Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wanderingsalsero]

I'm still curious about this issue because I've never had a satisfactory explination. And something in particular makes me wonder how it works.

When I came to this public school (in Suwon) where I am now, it all happened rather quickly. There wasn't really any kind of advance checking them out that I could do. I was just glad to have a job.

But I was very surprised that they put me in a nice but only 11' x 11' crackerbox of an apartment. I posted some complaints and questions about it on Daves and was basically told by several people to 'shut up' and be happy with it because it wasn't really so unusual.

My school told me, when I questioned them about it, that the reason my place was so small was because it was the only nice place they could find for less than the 400,000 (or maybe it was 450,000KW) that they had in 'the budget' for my quarters.

So I thought.......well, OK.

Then just recently I was looking at some videos from another teacher, a Canadian, who put a lot of videos about his experiences on videos on YouTube. He had one video of his apartment it actually looked more like apartment I had in my first school in Namyangju....i.e. decent sized kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and one smaller room suitable for an office.

I've known all along that some teachers get reasonable sized quarters and some don't. My question is, what accounts for that? Is it really a matter of the school budget? And where does the money come from.....the local school tax base or something? Or from the higher ministry of education (or whatever they call it).

I'd always heard that the FET program was a national priority and I assumed that money came from higher than local. And if that's the case, doesn't each school get the same amount of money to spend on teachers?

One reason I want to know too is that I've been led to believe that they'll offer me another contract here. I'm not sure I'll need to take it but, if I do, I'm wondering if I can tell them that I want a bigger apartment.

I don't believe that BS they told me about prices of apartments in Suwon. I've seen videos of teachers apartments here that are much bigger than what I've got. Plus, as far a big-city prices go, I know of people with almost huge places in Haebangchon, in Seoul, that they only paid 700,000 KW for.

[andrewchon]

Ask for a bigger apartment, even if it means living further away from school. Another thing is timing. I arrived after university enrollments and all the rooms were taken by the students. I ended up living very far from from school but in a spacious 2 bed room flat.

[wanderingsalsero]

Makes sense.