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| Your overall experiences with Gepik are... |
| Positive |
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52% |
[ 12 ] |
| Negative |
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26% |
[ 6 ] |
| Neutral |
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21% |
[ 5 ] |
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| Total Votes : 23 |
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Message |
mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject: Your overall experiences with Gepik are... |
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I hear Gepik is hit or miss sometimes, so for those who have signed up, what can you say about it?
positive? negative? neutral? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject: Re: Your overall experiences with Gepik are... |
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| mayorgc wrote: |
I hear Gepik is hit or miss sometimes, so for those who have signed up, what can you say about it?
positive? negative? neutral? |
My opinions on GEPIK and public schools in general are well known.
They can be rough on newbies who have no idea what they are getting into. The learning curve is steep with few supports for a newbie along the way.
They are usually great for those who have been here for a while and have learned to function in a Korean environment.
There are usually no problems or games with the pay and benefits.
There ARE other issues that come into play when dealing with the Korean education system. There are lots of threads here that already deal with these so I won't bother to repeat them again.
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frankhenry
Joined: 13 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject: Re: Your overall experiences with Gepik are... |
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| mayorgc wrote: |
I hear Gepik is hit or miss sometimes, so for those who have signed up, what can you say about it?
positive? negative? neutral? |
GEPIK was a MISS for me. I'm glad I'm out of there! It has been my only miserable year in Korea. Now, all is good with my new job.  |
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nomad-ish
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:24 am Post subject: |
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i think you'll run into the same issues with any public school program in korea: GEPIK, EPIK, SMOE, IMOE, etc. i think the biggest difficulty in all of these is working with korean co-teachers/co-workers. they often want to treat you like a korean teacher (giving orders, lots of extra work, etc.) but when it comes time to get the benefits of a korean teacher (long holiday, bonuses, etc.), forget it.
but i still think it's better than most of the hagwon positions out there |
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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:26 am Post subject: Re: Your overall experiences with Gepik are... |
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| frankhenry wrote: |
| mayorgc wrote: |
I hear Gepik is hit or miss sometimes, so for those who have signed up, what can you say about it?
positive? negative? neutral? |
GEPIK was a MISS for me. I'm glad I'm out of there! It has been my only miserable year in Korea. Now, all is good with my new job. |
just curious
what exactly was a miss for you? |
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expat2001
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| I ve worked for two different GEPIK schools and I ve worked for 4 different hogwons. The hogwons are much better. |
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nomad-ish
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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| expat2001 wrote: |
| I ve worked for two different GEPIK schools and I ve worked for 4 different hogwons. The hogwons are much better. |
did you get your medical insurance booklet at each of them? did they pay the correct amount of taxes on your salary? did they pay into your pension account?
yes there are some good hagwons out there, but i'd be very surprised if all 4 of those were good ones. |
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politica
Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Location: Suwon-si
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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My opinion is that there should be more than three options.
Overall, its been positive. There are, however, some days when the bureaucracy just kicks me in the butt.
That being said, I am staying a second year, so I guess its not really so bad after all . . . |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| nomad-ish wrote: |
i think you'll run into the same issues with any public school program in korea: GEPIK, EPIK, SMOE, IMOE, etc. i think the biggest difficulty in all of these is working with korean co-teachers/co-workers. they often want to treat you like a korean teacher (giving orders, lots of extra work, etc.) but when it comes time to get the benefits of a korean teacher (long holiday, bonuses, etc.), forget it.
but i still think it's better than most of the hagwon positions out there |
this ALL depends on your PARTICULAR school, rather than "Gepik".
none of my korean co-teachers pretend to be my "boss", and in fact even my program coordinator who is also one of my co teachers flatly stated once when I was joking about something - " I'm not your boss".
giving me orders? that would be LAUGHABLE.
Of course it helps that the VP and I bonded almost immediately, so I am pretty much "untouchable", just based on that relationship alone. And that is the most important relationship (apart from principal of course) but the VP is far more involved in every day matters.
I've been told that as a FT I am 'special' , meaning some of the crap Korean teachers have to deal with do NOT apply to me, I of course make it a point to be as involved as possible.. for e.g. when our school held its first "open house", I stood outside with the other teachers in our dept and bowed to the incoming visitors. It was a beautiful day and I actually enjoyed myself. It was also funny seeing the surprised faces of the guests thinking who's this foreigner and why is he bowing? LOL
Oh.. and I don't have to come in during winter and summer vacations either. This held true for the previous FT's before me as well.
I make it a point to do without any whining or even a sourpussed face, everything that my Korean teachers do, so long as it's not a gross violation of my contract (like coming in on Sat LOL ) That means field trip(s), etc etc.
