FAQs

You got an offer, now what?

You will need to get “travel orders” so that the government will buy your ticket to come to your new “duty station” (ie, Daegu). This process is called “PCS-ing” (PCS= Permanent Change of Station). When you travel, you will be in “TQSA” status (which means that the government will reimburse you for your housing and meals and laundry) until you move into your apartment. At that point you will switch to “LQA” (Living Quarters Allowance) where the government pays for your housing. It’s tricky, because you will have to pay for your hotel and food up front and then will be reimbursed. However, this process can take a while, so be prepared to spend some cash up front. Some people use this to their advantage, and open a credit card with some nice perks to use during this time, since you will be spending some cash on hotel rooms.

Household Good Shipments

You will be able to ship your household goods (into two shipments- one that theoretically comes a bit faster than the other) but you won’t really be able to receive those shipments until you are moved into an apartment. Some people try to find a realtor ahead of time, but we felt like that wasn’t generally necessary. Most teachers in Daegu live in an apartment somewhere between 1400-1800 square feet, to give you an idea of the size. You do get to ship 18,000 pounds of household goods but might not want to bring *everything* you own, depending on how big of a house you were living in before. One thing you should bring everything of is your teaching materials. Your job may change before you get here, or when you get here, so don’t go out and buy lots of new things, but do bring the resources and materials you already have.

What to do first once I get to Daegu?

Get letter of employment and ID first if at all possible. It is difficult to do anything else without these. For some families, housing can wait until after this is resolved. For others, housing is priority number one. But you can’t even get housing without this initial paperwork, so be sure you get it early!

Take copies of orders/letter of employment and passport to EVERYTHING plus have your dependents’ social security numbers and dates of birth for most forms.

Cell Phone

Most people use a cell phone as the number one way to stay in touch. You will probably want to get a cell phone very early on. It is the way you will be contacted. Although there are better deals to be found off base, for your first year it is probably just the easiest to get a contract through the option on base (found by the PX on Camp Walker). Until you have a cell phone activated here, you can use Kakao to be in touch with other people when you are in a wifi zone – which includes lots of places. If you don’t have a smartphone, but you have a computer, sometimes your sponsor may have access to Facebook messenger or some other way of being in touch, so this can help keep in touch at first here and later with people at “home.” (Kakao works for friends in the US too).

You have to have letter of employment for smartphone contract, so just remember that.

Apps

Some apps that many teachers found useful: kakao talk; waze; ask adjumma; USAG Daegu; Penn Around; Subway korea; Papago (translation App for Android Phones); GenieTalk(translation App for iPhones)

Health Insurance

Most teachers are on the Foreign Service Benefit Plan and report good results with getting reimbursed easily from Korea. This plan also covers a certain amount of massage, chiropractic, and acupuncture each year.

Laundry: There are laundry facilities on Camp Walker, both in the Lodge for people staying there and at a laundromat. You are also entitled to use dry-cleaning as part of your TQSA.

When you move into an apartment you are entitled to use the Lending Closet from ACS (on Camp Henry, across from the housing office). They can lend you furniture, bedding, dishes, etc until yours arrive. You can borrow a washer/dryer from the housing office (usually).

Bank Account: There are two choices: Bank of America (Community Bank) or the Navy Credit Union. You’ll need a bank account through one of those so you can get paid and get reimbursed.

Pay

Your first year that you work for DODEA, you are paid over ten months, not over twelve months. This means that you will NOT receive a pay check for the coming summer. It is the same money, just divided differently. Know this in advance so that you can know how to save for the coming summer. After a first year, you have an option to get pay over ten months(21-pay period) or twelve months(26-pay period.)

Advance Pay

You will be offered an “up front” amount equal to about two months’ pay in the format of Advance Pay to cover your expenses until you get your first pay-check.

Dress code for teachers:

The dress code that applies to students also applies to adults.

Commissary is closed on Monday. You cannot buy groceries on base then, so keep that in mind when planning for familiar foods. You can get fruits, vegetables, milk, most typical Asian type foods at the local groceries – but you cannot get some of the “favorite” American foods, and they are typically a bit more expensive in the local stores if you can get them. Shopping is important early on but you can eat “dinners” at the on base locations like the Evergreen, Hilltop or Henry’s Place.

PX requires an ID card. This is for more things like toiletries, household goods, and the like.