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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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 Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 2:49 am Post subject: |
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| Epik_Teacher wrote: |
EPIK has undergone several bureaucratic incarnations since it's start in the mid-1990's as KORETTA. Towards the end of each particular incarnation, the contracts get very picky and legalistic. Money is tight and they are very chintzy about everything. People usually start to bail when they start not paying things as stated in their contracts and try to nickle and dime you to death. We're close to the end phase of this cycle of EPIK. I don't expect it to last past the next school year, then it will be drastically cut.
I've said it before, the "golden age" of teaching English in Korea is coming to a close. Not that it was ever that great in general. With the downturn in the world economy, a coming crash that will outdo the 1997 crash (I was here), and Koreans tightening their belts, I expect the ESL industry will take another nosedive. A lot of teachers will be soon be leaving in droves in 2011. Bottom line, save as much $$ cash as you can and have "Plan B" ready to roll. It's going to get bad in Korea soon. |
The "golden age", or the "five year window" was over in 2002. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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I would guess chinese language academies are the 'next big thing' and will impact english teaching bigger. When? Not sure.How much? Not sure as well. China has replaced America as Korea's biggest trading partner. America will still remain very important, not just economically but also poltically to koreans so it will make english still very relevant.
I don't see teaching english ending soon though. Right now, its just seen as too important to too many parents. The schools have to give the parents what they want. Hogwons would have to follow the same death if its true about english teaching ending.
The best korean universities still require a high score in english. English is still a part of the korean college entrance exams ( Korean College Scholastic Ability Test ) so I don't see how logically english teaching can be obsolete.
So, hogwons may thrive at the expense of the public school's actions. So, its why I asked in a previous post if a quality hogwon may now be better than a public school job. What do you think? |
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Clockout
Joined: 23 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| ATM SPIDERTAO wrote: |
wow my buddy called me on friday night and said that ALL gepik teachers will be fired next year. like in the start of the new school year in march, 2011
is this true?!?!?! are they cutting the education program at public schools completely? i JUST re-signed and love working at my public school. i don't mind if they pay me like... HALF of what i'm currently getting, as long as they pay for my housing too. anyway so what's the deal?
are we getting laid off in march? or are we just gonna be getting less money? i can deal with less money. i spend it on completely frivolous things and all the money i don't spend after a month, i send home anyway. i could literally live the same as i do now on half of the salary. well, 75% would be the same, i could squeeze by with half. i love teaching in korea!! |
Relax dude. The desperation doesn't look good on you. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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EDIT
Last edited by TheUrbanMyth on Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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| ATM SPIDERTAO wrote: |
wow my buddy called me on friday night and said that ALL gepik teachers will be fired next year. like in the start of the new school year in march, 2011
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Rumor. Type "GEPIK program for 2011" into Google.
You will see that they are hiring for Spring 2011 on their site.
Your "buddy" needs to check his facts better before starting rumors. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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Everyone is hiring. However, I've asked tihs in this thread and no one has been able to offer an opinion.
With all these changes to EPIK does a "good" Hogwon jump now trump a public school job? Other than vacation time and possibly actually teaching hours although at some hogwans its comparable are the better hogwans now a better bang for the buck? As far as I know they aren't taxing airfare and such. |
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supernaut
Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Location: Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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| I think hagwons can be a whole lot better with slightly more risk... sure there is less vacation time, but you can travel extensively after the contract is done. that's a little bit more difficult with public schools |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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| sirius black wrote: |
Everyone is hiring. However, I've asked tihs in this thread and no one has been able to offer an opinion.
With all these changes to EPIK does a "good" Hogwon jump now trump a public school job? Other than vacation time and possibly actually teaching hours although at some hogwans its comparable are the better hogwans now a better bang for the buck? As far as I know they aren't taxing airfare and such. |
GEPIK might be having issues. But EPIK is still fine.
The re-signing money plus the extra vacation perk still makes EPIK pretty good, I think. Now with EPIK you can also re-sign out from you Province to another Province. So you can go to an area where you get a lot of extra classes to enhance your pay. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| sirius black wrote: |
Everyone is hiring. However, I've asked tihs in this thread and no one has been able to offer an opinion.
With all these changes to EPIK does a "good" Hogwon jump now trump a public school job? Other than vacation time and possibly actually teaching hours although at some hogwans its comparable are the better hogwans now a better bang for the buck? As far as I know they aren't taxing airfare and such. |
These type of rumours happen every year on Dave's. It used to be "hakwons are firing/not hiring/dying...." or something on those lines. And now it's public schools. Like I said this is pretty much an annual event and it's getting pretty hard to put stock in them after none have panned out so far.
It could be a case of misunderstanding
It could be a school or two is engaging in some creative accounting to fix a shortfall in pay (too many soju parties for the principal..?)
It could be just one or two provinces as well...
But I guess we'll all find out within the next few months. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
| sirius black wrote: |
Everyone is hiring. However, I've asked tihs in this thread and no one has been able to offer an opinion.
