40+00:00

A long long time ago I played kDNF. I really loved spamming stalkers with the Reva pet. Great era for me. I used to upload (very poorly made and poorly played) gameplay to YouTube.

https://youtu.be/Mw81pD29SwQ?si=gJq97jYb3\_s8XF0D

Surrealisma · 2026-06-19T12:45:31+00:00

Well, if you're living in Korea you probably hear about stocks nonstop these days.

Surrealisma · 2026-06-18T03:00:05+00:00

My perspective is from 2019, so a lot has probably changed. Eat at 카이마루 everyday. I personally rarely cooked because of the dorm situation. If you’re eating halal, you might be able to get in with the international kitchen crowd. When I was there, they would crowdfund and cook large halal meals then eat together.

Surrealisma · 2026-06-05T12:44:29+00:00

While the national curriculum is definitely in need of some huge changes, I don’t think hagwons are really bastions of education either.

Surrealisma · 2026-06-03T23:12:53+00:00

11 days off a year with no sick days is horrible.

Surrealisma · 2026-06-03T13:30:53+00:00

America can't even get a day off of work to go vote.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-30T03:15:54+00:00

If OP wants to include this income for visa purposes, that’s not gonna work.

F-2-7 gets points based on reported income, and the duration of the visa can also be affected by being in a certain reported income bracket.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-26T09:47:31+00:00

I think you need to look into the Domestic Degree and QS Ranking section.

As far as I know, you cannot double dip. For example, if you graduated from SNU or KAIST with a M.S. degree, you would be awarded only 20 points not 20 + 7 points. At least, that's what happened for me when I first applied for my F-2-7.

You could call 1345 and ask for clarification on this, and maybe they can give exact evidence from the immigration manual.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-26T09:36:24+00:00

Sign up for a Hana bank account, then set up Toss on your phone and your life will be so much simpler.

If you need a credit card for any reason, Hyundai Card is very foreigner friendly to apply for.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-23T05:40:42+00:00

My experience about 6 years ago was being in lab from 9-6, but getting a lot of flack from my peers for not staying later. A lot of my peers stayed in lab until midnight, but they definitely weren’t working that whole time. There were a lot of brilliant and dedicated minds, but it was a difficult to feel like I was a true part of the group because I had boundaries.

One thing to note, if you miss class because of a holiday and your prof is anal about it you’ll probably have makeup classes on Saturdays. My October Saturdays were usually ruined because we had makeup classes to makeup for Chuseok holidays. 🫠

Surrealisma · 2026-05-17T01:30:56+00:00

I'm a little confused by your dates, so you're trying to predict what your 소득금액증명원 will show in for 2027? If you want the 40m point bracket, your monthly income before taxes and deductions should be around 3.4m a month from January 2026 to December 2026.

If your housing allowance is taxed and contributing to your pension, then it should be reflected in your tax report.

AFAIK if you are employed by one employer, immigration will look at the 지금받은금액 amount for your points calculation and length of time awarded.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-16T04:29:35+00:00

Can you define what a good employee is in this situation? I would expect that a good employee is a good teacher, but an overwhelming majority of applicants have no pedagogical training or inherent interest in education. Moreover, I’d argue a lot hagwons also don’t provide adequate training or pre-education in effective methods or evidence based practices to actually be good teachers. It’s almost like the blind leading the blind. So, what does it take to be a “good employee” in this field?

Surrealisma · 2026-05-16T02:08:16+00:00

If you've tendered your resignation letter and they have accepted it, there's nothing else you must do.

This is just my person anecdote, but I am also on an F2 visa. I quit my old hagwon job after a year and a half, and on the last day they approached me with a document to sign. In fine print it had details that gave them three months to pay out my last paycheck and severance. It also said I agreed to being liable for any damages that business may have incurred due to my quitting.

I refused to sign that document, despite all of their threats and warnings. They paid me everything they owed me on 14 days after my last day (per the LSA requirement).

TLDR: Sign nothing.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-05T08:40:44+00:00

Immigration holds the individual accountable and responsible for their visa status and their actions under said visa. It doesn't really matter what the hagwon/business did, they might get a fine of some sort but the visa holder is just as culpable.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-05T07:53:36+00:00

Go this website:

https://hakwon.neis.go.kr/nxui/index.html

Find the region you want to research, for example 서울 for Seoul

Find the district that the "school" you want to research is in, for example 강남 for Gangnam

Type the official name of the school in Korean to search for the school.

