Income Tax
There are some complains about the income tax. The majority of newcomers are to pay the Korean income tax, which is generally withheld from an employee's salary and paid by the employer. The Korean income-tax rate is 5 to 10 percent. It is your employer’s responsibility to do a year-end tax settlement every January. To find more info, visit your embassy or contact Korean related web sites.

 The Korean tax code tells: "An individual who is a resident of a contracting State and who, at the invitation of any university, college, or other recognized educational institution, visits the other contracting State for a period not exceeding 2 years solely for the purpose of teaching, or research or both at such educational institution should pay taxes only in the first mentioned State on his remuneration for such teaching or research."

In Korea tax offices have the list of institutions where teachers are not to pay the tax. The tax code may be related only to university teachers, research institutes and operating centers. Others are to pay the tax. But your university can apply for you not to pay the tax. If the institute withholds income tax without reason, it is required to pay a refund. Don’t rely much on not paying the tax, or that it will be paid by your employer, so while considering the job position takes this item under consideration.

Korean tax office in Seoul may help you in managing and answering all the questions, you are interested about the employment in Korea. The Office also publishes an English-language income tax guide for foreigners in April of each year; this is available free at any tax office. So there is not a lack of information.

The Korean tax year runs from June 1 to the following May 31. Usually employers file the appropriate tax forms but if they do not do so, individual employees may be punished for not doing so. If you believe that your employer is not complying with the Korean tax laws and is illegally withholding income tax from your salary, talk to him straight away. If it doesn’t help, you should contact the International Taxation Division of the Korean Tax Office in Seoul or the nearest tax office. If you still can’t cope with the problem, you should contact the lawyer.

Depending on the length of your stay in Korea, you may or may not pay the tax to your home country in Korea. Before your departure from homeland, it is advisable to contact the nearest Customs and Revenue Agency office in order to determine your residency status with regard to home country income tax.

Medical Insurance
The employer may provide English language teachers with Korean medical insurance. So when you are considering the offer of a particular employer, you must a lot of attention to this important item. You should know and understand the nature and scope of coverage. While medical care in Korea is generally good and not as expensive as in many European and America countries, it can still be quite expressive. If you unable to get the insurance out of your employer, you can get public health insurance on an individual basis, but only with a resident ID card.

If you get private health insurance polis, it is important to note that most medical practitioners and hospitals do not accept the premise of directly billing private health insurance, whether it is from an overseas or domestic firm. Thy often ask the money to be paid before curing or treatment and clients have to settle with their company for a re-imbursement after the fact.

That’s why it is quite important for you to make sure that insurance and money are available in case you need medical attention. Your home country embassy in Seoul maintains a list of English-speaking medical and dental care providers in Korea.

Pension
According to the number of agreements, depending on what your home country is, you are entitled to receive both of your contribution and your employer's to Korea’s National Pension Scheme when you leave the country or it can be coordinated with your home country pension Plan. To get the refund application you need:

   1. a passport
   2. registration number and certificate
   3. bank book copy ( Korean or of your home country)
   4. an airline ticket in which the date of leaving is stated

The pension office must be informed by your employer about the date of end of your contract upon your departure from the country. After Korean officials see the date of your leaving they transfer the data about you to your home country bank and there the new account is opening. If you seek   for more info, visit a nu8mber of related sites considering this matter. Or you can call at your home country or Korean embassy to make sure you have understood the matter properly.

Ticket Home
Depending on the conditions of the contract with the Korean institute or university you may or may not be given the ticket to your native country. Or the employe4r can return you money spent to buy the ticket.  But you must know that the cases of money reimbursement are not so numerous as you may expect them to be.

Cultural Differences
There are ea lots of foreigners coming to teach English to Korea. Some of them are professionals and have the proper certifications of TESOL; some have degrees in other not language disciplines and came to Korea to get to get acquainted with other country culture; some teach English as a part time or additional job, such as research; some are teaching English while looking for other jobs; and some are merely passing through.

The many of that people ring some expectations and their own country peculiarities to Korea, as well as their own individual reactions to the circumstances in which they find themselves. Some of them got used to be treated professionally, and they find themselves quite puzzled when they are not. Some may expect to earn a lot of money but later they can realize that the salary they had in their home country was even bigger or so in comparison to the local prices and find out that a simple worker or driver in Korea gets even higher rate than you. A lot of foreign newcomers are commonly disappointed when they get not so fashionable and cozy accommodation service as they had expected. If you want to diminish the harmful impact of what you may see in the new country, you must be aware of the culture of Korea and be ready to find there not the style of life you actually got used to in you motherland.

The Status of Foreigners in Korea
 In Korea there is a quite strict differentiation between family members, people of the inner circle, friends, colleagues in business and people of the different class.

Members of the inner circle must always are treated with great respect and appreciation, at the same time unknown people are treated with if not disgrace with indifference at least. Korean society is not that of commonly post communist countries, people are not considered to be equal: a person's status is strictly defined in relation to others. How do foreigners fit into this scheme? They actually do not!