Hence, I won't feel guilty when I'm on some beach come January 
it ALL depends on YOUR particular school. |
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xCustomx
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:40 am Post subject: |
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| I agree with Bogey. Most of the issues people have are not with GEPIK, but with their particular school. It really is a crapshoot, but if you play your cards right, then chances are your school will treat you fairly. I've been able to get extra benefits that most teachers probably don't have, but like Bogey said, it helps to participate in teacher outings, greeting co-workers, bringing snacks, etc. If you have a bad experience with GEPIK, visit other schools and walk in with a resume to try and land a better job, hopefully with more vacation, more money, or whatever else you'd like |
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Bucheonguy
Joined: 23 Oct 2008
Location: Bucheon
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| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:46 am Post subject: |
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Here's my take on GEPIK. GEPIK is garbage. I agree that it's all about the school and that's what pisses me off. There's no support, or help if you're having a rough time. There's also no training except for a week of hellish propaganda that takes place several months after you actually need it.
Here's what needs to happen:
- Standardize our material a little bit and our work environments.
- Give us some actual training.
- Make a GEPIK coordinator our boss, not our school's principal and vp.
- For godsake, train the actual co-teachers too! This drives me nuts. I got to an orientation week, get crammed into a dorm with a bunch of strangers and have the BS that I'm a guest in the most wonderful place on Earth rammed down my throat.
- Don't weight the contracts so heavily in the favour of our school!
- Standardize our housing. My place is garbage. Total garbage and I've got teachers at the next school over living like kings!
The list goes on and on. GEPIK: great concept, horribly underdeveloped. |
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Otherside
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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| Bucheonguy wrote: |
Here's my take on GEPIK. GEPIK is garbage. I agree that it's all about the school and that's what pisses me off. There's no support, or help if you're having a rough time. There's also no training except for a week of hellish propaganda that takes place several months after you actually need it.
Here's what needs to happen:
- Standardize our material a little bit and our work environments.
- Give us some actual training.
- Make a GEPIK coordinator our boss, not our school's principal and vp.
- For godsake, train the actual co-teachers too! This drives me nuts. I got to an orientation week, get crammed into a dorm with a bunch of strangers and have the BS that I'm a guest in the most wonderful place on Earth rammed down my throat.
- Don't weight the contracts so heavily in the favour of our school!
- Standardize our housing. My place is garbage. Total garbage and I've got teachers at the next school over living like kings!
The list goes on and on. GEPIK: great concept, horribly underdeveloped. |
You make some good points, and I'm familiar with your situation (from what you've posted on Dave's) so I can understand the negativity. But here are some comments on what You've said.
"Standardize our material a little bit and our work environments."
If you are in Elementary, then the material is dead standard. You are given a text book and a teachers guide and more often than not your co-teacher is happy, (or even expects) you to teach from it 95% of the time. Work environments vary greatly because schools vary greatly. I know teachers who teach at schools ranging from 120 to over 1000 students (I know one guy with under 30 kids in his GEPIK school, but he's a rare, rare exception).
"Give us some actual training" - Fair point
"Make a GEPIK coordinator our boss, not our school's principal and vp"
So your boss should be some beureacrat who sits in an office 100kms from your school and has met you a grand total of once for 30 seconds. She wouldn't able to identify you from a line-up of 3 people and knows absolutly nothing about you, your school or your situation. This would result in unnecessary "backwards and forwardsing" of trivial matters. Technically, there is a chain of command and if the school is violating the contract you can take it to the GEPIK offices, however for day-to-day running let the vp/principal make the calls.
"For godsake, train the actual co-teachers too! This drives me nuts. I got to an orientation week, get crammed into a dorm with a bunch of strangers and have the BS that I'm a guest in the most wonderful place on Earth rammed down my throat"
Two points here, I agree the Orientation was poor. For us March hiree's it happened mid June, after we'd completed 30% of our contracts (not to mention there were some guys hired in late 2007 there). Also, I'd say a lot of the stuff at the orientation was impractical for most teachers to use in their day to day teaching, or redundent for people who've learnt the ropes and now well on the way. Another point I've heard mentioned before is that co-teachers should also come to seminars/training with us, otherwise it's impossible for us to implement the ideas we are being taught (as they are probably being told something completly different at their seminars).
"Don't weight the contracts so heavily in the favour of our school!"
The Public school contracts are some of the fairest contracts in the ESL game in korea. Not to mention being screwed with things like airfare/pension/medical/severence/housing deposit is very very very low, and almost always rectifiable. What points in particular would you change?
"Standardize our housing. My place is garbage. Total garbage and I've got teachers at the next school over living like kings!"
I can't comment on your place, but in my experience (friends in the Gepik program whose places I've seen...15-20) most places are in the average 10-14 pyeong category. Never seen smaller than 10. I've seen a few couples with couple housing which is excellent. The contract allows for 400,000won (previously 300,000) for housing. With that money and no key money you'd get an absolute hole in 99% of korea. To forcibly standardize discretionary part of the system would result in far more losers than winners. This applies to other things too, most notably extra vacation in summer or winter.
