Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nicam]

Dave's, please help me to not have a nervous breakdown, as there are a shortage of qualified English speaking shrinks here in the sticks of K-land.

Public school. People on this forum rave about it being the best gig. Security, reliability, vacation, no education to money connection, blah blah blah. I got a measley 14 days, which I could have gotten at a hagwon, and my local ed. dep't has not only screwed me into a cockroach infested box without hotwater for 3 1/2 months, but they've lied to us about our camps about 3 times and tried to trick us into giving up our 7 contractual holidays.

Well, I would take a GOOD hagwon over this gig ANY day. I envy my hagwon friends, save for about 2-3 of them who are really getting royally screwed.

Lesson planning for 3 different grades, 40 teenagers in a class who don't speak a lick of English or listen to a word I say. Poor school means NO resources , like working computers, televisions, books, etc. Teaching is futile, I just hope to reach a couple or as many kids as possible, but it's all just mandated by the system and friggin' useless.

Damn Hick towns!I actually live down in the "city" which you could memorize in a day and is backwards and Christian, and you are still a freak everywhere you go.

I am tired of playing "watch and laugh at the waygookin (sp?)". How do you guys deal with this? I just want to blend in sometimes, or be told what everyone is saying or laughing about when I hear my name. It's like being on stage ALL of the time. Am I gonna get some freaky Hollywood OCD type thing? I am tired of being on display. It really is like being a clown or monkey.

And this could just be me, but I do detect that a lot of people at my school
just don't see me as being worthy of respect even though I do everything in my power to be pleasant, resourceful, helpful, etc. Most of them just dont' want to bother with me as it is exhausting to speak English for them. Fair enough.

What else? 7 a.m. wake up call means K-paparazzi at stupid o'clock in the morning. Not home until 5. 35 minute commute. Crap money, although I still think I am making as much as my academy peeps. Looooong hours. Shit commute. Total circus freak. Lies from school and dep't. Exploitation. Unacceptable living conditions. Degradation on the regular. Job a joke. Office politics. No sick days and very little holidays.

Am I in the twilight zone of public schools? What is everybody raving about?I can't think of ONE of my 30 or so local hagwon friends that would trade places with me. So they don't get to seat warm? Seat warming sucks. I'd rather be here for 2 less hours and walk home for 5 minutes,
and have the day pass quickly because i am actually doing something, and not something useless.

Whoa, I am losing it. This is LONG. LOL. Thoughts? Is this the beginning of a trend in public schools?

[ajgeddes]

Public School jobs are definitely NOT the best jobs around. I had one of the better ones and I would never go back to it.

[Mirabilis85]

Amen to this post! I worked at a public middle school last year, and although the faculty and staff were very welcoming and I lived a comfortable 5 min walk from school, the learning environment was a nightmare. 40+ boys per class, little motivation to speak English, loud/wild, just very stressful............I enjoy my hagwon alot more.

[Ramen]

Look at the bright side.

Most PS "assistant" teachers do nothing but follow the useless Korean english curriculum to entertain 40+ students and spend most of the day surfing the Internet.

[gazz]

Sorry for your situation!

As for stopping you from having a nervous breakdown there is nothing I can do i'm afraid, other than tell you I went skiing with my PS school yesterday for free!

[Gamecock]

[Chamchiman]

[egrog1717]

From everything I've seen and heard, its really hit or miss with PS jobs...

Case in point, I love my school... Co-teachers, while not the best 100% of the time, are far far far from the worst... My apartment is small, but nice... I have support from the school for anything I need, didn't have a problem setting up my winter camps, had no problem setting up my two weeks of vacation over the winter break, etc etc etc...

So to simply blame the PS system is to forget that there are a lot more crap-wons around then their are bad public jobs... At least here I know they're not going to fire me after 11 months to save on the severance bonus

[xCustomx]

Reasons why I like my PS:

I can teach anything I want in class

About 70-80% of the students pay attention (not the best, but better than some schools where maybe 3-5 pay attention)

At least 10 weeks of vacation per year.

During midterms and finals, I don't teach the week before the exams and the week of the exams. That equates to two months a year where I'm just sitting at my desk. I use this time to plan lessons, study Korean, or work on any other projects that I have.

Random days off because of field trips, sports days, school festivals, school birthday, etc.

Paid on time every month. There has never been a problem about getting pension, severence, insurance or my return airfare paid for.

Free dinners every couple of months. This year we went out for samgyupsal twice, sushi, and a seafood buffet.



Public schools are really luck of the draw. My first year wasn't that great, but after I put my time in and negotiated a better contract, I don't see why I would leave this job.

[nicam]

I'm in Geoje, and apparently there w