Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tony [ATEK]]

We're at the point where we're starting to look at implementing member benefits.

I'd like to know from the posters on Dave's...if you could be part of an organization that could provide ANY benefit, what would you like to see?

Here are some of my initial ideas to prime the pump:

• A "Welcome to TESL in Korea" primer for new teachers, including information about Korea culture, what to expect, where to go for help, workers' rights, and contact information for services that may be able to assist new teachers experiencing problems.
  
• A comprehensive Business Directory of businesses that have English speakers on staff ready to assist foreigners in accessing goods and services
  
• Access to data from an Annual ATEK Member Survey, which enables ATEK to track average salaries and weekly hours by region and type of teaching job, average level of satisfaction with various job types, average length of stay of foriegners working in Korea, average pay and benefit increases when re-signing for a second year, and much more. Want to know if your contract offer is above or below the average salary for someone in your city? Get access.
  
• Co-op shipping of items impossible to get in Korea. Want your favorite toothpaste or deoderant? We can get it for you.
  
• Sample letters to parents translated into Korean, so that you can communicate with parents and let them know how their kid is doing.
  
• A directory of Survival Korean, with phrases like "My hot water isn't working" and "Please don't call me before ten," so that you can communicate your basic needs to those that need to know, when your employer isn't available to translate.
  

Go wild and don't let perceived cost or effort restrict you. I want to know what you'd want if you could have anything. Someone may say "I'd like a bilingual personal assistant at my beck and call 24/7," and while of course ATEK can not provide something like that for every teacher, a suggestion like that might give rise to a partnership with a translation compay that provides on-demand translation and bilingual concierge services, for a nominal fee. You never know, so just say whatever comes to you.

I won't commenting on the feasibility or viability of the benefits that you all suggest, but I will be reading everything that everyone suggests, and the ATEK Founding Board will be discussing them.

Thanks in advance for participating!

[Whistleblower]

And here I was thinking it was about the UK Benefit System.

[olabueno]

co-op would be nice

[ED209]

Yeah the co-op sounds good. I want a fking king size Mars bar now!

[Lekker]

biggest dong in Korea.

[TBirdMG]

How about an on-call, fully bilingual liasion who can assist with issues related to the labor board, pension, insurance offices, etc?

[garykasparov]

Training opportunities for teachers.

[TBirdMG]

A members only, open source, online wiki for posting and sharing non-copyright teaching materials, accessible by:

-teaching methodology,
-grade level (kindy, elem, ms, hs, university, adult)
-theme

-

[PRagic]

Not impressed. At all.

The commecial aspects mentioned are counterproductive. If someone can't get by without some product from their home country for a year, they probably shouldn't be overseas in the first place. Besides, almost anything can be gotten here.

All of the 'information' type ideas can readily be found on the Internet already. Again, if someone doesn't have the common sense to find information they need, then they probably shouldn't be overseas anyway.

The wages and employment conditions idea isn't bad, but it's useless if it's only a survey of members.

Sample letters written in Korean? Please. Get a coworker/co-teacher to write it.

_________________________


TbirdMG and garykasparov offer some great insight, though. A professional organization should organize professional development for it's members and support services for members in need. The one-stop web site for teaching materials is a great idea, too, as the majority of people coming over have no exerience teaching. The rational side of me says to hell with it. Koreans are hiring non-teachers, so let them deal with what they get. The reality, though, is that people suffer at these positions without some help.

My advice, then, would be to limit this page to input for public school teachers only. Separate by grade level and theme.

Forget the hakwons and forget university. Anyone at a hakwon should be doing the bare minimum using the in-house program. Anyone at university should know what they're doing, or how to go about getting it done.

Another idea would be for the organization to continually research and update a list of cases against organizations that have screwed over their teachers. Organize this by situation. It would be quite impressive if someone who is getting screwed by a hakwon could get a print out of every successful labour board case decided in the teachers favour of the same situation. It's like telling the hakwon...you can try it, but you'll lose.

This type of running list could be made for public schools and universities, too, but I doubt the lists would be as extensive.

Keep it simple:

Goal 1: Help members be better teachers
Goad 2: Help members not get screwed over by employers

Leave everything else up to the individual. One of the reasons to move overseas is to learn how to think out of the box a bit.

[Cerriowen]

How about "negotiating with your hakwon boss 101?"

A list of blacklisted schools, and a list of schools that have been given the thumbs up from teachers who weren't bribed.

A list of foods that most westerners find appetizing...

A list of korean foods with their english ingredients (kimpap is a seaweed roll, with rice, ham, egg, ...)

Sample contracts that are acceptable

Sample contract clauses to avoid

[tob55]

The mention of training options of professionals is going cause quite a stir, because there are big players who spend big money for advertising and operate multi-million dollar international programs targeted directly at professionals in Korea as well as other places. Of course, everyone thinks their particular program is the best and most effective in terms of training people to do a better job. (Please understand I am not mentioning provider names in this thread, so don't take the comments as a "mine is better than yours." I am simply stating a fact without bringing names into this conversation.)

The idea of training people to do a better job would only make sense if Korea would actually put what people are learning into some constructive model that would actually "change" the academic system as it related to teaching ESL- EFL.

Also, remember that ATEK is going to be a membership driven organization without funding from Korea in any way, shape or form. For this reason, I seriously doubt they are going to give away their services to anyone. In the end, the completion of their organizational goals will look at some way to provide at a minimum the head officers of the organization a means to live off of the revenues taken in through membership dues, chapter dues, special workshops and conferences hosted by ATEK, and a host of other opportunities that will arise to help them generate revenue. Their seeking non-profit status is simply to make the tax burden less costly to them.

Having worked with and been directly involved in the operation of some non-profit corporations in the United States, I can tell you that there are many more hidden factors in the mix of this organizational plan that are not really being thought out clearly with regard to Korea.

Again, I am not trying to voice disapproval for what they are attempting to do, but as a former business owner in the USA and having gone through the process of helping some individuals set up their "for profit" businesses here in Korea, I can tell you, this is a might big piece of meat to bite off from the steak.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Give teachers the right to cancel their visas and get a new job any time they want. This one right would give FTs collectively the leverage they need.

Set up a database so that FTs only need to submit the necessary paperwork for an E-2 visa *once* for their first job in Korea and not for every subsequent contract.

[tob55]

Yu_Bum_suk,

Your suggestion is one the simplest, but fully encompassing remarks of this whole discussion. It would take care of so many problems and actually reduce the need for various organizations to set up in the first place. ATEK is organizing the fill a void because of the confusion that exists for the very reasons you mentioned in your last post.

It is a simple thing, and other countries have used what you mentioned regarding portability because the foreigner is allowed to select their own employment and there are not so many "middle-men" to make their own determination regarding the rules and their intent.

The database thing is something I have long said would reduce the vast confusion that exists because it would put all of the needed information immigration needs just a few clicks away on the computer. Honestly, Korea touts itself as one of the most wired nations in the world, yet they cannot even set up a simple database to track foreigner records from year to year? My wife is able to find out anything about her records from any city office in this country. I know the system is in place to do it, but Korea keeps feigning ignorance about how to do it for foreigners.

The numbering system in place for Koreans uses the same numerical digits as foreign ARC, so this is a flimsy excuse in my estimation. Sorry for the rant, but Yu_Bum_suk makes an excellent point.

[Tony [ATEK]]

I'm bumping to see if the people that generally check in on the weekends have anything to add.

I appreciate the suggestions already made, and I can tell you that they are influencing the Founding Board's attitudes on what to offer.

Thanks, everyone.

[moosehead]