Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Shimokitazawa]

Can anyone comment on the current positions offered at Yonsei University FLI? I'm curious what typical contract terms are - i.e., compensation, hours per week, vacation time, housing, etc. I looked at a position there a few years ago but it might have been in a different Department. Is the College English Department included under the umbrella of the Foreign Language Institute? I found a thread on the FLI that is about 5 years old and it based on what has been written there it doesn't sound promising. Have things improved?

[makemischief]

It's a hagwon. The College English department has nada to do with the FLI, and teachers who start at the FLI have substantial problems trying to move from there to a regular Yonsei job (as other parts of Yonsei tend to look down their noses at the FLI, right or wrong). Conditions are eh. My friend left there recently- liked the students, disliked the admin, but it was okay (just okay) overall given that he wasn't super experienced. You could do much better, but you could also do much worse.

[Shimokitazawa]

[languistic]

[PatrickGHBusan]

unigown to be exact but languistic makes a good point: OP what do you bring to the table?

[Shimokitazawa]

I just realised that the programme was a univerity hogwan / language center / institute. I had confused it with the College English Dept.

Anyone know what other depts. at Yonsei hire full-time foreign EFL instructors?

I'm hoping to get 4 or 5 million won a month and a housing stipend of say US $500. I'm looking to teach no more than 9 - 12 hours per week and no summer / winter camps.

[Otherside]

[languistic]

[Sector7G]

Maybe this is not relevant to the thread, but unigwons can be really good places to work. In fact, in my case, a great place to work!

The university language center I am just finishing a year contract with paid me 2.3 a month with 4 weeks vacation. I was paid overtime for anything over 22 hours a week(and yes, we got overtime almost every month, paid separately).

Fringe benefits:

Beautiful university campus setting.

Nice university building office.

Beautiful university coeds.

The nicest, most modern apartment of my 4 during my time here in Korea.

The financial stability that the university connection brings. Payment was never an issue.

3 of the 5 daily classes were adult classes(mostly university students but some housewives). A real pleasure to teach.

Several weeks of "reduced classes" between terms. (The adult and kid's terms were on different tracks) Some weeks I had only 2 classes a day!

A general "hands off" approach from administration(actually, in some cases, they were too "hands off").

Anyway, maybe not as good as getting 4 million won a month for 12 hours, but still, not a bad gig.

[Sector7G]

One more important fringe benefit:

Several of my colleagues both past and present have parlayed their experience teaching adults here into securing "real" university positions, and have done that with out Master's degree to boot. So, it can be a great "stepping stone" job as well.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[cdninkorea]

[cdninkorea]

[Shimokitazawa]

The highest salary I've been offered is 4 million won a month with campus housing, then 3.5 million won a month which included a US $500 a month housing stipend. Finally, I received offers of 2.8 million won a month and the 1.7 million - 2.1 million won a month position above with $450 housing stipend payed bi-monthly. The first job though had a 3 year cap on contract renewals while the other offers did not.

CDN, if I had to guess and comparing myself to other instructors I know, I suppose I might be at the top-end of qualifications for foreign EFL teachers in Korea.

[WadRUG'naDoo]