Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lemak]

How much extra work is generally required at the average uni gig?

12~14 hours a week teaching + mandatory office hours? grading? meetings? being available for student consultation? judging contests? etc.

Not being snide or malicious or anything. I've never taught in a uni in Korea. Just curious what (if at all) those dozen or so hours can blow out to.

[dongjak]

My 'required' outside work is very minimal. Basically just calculating midterm grades, final grades and various quizzes/homework then inputting it into an excel sheet at the end. BUT, I choose to do more than is required for my students and to plan for each class. I used to do just what is required and found that I got really bored with it, as soon as I started putting more effort into the courses, I was more excited to teach them.

I don't have to judge contests etc, if I choose to do so I get paid overtime. We have four meetings a semester and they are short, less than 30 minutes.

[transmogrifier]

For me:

One meeting a semester, though if you miss it, no big deal usually.
No office hours specified in the contract, though we are expected to make ourselves available.
No unpaid language centers, consultations, testing etc.

I do a lot of marking and grading because of the way I have set up my course, but I choose to do this.

[liveinkorea316]

Agree with the previous posters. Some uni teachers want to spend as little time as possible and so the 'extra time' would amount to just a few hours a semester if that at my uni. This means attending one meeting and marking a few exams. You can make the exams or assessments in such a way that they are very quick and easy for you to mark as a teacher...if that is your main aim. From what I hear other universities have more quality control processes than others, but the relative freedom that everyone seems to have at mine and other universities leads to some teachers putting in work for their students and developing classes and materials etc. But sadly for alot of people 14 or 18 hours of class per week makes them 'oh so tired' and unable to put in any extra time for their uni students, forgetting there are Hagwon and public school teachers doing 25-30 hour a week shifts with worse schedules and still spending more time with kids after hours.

[World Traveler]

[sirius black]

No, the post was ONLY about the ethicacy of ending classes early or canceling classes. To just mention that as a response to my post was petty, unecessary and irrelevant. The point about posting the abilty to do so was to show flexibility that other options don't typically have.
And if a teacher ends classes earlyso the eff what? Its up to them, again, stop judging.

As to women preferred choices. Lets examine the whys. 1. Unis routinely advertise a preference for F visa holders. Easier to hire and keep, they are married. Almost all of them are men. 2. Unis usually require a few years experience. Typically men stay in Korea longer than women. Women often leave after a year, two max. So, the unis wanting 3 or more years experience typically have an overwhelming number of male candidates. 3. Even a woman is here for 3 years, a uni gig is often seen as a long term committment to staying and many women even those qualified simply don't have that kind of committment to staying.

All this results in staffs being either overwhelmingly male or as is often the case entirely male english teaching staff. The unis simply want diversity. I've heard of one case where a uni was only hiring women because the female students complained that there were no women teaching english and would be more comfortable having a female or at least wanted the option. Totally understandable.

So, my guess is this the reason. Its a diversity issue. One more note on diversity, my observation is that the unis are the fairest in terms of qualifications unlike hogwons or public schools who look at a pic and decide to take the cute 24 y.o. blonde just out of school with a BS in art history over the 30 y.o. guy who has 3 years experience and TESOL. For the most part, unis go for the most qualified in far more cases than the other options as well and this also bodes well for qualified minorities.

[World Traveler]

[sirius black]

You're back on the stealing thingy. I gave what are deemed legit reasons culturally at unis to end classes early or cancel classes. Its not just some native teachers but tenured Koreans do a lot of it too. Not saying its right but it happens. Sh*t happens. Let the unis worry about it, not worth mentioning. Native teachers are usually on 1 year revovling contracts, if its an issue the system should take care of them. Its NOT worth harping on. All manner of English teachers hogwons, public school, etc. have their fair share of slackers. Half assing it in the class, edutainment and games instead of actually teaching. Again for the upteenth time, I mentioned a whole lot of things in the post you responded to and the class thingy was the ONLY thing you took from it and its not relevant to the core issue AND it was explained that there are legit reasons to end classes early or cancel classes. Move on dude. Your quip was answered adequately and throroughly, give it a rest.

As for the F visa types, it is what it is. Because of their visa status they were much more easier to hire than others. Unis hate having to be constantly looking for teachers so they prefer F visa types because they stay for the long haul. Theylive in the city permanently so I can understand having a preference for them over any other types.

The female issue was also answered. You think a staff of nothing but males is a good thing? What's wrong with diversity and giving students options? Not only in gender but also nationalities. Brits, Americans, women, minorities, age, etc. Give the students an option. They may take 3 or 4 different English classes during their time and can get a different perspective from different people. Englsih speaking countries are diverse. Why hear from white American (married) males only?

The criteria for all kinds of things is not good or ideal and it is what it is. Put yourself in a position to overcome it with whatever means you can.

[12ax7]

[hogwonguy1979]

yeah giving midterms, finals, quizzes and doing spreadsheets WAS the way it used to be and pretty sweet, you could come back a day or two a week at worst if you had some sort of meeting before classes started, throw together a syllabus etc and be fine since nobody shows up the first week, do finals a week early enter grades the last day of finals turn in attendance sheets and head to the airport, but thats not the current the ways things are trending.

Now we have mandatory meetings at the end of the semester (my univ 2 weeks after finals are over when I was planning to get out of town) and maybe one 1-2 weeks before the semester starts. Instead of doing conversation etc. and coming up with all our own stuff, admins are making you follow a standard syllabus and including curriculum that you have had no input on (at my school its a 5 paragraph academic writing assignment. a presentation AND conversation during a semester). Apparently academic essay writing is coming into vogue at many univs despite the students not being at the level to do it. I have 2 classes this semester that can barely write a sentence let alone a 500-800 word essay statement of purpose or research proposal

Admins are beginning to get the feeling that we foreigners are overpaid, lazy etc. and that the students English level isn't up to snuff expecting us to fix a system where students don't do conversation and writing other than exam prep stuff for 6 years and then blame us for the lack of English skills when they try and get jobs (I could go on)

Whats happening now is with this glut admins can get fresh out of grad school tesol'ers pay them 2-2.5 for 20-25 hours/week vs 3-3.5 for 9-12 hours/week us experienced teachers get and they won't give them lip when they come up with these ridiculous curriculum's/standards. I know a lot of long time univ teachers who are thinking of getting out soon

there it is in a long nutshell

[sirius black]

I will agree that from what I hear from various uni teachers admins are becoming more 'demanding', still there is a wide range of unis and how they operate.
There is also a move toward TOEIC education since its so important to students.
Still, its still a good gig generally speaking.

[mizracy]

[transmogrifier]

[maximmm]

[PRagic]

The long and short of it is that the pay is on par with university instructor wages paid about 15 years ago. Give it a pass unless you plan on getting in, getting a year of 'university teaching experience' and then moving on to a better gig. No place that pays such an unsubstantial wage can be taken seriously, so if you're a serious teacher, it's not for you.