Korean Job Discussion Forums

Dannyboy · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Location: S. Korea

I'm posting this for a friend who lives at the Co-op Residence. I tried to convince her SMOE can't get her info from Dave. She begged me and bought me dinner, so here it is.

Many teachers for SMOE live in the Co-op Residence at Dongdaemun Stadium. They didn't ask to live there, but were placed there. In another thread, Spinoza said there are many complaints about the place. It is true.

The size is tiny. It is an officetel that is one room with a bathroom. The living area is 3 meters x 3.5 meters. Add a bed, desk, chair, wardrobe and any luggage you have. This leaves residents with no free space. The kitchen is 1.5 meters x 1 meter, plus a small sink and one burner. Cooking is always a pain for due to the size and the one burner. The kitchen area is also the entry way, so shoes may take up some space. The bathroom is 1.5 meters x 1.2 meters. It is also made of frosted glass, so you can see people's sillouettes when they use the toilet. The doors to the rooms are also thin, so she is constantly woken up by other people talking or closing doors.

The Co-op Residence is an officetel and is run like a hotel. Random tourists are booked into rooms near my friend. Sometimes busloads of tourists take up the elevators for a long time. People are constantly coming into and out of her room for cleaning, to check on things and for various unknown reasons. Sometimes the staff doesn't knock before entering if they think no one is there. If my friend forgets to pay her bill, they simply lock her out of her room instead of reminding her nicely.

The biggest problem with the Co-op Residence is that my friend wants to move. She wants to stay with SMOE, but is now looking for other jobs because SMOE won't let her move. Even if she signs a new contract, SMOE has told her they won't provide any deposit money or furniture for a different apartment. They will only give her 500,000 a month for rent. Everyone else working for SMOE have bigger apartments, have key money and furniture provided. If they want to move, they get to take their key money and their furniture and it is not a problem. My friend, and all other SMOE teachers at the Co-op Residence, are not being given key money or furniture, so my friend is going to take a different job.

If you are considering working for SMOE, tell them you will not live in the Co-op Residence unless you want to live in sub-standard housing and never be able to get a normal studio or apartment without paying millions of won during your time with SMOE. Even if you stay another year, they will screw you if you live in the Co-op Residence.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Where is this infamous Co-op residence? Is it the Co-op located beside Hoegi Ssubway station (Dongbu OE)?

Or is it really at Dongdaemun Station?

The_Conservative · Joined: 15 Mar 2007

Dannyboy · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Location: S. Korea

babtangee · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:08 am Post subject:

I have a Korean public school teacher friend. When I told her about the vacation situation for foreigners she couldn't believe it. She said it was totally unfair and unreasonable. Then she was made the English co-ordinator at her new elementary school. She was in charge of wrangling the foreign teacher. A year later I speak to her and I bring up the vacation situation. She just dodges it and goes on about all the other "benefits" of being a foreign teacher in a public school, and that this makes the lack of vacation time okay.

I don't think there's a limit to the deprivations they will be prepared to subject foreigners to. A wholly corporate mentality by which they can justify anything. Fine institution, this education system they got. Yeah, yeah.

rvintage · Joined: 05 Jul 2005

So where are all you people who say that public schools are always better???? That sounds like a load of shite and have never in all my years in hagwons ever had that kinda crap go down.

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Working in a public school in Seoul IS great...... if you don't live in the co-op. (So I hear. I don't live there myself, I found my own place and took the housing allowance.... with no key money provided).

Octavius Hite · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:23 am Post subject:

Plz, I worked for Boston Campus in Gangdong 3 years ago and they had us in smaller apartments than that. It was crazy. PS is still better, these teachers you agree to stay there are suckers, here's a word all you people should learn (as well as growing backbones) NO. Just say no and walk out you can find a new job easily, and they will learn.

silver_butterfly · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Location: South Korea

PS = Better vacations, better hours (no weekend work!)

bosintang · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject:

It can get pretty lonely in my slightly larger apartment out here in nowhere-ville. The best friends I made in Korea where people I lived with in my first year in Korea.

I think even if the co-op housing isn't superior, if it's your first year in Korea, so what? It would be a good trade-off to be around dozens of other young teachers and making a good social life going sooner rather than later.

Optional Toaster · Joined: 08 Jan 2006

When I first came to Korea I stayed at one and found it small but adequate; the studio apt. I moved into was bigger but in a basement, damp, and full of mold. I would have gone back to the Co-op in a second! Then again, I used to just dream of being able to sleep in a large closet if it meant I had my own space, as I grew up sleeping in the same room with my two brothers in a bedroom a bit smaller than the rooms at the Co-op.

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

That's what you get for wanting to live in Seoul.

How about being a bit more proactive?

There are tons of public schools practically begging for teachers out in the provinces. You could easily get better accommodations than that guaranteed in your contract.

PS. Next time you think you have it bad, remember that at least you don't hear hundreds of rats behind the walls as they scurry in when it begins to rain. That was my hagwon provided housing when I first came here. My university roommate had it worse: two adjacent storage lockers that had the wall in between knocked out.

wylies99 · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Motel He11 Rolling Eyes

FistFace · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

That's horrible. The contracts have really gone downhill in the past few years, haven't they? Now we've got people saying their job at the Public school is "great" just because they aren't living in that crap Dongdaemun housing situation. No, the jobs were "great" when we used to have better housing AND more than 2 weeks of paid vacation per year.

Hagwons are starting to look better than this. Many of them certainly pay better.

Why anyone would take one of these jobs is beyond me.

Where is Gelkin? We need a nice, scary article about this hell-hole to scare everyone away from working there. Sooner or later, SMOE will get the hint that their accommodations are not acceptable.

P.S. -- you guys actually took this job without seeing the housing? Bad idea. Very bad.

dmbfan · Joined: 09 Mar 2006