Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ohahakehte]

Aside from the obvious like at least 2million salary, paid airfare, accomodation, severence pay, overtime, 1/2 medical insurance, etc., what else should a potential teacher look for in a good contract and school?

Is there any kind of list of conventional questions to ask employers to see if they're good or not? I used to treeplant and theres a set of necessary questions to ask the company to find out if they're legit and if you're being screwed over or not on the planting contract.

I see that theres a lot of discussion on the list about teaching at a public school vs a university vs a private language school. Whats the deal with all of this? Which is the best place to work at - both for quality of students and working conditions?

[eamo]

The art to finding out about a school is to get the e-mail of a previous teacher. This can be done by getting the usual current teachers e-mail then asking them for a previous teachers address.

[thegadfly]

Well, the whole hakwan vs. public school vs. uni teaching vs. teaching for a company in-house (like LG or Samsung or POSCO or whatever) issue is more closely connected with what you want out of it rather than which is "better."

Overall, the pay you receive at a hakwan CAN be very high compared to public schools and uni positions...but that is from the overtime. If you want gross pay to be high regardless of other concerns, then probably a hakwan is what you want to look at. I have worked primarily in hakwans because gross income was my original concern when I came to Korea (student loans), and I find that hakwans vary enough that I can find one that matches most of my preferences in a school.

If you are looking to travel and explore, meet people and do things when not working, and money is not an issue, then university positions are more attractive -- lots of vacation time, fewer class contact hours, (usually) reasonable office hours, and contact with more Korean adults. I have not had a Korean university position -- I am basing this on what I have been told by folks in such positions.

Public school positions vary widely in pay, but in general a public school teacher is accorded a great deal more respect than a hakwan teacher, though perhaps not as much as a uni instructor. Again, vacation time can vary, but if you have all school breaks off, you have much more free time than a hakwan teacher, though not as much as a uni instructor. The classes in public school tend to be very large, and public school teachers seem to be more frustrated in their jobs -- that is, a hakwan teacher might EXPECT to just babysit, so if that is the case, the teacher is not surprised or disappointed...but in the public schools, you may want to teach and find yourself stymied by the administration, other teachers, the students themselves, or the parents. Those problems are kind of par for the course in hakwans, so at least it is no surprise when they come up. I have only worked in public schools part time, so my personal experience is limited....

Working for a company as an "office teacher" seems like a decent job on paper -- usually the benefits and salary are quite nice...but many people find the Korean office environment stifling...the hours are set, usually at 40, and there is the liklihood that politics and office maneuvering will take up some/a lot of your free time. I have only worked part-time for LG, so my personal experience is limited....

Really, the job is more defined by all the things YOU want than by the things other folks get...do you want lunches tossed in or do you skip lunch? Is working at 6 am a nightmare for you, or do you just want to be done teaching before 6 pm? Would you rather have classes under 20, or do you like the idea of having 50 kids in a class? Do kids make your skin crawl and you only want to deal with adults, or do you love the little ones? How much does student apathy bother you? That is actually a big one in my book -- student apathy bothers me a LOT, which is why I have not really tried too hard to find a university position in Korea...I hear big classes of students that don't give a hsit....

[Son Deureo!]

For a hogwon job, the one thing I insist on is that the hours of your work day be specified in the contract. Wording like this: "The teaching day will begin to earlier than X:00 and end no later than Y:00". In my opinion, the amount of time between the time I walk in the door expected to work, and the time I walk out that door a free man is FAR more important than the number of contract classroom hours. Split shifts suck.

The other thing I'd insist on is that overtime be at the teacher's discretion. At 120%, overtime sucks too. If I wanted to bust my butt to make a lot of money, I would have stayed in the US or I'd teach privates.