Coming to Korea exposes you to a plethora of new germs, and if you teach children of kindergarten age, expect to be bombarded with their little sicknesses daily.

I’m sure I was the same at their age, but at least 75 per cent of these kids – even when they’re “seven-year-olds” (actually five to six years old in real age) – simply won’t remember to wash their hands unless you’re hovering over the sink waiting for them before they leave the bathroom.

Obviously as a busy teacher this isn’t always possible. This means kids pee on their hands, wipe their bums, pick their noses and then come hug you, grab your hand, and use your pencils and erasers (often putting them in their mouth).

Graphic as this is, it’s all true. You can limit it to an extent, but stopping it entirely is like trying to control the weather (if you’re neurotic in any way you may have decided to hang up the idea of coming to Korea at this point). So you’re going to get sick, especially in the beginning.

Going to the doctor

Waiting out a cold or flu is something that’s probably more common in Western culture than it is in Korea. I was surprised when, after catching my first cold, my supervisor nearly begged me to go to the doctor. But it was just a cold. I’d get over it.

Yet, every time I got sick it would be the same thing — “Please go to the doctor”.

Unfortunately going to the doctor is pretty inconvenient unless you have somebody to take you. Many doctors here do not speak much English. Some will have enough skill to get the message across, but usually a fleshed-out diagnosis is wanting.

So unless you’re lucky to find one that speaks adequate English, you’ll probably need a translator, which means going to the doctor when it’s convenient for somebody else to go.

Further, a trip to the doctor can be a whirlwind. They’ll give a little check up, and throw you back out to the wolves almost as if you didn’t even go in. You’ll get a prescription for a mysterious cocktail of mystery pills, pay a small fee, and you’re on your way.

There’s also the legendary story where my fellow website writer Andrew “it’s my website too” Farrell  was accused at length by a Korean medicine man about drinking too much soju (this being the cause of his ailment)– even going so far as smelling his breath, I recall, to see if he was drunk at the time (nice to know what he thinks of Westerners).This is an atypical experience, I would think.

The good news is that you generally don’t seem to need an appointment and that access to a doctor is quite easily achieved – much easier than it is in my home, where some people are desperate to find a family doctor or are forced to spend hours in an emergency room just to see one.

Ask around and, if you live if a moderately heavily populated area, there could be several clinics near your home. At any rate, somebody from your school ought to know where to g, and if they have decency they will likely take you, at least at first.

Just what are these pills?

While at home you’ll generally get one pill that does the job, Korean pharmacies will give a packet, divided into daily doses, which are an assortment of sizes, shapes and colors. Often you’ll get one that looks and smells exactly like a skittle.

Strange as they are, you’ll take them over the Chinese medicine pellets that look like BB gun bullets, which many Koreans actually prefer (I had to have a Korean ask the doctor not to prescribe these on a few occasions).

In the end both these medicines probably serve their purpose. But unless you’re very sick, you’re probably better off just taking an assortment of over-the-counter remedies for cold and flu from your home in case of sickness.

Teaching when sick is truly terrible. Sometimes if you have a nagging illness or condition that you just don’t know about, going to the doctor can be the most inconvenient thing in the world because of the language barrier.

I’ve often felt that being sick is one of the few times when I really feel uncomfortable in Korea. But we can’t have it all in a foreign country can we? Talk to your Korean friends or coworkers and you should be able to find somebody who can help you out of one of the more difficult moments of your stay in Korea.