With all these changes to EPIK does a "good" Hogwon jump now trump a public school job? Other than vacation time and possibly actually teaching hours although at some hogwans its comparable are the better hogwans now a better bang for the buck? As far as I know they aren't taxing airfare and such. |
GEPIK might be having issues. But EPIK is still fine.
The re-signing money plus the extra vacation perk still makes EPIK pretty good, I think. Now with EPIK you can also re-sign out from you Province to another Province. So you can go to an area where you get a lot of extra classes to enhance your pay. |
Okay, but is it reasonable to assume that EPIK is next? I am trying to get into EPIK and wouldn't want to be in the middle of a contract with GEPIK-like rule changes. Do both organizations act in tandem usually with regards to changes? |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| sirius black wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
| sirius black wrote: |
Everyone is hiring. However, I've asked tihs in this thread and no one has been able to offer an opinion.
With all these changes to EPIK does a "good" Hogwon jump now trump a public school job? Other than vacation time and possibly actually teaching hours although at some hogwans its comparable are the better hogwans now a better bang for the buck? As far as I know they aren't taxing airfare and such. |
GEPIK might be having issues. But EPIK is still fine.
The re-signing money plus the extra vacation perk still makes EPIK pretty good, I think. Now with EPIK you can also re-sign out from you Province to another Province. So you can go to an area where you get a lot of extra classes to enhance your pay. |
Okay, but is it reasonable to assume that EPIK is next? I am trying to get into EPIK and wouldn't want to be in the middle of a contract with GEPIK-like rule changes. Do both organizations act in tandem usually with regards to changes? |
I'm not really 100% sure if both organisations act in tandom or not. It's fair to assume though that they receive pretty much the same guidlines from the Ministry of Education. GEPIK's interpretation and instrumentation of those guidelines could be different from EPIK's though
As I said in my previous post EPIK did change a couple of clauses of their contract from last year to this year. It wasn't anything serious and when I was asked if I wanted to re-sign or not, they provided me with the contract changes at the same time. In fact one of EPIK's changes actually benefits NET's, I.E. being able to request a transfer to a new province.
I used to work for the Govt back home, all govt jobs are prone to either election or policy changes. As long as EPIK continues to give us fair warning of any contract changes then I think they're doing ok.
Any changes mid contract is a sign that there is pressure from above or Institutional problems within EPIK. If changes did occur I would seriously start thinking about plan B or forming an individual contract with a school instead of EPIK, which you can do |
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geldedgoat
Joined: 05 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm still confused how this could legally go down. If taxes and insurance start coming out of everything, then so should pension. I guess that would suck if your visa status doesn't allow you to claim pension, but for everyone else it would be a small pay raise. |
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ekimswish
Joined: 24 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:43 am Post subject: |
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My coworker and I (both foreign) work for GEPIK and were told about this Health Insurance back tax early in October. We fought it then - particularly me - and my principal seemed to really dislike it as well, since they would have to pay their half. I had a million reasons I brought up for why it was wrong. My GEPIK rep was useless, saying that's the way it is, deal with it, basically.
Finally, after a week of complaining, we were informed that it was not just 20,000 won we owed, rather than the 300k or whatever it was supposed to compute to. A few hours later we heard it was now just 18k.
Mysteriously, our problem seemed to have gone away. I wanted to push that argument about Pension and Income Tax (since I get Pension refunded), but since my coworker doesn't get a refund, I left it alone. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:56 am Post subject: |
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| ekimswish wrote: |
My coworker and I (both foreign) work for GEPIK and were told about this Health Insurance back tax early in October. We fought it then - particularly me - and my principal seemed to really dislike it as well, since they would have to pay their half. I had a million reasons I brought up for why it was wrong. My GEPIK rep was useless, saying that's the way it is, deal with it, basically.
Finally, after a week of complaining, we were informed that it was not just 20,000 won we owed, rather than the 300k or whatever it was supposed to compute to. A few hours later we heard it was now just 18k.
Mysteriously, our problem seemed to have gone away. I wanted to push that argument about Pension and Income Tax (since I get Pension refunded), but since my coworker doesn't get a refund, I left it alone. |
Who was pushing it? GEPIK? |
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ekimswish
Joined: 24 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| sojusucks wrote: |
Who was pushing it? GEPIK? |
Well, I was saying it wasn't fair that only Health Insurance gets to tax all those things, particularly going back 3 years, when Income Tax and Pension only counted your basic pay. So, since Pension is 9% and Income and Health are only 3% and 2.5%, I was saying they should also count the housing and extras as taxable, since I knew my refund would be worth it.
But since my coworker is South African and doesn't get a pension refund, as well as knowing it wasn't an argument I'd win, I just kept quiet about it. I'm out of here in two weeks, but he's here another year, so I didn't want to jack up his taxes on him!
But my co-teacher (Korean) did admit it's something they were curious about as well, whether Income Tax would come around in a few months looking for a back tax as well, since Health Insurance was doing it. Thank God I'm outta here. |
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