Korean Job Discussion Forums

[holiday72]

Well, it's certainly not for everyone. But addressing some of Jinju's comments. You know many of us here have cars, so at 5:30 you can head anywhere you want. There is nobody at the door here, you can bring who you want around anytime you please and trust me some guys do all the time. You dont see the kids after 5:30 unless you go find them in the evening activity.

Since October there has been about 10-weeks with no kids. Those weeks you
just kind of hang around and do whatever you want. During the Chrismas break they took us Skiing, yes skiing on work time for two days. We also get over $300 a month for food. If you dont want to go to town on Friday you dont have to, you do whatever you want. So to each his own, I wouldnt work or live in a loud, dirty city around adults who are often worse than kids.

[jinju]

I guess I like living like an adult.

[matthews_world]

I wonder how many ex-burger flippers they have working at this place.

What are these kids actually learning?

Are there monthly camp options where kids stay on site at a particulary large amount of time?

[splifwiz]

da teachers don't ave curfews but da eastern euro slave labourers n burger flipers as restrictions against socializin wiv da teachers. Dey is not permitted to let it rip at da teachers dormatories. Da russian dorms is 45 minutes walk away, so ya, in winta it will be rough to hike dat just fa some punanni geeza all da teachers is large fat cows. Espikially the all the steak eatin canuks. Thank god fa russian ass.

[Tilly]

Some of my students have gone to this camp and absolutely loved it. For most of them they will never have a chance to go abroad to study, so to them it was really exciting. I hate how cynical foreigners have to be about everything to do with English. We always complain that our students are over-worked and are constantly studying, why not be happy that they can go somewhere that is fun and be able to learn English?

[holiday72]

5 of the 10 of us have a Masters degree, and not in Fine Arts in Education.
If anyone ever has any time, and would like to visit and see what goes on here first hand, please let me know.

Note to the negative posters that live on Dave's Esl board. Im so glad I didnt listen to misinformation and negative attitudes about coming to Korea. The pay is great, the job is great and so are the people of Korea.
It's to bad so many are unhappy.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Evidently there are two aspects to this village - a theme park and classroom learning - and it seems I saw much more of the former than the latter. My school district also has an English camp that most of my middle schoolers have been to. They really enjoyed it as well, and I think it's been quite a big help. The have regular lessons on different themes and the English and homeroom teachers from my school drop by occasionally to check up on how things are going. If this is what is also going on at Gyeonggi English Village I could see the worth in it. What I saw, however, looked utterly farcical and, from the employees' point of view, very demeaning.

From the outside, at least, this village seems to underscore everything that's wrong with English education in Korea - i.e. KTs drill grammar and vocab and whiteys provide edutainment. The good news is that so long as Koreans keep this up they'll always have a need of outside help to get even the simplist things right, and those of us in public schools will always be sorely needed.

[jinju]

Whats the appeal of one of these jobs?

The money? Its good, not stellar. But ok, the pay is good. THEN what?

Compare it to living in a city like Seoul where you:

1. have access to adult things like museums, galelries, clubs, bars, restaurants. At your camp you have your cafeteria, a gym and what elese?
2. access to other money making opportunities. What can you do at your camp? Make some extra miney working at the cafeteria?
3. No kids after working. You are stuck with kids there all the time, 24/7.
4. No other teachers. I seriously would NOT want to live around other teachers in such close quarters. Did it at a winter camp, had enough of it after 2 weeks.
5. The staring factor. In effect you are paid to be stared at. In Seoul staring really isnt much of as thing anymore. I dont notice any stares.

I would like to know what makes your job so good that on a masters you would take that instead of getting a university job in Seoul.

[Ilsanman]

The million won question is:

Do you work Saturdays and Sundays? and Holidays?

I am concerned about some things. I am attaracted to this idea, it looks like what I am interested in. I am concerned about it because I am getting married and I need to see my wife at least a few days a week. Maybe 1-2 evenings a week and weekends.

[jinju]

[dogshed]

For a first job it doesn't sound bad. Do you have some contact information?

-Jeff

[Corporal]

It's stupid questioning people as to what job they chose, just because you wouldn't do it or can't see what's so good about it. People are all suited to different things. Might as well ask someone why they chose their spouse. Who cares if someone would rather be a pretend immigration officer than be suit-and-tied to a uni job?

[Junior]

Go monkey GO!!!



Actually i think monkeys make good teachers. Certainly entertaining. banana? What? B-A-N-A-N--A

[Zolt]

Hey guys, could you please cut down on the cynisism. We finally have some inside info of what's happening in there, and while not to anyone's taste (jinju?), it quite certainly represents a valid alternative at least to the Hakwon system (which admittedly is not that hard). Please do not scare our informants away!

And if those 'burger flippers' (who just happen to have MA's) manage to get even some kids genuinely interested in learning english, they on my account have amply justified the money thrown at them.

I'm a bit surprised on the other hand by the restrictions with the interactions with the other (easter europe) workers, would you care to elaborate? These guys definitely look like they're getting the short end of the stick.

[Hotpants]

Ilsanman wrote: