Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sonicmatt]

I heard of a form the Korean teachers sign when vacation time comes up that if they do an essay about teaching then they don't have to sit at school and desk warm. I am pretty sure an old friend used it before but he has come and gone from Korea and is hard to reach. Does anyone know of this form and how to get it? I am pretty sure it does not say on the form that you have to be a Korean or Native teacher.

[Michelle]

[Ramen]

[sonicmatt]

cool thanks for the update. still puzzles me why they think our time is better served watching movies at school versus watching them at home.

[Whitey Otez]

I just left my hogwan job of two years, and the presenteeist attitude of the boss was a sticking point between us. The sides were clearly defined: his position was that he bought and paid for forty hours of my life plus special occasions, and he'd like me to be "available" for every last minute of my contracted time; my position was that as a grown man with a college education, I ought to be responsible enough to know when my day is finished and when I can go out for a meal. Very few sane people would have stayed as long as I did, but after a few months off both my thumb and my hind end are no longer sore.

[fusionbarnone]

Ask your co-teacher anyway. The form says you will work on school materials at home(have your lesson plans all arranged and enjoy your paid time at home or in Jeju. I've had it before and used the time to prepare for my TKD black belt grading. It's awesome if you can get your teacher to bring in a form for you.

[kabrams]

They got rid of this at GEPIK because too many people went on vacations (instead of traveling around Korea or doing work at home) and then couldn't keep their mouths shut. Once their schools and then GEPIK found out about it they got mad and said no one could have "extra vacation days" (as they put it).

[Seoulio]

Perhaps many schools/principals ( and I know this is a RADICAL concept) expect you to do some kind of work for the break.

I am torn between this deskwarming situation

On the one hand I understand that you are paid to come in and do work, and that there is work that you can be doing if you wanted to

On the other hand i also understand that on most given days the amount fo work I have to do is not going to fill in the entire timr I have to do it. These are the days when I admit I will watch s movie or an episode of television.

As for the deskwarmimg days between vacation periods, again I am torn. I am currently doing deskwarking now, and I fully beleive that were I to simply not come in my school would not even notice, but as the new year is about to start I am doing this TOTALLY radical thing and doing some actual work. I am revamping my lesson plans, creating some new and interesting games, tweaking my dialogues, and organizing my class and my computer files.

Now of course I take some well deserved R and R during the day, watch an episode of T.V, check my facebook, but I am also taking some time to do what I am being paid to do, and that is work.

Once the new year comes I am LOVING The fact that I will have some open time to do some of my things I need to get done but usually have no time for (learning a language, writing my novel, call some freinds back home)

We get 21 days of vacation, that works out to be an entire MONTH of vacation. Sometimes it broken up, sometimes its less than the Koreans, but that is not a BAD amount of vacation. Many jobs get much less vacation, and many jobs get vacations at terrible times ( if you are on a rotation schedule)

it just seems like many people will complain if they are asked to actually work the days on days they signed a contract they said they would work on.

I have known three teachers this year ( that I can confirm) who have had "work from home" days. All three left the country, and came back and were still not all that prepared, and likely didnt even have a written lesson plan.

I know this is a novel concept people, but this is a job, we are paid and contracted to work a certain number of days, you can not compare us to the Korean teachers as we have entirely different rights and expectations.

I am not saying I am using ALL of my time to work, but I am using a good chunk of it and not trying to weasel more vacation than I agreed to. If they want to freely give it to me outside of my contract then fine, I will take it of course, but if they say, come in to work, I come in and find something to do, even if half of it is watching the odd show or surfing the internet.

Bottom line, take what you are freely given, but stop asking for more than you signed on for. They have no obligation to give you more than you agreed to, and I would think that MOST of you could find some actual work to do if you tried.

[egrog1717]

[Whitey Otez]

[Cerberus]

[sonicmatt]

i totally understand about doing my contract but throughout the year the korean teachers kept saying how me and the other teachers should be treated the same. but when it comes to the desk warming and such that now we should be treated different. my argument is either we get treated the same all the time or treated different all the time.

[Seoulio]

[Horangi Munshin]

Yeah I do my job, I do more than required.

When I started I was told any camps done during vacation time would be paid well. They were till the last contract. Oh well things change.

If your school is organized, can pay you on time, and tell you about important things in advance you're lucky. Also if they actually care about the quality of your teaching not just doing all the special 'face' programs that take up your time, then you're lucky.

No new texts, timetable, knowledge of co-teacher etc....

Next week I'll be making DVDs of my pics and vids from last year.

I have all the planning I can do done. My parents class is sorted till the end of my contract!

[Ramen]