Korean Job Discussion Forums

crazy_bagman · Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: Donducheon

So my paper work has taken too long and now I'm near the end of the Spring Semester cycle for Public school positions. I have offers, EPIK and some GEPIK area Public Schools, but they're gonna be in the Rural areas.

I'm fine with it to some extent so long as I have highspeed internet a gym to go to on the weekdays and a quick ride to Seoul on the weekends. But I want to hear some advice on it.

Anyone have the experience on coming in late and what was it liked?

I just don't want to be in a town of old people and kids only I guess, haha.

Anyone live in Suwon? How is it? I feel like this would be a cool place as it's close to Seoul and has plenty of colleges so it would be a social place to meet the college girls, haha.

Anyone live in the Gangwon Province? Opinions? I see that they're still hiring and have really long vacations, 5 weeks comepared to the usual 3.

EPIK still have positions in the gyeongbuk, anyone been there?

Just let me know any advice for coming in late to get the last of Public school positions and how to find out which one is better?

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Some places (like SMOE) will only hire during 2 times in the year. So, if you start in the rural places in April and finish a year, you will have to wait until August to start work with SMOE.

Also, University jobs start around the same times too. If you plan to move on to another job, then starting late could put you at a disadvantage because of your contract end date.

wylies99 · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: I'm one cool cat!

There should be job openings all of the time for various reasons. You may have to dig a little harder to find them, but they're there.

Perceptioncheck · Joined: 13 Oct 2008

I came about three weeks after semester started with EPIK. I ended up at a couple of very rural schools outside a town largely populated by adjummas and their scary, scary perms.

One of my schools is great while the other was not so good but that's more to do with my co-teachers than anything else. I think it's a bit of a crapshoot, regardless of whether you're coming in late or not.

I think you can get high speed internet pretty much anywhere in Korea. Even my schools which only have a handful of students and are literally in the middle of nowhere - no houses, no shops, no traffic - have high speed internet. As for a gym, you'll probably find one in most towns. My town has a population of under 100,000 and several great (and cheap!) gyms.

I personally think you're doing the right thing by looking for a school that's within shooting distance of Seoul. That's pretty much all that was missing for me this year. So good luck and happy hunting; I'm sure you'll be able to find somewhere that fits for you and don't let any dodgy recruiters convince you otherwise!

broken76 · Joined: 27 Jan 2008

Pretty much the best locations will be gone by now. Most of the placement for this term actually happened back in December and January. The only real way a nice location will pop up is if a teacher couldn't make it in or left early. The best times to apply for public schools are about 2-3 months before the start of term if you want a nice location.

Otherside · Joined: 06 Sep 2007

If by rural areas, you are referring to Suwon, then you'll be in for a surprise. With a population of 1.1mil and a population density of over 8000/sq.Km it's anything but. For the most part, it feels just like over 90% of Seoul.

If you are talking about working in a rural area but living in Suwon. Well, that's what I do, and I know quite a few people who do the same. The major con is the commute to work. (It can vary from about 15 mins, to about an hour depending where you work). However, they usually put you up by Suwon station, which in my opinion is busier, more vibey and has more going for it than 95% of Seoul. It's also a great transport hub and offers a train which takes 22 mins to get to Seoul (yeongdeungpo, add 5/10 mins for Yongsan and Seoul Station), and 3 different express bus routes to different parts of Seoul (Sadang, Gangnam and Jamsil). Other perks include getting the rural bonus (an extra 100K/month and 5 more days vacation). From 2009, they've also started pay commuting costs.

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

You get the rural bonus for living in Suwon? ROFL

Xuanzang · Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Location: Sadang

Morgen · Joined: 02 Jul 2008

Gangwon vacations are nice, but be aware that if you accept a rural position here that it will be very rural indeed. Rural Korea is not like rural America, though, in that you will definitely be able to get high-speed internet (but not necessarily cable tv) and bus service to the city or Seoul is also reasonably frequent, generally speaking; but also there probably will not be a good grocery store nearby. It's also not a good idea if you're uncomfortable being locally famous.

However, I know that Gangwon came up a bit short on teachers this time around, though, because I'm being transferred from my rural school (where I always thought it was weird that they had two FTs) and moved to the nearest city to start teaching at a school there. I know some people with reasonably good urban jobs who are leaving, too, whose jobs will need to be filled. The province is currently in the process of trying to have two FTs in public schools, so there's a fair chance that places didn't hit their quota, and also that you'll have another confused foreign person around.

A note about Gangwon vacations, also, is that it's not five weeks at a stretch, unless your principal likes you and tells you to do home study during the school breaks. You have three weeks in the winter and two weeks in the summer.

As has been mentioned, Suwon is definitely not rural, so if an urban area what you want you should be fine there.

Otherside · Joined: 06 Sep 2007

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

sugarloaf82 · Joined: 21 Dec 2008

I am a GEPIK high school teacher who arrived late in the semester (November) in a VERY rural area-- a town of about 3,000 people. And there isn't much here. At first I loved it. I'm surrounded by the mountains, the school is small, I know all the students and teachers, I have fast internet, a small gym, there's a train station in town and it only takes a little over an hour by train to Seoul, everything is literally within a 5 minute walk from my apartment... Great! Now, four months later, my opinions are changing.

During the week it's fine, I go to school, then the gym, then home. But the lack of other teachers around can become an issue. Especially when I was working just a couple hours a day during "vacation" and then just sitting around all afternoon. My weekends are my savior and head into Seoul, or elsewhere, every weekend, which is a must for my sanity! I think the hardest part is the lack of social stimulation. I hang out with fellow K teachers often, but you can only do that so much.

I'll stick out my year here, but if I had known know what I had known then I would have definitely taken a GEPIK posting such as Suwon, or a larger city in the area, but still close to Seoul.

QbertP · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Location: Seoul

If you interested in living in Seoul proper I might be able to point you towards a highschool that could be hiring.

crazy_bagman · Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Location: Donducheon

Okay, you guys have been very cool giving me your experiences and I really appreciate it. I also have to be honest with myself and I'm a young, good looking guy, and I want to have a good time with the entertainment social life of Seoul and meet girls on my free time instead of making it my only weekend thing. Though it's not the main reason that I want to come to South Korea, as I wanted to see South Korea and Asia for years.

So I don't think rural would be good for me as I would be feeling stuck except the weekends and I want to be able to go out and have a good time on a weekday evening casually.

So if anyone has any info how to get to Seoul proper, or even in the GEPIK region, like preferred recruiters or even how to find the schools themselves if I have to that would also be cool.

QbertP I'm totally interested in Seoul, so if you can email me that would be cool.

Thanks!

yeremy · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:49 am Post subject: PS latecomer

I live in Gyeongbuk and the only place that I think would fit your criteria would be Daegu. The rest of the province would be too rural and too "old" for you.

I also heard that Footprints (a recruiter) has a good rep with Gyeongbuk EPIK. A lot of their applicants seem to have been placed in EPIK, which I heard recently. Ann Park at Korvia is an expert at late placements in GEPIK, which I think you should apply for if not SMOE.