Korean Job Discussion Forums

[timhorton]

Just Do It! - only three words but can make your life easier in Korea (i.e. public schools, hokwons, etc). I am referring to the petty things not the totally unreasonable things. In my experience, it's better to do some things (even when you don't want to) because it may benefit you later via getting to go home early, less desk warming, extra vacation, etc.

[CentralCali]

Really, now? So, according to you then, at the last school where I worked in Korea, I should've told myself "Just do it" for the following:

• No lunch break
  
• Teaching extra hours in the morning for free
  
• Teaching extra hours in the afternoon for free
  
• Teaching on both Saturdays and Sundays for free
  
• Teaching straight through the Summer and Winter breaks without extra compensation and without being paid in lieu for the missed vacation days

Note: These all would've been beyond the contractually-required teaching hours.

I don't think that's intelligent advice.

[Skippy]

[newb]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Cali, I do not think the OP had what you said in mind when he said to do a few things that could pay off down the line....

[Skippy]

[ontheway]

Little things you should just do:

* Going out for after work for dinner and drinks, or getting togther for lunch with your boss, principal, co-workers etc instead of some other thing you'd rather do, once in a while.

* Coming in early or staying late an extra hour for a meeting with your boss or coworker occasionally.

* That once per year special event they really want you to attend.


Big things you should not "just do" but should bargain over or refuse:

[CentralCali]

[CentralCali]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[JustinC]

Open Class - just do it! What ever mess up you make there is reflected in your co-teacher's review. They're under enormous pressure to perform in Open Classes so just go for it and ignore the falsity because it's not a regular class and isn't expected to be.

[CentralCali]

What is so hard to understand about this? The school owners/principals do not believe their asinine requests are unreasonable. Of course they have what, in their minds, are perfectly legitimate reasons to demand those things. That's where some of the problems arise.

Oh, and what about the wonderully intelligent stunt of welcoming the new teacher, whom they knew to be vegetarian and non-drinker, by having a big ol' dinner/boozefest at a seafood restaurant? Yeah, right. "Just do it" and end up in a hospital on the first day there? Again, screw that.

"Just do it" is a recipe for disaster.

Here's what the most upsetting about it: It didn't use to be this way in Korea. In the 1970s, Korea did not seem to have that much trouble interacting with foreigners who were in Korea to help or to work. There were the occasional instances, but nothing like what happens now. Maybe it took Park's dictatorship to slap sense into people.

[John Stamos jr.]

[CentralCali]

For the public schools, the open class is part of the re-hiring procedure. The GET's score from the observers and from the student evaluations are listed on the re-hiring application. Of course, nobody ever shows the GET what they're going to be evaluation on. I think I may have posted last year's evaluation template on this site. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[newb]

I'm in complete agreement with centralcali. I believe what most Korean teachers are lacking these days is manners dealing with foreigner in general. I've rejected numerous stupidity that they tried to force upon me like centralcali by laughing on their face and asking them to explain why I should. They can't really explain well, but usually end up saying something like "it's the Korean way." I then tell them to explain it a few more times before rejecting their stupidity. Once you have a few more cycles of these rejections, they'll think twice before telling me to accept another stupidity. I only do this to those that are arrogant and have no manners.