Korean Job Discussion Forums

[muyricotico]

Yes, I know....Daves is a great place to vent all of your frustrations, but for all of us trying to make our way to S.Korea for the first time and reading all these horror posts is more than frustrating. Seriously, does anyone else leave Daves more confused than thankful???

So I ask those teachers who are CURRENTLY working at a public/private school to PLEASE post your experience! We know, "it depends" but come on...give us all a break and be specific about the name of the school and location. I know there are a lot of happy teachers out there...it's time to start hearing from them.

[vaticanhotline]

I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, and no desire to do any real work.
(1) Nobody in their right minds would post the name and place of their school on an internet message board that's open to anyone who wants to look at it. But you should know that simply from the fact that nobody posts with their real name (I use my company's name, but I'm not the manager).

(2) A thread asking people why they are negative/why can't they stop being negative on Dave's is like a way of measuring time; you know at least a month has passed in Korealand. Simply put, pedantry, backbiting, sarcasm, and occasional outbursts of outright verbal abuse are much more fun than slapping each other on the back constantly. There's plenty of the latter here, but it takes place in bars.

Look, the point is, don't worry about all the negativity. At worst, it's good practice for using your bullsh#*t filter for when you do get here and have to deal with all the little parts of living here.

[Bloopity Bloop]

[Kurtz]

Look, it's win win. If you come here expecting the worst and things are great, what a relief right? then you can go posting how everyone on Dave's is such a whinger, but if you heard about horror stories and started getting your own, well at least you were informed beforehand.

On a slightly snarky note, how old are you? are you expecting everything all rosy from people on an internet forum?, no news is good news.

[Countrygirl]

I think the horror stories are the best thing about Dave's Better than the posters who brag about making piles of money on overtime, who never have any co-teacher or discipline issues, and who don't have to deskwarm in a freezing school with only the VP and janitor as company.

There are also a lot of good posts with great advice in regards to discipline, lesson planning, etc in addition to the horror stories. Pick and choose what you want to read.

And when you do come to Korea, if your own experience turns out to be great when you've been expecting the worst, you've come out on top, haven't you?

[SW]

[Manuel_the_Bandito]

[asylum seeker]

Can we please stop all this negativity about the negativity?

[Groznyji]

For reasons already mentioned I'm not going to post where I'm currently working. I will say, however, that it's a very large hagwon.

I can sympathize with your feelings about all the negativity not just on these forums but on the internet in general. People don't generally go online to talk about how happy they are with their decisions. They go online to vent their frustrations. This is to the detriment of people who are doing research and stumble across those frustrated rants. Internet research will often give you a grossly distorted view of any major life decision, including your decision to travel to a foreign country for an extended period.

I've always wanted to travel to Asia and when I decided to sign a contract with my Korean employer I was very worried about all the things I head read online (and I assure you, I probably read EVERYTHING that was available at the time). I prepared for every possible contingency because everything I had read, and especially everything I had read about hagwons, was horrible.

My job is great. I love most of my coworkers and that's unusual for me because I'm a bit of a misanthrope. My boss is, quite honestly, a jerk, but he sticks to the contract and for all practical purposes treats us quite well. I do my work in a relatively laid-back environment and go home. The rare problems that have arisen are barely worth mentioning. The Korean teachers are a different story but you wouldn't be on this forum if you wanted a Korean teacher's position.

I'm very happy with my decision to come to Korea and I'm very happy with my employer.

That said, be sure to plan your trip. Don't come to Korea without an escape plan. I came with enough money to pay for a ticket home if something went wrong. So far I've never met any foreign teachers who had any major complaints about their schools, public or private, and I've met A LOT of teachers here. The only horror stories I've heard come from the internet. This leads me to believe that most of the horror stories, while they make up a large portion of the information available online, really only represent a minority of the foreign teacher community.

That's it in a nutshell.

OP, if you have any more specific questions for me feel free to PM me.

[air76]

[muyricotico]

Groz,
Much appreciated seeing how your post was the only sincere and helpful one!

[Steve_Rogers2008]

just think of the horror stories as cautionary tales, the pitfalls to AVOID once you get here...

[Sadebugo1]

[nomad-ish]

[Groznyji]