I agree however, that GEPIK has a lot of room for improvement, and in many respects I don't like the direction it's going (i.e. Talk program). They are also HORRIBLY understaffed with 1 person (correct me if I'm wrong) handling over 1000NT's throughout the province as well as other duties. |
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nomad-ish
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain
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| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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| bogey666 wrote: |
| nomad-ish wrote: |
i think you'll run into the same issues with any public school program in korea: GEPIK, EPIK, SMOE, IMOE, etc. i think the biggest difficulty in all of these is working with korean co-teachers/co-workers. they often want to treat you like a korean teacher (giving orders, lots of extra work, etc.) but when it comes time to get the benefits of a korean teacher (long holiday, bonuses, etc.), forget it.
but i still think it's better than most of the hagwon positions out there |
this ALL depends on your PARTICULAR school, rather than "Gepik".
none of my korean co-teachers pretend to be my "boss", and in fact even my program coordinator who is also one of my co teachers flatly stated once when I was joking about something - " I'm not your boss".
giving me orders? that would be LAUGHABLE.
Of course it helps that the VP and I bonded almost immediately, so I am pretty much "untouchable", just based on that relationship alone. And that is the most important relationship (apart from principal of course) but the VP is far more involved in every day matters.
I've been told that as a FT I am 'special' , meaning some of the crap Korean teachers have to deal with do NOT apply to me, I of course make it a point to be as involved as possible.. for e.g. when our school held its first "open house", I stood outside with the other teachers in our dept and bowed to the incoming visitors. It was a beautiful day and I actually enjoyed myself. It was also funny seeing the surprised faces of the guests thinking who's this foreigner and why is he bowing? LOL
Oh.. and I don't have to come in during winter and summer vacations either. This held true for the previous FT's before me as well.
I make it a point to do without any whining or even a sourpussed face, everything that my Korean teachers do, so long as it's not a gross violation of my contract (like coming in on Sat LOL ) That means field trip(s), etc etc.
Hence, I won't feel guilty when I'm on some beach come January
it ALL depends on YOUR particular school. |
i agree with you and how you say that it all depends on your particular school and the luck of the draw. i'm just finding that both last year and this year, many of the people i know at public schools have problems with their co-teachers/co-workers. problems like being given saturday work (me included), pressure to accept extra classes (sometimes a second set), no help or translation in the classroom, being told not to wear something even though the korean teachers can/do wear it, getting in trouble for not bowing, the list goes on.
i suppose my bitterness creeps in a lot on dave's, i came back this year and asked tons of questions, organized better, was pickier with positions, harassed my recruiter about things i wanted, however i ended up in almost the same situation as before. |
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hochhasd
Joined: 05 Jul 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| nomad-ish wrote: |
| bogey666 wrote: |
| nomad-ish wrote: |
i think you'll run into the same issues with any public school program in korea: GEPIK, EPIK, SMOE, IMOE, etc. i think the biggest difficulty in all of these is working with korean co-teachers/co-workers. they often want to treat you like a korean teacher (giving orders, lots of extra work, etc.) but when it comes time to get the benefits of a korean teacher (long holiday, bonuses, etc.), forget it.
but i still think it's better than most of the hagwon positions out there |
this ALL depends on your PARTICULAR school, rather than "Gepik".
none of my korean co-teachers pretend to be my "boss", and in fact even my program coordinator who is also one of my co teachers flatly stated once when I was joking about something - " I'm not your boss".
giving me orders? that would be LAUGHABLE.
Of course it helps that the VP and I bonded almost immediately, so I am pretty much "untouchable", just based on that relationship alone. And that is the most important relationship (apart from principal of course) but the VP is far more involved in every day matters.
I've been told that as a FT I am 'special' , meaning some of the crap Korean teachers have to deal with do NOT apply to me, I of course make it a point to be as involved as possible.. for e.g. when our school held its first "open house", I stood outside with the other teachers in our dept and bowed to the incoming visitors. It was a beautiful day and I actually enjoyed myself. It was also funny seeing the surprised faces of the guests thinking who's this foreigner and why is he bowing? LOL
Oh.. and I don't have to come in during winter and summer vacations either. This held true for the previous FT's before me as well.
I make it a point to do without any whining or even a sourpussed face, everything that my Korean teachers do, so long as it's not a gross violation of my contract (like coming in on Sat LOL ) That means field trip(s), etc etc.
Hence, I won't feel guilty when I'm on some beach come January
it ALL depends on YOUR particular school. |
i agree with you and how you say that it all depends on your particular school and the luck of the draw. i'm just finding that both last year and this year, many of the people i know at public schools have problems with their co-teachers/co-workers. problems like being given saturday work (me included), pressure to accept extra classes (sometimes a second set), no help or translation in the classroom, being told not to wear something even though the korean teachers can/do wear it, getting in trouble for not bowing, the list goes on.
i suppose my bitterness creeps in a lot on dave's, i came back this year and asked tons of questions, organized better, was pickier with positions, harassed my recruiter about things i wanted, however i ended up in almost the same situation as before. |
Required to work on Saturdays? I thought the Gepik contracts spells out Monday-Friday?  |
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nomad-ish
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain
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| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| ^ not required, the contract says no saturday work, but some schools are trying their hardest to make us work select saturdays. my newbie friends just go along with it, but i've said no and been told "i might have to." i've gotten out of saturday work a couple times now, but they'll be at it again next month |
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