Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kakadoodles]

Hi all,
we are a couple of Aussies who would love to come to Korea and teach next year. Our biggest hurdle so far is finding appropriate schooling for our children . We have narrowed our search of Hagwons to cities with International schools, although apon visiting their websites we realised that our estimated wage (1.8m each) will have to stretch a long way to pay for the children's schooling.

One of our children is 9yo, and so his education is quite important to us. Our other child is 5 and I am tending to think that the experience of living OS for a year will be education enough for him. I have heard that there may be local women who could mind him whilst we're at work, although thrusting him into a non English speaking environment for 8hrs a day doesn't seem fair. Does anyone know of any local government schools that have english speaking teachers or a english curriculum? I fear this is a big ask! Otherwise is it practical to bring him to the hagwon that we teach at whilst we're there? There must be other ESL teachers with children who have faced similar problems?! I would love to hear from anyone with advice!!

[hellofaniceguy]

An option...first off...why teach at a hakwon!?!?! Why?!?!? 6/7/8 classes a day! Screwy school owners who only care how many classes you can teach so they can get rich off of you!
Anyway...
why not teach at an International School! Plenty of them in korea. Most offer free tuition for teachers' children.
Busan/Pusan Foreign School is hiring. No koreans teaching for one thing! Wages are way higher! Vacation is around 2 months a year. A better deal all around if you can get in.
Or home schooling.

[Kakadoodles]

Thank you! The silence was deafening!
We are not qualified teachers (I currently work at a university, but in research and lab. technician role and my hubby is an engineer), although I have been a teacher's aid here in oz. Unless they want that sort of employee, then our chances are zip and nil. I sort of feel like our only way to get employment is through a hogwan (and I would love to teach the children), but what to do with my progeny????

[dutchman]

[Kakadoodles]

Thanks again,
but we have no language skills in Korean and engineering is hard enough without unknown script.

We are coming from a background of sh1tty bosses, long hours, and under paid employment, so I really can't believe that the conditions hagwons have to offer is so much worse. I know we have to do the research to get a good one, but surely life experience, round fare and accomodation paid are better than experiencing those same things in your country of origin???

Home schooling is an option, but would we have the time if we were working?

[casey's moon]

The working conditions at hogwons vary -- some are quite good actually. International schools are extremely expensive, as you seem to be learning... Home schooling might be the best option. Also, if your husband gets a full time job and an E-2 visa, you can probably get a visa without getting a job -- then maybe once you're here you could figure things out better -- find a job (possibly part time) that fits your family's schedule.

I'm no expert on any of this.

I hope it works out!

[dutchman]

[chiaa]

[Kakadoodles]

Thanks for your thoughts!
We don't have a lot of savings and the risks of just one of us working seems too great to me. As I mentioned initially, our 9yo really needs to go to some form of formal education or I fear he will be at a disadvantage when we return. Our youngest is the 'unknown', and I'm not sure of the practicalities of our options. Does anyone know of young (eg <10yo) expats whose parents have dragged them through the system?????

I don't mean to criticise the options people have given, I just want to come to an arrangement that allows all of us to benefit from an OS life experience!

[dutchman]

[Kakadoodles]

Thanks Dutchman,
We realise that engineering books as such, are in english, but the conferences with clients, tender documents, finance details etc are surely in a country's native language. My hubby isn't reading the textbooks at this stage (in the job >10ys), just "doing business". I fear the language barrier may interfere. Please, advice regarding the children would be helpful!

[ersatzprofessor]

Kakadoodles,

What you are asking for is not easy. I have two children myself- my oldest is turning six in December. I've checked out international schools as well, and the price is ludicrously high- expect to pay at least 10,000,000 won in tuition per school year for each child. The price would gobble up almost all of one of your salaries by itself. Also you must be sure to go to a major centre- international schools are not to be found in smaller cities obviously.

Now, you can just survive on one salary (assuming the standard 2,000,000) here with a family of four, if you're careful. But you will not save any money, and if one allows for the expenses of two people working, childcare fees on top, all the other stuff, it would be pretty difficult to make ends meet. If you send just the older to international school, you would have a little elbowroom but don't expect to save very much. Also, because you would have to go to a larger city, your chances of getting a decent free apartment will be reduced as well. For a family of four you want a minimum of a 24 pyong apartment, ideally you would want 32 pyong. If you're looking at Seoul for example and neither of you have experience or credentials, I think the chances are pretty slim of getting a place like that. Not impossible, but quite difficult.

For the younger son, there are other options as you said. Kindergarten at his age in Korean would be fairly intense - most kids start here at 3 or 4 and by that age they're onto Korean writing and stuff like that. Price is not bad though. He would probably start picking up the language pretty fast at his age, but I am sure he would find it extremely stressful for the first while.
If your hogwhon has its own English kindergarten, you might be able to get him in for free, but then you are still stuck with the evening care just the same. But you had better check this kind of thing out in advance carefully.

Babysitting is pretty cheap and easily available -although having a woman come to your house is going to be a lot more than dropping your kid off at theirs. The evening shift might be a bit tricky though, as most of these places expect the kids to be picked up by dinnertime.

I would consider making a move like this very carefully indeed. If you don't have much savings you are very vulnerable if your hagwhon doesn't turn out to be aboveboard or goes bankrupt. It is not uncommon here for teachers to go without pay for months on occassion or for hagwhons to close their doors on short notice. Bad enough for adults, but with children to feed? I would think long and hard about this if I were you.

[Kakadoodles]

Thank you Professor,

That is about the most useful/indepth info so far!! We are doing this more for the experience than the money. Obviously we don't want to be out of pocket or paying for it for the next ten years, but if we can live reasonably comfortably, pay our home commitments and see another country, we will feel as though the trip was well worthwhile. I really appreciate your hagwon kindy option, as that may be the best we can do. Saving a fortune is not on our agenda, although as I mentioned coming off worse for wear is not either. Thank you for your valuable advice and if you think of anything else we would love to hear about it!!!!

PS We realise our living space will be (very) small. What is the conversion from pyong to sq metres or sq feet (Oz is metric). Ta

[justagirl]

1 pyong is approx. 3 square meters


Our apartment is 11 pyong and I measured everything (except the very tiny bathroom) and it came out to 278 square feet. The bathroom cannot be more than 4x4 as it has barely enough room for the toilet and sink both.

Hope that helped.

[Kakadoodles]

Thanks justagirl (alhough I'm not sure ther is such a thing!)

Is there a chance of us getting a two bedroom apartment (no matter how small) or will the children have to bed down in our room (s#x life over for a year), or in the "living room" in which we could fold down their beds daily? A proposition I'd prefer!!!!

Children schooling ideas still welcomed with open space bars!!!!