Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jhuntingtonus]

Any thoughts on how working conditions are at these? I saw that the one I am interviewing with has only 14 business days of vacation, otherwise are they similar to the public schools themselves, or more like hagwons?

[Underwaterbob]

Never heard of them, but they sound suspiciously similar to Unigwons, which are hagwons run by universities: sounds like you're working for a university, turns out it's a hagwon.

[jhuntingtonus]

Thanks... hours are 8:30-4:30, 28 hours of teaching, 2.6-2.7 per month, elementary school students. Why would primary school students be there during the day?

[Katchafire]

At my Public Elementary school - the half of the second floor where my classroom is, has been decorated, with a big sign welcoming everyone to the 'English Center'. That could be what you have described.
You are basically a FT working in the 'English' Zone of the school - aka, the English Classroom. Sounds fancy doesnt it!

[dmbfan]

These centers are nothing but glorified hogwons.

The money is still on par with the various levels of the foreign public school teachers.

But, if you have a good handler and a good principle...you may be able to get some good teaching in.

If not, then it is a waste of time. Hell, it is a waste of time anyway.

It has been said before..................instead of throwing more money at the problem, Korean public schools should try and solve the problem. Make English a subject that is taught at three times a week (for middle school on up).

dmbfan

[Ukon]

[wylies99]

I know two people who've been suckered into leaving their regular SMOE and EPIK jobs for one of these centers, (run by SMOE and EPIK), and both hated their jobs. The SMOE "center" is located north of Seoul and the foreign teachers actually live in dorms and work 6-7 days per week. They make some money, but their lives become hellish. The one who fell for the SMOE "center" job was approached at SMOE orietntation and hated every minute of being at the "center." Yes, she did a runner.

[lifeinkorea]

I work at one, and no one has yet said why they think it is "hellish". At my English Zone we get 3 rooms to work from as well as one teacher's room. The only other person that works there is my co-teacher. We have acess to a total of 6 computers and a 7th one which is a big interactive screen, which hate to say it has some disadvantages over a normal chalkboard. You can only bring one student up at a time or do a dialogue with like 2 or 3.

The classes are free form, we can do as we wish. We are not locked into the books, which I understand regular public school jobs are. We end at 4:30 regardless what our daily schedule is. Today another school is coming to visit, and they want to leave early. Usually morning classes are 2 hours, but today it will be 1.5 hours. Then our next class is at 3 for 40 minutes. So we will have 2 hours and 10 minutes. The rest of the day we just do what we want.

Another benefit is I get a little overtime pay because I was transferring my visa from a hagwon that paid well. The overtime just means I teach like 2 or 3 more classes a week. We still finish before 4:30.

Hell? There sure are a lot of other crap jobs out there. This isn't one of them.

Now, let's get to the negative issues, and see if the pros still outweigh the cons. The morning classes, "sessions", are 2 hours instead of meeting 3 days for 40 minutes. This means you don't meet with students often. In fact, they only come like once a month from the school, and for other schools visiting, each grade visits only once per semester. We don't get to develop a relationship with the students and "get to know them". However, our afternoon classes are more like public school/hagwon classes.

We teach 3 mixed classes MWF and then Thursday we don't teach the 3rd and 4th graders. That is on Tuesday, like I mentioned earlier. This can be crappy because at the beginning of the year, there is a wide gap between levels and the school doesn't want to change classes to match students at the same level. However, we do have some students from last semester, and if they are scheduled to use the same book then they are allowed to move up to the next class.

We have had to split the 5th and 6th graders so we can teach them more effectively. After 1 month, we are now working on bringing them back together. You don't experience any of this in the Fall semester because the students have had 6 months to meld.

In the end, it's the same students. So, I consider myself lucky that I don't have to teach out of a book assigned by the school. We can pick and choose our material.

Another downside could be is that they don't provide a curriculum. We have had to decide what to teach, and we are not veterans at this. It's a lot of trial and error, and sometimes really frustrating because we teach things out of order. Then we realize what we should have done.

Would this be rectified if we followed a set curriculum? Maybe, but I would get bored and feel the same stuff tedious day after day.

I have the security of public school pay, after getting screwed by 2 hagwons, and I can have the freedom to teach what I want that the hagwons provide without having to stick to a public school curriculum.

In the end, if I wanted to work at an elementary school, I wouldn't leave this place. I just want to move up and work at a middle school now.

[blonde researcher]

Many public schools have received special funding to build an English Immersion Center in a classroom in their school. In these immersion classes the foreign teacher is meant to have more flexibility.These new jobs have only become available in the last 6 months and many more are due to starting public schools.
These jobs are all under EPIK contracts and during normal EPIK hours and holidays the same as all the other GET teachers. The benefits are identical and housing provided is the same as EPIK SMOE or GEPIK.
They are not hagwons or private after school classes.
Many of the public schools have been hiring directly for teachers.
I have heard that the EPIK office sent many of their February orientation intake to immersion centers in Busan public schools.I think SMOE has put a few teachers in these types of classrooms as well.

[lifeinkorea]

English Village
English Zone
English Immersion Center
Language institute
Cram School
Academy
Afterschool Program
Talk Program

Maybe when these projects are planned, they have individual goals, but in practice it seems like they are all the same.

Someone decided to call one our rooms an "auditorium". It looks nothing like a real auditorium. It's more of just a presentation room with a projector screen.

[jhuntingtonus]

Blonde Researcher, I think you have it. I interviesed there today, and all seems favorable. A lot of work (30 40-minute classes per week), but pays about 2.9 with overtime. The teacher I asked said they were glad they had chosen it, that it was great. Administration and teachers all seem concerned.

Thank you, all, for the feedback! It is indeed quite hard to tell the players without a scorecard.

[blonde researcher]

The public school immersion centers can only pay a salary according to your level on the main EPIK scale. That is what they are funded by the government for. How can they offer you 2.9 million?
Is your contract more than the standard 22 classes in the contract, or are you on 2.5 million base salary (Level1) and are getting the 400 000 accommodation allowance they must pay if you have your own housing?

[jhuntingtonus]

2.2 million base, average 0.7 more for overtime (30 classes per week).

[prairiegirl81]

I also work in one of these English Zones and so far it has been pretty good.

I'm employed by GEPIK and make the standard newbie salary. I work 24 classes per week. 15 of these are after school classes that I am free to plan as I please. These classes are divided into 1-2 Grade, 3-4 Grade, and 5-6 Graders and I see the same kids every day. It's great to really get to know your students (I've almost memorized all their Korean names!) and see some progress. As a bonus my Huband was hired to teach at the same school and does the exact same job as me with another group of students (the "remedial" kids) in the room next door. Our other hours are made up of extra classes that we teach to the rest of the school once a week. They have one other FT here who gets to do all the official Public school curriculum.