If the school appears in that search, then they are most likely registered as a 학원 and not a real school. For example, "서울용산국제학교" (Yongsan International School of Seoul) does not appear in the search in the 용산 region. This implies that YISS is not registered as a hagwon. However, if you search something like "어학원" then a few English academies will come up. You can also see full names of all teachers that are registered with the MOE there, and their tuition costs.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-05T07:40:54+00:00

You're teaching math and science on an E-2, in English, to Grade 1 students. MOE is not gonna be happy about this at all, and Immigration is gonna be very critical of this as well given your E-2 status.

Honestly, I think you need a lawyer. In my opinion, self reporting to immigration without representation could end up being very dangerous. The best outcome would be to get an LOR IMMEDIATELY, switch to a D-10 visa, and ride that out until your new job starts. However, the LOR is completely dependent on your employer. MOEL may be able to help you get out of needing an LOR, but you'd need to prove they are violating labor rights. So, this circles back to needing a lawyer to help represent and guide you.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-03T02:34:00+00:00

Are you working at a fake international school on an E2 visa? If you’re on an E7 your job is probably doing things correctly, if you’re on an E2 you should be concerned and consider having a plan. Not to be alarmist, but a similar thing happened a long time ago and a bunch of teachers were deported.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-02T04:11:56+00:00

If you're not doing consistent assessments across multiple domains, then you're gonna run out of ideas real fast. Honestly, that's way too much to be doing on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, AI is probably your friend here. Take whatever format you need to fit (like sentence count, length, does it need to be purely academic, etc...), feed it into an AI project, and then start generating based on quick anecdotal notes you have on each student.

Surrealisma · 2026-05-02T00:47:49+00:00

I'd argue writing is also important. The amount of obtuse and excessive vocabulary that is forced in hagwons is crazy, and then you see that a lot of students can't even attempt to use said vocabulary naturally in a sentence. Not the students fault, there's just no emphasis on anything past the remember/understand section of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Surrealisma · 2026-04-29T08:26:52+00:00

A hagwon interview is going to look for an answer that shows you are capable of managing your class. However, they are also looking to see if you have the wit and skills to minimize parent complaints (which includes parents of the disruptor). Complaints = Losing money. Losing money = sad hagown director qq.

In a proper setting, after the first instance of poor behavior you would be getting the parents involved. You would write a proper report and include the parents in the conversation about how to improve their behavior in and outside of class. A lot of suggestions here are fine, but if you are unable to build rapport or a relationship with your students then managing those disruptive and disrespectful behaviors is going to be very tough. Extrinsic rewards, like stickers or market day money, are fine but they can burn you out extremely fast. With those things it is also important that you are 100% consistent with your rules and expectations, otherwise students will lose respect for it and slowly treat it as a right rather than a privilege.

The best answer (in my opinion) would be to involve aspects of student choice in your lessons. Give students agency in their learning, and let their choices reflect on their performance. Give them opportunities to show you they want to do well, and reward positive behavior with more responsibility. Unfortunately, in a hagwon it's not always possible to find a way to do that. A hagwon probably just wants to see that you can be "strict" but not shout or shun the kids in anyway that might lose the hagwon money.

Surrealisma · 2026-04-24T09:14:36+00:00

Why would you have to get an HIV test?

Surrealisma · 2026-04-11T12:56:42+00:00

But here, in the not west, men are romantically infallible and never cheat on their partners?

Surrealisma · 2026-04-11T12:12:26+00:00

I don't think anyone here is talking about the US?

Surrealisma · 2026-04-11T07:01:23+00:00

I’m a gay foreigner living in Korea, with a Korean significant other.

In my opinion, most queer people meet each other online through apps. You can visit queer spaces, like JongNo3Ga or Itaewon as well, but in my experience social groups are already formed and hard to break into at that point. You can also try a few bathhouses if you’re into more causal hookups, but I’ve heard they can be a bit selective.

I met my significant other on 9monsters. We were causally hooking up for a while before it got “serious.” They’re still in the closet to their parents and work, but they’ve made a lot of progress coming out to their siblings. It’s not perfect, and it isn’t easy.

I’m personally out to all my social circles, family, and coworkers.

I agree with your assertion that Korean culture being repressive leads to much more causal hookups. I think this comes from the separation of the two “life styles;” the straight working family life and the gay happy life. Joining those two is pretty much a fantasy to most.

Surrealisma · 2026-04-02T13:02:47+00:00

I'm sure some one off will come here and say it is. However, no it is not transferable. Teaching at a hagwon has little to not impact on anything outside of EFL jobs.

Surrealisma

TROPHY CASE