Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ed1980]

Anybody done this ?

can anyone recommend some web sites ??

cheers

[Homer]

Gotta friend teaching in HK.

He has been there since the summer of 2000.

He seems to love it out there and is making good coin.

He landed his job through a contact and this job required a valid teaching permit from a western country.

There must be some offers on Dave's (right here) job section....

[joe_doufu]

[Smee]

HK sounds cool to me, too. It'd take me several years to get at least the minimum qualifications for the NET Scheme, and once I got them I don't think I'd waste them teaching English in Asia.

Here's the NET Scheme site: http://www.emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=262&langno=1

(I get the impression that you can find work w/o these qualifications, w/o NET Scheme.)

THe HK forum on Dave's
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewforum.php?f=40
doesn't have a whole lot, mostly b/c people ask the same questions over and over. On the bright side, you'll learn about the basics pretty quickly.

[Scott in HK]

I have left the NET program now (after six years)...but I don't know anyone there who thought they were wasting their skills/qualifications while they were teaching in HK.

I made more money a year (100K Can) than almost anyone teacher in Canada would make...had good holidays...and HK is a great city to live in. The NET program is good if you have experience...as that is how you get the big bucks...qualifications only get you the job...

[ed1980]

thanks for your help

if i go next year it will be with just a business degree and a TEFL... think that would be good enough ?? - what if the TEFL was online - would that make a difference ?

[turtlepi1]

No one can say for sure what you can turn up for yourself, but unlike in Korea people in Hong Kong can already speak English (remember, it's all relative) and if you are looking to teach English in Hong Kong you will most likely not like where you are teaching with those credentials.

But like I said...individual opportunities will always make the generalizations wrong.

[Smee]

Scott: Yeah, I agree, and I don't think anything about HK would be a "waste," unless the location/school/set-up is absolutely horrible. I just meant that, for me, I wouldn't use the NET Scheme as a reason for getting all those creds. But if I had them already, or if I planned on getting them, I think HK would be a good, more professional, place to put them to use.

By the way, good luck Ed. Make us pround.

[jajdude]

Sounds good. They all speak English already, so I imagine teaching would be like a job back home, Shakespeare type lit teaching.

[Keepongoing]

I have given thought to HK. I knew a man making 4000.00 US a month doing privates. I looked into the NET Scheme, sounds interesting. I only have an MA TESOL and no Teaching credential so it would be the bottom of the rung for me. I have 3 years experience; 1 in an adult hogwan and 2 in a university.

You get 13,000HK (1670.00US) for rent and then I think the scale begins at 18,000HK (2,3100 US)

Hong Kong had a 5 band school system, the gifted being in the 5 band and the more challenged being in the 5 band. Scott can correct me on this if I am wrong.

HK is a great place, Lived there for 15 years before. In fact, I have permanent residency there so I am not sure if I could qualify for NET as I am not considered from overseas by them.

[Scott in HK]

The banding system was changed recently so that there are now 3 bands rather than five as the Band Five schools were getting a terrible reputation. Of course only the banding changed.

Unfortunately, they don't all speak in English. In a Band 1 English medium school, the students' level of English is really good. But in a Band 3 Chinese medium school, this is not the case. With the handover in 97, most schools became Chinese medium so overall the English level has gone down.

As a teacher on the NET program, I basically did two things...developed programs to create a English atmosphere in the school, and prepared students to take their uni entrance exams and the graduation exams.

[Koreabound2004]

[Scott in HK]

Well...Mr Rolling Eyes...

I am here now because my wife asked if we could move back to take care of her parents who are getting on in years (both in their 70's). So I came back for family.

With that maybe you could take back the insinuation that I was lying or making things up....unless you meant something else by the rolling 'i don't believe it' eyes...

[guangho]

Scott:

I heard when I was in Kowloon (and saw on the EMB site) that they split your schedule between 2 schools- 2 weeks at one place, 2 at the other and then back to the first one for 2 weeks. Sounds like a nightmare to me. What's the scoop on that?

[Scott in HK]

guangho...that is the primary net program...they use one teacher to work between two schools...strangley enough hong kong as am schools and pm schools...so you will spent some time at an am school and then be shifted to the pm school...

sometimes this is actually the same school...you just going mornings one shift and then afternoons the second...sometimes it is two different locations...

I was a secondary NET...so I only have second hand knowledge about the primary program...from what I heard it can be a problem when their are conflicts between the two schools...but the PNET that worked in the school across from where I lived had no such complaints...

It is a lot like Korea...each school seems to offer different conditions...though the bad ones are not nearly as bad as some Korean nightmares...talk to the outgoing teacher and try to get some info if you are thinking of signing on to a set of schools