Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chinook]

Well, I've done a search and read the threads, and so far it looks like they are crap or they aren't-which seems to be what i find out about any school when i try to research it! guess this is the way things go in korea.

however, should anyone have any info or experience with these folks, i would appreciate it. on this thread, or by pm.

the one contacting me is mokdong.

thanks!

[Kristsoy]

they look for a teacher every month it seems. i went for an interview at that same location. i told them that their contract was a bunch of shit and walked out of the interview

[crazylemongirl]

[Dawn]

I came close to signing there in the past and would seriously consider it again in the future, should I decide I want to live in Seoul. [Turned them down only because I got an offer from a school that (1) had a traditional half-day kindergarten program, (2) hired certified, experienced teachers ONLY and (3) was located in the countryside.]

As crazylemongirl noted, they DO expect you to work for your income. Lesson planning, testing, and writing report cards are non-optional. But they have a pretty good curriculum and a fair number of resources available to teachers. Their students also seemed to be a cut above average. All in all, it seemed like a pretty sweet job for someone who actually wants to teach. Definitely not the place, though, for folks just wanting to draw an easy paycheck.

[matthews_world]

POLY gets some flack on this board. I'm sure there are both positives and negatives. People usually post the negative.

I've considered the school in the past also. 2.0-2.4 sounds great for non-kindy.

[Kristsoy]

no one gets 2.4 unless u work there for 3 years. that's one of the things they told me in the interview. also, the school in mok dong, the housing is 40 mins walking away from the school which is way too far.

They use american text books which are very thick, and they want you at the school 2 hours before class starts which is at 3 and you dont finish until 9. wtf?

1-9 no fucking thanks

now you know why i got up and left
and they were only offering 2.0

[crazylemongirl]

[Kristsoy]

well 2 hours of prep is too much for any school here. Just because u dont understand english doesnt mean the rest of us native speakers need that much time.

are u even a legal teacher?

[crazylemongirl]

[Kristsoy]

im sure I do more than u

[crazylemongirl]

[Gord]

[chinook]

so,

if i got like 2.1 or 2.2 mil for all the extra work, that would be good? i don't actually mind working. i don't want to be exhausted though, and i've read a few threads that talk about burnout because of too many hours.

and is 40 minutes walking for housing a really bad thing for korea (it's hard for me to compare, i work an hour by bus away from home in vancouver, but i lived in scotland for 3 years, where we regularly walked 40 minutes just to go to a favourite pub. i don't mind walking, unless there is some special korean aspect to it that i'm missing here). what is standard in terms of closeness to school?

thanks everyone!

[crazylemongirl]

[Hagwon Muppet]

Irrespective of whether teachers should spend time prepping and how much ... if one school is prepared to pay for a teacher without specifying 2 hours prep and another school is offering the same salary but specifies additional unpaid prep time then school #2 is at a disadvantage.

You can argue about the rights/wrongs of prep/not-prepping but at the end of the day they are competing for staff and if they want their staff to work harder they should compensate accordingly.

Even the 'best' teacher would be stupid to volunteer for extra work.