Krissi moved abroad to South Korea almost a decade ago. A stressful job and a ton of student loan debt led her to explore her options to teach abroad. Now, she considers South Korea her home and has built an incredible life for herself, allowing her to live her best life.
Reading Krissi’s story is inspiring. It shows that even when you don’t have a lot of money and have grown up in a place where moving abroad is unheard of, you can change your life for the better! Krissi’s experience in South Korea has made her more brave, confident, and compassionate – something you can experience too!
Keep reading, to learn more about Krissi’s move to South Korea and
how she landed a job to teach English.
Hey Krissi!
You have been living abroad in South Korea since 2013. Can you tell us how it started and why you wanted to move overseas?
Sure! I graduated from university in the US in 2009 with a ton of student loan debt and a degree in psychology that was pretty useless without continued study (which I had no interest in doing!).
I’d had some really soul-sucking sales jobs after college that led to some depression and, due to my low salaries and debt, I struggled to live comfortably.
In December 2011, I decided to try teaching English in South Korea for a year and embarked on the adventure in February 2013. I could never have imagined being here so long – I’ve lived here nearly a third of my life now!
Once you decided you wanted to move abroad, how did you land on South Korea? Was it your first pick, or did you consider other destinations?
It’s funny because I remember an acquaintance making plans to teach here for a year when I was a college student, and I was so opposed to the idea! I didn’t have any interest in eastern Asia and considered myself a pretty “picky eater,” so ultimately, living in Korea was a bit ironic.
I knew my only real way to move abroad was to teach English, so I looked into what countries welcomed native English speakers, and Korea was, of course, on that list. Of all the options, Korea offered the best pay and covered my housing costs. I had to take my salary into careful account because of my debt in the US, which I would still be responsible to pay for while I lived abroad.
Korea honestly wasn’t my first choice – I would much have preferred to go somewhere in southeast Asia or Europe – but it was the most financial-savvy choice.
You decided to teach abroad and landed a job as an English Teacher. Can you share how you landed the job?
One of the other big reasons I chose Korea over other countries was because, at that time, they were the most accommodating when it came to accepting foreigners for teaching visas. I never obtained a teaching certification (like a TEFL or TESOL certificate) because it wasn’t required. Other countries would have required me to spend several hundred dollars and complete hours of study to obtain a certification, and I wanted to avoid that process if I could.
Ultimately, I worked with a recruiting company to submit my application to a corporate franchise hiring English teachers. They helped walk me through the entire process of arranging my paperwork and securing my visa. It took several months to complete everything, but I started the process well in advance of wanting to leave the US, so I was never in a rush to get anything processed.
Moving to South Korea, how did you prepare, both mentally and practically? Any tips you can share?
Initially, I went through the process of selling nearly everything I had – all my furniture, my car, and most of my tangible possessions – to move abroad. I left some things in storage with my parents (including nearly 40 pairs of high heels!), but after living in Korea for four years and not knowing if or when I would need those things, we got rid of them on one of my visits home.
Leading up to my big move, I whittled down my things to what I could fit into two checked suitcases and a carry-on bag. I weighed everything obsessively with a hand-scale and managed to get my queen-sized down comforter, French press, electric coffee grinder, bath towels, and plenty of winter clothes and shoes into my bags.
Getting my visa was pretty stressful. The Korean consulate in Houston, Texas, was not very helpful in telling me when I could expect my passport back, and I was really worried about sending it in the mail. To top things off, a federal holiday in the US caused a delay in processing my paperwork and passport. As a result, I actually left a week later than planned.
The most frustrating thing about coming to Korea as a teacher is that you can’t buy a plane ticket in advance. Most schools want you to wait until you have your passport back in hand with your visa and then purchase a ticket. This often means getting your passport back in the mail and purchasing a plane ticket for that same week. I think I got my passport back on a Wednesday and flew out that Friday!
Lots of schools – both the public school system (called EPIK in Korea) and private schools or academies (“hogwans”) – provide housing, so there’s no need to search for a place to live when you arrive. Others will help you find a reputable real estate agent to find your own place. If you’re coming for the first time, I’d recommend looking for a job that will secure your housing before you arrive just to take one stressor out of the equation.
