Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rnrpaulsen]

Hi all.

I'm looking at a contract for a school in Mokpo. It's a catholic high school apparently, and they've offered me 1.9 million won/month. My wife's at a different school, but being offered the same amount.

They're giving us a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment to ourselves with the contracts, and I just got a phone call saying that if I agreed to take 1.7 million/month as salary, they would pay for all utilities for the apartment, an in adition that would cover income tax and they would provide lunch for me every day I'm working.

My question to you is: is it worth it? They're (presumably) giving me the option of taking the 1.9 and not getting lunches provided, and just covering the utility costs ourselves, but I've never lived in Korea before, so I don't know if that 200,000 is a fair trade for what my utility bills would be like.

I enjoy (read: need) air conditioning in the summer times, and my wife likes heating in the winter, so keep that in mind.

Help?

[Freezer Burn]

Find out if they are including the maintanance as well or its just the utilities they will pay from the 200,000 the extract from your salary.
My bills including maintanance is around 200,000, but it can vary anywhere up to 40,000 less, and if your bills do go over the 200,000 mark, will they come to you asking for the balance.
If you get the 1.9 and take care of your own accounts, you can be more economical about what you are using if you know what you are using the most of.
In an apartment, maintanance can cost from 150,000-220,000 and that usually covers the electricity and the water, gas is extra but can be quite cheap in summer and more expensive in winter, and telephone is cheap for local calls and expensive for int: calls obviously.

[Qinella]

In my opinion, they should be giving you lunch every day anyway. Tell them that. Also, in my experience with the way business people everywhere are, if they're making you an offer, it's in their own interest, not yours. I spend less than 60k won a month in the summer on utilities, and tax is probably about the same.

I haven't been here during the winter yet, but it seems unlikely that the 100k or so you're losing every month would be recuperated in the winter.

Demand free lunch and tell them to let you handle your finances. My $0.02.

[Zark]

Rule #1. Remember that contracts are "flexible" in Korea.

Then draw your conclusions from there - like what COULD go wrong. Like if you spend more than W200K in utilities - will they begin to withhold more?

And, what are "utilities'? Does that include cable TV and internet? Drinking water? Apartment service fee? All those things together I tend to spend - on average - less than W200k - but I do have to say - I'd like to spend a whole lot more on heat!

Small edit: I wouldn't give most schools even 5 won for the lunches they provide. Ick.

[chiaa]

No way I would do that. You need to try to keep your home life and your work life as seperate as possible. The more they are intertwined the more this school is going to try to control you. My first year here I worked at a school that paid for my apartment. My second year I worked at the same school and I paid for my own place. It was like night and day.

What happens if you use more gas in the winter than THEY feel is necessary?

[Zark]

Yes, Chiaa is VERY right.

Cancel everything I said before.

Koreans love to get into your personal business - keep it as seperate as possible. You will, no doubt, get people coming over to see if you turned off your electric in the day time etc etc. ALso, the will tend to treat you like a child when/if they take care of these things "FOR YOU". And that will be - I promise - their attitude: That they are "helping you" and you should be grateful.

Even if you save @100k a month - it's not worth it.

Also, just btw, I have a friend who frequently gets her phone or other utilities disconnected when her boss fails to pay the bills - but won't let her pay them.

Bravo to Chiaa.

[Freezer Burn]

You can pay the bills at any bank mostly so its easy.

[rnrpaulsen]

consider the offer refused.

Thanks for the input everyone!

[Hater Depot]

My (public) school deducted 2,200 won a day for providing me a frequently crappy lunch. Have other had this situation, or did you receive it free?

[VanIslander]

[krats1976]

Don't do it. I agree with the others that you need to keep as much of your life outside of school out of their control.

It's a pity that I've gotten so cynical here. Maybe they're really kind people who are trying to do you a favor. However, I'd suspect they're looking out for themselves and trying to save even more money with you (They're already getting a good deal by only having to provide one apartment for 2 teachers...).

That's just my opinion though. Maybe I'm wrong. I also would never accept anything below 2 million won. Are either of you certified teachers by any chance?

Oh yeah, and they should be giving you free lunch anyway.

[FUBAR]

[rnrpaulsen]

Thanks again for all the input. This really helps out.

In response to some of the questions: no, we're not certified teachers. By that I mean that we don't have a B.Ed. degree and would have to go to teacher's college in order to get a job at a school here in Canada. We've both got 4-year university undergraduate degrees and a 60-hour TESL certification though, so I'm not sure if that changes anything about what we should be making.

I have noticed that most of the offers we've received have been in the 2 million won/month area, so I was a little surprised when I saw 1.9, to be honest. I like the idea of haggling though. I guess I've spent too much time in "you pay what we ask or you don't get it" North America.

Just for the record, this offer is from SnB Korea, so if anyone's had any experience with them before (good or bad) please let me know.

I've been corresponding through e-mail with a teacher who was placed 2 years ago through SnB, but I have yet to receive any e-mail addresses for prior foreign teachers at either of the schools themselves. we're definitely not signing anything until we get a chance to touch base with someone who's worked there before. Maybe I'm starting off cynical, but I don't buy the whole "Rebecca's school is owned by my ex-girlfriend, so I can vouch for them, and your school is a catholic school, so obviously they treat their employees right" thing at face-value. Too suspicious of me?

[Grotto]

christian run schools have a bad tendency to expect foreign teachers to do more as their duty to their god. At least thats my experience with hogwans, a high school would hopefully be better.

[krats1976]