All of our contracts (or anyone's) provide housing at no charge to the teacher. Your key deposit and rent are covered completely by the school. The only costs that you are responsible for while living in Korea are your gas and utilities, cable & internet, telephone landline (if you have one), and cell phone bill.

Housing is typically a furnished studio apartment for a single teacher, or a 2-3 bedroom apartment for roommates. Some schools give you a choice to which type of living arrangements you'd prefer.

These are a few example housing descriptions. They are just to give you a general idea of how the housing arrangements are designed for foreign teachers in Korea.

Apartment Buildings

Korean apartments are usually stacked together in lego-land like communities and vary greatly in size and style depending on their locations. Most are from 15-20 stories high and pretty much look the same from the outside. In most buildings, the interiors are styled similarly to western apartment layouts in the 80's (when wallpaper and stick-on flooring was popular). They are solid, concrete buildings so hearing your neighbours isn't usually an issue.

• The master bedroom will be fairly roomy, with one or two other smaller bedrooms nearby.
• A very small kitchen, equipped with a 2 burner gas stove (no oven), a refrigerator, a sink, afew cupboards, and a foot or two of counter space will be neatly tucked into one end of the home. With the price of eating a good meal in a restaurant, you probably won't be cooking at home very often anyway. When I did see a Korean home with an oven in it, it was usually used to store pots and pans (they don't really have use for an oven... except to store pot and pans).
• A largeish main area will be room enough for a sofa, desk, TV, and small dining area. There is usually a balcony off the living room that is closed in with a washing machine in it. Most Koreans don't use dryers for clothing and prefer to hang dry (you get used to it, and it makes your apartment smell nice!).
• A Korean bathroom is something to get used to and there are a few variances on the layout. Typically they are similar to a western bathroom but totally waterproof! This makes it awesome to clean! You can spray whatever cleaner you use on your bathroom everywhere and just hose it down...and you're done! Sometimes there is a shower curtain but usually not.

Officetels

Officetels are studio apartments that are above an office strip on the main roads. They are very common for teachers as they are perfect to house one person.

• Typically, they are one room apartments that will fit the basics. Pretty much the same as an apartment, but without any of the bedrooms or balcony.
• Most offictels will not have a bathtub. Instead, you'll either have a shower or just a shower head to use in the bathroom (waterproof!)

Other

There are a couple of other housing styles that are sometimes offered to teachers. Some schools will have an older, more traditional building that they use for teacher apartments. They are generally like the regular apartments or officetels but in a smaller, more traditional style of building.

Toilets

Yes, you will have a western style toilet... we wouldn't leave you in a strange country, staring at a squatter wondering which way you're supposed to face.

One thing to keep in mind is that even though there is a toilet, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will accept toilet paper. Why wouldn't you put toilet paper in a toilet, you ask? Plumbing. While many of the squatter-style toilets have been changed over to western-style toilets, the plumbing in the building might still be older and incapable of pushing the toilet paper through the smaller pipes. If you see a little bucket next to a toilet, then that's likelly where you should be putting the toilet paper. I know... just use more of it and fold it up nicely and drop it in the bucket. There will often be a little sign telling you not to flush toilet paper but it's written in Korean. If you really think you need to flush a little, then JUST a little... very little, and put the second round and so on in the bucket.

Once in a while you might come across one of those new-fangled toilets with all the buttons on the side. Try them... they're fun! Just remember that it's not capable of aiming so you may have to make an adjustment or two in your positioning.

Using Your Heat and Hot Water

• Heat - This is something that can be a little confusing at first. Korean homes are heated by hot water pipes in the floor. To keep your utility costs down, you'll need to find a system of turning the heat down when you are out and up when you are home and want heat. This might take a little time to get used to, but definitely get your director to explain to you how it works. Turning your heat off when you are not using it will be much cheaper than leaving it on and turning it down for the day
• Hot Water - Most homes will have 2 little colored buttons on the heat/hot water panel. One is for your floor heat and one for the hot water. You'll need to have the red one in and the blue one out for just heat, and both in for hot water... or is it the blue one in and the red one out? Make sure you ask your director how it works. AND turn your water heater off while you are not using it (this will save you money)