You are now working as a freelance writer and established an LLC in the US. Can you share some learnings of setting up a business while living abroad?
The salary for teachers in Korea is still relatively low despite Korea being one of the better-paying places in the world. So I started looking into how I could make a little more money not long after I arrived.
In Korea, it’s challenging to get other jobs as a teacher. There’s a lot of red tape to cut through, and overall, “second jobs” are frowned upon (even when they’re approved).
Tutoring on the side on my particular visa is not allowed, though plenty of people do it (including me for a time…).
In 2015, I got lucky and learned a college acquaintance of mine had started her own content marketing company and was offering a paid internship for a part-time writer and editor. I was hired and learned about content management and writing for businesses.
A few years later, she decided to make changes in her business, so I branched out on my own. I have always kept my business earnings in the US and do not funnel any of that money into Korea. This allows me to straddle a bit of a “grey area” because I’m sure Korea wouldn’t be happy to learn that I’m earning money while living here but not paying Korean taxes on that money. However, I most definitely do pay American taxes on it!
I would say if you want to start a business while living abroad, do it! Know what the regulations and requirements are in your home country. If you can start earning money without establishing an actual business – as a contractor or freelancer like I initially did – start earning money that way.
Keep track of what you earn, try to keep your money in your home country’s bank accounts, and make sure you’re following tax laws, so you don’t run into any trouble later on. Any business that you can do online can be run from anywhere in the world. In fact, one of my clients ran a cleaning company in LA as a digital nomad for years!
South Korea is vastly different from America. How did you prepare for the culture shock? And how do you experience those differences today?
I’ve been here so long now that I don’t really even remember the most challenging things about first arriving! Banking here as a foreigner has always been a headache – that I remember. And my name on my passport is much longer than Korean names, which often causes me trouble when I try to register for things here. But I think living in a large, fairly westernized city helped make things feel less “shocking.”
I do, however, remember the first time I took the bus and subway in the city by myself and how scared I was. The subway had announcements in English, but the bus announced stops only in Korean at the time. I obsessively counted the number of stops on the bus to make sure I got off at the right place to meet my Korean coworkers!
As an American from the midwest, where public transportation is lacking, I didn’t have any real experience with it… I rode the train from the suburbs to downtown Chicago a few times in high school when my family lived there and got on the subway once. I rode a city bus in Denver to pick up a car I purchased and had to call the helpline to find the right transfer stop.
Other than that handful of experiences, I’d never used (or needed) public transit. I was so worried about it when I first arrived. Now I can’t stand the idea of needing a car again someday!
Dining out in Korea is also surprisingly different than in the States. In Korea, the service staff at restaurants don’t come to the table to check on you… You have to yell out “excuse me!” to get their attention when you need something! It felt awkward and rude at first, but now I prefer this system because a server never randomly shows up at the table when my mouth is full! It’s funny because often, you call out for help, and the entire staff replies.
You also don’t tip service providers in Korea – restaurant staff, taxi drivers, hair stylists… No one expects (or wants) a tip. Some Koreans actually consider it rude! The idea is that you’re paying for their service already, so why should you pay extra? (I love this about Korea!)
Being so far away from home, how do you create a sense of home? Did you bring specific belongings with you to make you feel at home? Or are there other ways that make you feel comfortable in a foreign country?
I remember reading something or being told by my recruiter that I should bring some things that helped me feel like I was at home. So I got some printed photos to put into frames and my French press and coffee grinder (I was not about to go without coffee!). I brought my own comforter. But I didn’t really have a lot of space to pack extra things, and at the time, I didn’t have a lot of money to pay for additional bags.
When I arrived, I tried to shop for things to decorate my first apartment and make it feel more like “me,” but I didn’t know where to look, and Korean interior decor is very different than American-style decor! Also, IKEA wasn’t here yet, and furniture was odd and expensive.
I’m now in my third apartment and finally have invested in some IKEA things that I really love. I’ve made more effort to “nest” in this apartment than my previous two, partly due to my increased salary over the years and paying off my debt.
Having lived in Korea for nearly a decade now, this feels more like home than America. I’m not especially close to my family and talk with them every few months or so and haven’t experienced a lot of “homesickness.” I was so distraught with my situation before I came – low wages, stressful jobs, and no disposable income – and Korea changed all of that for me.
