Korean Job Discussion Forums

[flashguns]

I am hoping to find work in a Public School starting March 2012, however I have one small (possibly large?) problem.

My sister is getting married on the 23rd June (a Saturday) and of course, this is during term time. Now there is no chance I will be missing the wedding, but where does this leave me as far as Public school work? I would need at the very least to take the Friday off work and most likely the Monday also (24 hours travel time).

Should I:
a) Be completely honest from the start (I know, there�s not much worse you can do in an interview than ask about holiday!)
b) Assuming I find work, keep quiet for a couple of months and �prove my worth� before enquiring and cross my fingers.
c) Feel that I have a bad case of Man flu coming on 9 months in advance and not breathe a word to anyone of the wedding, my least favourite option.

Is it very much dependant on the individual school? Really I would like to go with a)... But if there's not a hope in hell of that going anywhere then I need to rethink my options.

[nathanrutledge]

Public school job, you can't take the time of. Period.

Sure, there will be someone who knew someone who had a friend who did.

But you tell them you want that time off in the interview, no job. You come here and do a fantastic job, they still won't give you that time off.

You could call in sick on Friday and Monday. Hopefully they won't come looking for you. Odds are, they WILL and you'll have some explaining to do. Not too hard to do - I was really sick so I stayed with my gf/bf so they could look after me. My phone died, that's why I didn't answer when you called.

Of course, the trick is calling in on that Monday...

Really, the ONLY way you could really pull it off is if you have a coworker who you are cool with. Someone who you can tell this too and they'll say "oh, yeah, they called earlier and are sick, won't be in." Good luck trying to find someone like THAT.

Long story short, come here and work, or stay there for the wedding.

[ttompatz]

1st contract, 1st term in a public school (3 months into your new contract) and 4 weeks before the end of term your chances of a 4-day weekend are SLIM at best.

If you pull a "fly out and back flu" and it is discovered you risk your job (grounds for termination without notice and loss (from your deposit/outstanding pay) of your inbound flight and settlement allowance.

A= won't get hired (there are 20 more applicants for that PS position).
B= VERY slim but not entirely "0".
C= 4 million reasons not to risk it.
D = hagwan job it may be slightly more possible but still unlikely.

Trying for the August intake of EPIK (usually bigger than spring anyway) is also an option.

.

[flashguns]

Not the replies I wanted, but probably what I expected.

I may have a go with finding a position that would consider letting me go from the outset, possibly Hagwan, but not hold out much hope, and I guess look to more likely start next August instead.

Thanks for the responses.

[litebear]

[rayray123]

I have a similar situation... brother's wedding that I have to attend in the US in May. I'm looking for a hakwon job, is it better to bring this up from the start? Or to wait a while before mentioning it?

[allan of asia]

People who come overseas need to realize that there are things you are going to have to miss when you live overseas. If you think you cannot accept missing out on family events its not the thing for you to be honest. You should stay home.

Im not saying the OP is like this in any way - but I do know people who have tried to get time off for what I would class as trivial things like a cousins wedding or a brother in law's birthdays or Thanksgiving - it simply in most cases is not possible to do this! If you think its NOT trivial and you simply must be at everything - move back home or better still dont come to work abroad. The first Christmas was hard but after that, it gets easy!

I work in PS and truthfully I DO KNOW someone who was given a week off during term time for his brother's wedding BUT everyone else who has asked for time off for anything in term time other than a very close family death has been a flat out refusal.

[Deranged Ranger]

[radcon]

Two words: DEAD RELATIVE

[ttompatz]

[jurassic82]

[Deranged Ranger]

1) You'd be wrong about the Free lunch thing, it's a go. They had an election August 24th to vote to stop it, and only 23% of Seoul voted, so it passed. I have heard nothing differnt since then.

2) You may have been hearing these rumors since 2006, but have you ever heard the head district supervisor confirm that it was happening? Mine did, she said " Our district will not re-sign you come February 2012, and by Feb 2013 There will be no more NSETs in SMOE" So she was either off her rocker, high on something, or is correct.

3) If you go to the SMOE website it says that Jon Pak is hiring positions directly, he's hiring TWENTY, (and he says and I quote " that's for elementary and Middle school positions, High School is not available") Now he also say that you can apply through EPIK ( buit not through both) for an SMOE job, still Jon hiring out only twenty is either a sign that that he is not wanting to do the job, or there's a hiring freeze and only many schools are forgoing an NSET (seeing as though usually 3-400 are hired in February)

4) Bottom line is that it may hinge on this free lunch thing, if it goes through there will not be a budget for NSETs anymore, there simply won't. IF and I say IF That falls though then what you are saying may be accurate, and NSETS may continue,

However a large portion of NSETS are useless for the following reasons:

1)Every school principal is free to run the school as they see fit, and many of them simply let overbearing control freak teachers run the English classes, these teachers underutilize the Native speakers who in my opinion should have complete control over the plans and the class ( with assistance, not a shared role perse) from the korean teacher

2) They rely heavily on CRAP texts and multimedia and often hindering our independant teaching,

3) MANY NSETS are basically teaching in the Korean style, mandated to teach in such a way that has been shown in every study not to work for learning, or being inspired to learn English, and are nothing more than a fancy tape recorder in class.

So unless this changes, even without factoring in the budget issues in the lunch program thing, SMOE is waking up to the fact that unless the control is in the hands of the NSETS to run the class ( which basically can't or won't happen, and would be a logistical impossibility to enforce let alone moniter) the NSET program is essentially useless and too much of a cash sink hole to continue.

This is just my opinion, but considering the NSETS havent even been around all that long and the talk has been there for over 5 years as you say ( from the very start of the NSET program) and they have lots more data now that shows we are by and large useless in the current system, the program is more like to be cut soon enough without the free lunch going through, and is certain to die out when it does.

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