Korean Job Discussion Forums

Trevor · Joined: 16 Nov 2005

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=38884

The reasons it bothers me is because, in the U.S. and other western countries, "part-time" means:

- no insurance
- limited hours
- no benefits
- no discernable future
- a lot of time spent in your car, traveling from one "part-time" job to another
- No pay for administrative work such as grading, correcting and office hours.
- Generally getting pissed on.

I know of many, many Korean teachers, as well, who are in this boat. They have to travel from one job site to another to patch together a living and it is not a high-quality existance. Does that mean it is necessarily a bad position? Well, no but I would hate to see the native-English job market go in this direction.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

If you're an F-2, that sort of gig can be great.

Couple that with another PT job (or the right low-impact PT hourly job) elsewhere, and you can be making in excess of 4 to as high as 5 million right quick.

Looney · Joined: 23 Dec 2008

FistFace · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:57 pm Post subject:

Nah. I called them. They make it sound like teaching hours can be decided after negotiation, but they still want you to be there Monday to Thursday... about 5 hours of teaching. That basically means 1 hour a day, with maybe 2 hours on one of the days. For 40,000 per hour, that kind of sucks unless you live close.

Trevor · Joined: 16 Nov 2005

I would like to know why their full-time staff can't cover these hours. It isn't my intention to criticize the particular school -- for all I know, they may be an excellent employer and there is certainly nothing wrong (in theory) with hiring part-time staff. I am concerned, though, about a 'part-time movement' as a trend for hiring practices because I think it could really diminish the quality of life overall for foreign instructors. Having three part-time jobs is a much diferent life than having one full-time, and it is easy to abuse teachers if everyone is doing it.

And also, why will they not accept F2's? Only F4's?

FistFace · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:54 am Post subject:

The F-2 omission was just a typo.

I wouldn't be concerned about the PT issue. They only have 5 hours per week to fill, which isn't enough for another full-time professor.

There can be rule-oriented reasons for why they won't hire a FT teacher, as well. For example, at our school, we had a teacher cancel less than a month before the semester started. They had to hire someone quickly, but according to university policy, the department was only allowed to hire someone for 1 semester with the title of "Visiting Professor" because it was a quick hire out of desperation. This was because the person was not hired through desired vetting channels, which include committees and at least 2 to 3 interviews.

It's my guess that our school has such rules to prevent the hiring of too many "friends of friends" without those in charge getting a full look-see. There could be national laws about such things, as well. It wouldn't surprise me.

Anyway, this is nothing to be worried about. From my standpoint, as an F-2, part-time jobs with block hours are the bee's knees, for the reasons someone mentioned above.