Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

Now that I'm in Korea and have made a few round-trips to Seoul from Wonju where I'm staying with my mother-in-law, I have decided to expand my job search to include Wonju and Gangwon Province.

Sidenote --- Back in the late 1990s, a trip between Wonju-Seoul could take 1 1/2 hours or 3+ hours depending on traffic. So far, I haven't hit any kind of traffic like that. I think the road construction and expansion that was taking place then has evenually made bus travel MUCH better...

I'm looking for direct contact info for the Gangwon education board and the Wonju education board. (I've already emailed EPIK on my unique situation...and contacted my former SMOE recruiter whose business also does EPIK recruitement...)

To anybody interested -- job hunt review to date:

My wife (Korean) and I decided I'd return to Korea for at least a year when we heard her father had cancer and couldn't work.

He died a couple of weeks ago.

SMOE dropped me along with the 100 or so others. We decided I'd go to Korea on my own dime since her mother was expecting me. She lives in Wonju.

When it was just cancer and not death, I was limiting my job search to Seoul or suburbs and either SMOE or an adult hakwon.

Since it has become death and I've gotten to see how sad my mother-in-law is at the prospect of living alone for the first time in her life, and how happy it makes her to fuss over me, and since I saw that transportation to Seoul has improved significantly from Wonju, I've expanded my job search to secondary schools in or near Wonju.

Why Seoul?

I came one language class short of earning a MA in East Asian (Korean) studies from a good program in the US when I was considering working on a Ph'd to teach in college. I gave that up...but I have remained interested in Korean history and North Korea....

I really want to do some quality volunteer work with NGOs in Korea who work on NK Human Rights. Those groups are in Seoul...

If I worked in an adult hakwon in Seoul, I might have to accept a split-shift, and that would basically prevent any work-week volunteerism with the NGOs.

A public school position in Wonju might make it more fiasable to catch weekday events in Seoul.........The ones I'm hearing about take place in the evening -- starting a 4 PM or 6 PM or later....

.....I might just be able to fit events like that in by taking the Express Bus between Wonju and Seoul......At least it is in the realm of possibility. A split-shift in an adult hakwon - even in Seoul - wouldn't...