Like every government everywhere, the Korean government has a long and storied tradition of getting things exactly wrong, of creating policies by fiat and without consultation that worsen the problem they were intended to address, and result in unintended consequences down the line. The newest proposed change to regulations for the single largest group of foreign temporary residents -- holders of 1-year E2 English teacher visas -- neatly fits the bill.

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Here's a braindump of some tips and tricks for getting a job in Korea, and keeping it once you're here. I'll add to it periodically as I think of more. If you have any specific do or don't questions, or you disagree with any of my advice, feel free to leave a comment. Don't forget to check out my Teaching In Korea -- The Skinny as well, if you missed it the first time.

• Do not get too excited at an offer -- if you have a pulse and degree, you'll get an offer.
• Do apply for several jobs that look interesting.
• Do ask for contact information for previous or current foreign teachers at the school. If it's refused, walk away.
• Do understand that most hagwons (private schools) are run in what you may perceive to be an unprofessional, haphazard manner. Part of it is cultural -- leaving things to the last minute and then PANICing is a time-honoured Korean tradition. How much of this you think you can endure is up to you.
• Do be wary of agents and recruiters. They don't have their spotty reputation for nothing. You will be better off in many (if not most) cases by being in contact with your potential employers directly.

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Just as there are a lot of terrible ESL books out there, there are also a lot of egregiously bad textbooks designed for foreign learners of Korean. In fact, I've rarely seen such badly organized and poorly thought out language texts as some of the ones I've tried to use to improve my Korean. It's an insight perhaps, into the quality of language education in primary and secondary schools, if the Korean-made textbooks used to teach English and other languages are as poorly put together. Help is at hand if you're a self-directed student of Korean, though.

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On a community website where I spend a lot of time, someone asked recently for advice on how to deal with his noisy neighbours. He doesn't live in Korea, but he thought that the couple next door was Korean, and that when they were shouting at each other in the wee hours, they weren't shouting in English. He reasonably took this as an indication that some knowledge of their cultural background could come in handy if he girded his loins enough to talk to them about it. I responded:

Koreans are fighters, certainly, but no more than anyone else, I don't think, and it's not like it's a cherished part of Korean culture or anything. What is a part of Korean culture is to ignore people who are outside your circle of personal friends/acquaintances/family. If someone's not in your circle, they are an unperson, so a) their feelings are not considered b) you can be unembarrassed about airing your dirty laundry, in whatever form.

So if these folks are indeed Korean, making friendly overtures so that you impinge on their humanradar (depending on how old-skool Korean they are (ie if they hew fairly closely to the usual Korea-Korean norms, it'll work)) might just make you a person to them, in which case they'll be too ashamed to make all that noise.

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