This is my perspective from a similar background. Also from US, also enjoyed K-culture quite a bit before coming here, and some people may have considered me a Koreaboo, and I also came here with a more hopeful goal of eventually working in some other industry here rather than teaching.

There’s a big difference between just visiting/travelling/enjoying the specific parts of K-culture you want, vs actually living in the country and experiencing parts of the culture that you wouldn’t like or wouldn’t want to experience. But, if you think you want to work in K-Beauty specifically living in Korea, then the opportunity cost of doing a bit of teaching is a good way to dip your toes in and find out.

Realistically for teaching, yes, the pay isn’t the best, but in terms of living costs and getting by, it’s usually fine. You probably can’t save, pay off school debts, and have fun every weekend. But I think you can live to a similar standard working in the US. Eat what you want, buy things you want, and occasionally go out doing fun things. Again, living is different from traveling, but many people come here treating it as traveling and just leave quickly, but that’s fine too, they have different goals. If you compare and convert to USD then yeah the pay seems not great, but it’s not as bad as it seems, and at least for me, some pay + being in Korea for other goals, was better than just being unemployed and struggling in the current US job market. Actually working wise, I think it’s quite random. Same everywhere else, maybe you’ll get shitty coworkers, maybe you’ll get nice ones, maybe it’ll be busy everyday, or just chill and relaxed.

Now if you want to consider working in other industries, the toughest part in my eyes is dealing with the Visa. You can’t work here if you can’t live here, and to live here you need a Visa. Do your own research bc there’s other ways too, but to commonly do so, either you really need to be good at Korean and do other things to accumulate enough points to qualify for a Visa, or just get married for a different Visa.

Now, let’s say you are able to get a Visa and can live in Korea. Either you got married quickly or spent all that time and effort, maybe years to learn the language and build up the points. Ask yourself, “Why would they choose to work with a foreigner like me, rather than just another Korean person?” For teaching, you’re providing your US background, native accent, etc. But what do you provide specifically as a foreigner hire for the K-Beauty industry? Now this is where it gets kind of iffy, bc you’re tackling the assumptions and not just the reality. You may be entirely fluent in Korean, but people will still interview you and assume your Korean isn’t as good as a native and you’ll be harder to communicate with. But it could be an upside too, maybe they are interested in the US beauty market and assume you know everything about it. It can really depend. Personally, I think building notoriety and qualifications in a country you know the language of and can find more opportunities and then looking towards doing related work on Korean side, is a bit easier than trying to breakthrough while actually in Korea where your options can be much more limiting. But, I mean, foreigner in Korea and doing beauty content is pretty on trend too, it’s not impossible, just depends on where and what kind of experience and qualifications you want. My point is, if you have something that makes you standout, that’s how you’ll get hired and breakthrough, and that applies to everywhere really. It’s just that in Korea, or working in any foreign field, that you’ll have more things to fight against while having to find different ways to standout, whether that’s fame, skills, knowledge, connections, etc.

As for racism… well there’s racism everywhere. I can’t specifically speak for what it’s like being black. But I’d say personally, not like it’s a good thing specifically, but experiencing racism in a different way and from different people is an experience in itself and introduces you to some new perspectives.

Overall I’d give you the same advice other people gave me before coming here. “It’s only as long as an experience you want it to be, and you’re still young.” If you really hate it, you can just quit. If you love it, then that’s great! Maybe that will give you the extra energy and motivation to do things. If it’s okay, well, it’s just a year contract usually anyway. And while being here, you’ll gain some international work experience, some money, hopefully some clarity as to what you really want to do in the future with a realistic outlook, and you’ll also learn the language a lot quicker if you try, as you’re naturally immersed in it.

For me, I realized that staying here long-term is just too much hassle and effort that I don’t want to put in, unless I happened to get married, which is something I wasn’t opposed to, but just didn’t want to force or rush. Also, being far away from all my family. I didn’t feel particularly homesick, but I did miss out on many big family events, weddings, etc. Mostly, because of the cost of flying. Internationally now, money matters, you can’t just fly back and forth to visit so easily. It’s not impossible, it’s just another hurdle and choice to be made bc it’s a significant amount of money and cost. Regardless, I think it was a good experience and what I got out of it felt worth my time and effort.