Korean Job Discussion Forums

[michaelH]

Do you have any ideas about salaries, conditions and contracts of employment including hours worked;where to live/work and where not, types of pitfalls, social ideas societies/clubs contacts. Invites I like to talk, go hiking and dancing, although no spring chicken am I. There must be loads more. Enthusiastic stories about teaching and life as a teacher in Korea, most welcome.

[Rand Al Thor]

#1. Money is not the bottom line. Many teachers will tell you don't sign for less than X. That's fine, if all you care about is money but peace of mind counts for a lot. Consider the following.

#2. Are you going to work split shifts

#3. What kind of housing is provided? shared or single? do you get an allowance if you have your own house?

#4. Does the school have adequate resources. i.e. teacher books?

#5. Is the school willing to give you past & current teachers e-mail or phone numbers? Listen carefully to the good, the bad, & the ugly that the teachers have to say. If everything is rosy - it's probably not, the teacher talking to you is probably comprised and can not be fully honest. THere is no perfect position. Korea is not utopia.

#6. Look at your housing before your sign. Check to see if their is a/c, while a school doesn't have to provide it, if they do it is a sign that they take care of teachers

#7. find out how many teachers are currently in thier second, third or later contract. Also talk to the teacher you are replacing, why are they leaving

#8. Consider how close you are to public transit and how large the city your are going to be living in is.

#9. Can the director speak English? Not pidgen English real fluent English - if not consider a different school as you will have trouble negotiating anything should problems arise in the future.

#10. can't think of a number 10....

hope this helps.

[maxxx_power]

Some hogwans calculate the teaching hours by the minute...so 50 minutes of teaching is 50 minutes, not one hour. At least at my Hogwan the days get long for 120 hours of "teaching" time.

Check for "working hours" which means that you will be expected to be on the job from X until X rather than teaching hours which can be dragged out through a looooooong shift.

---such as working hours are from 1pm until 7pm or 8pm etc, mandatory prep can be a pain (you should prep for your class but do it in the amount of time necessary rather than a mandatory prep time)

Everyday I kick my own ass for not learning about this earlier.

[Mashimaro]

It might be worth asking if your appartment is 'semi underground' i.e. basement. Alot of teachers seem to get stuck with them and I guess you could live with it if the other aspects of the job were good. I'm glad not to be in the basement though, especially with summer coming up.