Highest salaries in S Korea

I saw this when researching for the career section of my grade 5 lesson this week.

Korea's high-wage occupations include management, surgeons, judges, and pilots. Other profitable fields include various engineering and technical positions such as dentistry, ophthalmology, law, software, and nuclear engineering.

the highest-paid jobs
Management: Median annual salary is $147 million ₩.
Surgeon: The median annual salary is $110 million ₩.
Member for Parliament: Median annual salary of 140 million ₩.
Judge: Earn about 12.1 million ₩ per month.
Marine Pilots: The median annual salary is $126 million ₩.
Dentist: average annual salary of 170 million ₩.
Pilot: The median salary is $147.7 million ₩.
Ophthalmologist: The median annual salary is $144.2 million ₩.
Lawyer: You can earn about $9.83 million a month in ₩.

Other high-yield areas
Doctor: The median annual salary is $95 million ₩.
Korean medicine doctor: Median annual salary of 92.23 million ₩.
Senior Civil Servant: Median annual salary is $9201 million ₩.
BANK MANAGER: Revenues about $9.25 million a month in ₩.
CEO: Revenues approximately $8.68 million per month.
CFO: Revenue of approximately 8.1 million ₩ per month.
Corrector: You can earn about $7.81 million a month in ₩.
College professor: You can earn about 6.94 million dollars a month on ₩.
Software and Nuclear Engineering: At the professional level, the annual salary for software engineering can be as high as 190 million ₩, and the annual salary for nuclear engineering can be as high as 154 million ₩.

한국의 고임금 직종에는 경영진, 외과의사, 판사, 조종사 등이 있습니다. 기타 수익성이 높은 분야로는 치과, 안과, 법학, 소프트웨어, 원자력 공학 등 다양한 공학 및 기술직이 있습니다. 

가장 높은 급여를 받는 직업

관리: 평균 연봉은 ₩ 1억 4,700만 달러입니다.

외과의사: 평균 연봉은 ₩ 1억 1천만 달러입니다.

국회의원: 중간 연봉 1억 4천만 ₩.

판사: 한 달에 약 1,210만 명의 ₩를 벌 수 있습니다.

해병 조종사: ₩의 평균 연봉은 1억 2,600만 달러입니다.

치과의사: 평균 연봉 1억 7천만 ₩.

파일럿: 중간 연봉은 ₩ 1억 4,770만 달러입니다.

안과 의사: 평균 연봉은 ₩ 1억 4,420만 달러입니다.

변호사: ₩에서 한 달에 약 983만 달러를 벌 수 있습니다.

기타 고수익 지역

의사: 평균 연봉은 ₩ 9,500만 달러입니다.

한의사: 중위 연봉 9,223만 ₩.

고위 공무원: 평균 연봉은 ₩ 9억 2,100만 달러입니다.

은행 관리자: ₩에서 한 달에 약 925만 달러의 수익을 올립니다.

CEO: 월 약 868만 달러의 매출.

CFO: 월 약 810만 ₩의 매출.

정정자: ₩에서 한 달에 약 781만 달러를 벌 수 있습니다.

대학 교수: ₩로 한 달에 약 694만 달러를 벌 수 있습니다.

소프트웨어 및 원자력 공학: 전문가 수준에서 소프트웨어 공학의 연봉은 최대 1억 9천만 ₩, 원자력 공학의 연봉은 최대 1억 5천 4백만 ₩에 달할 수 있습니다.

Mr Bentley in Korea 🚗

 

Beautiful Mr Bentley in South Korea.

Gorgeous 🥰

11/11 Pepero Day 2025!!🍫

 

11/11

November 11th, 2025!!

Pepero Day!!

😂 When a Thank-You Video Becomes a Crime Scene

 

So… here’s what happened today at my school. 

I wasn’t invited to the end-of-year teachers’ celebration dinner. Yep, me and all the other subject teachers — the only ones left out. Not the first time, but for some reason, this time it felt personal.

Enter my kind-hearted 3rd grade homeroom teacher. Feeling sorry for me, he and his wild, energetic students made a heartfelt “thank you” video — celebrating all the fun moments we’d shared this year. It was sweet, genuine, and absolutely adorable.

I’m in the admin office, quietly adding winter vacation days on the computer, with my co-teacher, when the VP starts calling in homeroom teachers to hand them small gifts for their hard work. Subject teachers? Nope. Not invited.

The 3rd grade teacher proudly tells her about the video his students made for me. He’s smiling, full of energy, radiating joy. And then…

VP deadpans: “Where is OUR video?”

She gestures toward herself and the head teacher.

The teacher’s smile immediately drops. The glow of joy? Gone. Poof. Vanished. His energy? Sucked into a black hole of confusion and embarrassment.