What are the personal traits that helped you the most on this journey?
I think my determination to “make things work” has really helped me. After university, I had a particularly stressful job selling business telecom services door to door, and I remember my coworkers telling me, “If you can do this for a year, you can do anything!” That mantra has really stuck with me.
I try to give things a year, and that’s what I initially “signed up” for moving to Korea. But I loved teaching, the community I’d found, and I had no interest in trying to go back to America and take a job I might ultimately hate. So I stayed 4.5 years before trying to go back… and ended up returning!
I also think my openness to new experiences and respect for the leadership of others has helped me. Of course, there have been a lot of frustrating things about working in Korea, and Korean leadership styles vary greatly from western leadership styles. But I’ve tried to be patient and share my experiences and viewpoints with grace rather than being rude or forcing my ideas on others.
How has living abroad changed you? Do you feel you have changed?
Living abroad has helped me feel brave. I often don’t think much of my decision to move here, but then I consider how many people wouldn’t make the same choice if given the opportunity. I am one of a small community around the globe who chooses to leave their homeland in search of a new one.
I’m also just more confident in general. I’ve struggled my whole life to feel like I did anything better than just “average.” Being here, working at the same place for almost ten years and moving into a management role (I’ve been the “head instructor” since 2015!), and receiving feedback from my coworkers and managers – and honestly, feedback in my business from my clients which I didn’t have before coming here – has been a game-changer for me.
For the first time, I feel like I really know what I’m doing and, more importantly, that I’m really good at it.
I think living abroad has made me more compassionate, too. I’ve grown so much as a person, and many of my long-held beliefs have been challenged (for the better). I am definitely not who I was when I first came to Korea, and I love who I’ve become.
Can you name three reasons why moving abroad is the best thing you (anyone) can do?
Ooof, this is a hard question to answer!
First, I think moving abroad is the very best thing you can do for your own sense of self. Living in a different country will challenge so many of your ideas – for better and for worse sometimes! You’ll grow so much as a person and become a better human.
Second, I think it’s one of the best things you can do if you want to travel internationally. (This was easier before the pandemic, but as things open up again, international travel will be more accessible again.) This is especially true depending on where you’re originally from.
Being American growing up in the middle of the country, international travel wasn’t very accessible to me. (My family did move to Lithuania in 1996 for a short time, but that was definitely an exception to the American midwestern rule!) However, living in Korea has afforded me so many opportunities to see other countries in both Asia and Europe.
Third, living abroad is one of the best things you can do if you want to experience differences in work cultures. While much of the working system in Korea is what I would call outdated and, in many cases, unhealthy, there’s still something positive we can take away from the Korean work ethic. We can also share our more western work ideals and possibly help create positive work changes around the world.
What do people planning to move to South Korea need to know? (culturally, paperwork, etc.)
I think people hoping to come to South Korea come with an understanding that they’re guests here. In recent years, I’ve seen more and more teachers (and American military, for that matter) arrive expecting things to be… however they expect them to be. They don’t really respect the fact that they are the guests.
I’ve been really disappointed by some people I’ve met and their outlook on how things “should be.” I think this is true no matter where you choose to live abroad: We are the guests. There’s a time and place to make suggestions for change, but we need to listen and try to understand first.
As for finding a teaching job in Korea, I recommend working with a reputable recruiting agency. I worked with a group called Aclipse in the US, and I have heard great things about a group called Korvia (Korvia actually helped with some of my paperwork when I returned to Korea after a year away in 2018.).
Last but certainly not least, what is your advice for people out there who are thinking of moving abroad?
I think people hoping to move abroad need to arrive with an understanding that they’re guests. This is true no matter where you choose to live overseas: We are the guests. There’s a time and place to make suggestions for change, but we need to listen and try to understand first.
I’ve found that people are generally kind when you’re kind to them, no matter where you are in the world or what you look like. Lead with that belief, and you can make a home anywhere!
Would you like to teach abroad? Or move to South Korea? Discover if moving abroad is something for you with the Let’s Move Abroad Book, available on Amazon.
Check out Krissi’s Instagram page@krissidriver, where she shares more about her work and life in South Korea.
