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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, she was lucky. My school doesn't supply accomodations. |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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Taylormade wrote: |
I'm only commenting on what I experienced. As I didn't work there I won't comment on the job itself. Did she bitch about the place? Sure, but it's up to her to post about that. I can only comment on the accommodation, which was a joke. The noise from the street made it almost impossible to sleep there. Idiot teenagers would drag race their motorcycles up and down the street all night with their muffles off. The walls were paper thin so it was like they were right there. There was even a police station next to the school, but of course they did nothing. I'd wear earplugs, keep the music on, and cover my heads with blankets but still got no sleep. Given that the teachers worked bizarre split shifts (which screwed with their sleeping patterns) they had difficulty enough sleeping. When you added the incredible noise from the street every night you can understand why she preferred to stay at my haggy apartment. Funny thing is, at one point I wanted to break up with her but I couldn't get her to go back to her dormitory. |
LOL. Yeah, the noise was just awful. It was non-stop almost 24 hours a day. Another thing that might be mentioned about the dormitory was the extremely polluted area that it was was situated in. The air pollution, the piles upon piles of rotting garbage, and the ever present smell of sewer. The stench of the neighborhood would knock over a horse. I cycle, and after cycling around the neighborhood my eyes and throat would be itchy and irritated. This pissed me off. I cycle to keep fit and feel healthy, but after cycling around the neighborhood for twenty minutes I felt like I needed to throw up. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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The off campus housing was even worse in terms of aesthetics (not noise, though). Not bad on the inside, but it's down a narrow alley that's pitch black at night (I'd hate to be a woman walking home after night classes), and the building is so old and ugly that it looks like it belongs in an undeveloped country (it was built when Korea was a poor country, and looks like it's had no maintenance since then). |
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I'm With You
Joined: 01 Sep 2011
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:05 am Post subject: |
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That's terrible. A well-known and seemingly respected university in Korea and it treats their foreign instructors like that by giving them substandard housing. They should be ashamed and people should be made aware of this. |
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Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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I'm With You wrote: |
That's terrible. A well-known and seemingly respected university in Korea and it treats their foreign instructors like that by giving them substandard housing. They should be ashamed and people should be made aware of this. |
Dude, the accommodation was just the tip of the iceberg. If you've read this thread from page one you'll know that the problems at the FLTTC go well beyong the accommodation. But the housing is symptomatic of that larger problem. No institution that repects their teachers places them in such substandard housing. And once you move into your unfurnished dormitory room and actually start work, you'll see that their disrespect for their teachers manifests itself in countless other ways.
But as I say, the housing is sympomatic of a larger ethos at the place. |
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Taylormade
Joined: 31 Oct 2012 Location: Incheon
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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cdninkorea wrote: |
The off campus housing was even worse in terms of aesthetics (not noise, though). Not bad on the inside, but it's down a narrow alley that's pitch black at night (I'd hate to be a woman walking home after night classes), and the building is so old and ugly that it looks like it belongs in an undeveloped country (it was built when Korea was a poor country, and looks like it's had no maintenance since then). |
One of the guys who worked there had gone to check out the off campus housing. He checked the shower for water pressure and s soon as he turned it on the water came out pitch black. He let it run for several minutes and the water colour only improved somewhat. The pipes were so old and rusty that the water was black. He ended up moving into the dormitory.
He captured the shower water quality on his cell phone and showed it to the FLTTC management. They just shrugged. |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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I see HUFs has opened another FLTTC down on Jeju Island. The pay is even worse that in Seoul - 2.1 per month. Yes, you read that right. They're offering 2.1 a month to live on some island in the middle of nowhere. |
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I'm With You
Joined: 01 Sep 2011
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Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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Smithington wrote: |
I see HUFs has opened another FLTTC down on Jeju Island. The pay is even worse that in Seoul - 2.1 per month. Yes, you read that right. They're offering 2.1 a month to live on some island in the middle of nowhere. |
Yeah, but...."Jeju is Korea's Hawaii". |
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Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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I'm With You wrote: |
Smithington wrote: |
I see HUFs has opened another FLTTC down on Jeju Island. The pay is even worse that in Seoul - 2.1 per month. Yes, you read that right. They're offering 2.1 a month to live on some island in the middle of nowhere. |
Yeah, but...."Jeju is Korea's Hawaii". |
One thing about Jeju that I really liked was the clean air. I went there while I was working at HUFS in Seoul. The pollution around the Seoul campus was just absolutely horrid. The filthy air was as thick as milk. Every breath was an assault on my lungs. So when I visited Jejudo I was struck by the contrast. The fresh, clean air was a must appreciated change. I was grateful to just be breathing clean air for once. Of course it was, by many other country's standards, just normal clean air. But when contrasted to what my poor lungs had been breathing in day and night prior to that, it was a real treat. |
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zpeanut
Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Location: Pohang, Korea
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 5:39 am Post subject: |
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Is there a difference between the HUFs Foreign Language Institute, FLTTC - whatever you call it.. and The Hanguk Foreign Language Uni Hagwon?
I've been offered a place an a hagwon that's got the name of Hanguk University. It's in Pohang. Said the students are mostly middle and highschool students looking to go to a foreign language university. |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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zpeanut wrote: |
Is there a difference between the HUFs Foreign Language Institute, FLTTC - whatever you call it.. and The Hanguk Foreign Language Uni Hagwon?
I've been offered a place an a hagwon that's got the name of Hanguk University. It's in Pohang. Said the students are mostly middle and highschool students looking to go to a foreign language university. |
I'm nor sure. The FLTTC in Seoul was also a hogwan, but they seemed to go to pains to hide that from potential teachers. I (and many other teachers on this forum) got burned by thinking that just because it was affiliated with HUFS that it would be a decent employer. We couldn't have been more wrong. Simply ask them if it is affiliated with the FLTTC in Seoul. If it is, run for the hills. |
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Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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Do not accept any job at a HUFs-related hogwan, 'foreign language center', or 'academy'. Surely this no longer needs to be stated. This thread has had enough hits that the message should now be clear to the entire Dave's ESL community. |
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Smithington
Joined: 14 Dec 2011
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Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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The 'university' hiring season is approaching, so I thought I'd bump this thread as a service to those who might be over-eager to get "any" university position. I was reading recently about someone who was relating horror stories about certain universities in China. Be fully aware that there are also shockingly bad universities in Korea. More correctly they are 'unigwons' - hogwans on university campuses. And they can be a nightmare. Apply for university jobs, but do so with your eyes open.
As this thread (with over 20,000 hits) will attest, not all uni jobs in Korea are made equal. |
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kambeix
Joined: 01 Jul 2013 Location: Chile
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Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hello, I'm new on the forum and this is my first post, nice to meet you!
My wife was offered a position in the Spanish department and reading this post is somewhat dissapointing. And because most of the bad comments are about the FLTCC and not the university itself, I'd like to know if someone does know about other departments inside HUFS. Also, I'd like to know if accomodation varies among departments or is same for all foreign teachers, and if we are condemned to the dorms or ugly houses, what is a realistic figure for getting something just a bit better (walking distance to HUFS, one BR, small kitchen, etc...)
Thanks! |
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dongjak
Joined: 30 Oct 2010
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Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think your wife should be worried if she is working for HUFS. Most of these comments were about FLTCC which is a hagwon connected to HUFS. I know several people who work for specific departments at HUFS and they get a higher than average salary and enjoy their jobs. I don't know anybody in the Spanish department but I know people in the Arabic and Dutch departments and they are happy. I don't know what their accommodation is though, as I think they take the housing allowance. |
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