Korean Job Discussion Forums

[luckylady]

private elementary schools rock - they are few and far between but smaller classes, long holidays and overall higher standards - best of both worlds between hakwons and ps

[3DR]

I recommend public. Big classes aren;t as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Put a simple system in place (take minutes from their breaktime for being noisy) and they will behave.

Hagwons can have poorly behaved kids as well so don't think just because you have a smaller class, the behavior will be better or easier to control.

I've started my 3rd year here. Public my first year, hagwon my second, and I'm back at a public school. Hagwon was hell last year and even though I'm a night owl and enjoyed sleeping in, working until 10pm basically cut my social life down to Saturday and Sunday (I worked at a small hagwon). Didn't get paid on time, pension wasn't paid in full, 5 vacation days LOL.

I love people who say find a good hagwon...yeah the mythical good hagwon which can only be found in fairytales or you have to get lucky as a cat to find.

Also know that in hagwons, you will be dealing with parents and complaints weekly. I think for your first year, public is way less stressful.

PUBLIC!!

[Tyshine]

When do you prefer to work?
How important is location?
Do you have any contacts in Korea?

With privates you can go as far as to contact the current teachers working there, and still get burned. This happened to a friend of mine. I think the advice to go public and network to a private school is a good idea. Although depending on your plans I wouldn't stay here too long doing either.

Public school is still a crapshot. If I could go back I would have only considered going to Busan or Seoul (in that order). That is my personal preference. Also I got stuck with a HS. Some would prefer that, but I am not one of those.

As far as meeting people EPIK orientation is a great chance to meet friends from all over Korea.

[therockery]

Too many variables, but I would say public if pushed into a corner.

[bobbybigfoot]

I went private five years ago so I could make money. Every year I've gotten a raise. I am grateful I never went the public road. Simply put, there's a glass ceiling over there. Not where I am.

[Kimchi4Me]

I was one of those people who decided to go with public school because of the vacation days and because I was being told that public schools were "safer" than private.
I am coming into the last week of my year contract and I will be switching to private. Being the only foreigner in the school is ok for some...especially if you are in a school that welcomes you and treats you like part of the team...but I did not have a positive experience with that.
Also, working with a co-teacher can be stressful if you are not on the same page. Two people who are set in their ways and have both been teaching for a while coming together to teach in the same class can be hard. I was basically treated like I didn't know what I was doing even though I had been teaching for 7 years before I came and had never had a negative evaluation in the past.
I constantly felt like I was being excluded from events...even English events and assessments! Once I voiced my desire to find another job for next year, they started trying to make it hard for me to get a new job.

I say all of this to make this point: Either way it's a gamble. You can find good schools or bad schools in public and private. I wouldn't say that my school is bad...just that they don't really know much about teaching English and the don't know how to treat foreigners in a way that helps them adjust. There are a lot of situations that could come up and I don't think it's possible to say for certain which is better.

[s.tickbeat]

There used to be huge advantages to public schools vs. private schools. Stability, holidays, integration time, etc.

Now, EPIK contracts have the same holidays as hagwons: 10 days + national holidays (unless you agree to teach in a super-rural area, in which case you get four to six weeks I think). Housing is no better than at hagwons, there is no room for negotiation in the contract (everything is standardized), and etc.

There are still ways to get great public school positions, though. If you apply directly to a school board (outside of EPIK) the jobs are a lot better. GNET in Gimhae is one of the best I've seen so far, they still offer a full summer and winter vacation (3 ~ 4 weeks, depending on if you teach camp), and contract negotiability based on experience and etc. Also, the housing is really good: all the teachers live in one apartment complex. The downside of that arrangement is that no one lives close to their school.

There are about 6 positions available for September first if you want to give it a shot.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[quote="s.tickbeat"]There used to be huge advantages to public schools vs. private schools. Stability, holidays, integration time, etc.

Now, EPIK contracts have the same holidays as hagwons: 10 days + national holidays (unless you agree to teach in a super-rural area, in which case you get four to six weeks I think). Housing is no better than at hagwons, .[/quote


Standard EPIK is 18 days not 10 (8 in summer and 10 in winter)

Housing can be the same but in a number of cases can be better and larger.

I've worked for both EPIK and GEPIK and always had (3 jobs running) a 2 BR apartment...although that might be just the luck of the draw.

[metalhead]

If you choose public, I hope you love volleyball. Honestly it seems that willingness to play volleyball is far more important than the job you do in the classroom. On a near-daily basis I am being asked if I will play volleyball that week, why I didn't play - I don't know why saying 'No, I do not play volleyball, have no interest in it and will never play it' has had no effect whatsoever. It's a war of attrition.

You should also expect lunch time to be a nightmare, heaven forbid you don't eat all your rice or put the pickled radish on the wrong part of your prison tray.

Besides the volleyball and lunch issues, I find the students at public a lot better than at the previous hakwons I've worked at. I never thought that the actual teaching would be the stress-free part, and nonsense like volleyball and the constant barrage of criticism at lunch would be the stress-inducer, boy I sure learned the hard way.

[alwaysbeclosing100]

Public school jobs are being cut significantly in many parts of Korea......FYI......your assumption they are "safer" is not really merited.....

[TheUrbanMyth]

[JustinC]

My school had its budget cut and so the only NET had to leave, in 2011.

This year I'm here, along with another NET.

[3DR]

[3DR]

[bobbybigfoot]

I went private back in 2007 because money was most important to me. I got through my first year at a mediocre hagwon, found the one I"m at now and have stayed for four, going on five years.

Not all hagwons suck.