Korean Job Discussion Forums

[magicmajenta]

Ok, so I've been reading threads here about how things in Korea have changed and how it's not worth going to anymore. It seems like these things apply more so with hagwons. So what if you want to get a public school job? Is it still worth it to come to Korea. Will you get screwed or are your chances better? Would appreciate replies as I am really seriously going to Korea.

[bassexpander]

Let the school know about your fears, and see what they say.

If you are determined, you can come. The concerns I have are that the people coming here seem to have less legal recourse than ever, should something bad happen to them. The system seems to be set on just pushing you out of the country rather than dealing with any grievance you may have:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=110815&highlight=sexually


At least with a public school, you should at least get your pay. Just don't get sick... some schools don't want you to take sick days (despite them being in your contract):

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=114119&highlight=sick+days
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=113855&highlight=sick+days


I base my feelings of telling people to stay away on this:

I used to think about what I would tell one of my cousins, or friends back home, if they asked about coming here to teach. I would have really enjoyed the chance to inform them of the best way to go about getting a job here, and how to avoid the pitfalls. That was before. These days, however, I would tell them they're better off not bothering to come here.

My point is that the deck is just stacked too much in favor of everyone but the foreigner. Too many bad things can happen, and there is little, if anything anymore, that a foreigner can do to defend themselves. It's like flying on an airline with a horrible safety record that is accountable to nobody. Sure, lots of people may have gotten places safely in the past, but that airline's bad policies are catching up with it, and those big airliners are starting to crash. How gutsy are you to fly it?

[magicmajenta]

So just stay away from Korea plain and simple! What about my pay at the end of the contract. How do I get all that money out of the country. I've been reading here that foreigners have a hard time doing that too!

[Kimchieluver]

I think public schools are a safe bet. You will likely have some obstacles, but nothing too bad. And you can send your money out of the country monthly with a monthly remittance account. Others can tell you about that.

[magicmajenta]

[Kimchieluver]

[wylies99]

[magicmajenta]

So say I work in a public school as a newbie at 2 million won a month. How much can I save in a year if all I spend my money on is necessities like food and utilities. Is $15,000 in a year doable or even more. Like I said how much can I save if all I spend is on my necessities and I earn a beginner salary at 2 million won a month. I'm just curious to see estimates.

[bassexpander]

Anywhere from nothing to about 1 million per month is average for savings. Some can squeeze more, but don't do much, eat out much, or have a girlfriend.

A lot of people brag about what they make and what they save, but my experience is that there is often a lot of loose talk as far as money is concerned.

Kimchie, tell us more about this remittance account? What kind of fees are involved with that? Limits? What bank?

[wylies99]

Saving money? Depends on you. Drink like a fish and end up with no money by the end of the month.

Cook for yourself and use Costco. Wire money right after payday and then live on a decent budget and you can save money. How much is up to you. Just be realistic. You'll need to spend more when you first get here, but you can save more later.

[teachergirltoo]

Living in Korea can be a very positive experience. Much of it depends on your attitude. Working in a public school has many advantages. You will encounter challenges with any job in life, whether in Korea or where you come from. Even though you may read some negative things regarding work here, there are many good employers here too. You will have no problem sending your money home each month, or in lump sums every few months - just save your monthly pay slips to show to the amount you are sending is equal to the amount you were paid by your employer. If you are not a partier or drinker or eat out every night, you can live a very comfortable life here and probably save a minimum of 50% of your 2m won salary,as was already stated above.

[agoodmouse]

I have a KEB remittance account. It's an account that forwards any money you put into it to the overseas bank account you setup when you created the remittance account. When I want to transfer money to the U.S., I simply do a bank transfer from my other account at a different bank and the KEB account wires it to my U.S. bank account. The account uses the exchange rate for that moment of the day to convert the Korean currency into whichever currency you have your account set to. It's very convenient as you don't have to physically go to the bank to transfer money overseas. When I setup the remittance account I had to show KEB my bank statements from my job in Korea. I've transferred money with no hassles. The charge has been about 15,000 won each time.

[ddeubel]

I think P.S. s are a safe, safe bet. You can make it even safer by finding out the school you will go to in advance. If you insist, this can happen. You are worth it, so I do hope many more teachers begin insisting on knowing about the school before signing. I think this might help the situation overall. Also helps new teachers -- you can get a reference about the school from a previous teacher (many have already had a foreign teacher these days).

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Kimchieluver]

[GrowlingMadScientist]

Working at a public school improves your odds but it's not necessarily a guarantee that you will have no problems. In fact in my experience it's simply a different set of problems that you encounter.

Getting paid the amount that's specified in your contract, and being paid on time, will likely go smoothly, although this of course does depend on the school you're at. At my PS, for example, I have always been paid my salary on time, but I did have one incident where the principal agreed to pay me extra for preparing kids for a speaking contest, and then after the contest decided he wasn't happy with the results and informed me I wouldn't be paid. I eventually did get the money, but I had to really fight for it and it was fairly unpleasant, particularly considering I was really pissed off for the 2 weeks we were 'renegotiating' this part of my contract. The funny thing is that it was only $200, and it's not even coming out of his pocket!

Also, you will have a lot more vacation time than you do at a hogwan, but this, too, can be problematic, because your principal may require you to come in to the school during some of this time even if there's no work to do. Granted, you can read a book or watch downloads or whatever during this time, but I don't have a very high tolerance for this kind of nonsense.

There can be other problems, too. My principal agreed in October for the dates of my vacation in late- January, and then when he changed the date of the end of the semester to be one week earlier than expected (this was in mid-December), he got really angry at me for not wanting to cancel the vacation I'd already booked, and accused ME of being inflexible- this despite the fact that during the time I would have missed due to being on vacation there weren't even any classes to teach! He essentially wanted me to cancel my vacation so I could sit in a room and stare at the wall from 8.40-4.40.

It all depends on your school principal-- and my principal is pretty extreme. However, if you decide to go the public school route, I would really recommend speaking to the FT you'll be replacing, because that's the only way to be sure-- if you do end up with a fascist soju-chugging robot for a principal, there won't be much you can do about it after the fact. I didn't bother to do this because the people at the city hall of the city where I work seemed utterly reasonable and assured me that if there were any problems that I could change schools. But when it came time to do that, they refused, saying that the principals at the other schools could be worse. (translation: if you change schools the principal could lose face, which is more important than the problems you're having or what we said to you before you signed the contract.)

Admittedly, I have gotten all the pay and vacation time I was promised, but I've had to fight tooth and nail for the simplest things that are stated in my contract. Maybe some people wouldn't mind having to do this, but being in permanent defense mode has pretty much ruined my time here and I'm quitting after 6 months.

Also, I have 25 different classes of 35-40 students per week, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Again, it really does depend on your situation, and on the whole I think there are some benefits to public schools, and I think the majority of people in ps jobs are at least content enough to get through the year without too much bs (relative, of course, to the average amount of bs one encounters in Korea, which is quite a lot.) Having said that, I've been teaching EFL for 9 years and have worked in 4 different countries, and this is without a doubt, hands down, the worst job I have ever had-- even worse than the hogwan I worked at here.

Money is the only positive thing I can say about the job-- I have saved $12.000 in the 6 months I've been here, so I'm not walking away with only irritation and annoyance to keep me company.

But, before you accept a job like this just for the money, consider this: if I finished my contract I'd walk away with more than twice that much, and a free ticket out of here... but I'd sooner poke myself in the eye with a pin for the next six months than work at that school again

Good luck.