Then she takes a step toward the office door, dead serious, and says:

“Get out.”

No smile. No humor. Just… Get out.

He doesn’t want to leave — that would be catastrophic in Korean school culture. So he quietly slinks to another corner, makes himself a cup of coffee, and tries to survive the awkwardness tsunami.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting at my cubicle, jaw open, blinking like I just walked into a live-action soap opera. I could not believe what I was seeing. 

Jealousy? 

Pettiness? 

Meanness? 

All in response to a sweet, human gesture.

Lesson learned: kindness can apparently be hazardous to one’s career. And yes, at that moment, I realized with full clarity: this witch HAAAAAAATES me.

So, what’s a teacher to do? Keep your head on a swivel, maintain your sense of humor, and maybe invest in a small invisibility cloak for the next office drama. 

Ha ha.

"allegedly"

 

🙏 A Quiet Prayer for the Children

There is a male teacher being quietly transferred from school to school across Jeollanam-do.

The pattern feels eerily familiar — like the way certain institutions once moved problematic figures around instead of confronting their behavior. It reminds me of how the Catholic Church once handled priests accused of harm, sending them elsewhere rather than stopping them.

I don’t know the full story, but I know this: when adults look the other way, children are the ones who suffer.

I pray for the safety of every child — that they may be protected from anyone who would misuse their trust or their touch.

Silence protects predators. Awareness protects children.

Trump and MAGA woke me up this morning

Yesterday, 6:30 a.m. — I’m on the city bus, half asleep, doing that classy commuter head-bob against the window. Life is peaceful. Birds are singing somewhere. I’m practically meditating.

Then suddenly — BAM! I open my eyes and Trump is staring straight at me. Like, full eye contact. On a giant banner outside.

I nearly had a heart attack. The bus makes a left turn, and I swear even the driver sped up to escape that gaze.

Let’s just say — it’s not every day you get personally awakened by politics.

Ha! Needless to say, I stayed wide awake for the rest of that ride. ☕🚌

Delicious lunch 10/15/25

 

Delicious lunch October 15, 2025

Delicious lunch today 10/17/25

 

Delicious lunch today October 17th, 2025

Early morning walk to bus stop

 

I was lucky enough to catch the sun waking up slowly this morning while walking to my bus stop.

Such a breath taking scene. 

Learn to be grateful for the small, amazing things that happen in our lives.

Caffeine gum

 

A Korean woman gave me caffeine gum this morning at the bus stop.

This is a good idea for a competitive country as Korea.

They not like us - Grade 4 lesson

 

Grade 4 Lesson: “Is This Your Pencil?”

Today’s English lesson video for my fourth graders started innocently enough. The story takes place in a Korean tourist shop.

A Black boy asks the shopkeeper about the price of an eraser — it costs 500 won, about fifty cents in U.S. currency. He realizes he doesn’t have enough money, so he quietly leaves the store, looking disappointed. Moments later, a Korean boy buys the eraser and proudly hands it to him outside, surrounded by their classmates.

Fifty cents.

On the surface, it seems like a sweet lesson about kindness and sharing. But beneath it, there’s something uncomfortable — the quiet reinforcement of a familiar hierarchy. A subtle reminder of who is portrayed as the “giver” and who must be the “receiver.”

After years of teaching here, I’ve seen how these narratives slip into children’s materials — not always with bad intent, but often with unexamined bias. These small stories teach big lessons, and not always the ones we hope for.

As an expat teacher, I’ve learned to choose my battles carefully. After so many years, some days I just don’t have the energy to challenge every stereotype. So I take a deep breath, remind myself that awareness starts in small conversations, and move forward.

If old lessons of superiority persist, then it’s our job to rewrite them — with awareness, empathy, and respect at the heart of every classroom.

If superiority is the story they insist on telling, I will insist and keep writing new ones — with empathy as the ink and awareness as the page.

￦25,000 not delicious fish

 

$25,000 fish, not top shelf, not high quality, just a holiday price.

Pee here

Urinate here.

Bathroom signs in a local restaurant.

Marshmallow artwork

 

Fun idea for Summer Camp - marshmallow artwork. You only need markers, toothpicks and marshmallow. Students get very creative with just these items.

Sweet.

Grade 4 ~ What are you doing? Drawings

 

These are my sweet Grade 4 classes' drawings of the lesson "What are you doing?".

Some of them are very talented.

Not sure if those are her hands below or her feet. I think they are her feet with socks on. Ha ha. I love it!

What you want vs your wallet

 

I would never purchase this bright lemon car above but I would actually like to buy a newer version of the Scooby Doo van below. The current driver even has a portable fan attached above the steering wheel. 

Can't get any more Flinstone than that, right? ha ha