Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Snowleopard]

I am sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but I really need advice. My school wants me to do afterschool classes. I agreed to do it but now they are saying that I have to shell out my own personal money for a teacher's guide book, which doesn't make sense to me. Why should I have to pay to do overtime that they want me to do? Is this common practice here (i.e. a cultural difference)? I mean, if they are trying to make give them money for a teacher's book, what else are they going to charge me for, the electricity for the room I used to conduct the afterschool classes? My handler started saying that I have to pay because the afterschool classes have nothing to do with the school. If it doesn't have anything to do with the public school, then it not legal for me to work in the afterschool program is it? I don't know everytime I ask her something she sort of gives me the run around. Constructive advice would be deeply appreciated.

[WendyRose]

My school pays for everything and it's my understanding that doing so is typical in Korea.

Is the book you suggested outrageously priced or something? Do they have any books already purchased/owned by the school that you could use?

[Snowleopard]

No, they do not have any used book I can use for the afterschool classes. They only have the ones for the regular classes. No, the book is not outrageously priced. It's more the principle of the situation. I mean what will be next? Will I have to pay for the electricity since I used it for an afterschool class? I�ve just never heard of having to pay to do overtime.

[WendyRose]

[Snowleopard]

Thanks for the advice. I agree there is a lot of good material on the net. They said I wouldn't have access to materials such as paper though, so I would be much more limited in the activities I can do with the class. I think this is why the Korean teachers insist on a book with various activities already incorporated into it.

[Robot_Teacher]

Is showing Loony Tunes Bugs Bunny OK? They really love that as an after school class. How about some Mr. Bean? How about a ball game outside during nice weather?

Their Korean teacher doesn't care what I do as it's a baby sitting thing where I get them at 3 and then they leave at 4 for academy classes.

[Big Mac]

Actually, they are going to charge you for the electricity in the room where you teach these after school classes. It's called a "school facilities fee" and you won't know about it unless you ask for your overtime pay slip. It's five per cent of any overtime you make. And no, I'm not kidding. I was told this is a law made by the government and that they have no choice but to charge it.

I was also told that if I wanted textbooks I would have to buy them myself, but I managed to convince my co-teacher to work it into our English book budget for the year.

I agree that it is very petty for them to do this, but I guess it is a difference of perspective. We see ourselves as doing a favour for them. They think we are making extra money off the school and almost look at it as if we are running our own business on school property.

[Snowleopard]

They actually charged you for electricity Big Mac!!! How did you handle your situation? I'm sorry but I don't think I want to take these extra classes if I have to buy books and pay school facilities fees. I know its not a lot of money separately but all these little things are adding up. I have more than one grade level I must teach so I would have buy a couple of different books. Because the school want each level to have 4 classes a week, I imagine they will go through these books quickly and I will be stuck buying another book. Taking away another 5% on top of that is outrageous. I honestly don't think I make enough money with my overtime if they are going to start charging me for doing this. Who knows what other things they will try to charge me for later? I really don't need overtime, I only accepted it because the school seemed like they really needed me to do it. I wanted to be helpful but this is getting ridiculous. Seriously, this overtime seems to be more trouble than its actually worth. I think I need to have another chat with my handler tomorrow.

[harlowethrombey]

[Snowleopard]

It was their idea to use a book not mine. Personally, I thought it was going to be similar to my winter camp, where I came up with all my own ideas. Thanks for your input harlowethrombey, I appreciate it.

[Surfer Rosa]

The exact same thing happened to me.

My co-teacher and I went to the bookstore to browse for a book for our program. After deciding on a book we get to the register and she just stands there looking at me expectantly. I couldn't believe it.

Whatever though, it was only 12,000W and I get to do whatever I want for class without anybody looking over my shoulder.

[Ukon]

That's weird....the gov and the school always paid generously for materials....sheesh, the district office even pays me when I show up to meetings.

I think she means the class text book.....which makes sense....they're only 10k-35k won(nothing like the bloated college textbooks at $60 a pop)....if each student has to have one, the school will buy it or the students....

Your getting paid well for these classes(I hope) so just suck it up....

[Big Mac]

Yes, they made me pay essentially what is a rental fee on the classroom. They say it includes things like electricity, maintenance, use of the space and that some of the money will go to buying books for the school's library. I make 20,000 Won a class, and about 1,000 Won of that was going to this fee.

I was pretty insulted when I saw that on my pay slip, since no one had informed me of it and it was not in my contract. I was thinking that it was a pretty crappy way to say thanks for working extra hours. I told them I was not going to teach any more classes until they agreed not to charge me for it.

They then brought me a document from the provincial government (Chungcheongnam-do) with a bunch of policies for foreign instructors. I had never seen this document before and there is no reference to it in my contract. The five per cent fee is mentioned in this document. I told them that they can't just pull random documents out of their pocket whenever we have a contract disagreement....that if it's not in my contract, I'm not paying it.

But they kept coming back and saying that every Korean teacher has to pay this fee when they teach after school classes and in fairness I should have to pay.

They then told me that this fee is supposed to be in lieu of income tax. However, up until then I had been paying BOTH income tax (At a much higher rate than normal...something like 4 per cent) and this school facilities fee. So they said that on my next pay they would take away the income tax and only make me pay the school facilities fee. At that point, I gave up because then we were only arguing over something like 100 Won a class.

Seriously, it was getting to the point where we were wasting so much time arguing over this fee (and all the langauge problems that go with it) that it wasn't worth it to keep fighting it. Koreans get extremely pushy when they want their way, even over little things like this. I was also starting to get a reputation at my school as a penny-pincher...and no one seemed to understand why I was fighting over 5 per cent.

To me, it was the principle of charging me rent to do overtime, not the money. But Koreans are too shallow to understand this.

[D.D.]

Big mac refuse to teach for less than 30000 a class with no fees. I get over 60000 for some of my classes with no fees.

[Big Mac]

The overtime rate is definitely going to be a topic in my contract negotiations. Apparently 20,000 Won is bottom of the barrel, and since I am a level 1 teacher I think I'm worth more than that. They refused to negotiate it when I signed the original contract, so I'm stuck with it for now.