Korean Job Discussion Forums

[discostu333]

I'm coming to the end of my contract at a very difficult middle school and today they dropped another bomb on me; my school doesn't break for winter vacation til 31st December (New Years Eve).

All my other friends break either the 23rd or 24th December and are going home for Christmas, leaving me alone over the festive and new year period (queue violins). I'd be interested to know if it is normal to have classes this late in the year, or whether my school truly is the worst in Korea.

[nomad-ish]

my school breaks on december 28th. it sucks, but it's not a huge deal.

[Nadia_M]

My school's break starts the 29th.

[Caffeinated]

Ugh. Mine starts on Christmas Day.

[thegadfly]

I work at a hakwon, so maybe I shouldn't chime in, but we have off starting Dec. 19th (back on Jan. 2nd).

[CentralCali]

You do know there very well may be a "winter camp" which you will be required to teach, right?

[dumpring]

My hakwon has 4 days off at the start of December. Teaching thru xmas, new years, the whole lot. Bleak, bleak winter haha.

[AsiaESLbound]

We have regular classes until December 22nd, but some sorta unplanned camps are supposed to happen during the 1st 2 weeks of January so I'm looking at going to the sunny warm tropics for 2 weeks about January 15th. If I can get my 2 weeks to start on the 19th, then I get 18 days instead of 14 due to adding a 4 day weekend for Lunar New Years. It's worth a try to score 4 more days of warm sunshine in the dead of Winter.

[thegadfly]

Central Cali,

You talkin' to me? No, my school has no Summer or Winter camps -- it closes down for two weeks at the end of each semester. That is atypical for hakwons, as the camps are par for the course at pretty much every other place, but my gig is pretty atypical....

[CentralCali]

thegadfly: Nope. I was talking to the OP. That's assuming, of course, that he's actually a school employee as opposed to being hired by one of those after-school companies.

[discostu333]

[ticktocktocktick]

28th Dec. I think I have camp in the first week of Jan too.

[ippy]

I dunno for sure, but i anticipate mine will break up around the 24th (though likely it'll be tuesday the week after because koreans really hate doing things in blocks of weeks (i mean they started this term on a friday???)

Either way, ill still be doing a two or three week winter camp straight after, so technically the break will be mid january :/

[JBomb]

a lot of my friends were stuck back here for Christmas last year. From the pics and the sound of things it was a way better Christmas than I had back in the Great White North.

[Scamps]

I work at a middle school too and our last day is the 28th, so the break starts from the 29th...but sometime in January or February I'll have to teach a two week long winter camp.