Korean Job Discussion Forums

ujin821 · Joined: 25 Jan 2008 Location: obsolete account

Hi all. Currently I am waiting for school to start in early March and looking for part-time jobs to help cover costs. The school I will be attending is Sogang University's Korean language program, which will be Monday thru Friday at 9:00am to 1:00pm. The type of job I'm looking for is part-time (about 20-25 hours a week) starting at or after 3:00pm -- unfortunately it seems that the amount of options available for me isn't too plentiful...

I was wondering if anybody had any experience with this type of situation -- looking for a job with hours after a Korean intensive language program -- and would be willing to offer some advice or comments to me about it:
* What type of jobs were you able to find?
* Was it difficult maintaining both attending school and a part-time job here?
* Any other useful information you can give.

The only jobs that seem available part-time that would give me some degree of free-time are from companies that get blasted quite frequently on these boards -- outside of doing tutoring gigs. (However I am somewhat opposed to doing private tutoring without having an acceptable amount of teaching experience... I want to be able to know that I'm doing a good job and the tutee will be getting what they're paying for.) The companies in question are the dreaded English Channel, Direct English, and Chung Dahm Institute. Of course, I would love to seek out a nice public school job, but they tend to not match my schedule (99% of the time).

Also, keep in mind that my priorities are to: (1) break even with costs of about 1.2-1.3 million/month, (2) make a little extra on top of that, as in 300,000+/month, to help make loan payments, and (3) to have at least some form of a social life and enjoy my time here. I also don't mind working two or three Saturdays out of the month.

xCustomx · Joined: 06 Jan 2006

What kind of visa are you on?

I think people on student visas are allowed to teach privately up to 15 or 20 hours a week (not completely sure though). If you're not confident with teaching privately, why not tutor some of the Korean students on campus for cheap, or do a language exchange. That way you can improve your Korean and you will get teaching experience. As you become more confident and familiar with things, start charging a small fee and see how it goes.

Be careful about working too much though. People on these boards have commented on how difficult it is to be enrolled in a university language program full time and work 20-30 hours a week at the same time. Good luck~

ujin821 · Joined: 25 Jan 2008 Location: obsolete account

xCustomx · Joined: 06 Jan 2006

Just to give you some perspective, I was enrolled in SNU's evening program last year, which was only 2 days a week for 3 hours and I found that a bit of a challenge to keep up with. I was in level 3, which I think is equivalent to level 2 of the full time program. There will be some Chinese and Japanese students who may pick up on things a LOT faster than you, but don't be too discouraged. If you have the F4 then I'd just stick with privates and adjust your schedule as you see fit. I can understand the need to make money to support yourself, but if you're enrolling in a language course and paying $1300 then I think you should focus on learning the language and not overworking yourself.

Another possibility is to just work for one semester and save up enough money so that you can work less the following semester and use part of your savings.