Thinking about going to South Korea...

[jungy121]

First time posting in OOT. Anyways i'm here for some advice. I'll give a little bio of myself.

My names Richard Lee, I live in San Diego and have been living here for about a year and a half. I moved here after I graduated high school to live with my brother and get my [censored] together. When I was in high school I just did enough to get by, didn't really care about going to a good school or anything. I was pretty lazy, which led me into not trying to get my drivers license.
Anyways, ever since I moved to San Diego, I did a complete turn around and got my [censored] together. Started having bills and responsibilities to take care of. Finally getting my drivers license and now my own car thanks to poker. So I started playing poker a lot more when I first moved because I wasn't attending school, had no friends, and a [censored] job. At first like everybody else I thoguht I was the best player in the world. I was horrible lol, but anyways I started reading 2+2 and got a little better, then better, and most importantly, learning about the outside dynamics of this game. Psychology, thinking of what they're thinking blah blah (3rd leveling kinda stuff).
Things then started going a little downhill and steady when I started dating my girlfriend. To say the least, she was pretty much clung to me. For the 6 months we dated, we didn't see each other probably about 5 days, 3 of those days she was on a cruise. But living right up the street didn't help either. Obviously, I didn't have as much time as I did for poker. Fast forward to Decemeber, i've been broken up with my girlfriend for about a month and a half then I win my second donkament for my biggest score, 13k. 3 weeks later, I win the same tournament for 14.5kish.
Before the wins I stopped attending school and quit my job(s). I stopped attending after I broke up with my school cause I had absolutely no motivation to go to class (also I had a class with my ex and didn't want to see her at all).
So I started to play more and more live poker. Within about a 20 minute distance from where I live, there are 3 Casinos, Barona, Sycuan, and Viejas. 3 Card rooms, Village Club, Lucky Ladies, and Palomar. Because i'm not 21 I wasn't able to play at these card rooms. But i could at the 3 big casinos because they are indian.
I started to become a regular and there was a point where I drove to Sycuan everyday for about 2 and a half weeks straight grinding for about 10 hours on average. I played the 1/2NL with 100 dollar max and made around 7500.
wow I'm getting way off topic here.
Ok getting back on topic, I stopped going to school, played poker up until now where I am about busto, but had 6k in the neteller fiasco. I should be receiving that money within next month(? can anyone fill me in on the neteller issue?). Yeah you're probably asking what I did with all the money I won. Well I bought a car(5k down payment and made about 2k worth of payments), couple months worth of rent, shoes, clothes, blah blah, tons of money to my mom and to her gambling(I don't live with my mom so when she comes and visits, she begs me to go to the casino in which I have to give her money or she gives me the puppy dog face) so anyways she loses everytime and lost about 1.5k of my money, but she won a jackpot once so it evens out. and i bought some pretty cool [censored] for people I really care about birthdays.

So now I'm here, I started going back to school about 2 weeks ago, and I'm taking Japanese. For some reason something about my teacher gives me motivation to do my homework and actually try which is pretty cool. Now I kinda want to go to Japan or Korea to teach english. Right now I'm leaning towards Korea because I have a good childhood friend who lives in Seoul(I think) from when I used to live in San Jose. I could teach english and live with him or something and plus I could see my family I havn't seen for around 6 years.
Wow a bunch of this is jibber jabber, but I want to go all out on my first "help me" post. So heres my dillemma.
I'm still a Korean citizen but I am a legal resident(alien). I am also turning 20 July 30th, and in Korean law, when you turn 18, after your first year of college(if you choose to go) you have to go to the Korean military. Now, because i'm still a Korean citizen, is there anyway for me to teach english and not be liable to enlist in the Korean army? Or should I just wait a couple months to take the test to become a U.S. Citizen? And be immune from that law.
Also if anyone else has done this kind of thing, are there any good companies I can go through that pays good money? And how do I renew my passport?(this is probably a dumb question haha). I'm looking to go to Korea ASAP.

Ok that was reallllly long, at least for me. Two more question and i'm done. Once I get my 6k from neteller, i'll probably have 3 or 4k, how long would that last me? (if anyone knows the answer to the question haha). And second, would there be any type of drug test involved? I smoke a lotta weed, but would definitely quit for this experience.

Thanks guys

-Richard

[mbillie1]

I'm not sure about the legalities of returning to Korea as a citizen, however I have a close friend who's teaching ESL in South Korea right now. He went through a company called Korean Horizons (I'm sure you can find it via Google or whatever) and signed a 1-year commitment. He makes about $35k/yr USD, however on top of that he doesn't pay for housing, they put him up in a decent apartment complex with utilities, etc included. If you wanted to go that route I'm sure the company would be able to arrange it for you.

If Korea specifically would be a problem, the ESL market in Asia is fairly huge. I'm sure you could do it in Japan (downside: way more expensive to live there) or possibly somewhere in eastern Europe, although I'm not sure how high your desire to live there would be. I'd try to wander into a university job fair at the closest, biggest college to you... these companies (ESL companies) are huge business in Asia and eastern Europe. Check the company out beforehand, since obviously some are less desirable than others. However I don't see why this shouldn't work for you. I've been honestly contemplating doing the same thing.

Also, overseas = Partypoker, lol. That's +EV no matter how degen you are... something to keep in mind. Anyways good luck.

Also, edit: definitely try to become a US citizen regardless... if it keeps you out of the military and opens up Korea as an option for you it's beneficial.

[iversonian]

Get an immigration lawyer. You are generally exempt from military service if you have a green card. You'll probably have to do a lot of paperwork in a language you don't write well in, though. Or maybe they have English forms, I dunno.

[NicksDad1970]

I wouldn't go over there thinking I could smoke a lot of weed. I would also not take anyones word about having to/not having to join there Army.

If you're good at poker and want to move there I'd join the USAF. You'll need your HS diploma or a GED with 40 college credit hours I believe.

Then you go over there with the job of translating. The USAF will obviously train you, sounds like you're ahead of most people who want to do that job.

Then you can learn the area and decide if you want to stay there when you're enlistment is up. That will also allow you to make some contacts before you have to commit to anything.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

im in seoul now. i love it here. korea is awesome. go look somewhere else online like a mnessage board closer related to what you want to know, and maybe pm AnyCall about this.

[4drugmoney]

I've been to Korea twice ( Ilive in Japan so very close.) I liked it, but would never live there for lots of reasons.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

such as?

[burningyen]

This is the 2nd time this topic has come up. I don't know why it's so hard to use google: http://seoul.usembassy.gov/dual_citizens_.html .

[Sponger.]

Turn your life around first. Then think about doing something with it.

[jungy121]

[ QUOTE ]
Turn your life around first. Then think about doing something with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

well i also want to attend school while i'm there. but before that, i want to teach english to make some money and get comfortable with korea again.

i know, i should finish school or do something before i go, but i honestly think education is overated. i'm not saying that i think it's a bad idea to go to school. i'm the type of guy if i have any children, i'd definately want them to go to school. but i'm in that spot where i don't want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientest, or any occupation of that sort. i just want to have a job that i enjoy, 55-70k is fine for me. i don't need a lotta shiny things. i'm not saying that i don't want any(who doesn't want a lambo?), i just enjoy the smaller things in life.

so for me goin to korea to teach english making 35kish a year, but paid housing which is about 15kish. 35k is MORE than enough for me. so i don't see much difference between waiting to go asap or 2 years from now.