Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

25 teaching hours a week would be a lot for public school. It also sounds like they just want an 'assistant' - i.e. a white face and pronunciation monkey, not a real teacher. The pay is pretty low - the type that would only attract a newbie, not the amount needed to get an experienced teacher.

I'd say, make a counter offer and if they don't seem interested in negotiating, move on.

[chrisOC2005]

Any tips on how to tactfully (well, I guess more importantly, successfully) try to bump up a salary?

I have a contract/offer for 120hrs/2 mil which I think is not that good considering I have 1yr exp in France and a TESOL cert (it's a kiddie hagwon). I'm fine with 2 mil if they bump down the hours to like, 100.

Thanks,

Chris

[TheUrbanMyth]

[chrisOC2005]

Hey, thanks. That's really good advice and I actually had this very question about my contract. I'll definitely wait to sign something that explicitly details the hours w/classes.

Chris

[mack the knife]

All elementary school lessons are 40 minutes, but they're counted as "hours". So, if you're teaching 22 "hours" a week, that adds up to something like 15 actual classroom hours. Now that 2.1 salary suddenly doesn't seem so skimpy, does it.

[jacl]

Yeah, hours are no more than 50 minutes long. Should be stated in the contract. If you're going hagwon then, with your qualifications, I wouldn't go below 2.2. More like 2.3. There are offers for more, so you should shoot higher, but be careful of which hagwon. Don't work a 120 hr, 2 million contract. That's just highway robbery. I'd shoot for the same salary in a public school but they might be far and few between. Not sure.

[Loza]

After reading everyone's suggestions, I got some changes made to this contract before I signed today, I am feeling more comfortable with it now.

My actual classes (40mins each) are 22 per week, plus I can choose to do 2 hours a week in the after school program which pays an extra 300,000-600,000won per month depending on enrolments. Pretty happy about that!

Also the employer is definately paying all pension, medical insurance and tax although I will pay inhabitants tax( I was told this could be around 50,000 won a month.)

I definately recommend to other newbies to come to Korea to find a job. I've had other offers but actually going to the interviews in person, helped me get my head around the positives and negatives. I didn't expect to get my airfare refunded as I was already here-pleasantly suprised to get this with my new position.

Thanks again everyone for all suggestions especially Grotto- you're the contract Master!

[mack the knife]

[jacl]

[Loza]

Mack the knife-said "GANGBUSTERS!" (hehe- wild expression!) Yeah this afterschool pay does seem a bit crazy aye! Like what's the catch? But current Teacher assures me it's all good.

Quote:

Also the employer is definately paying all pension, medical insurance and tax although I will pay inhabitants tax( I was told this could be around 50,000 won a month.) jacl said:... sounds funny to me. Probably they're paying their contribution to pension (4.5%) and you pay your 4.5%. The medical is probably split in two, as well (2.24% each). If not, well that's great! It just seems strange to me. Why would they want to pay all 9% and all 4.48%? Why wouldn't they just say the salary is 2.15 (or 2.3 with the free utilities)? What's this 50,000 inhabitants tax? Tax for a 2 million/month salary is only 28,950. Inhabitant (or better yet, resident) tax is only 10% of your income tax. Therefore, it would only be less than 2,895 Won/month, not 50,000. Total taxes would only be 31,845 Won. I don't like all these variables. Too confusing.

I know- quite confusing for a newb !!! I asked my recruiter about the inhabitants tax before signing and she said 50,000won as a guess, but it's my responsibility to pay so I'll just follow the legal amount. The position was advertised as 2- 2.3 million per month, but yeah it may have sounded better in the ad if they'd written it like you suggest.

[Junior]

[mack the knife]

Yes. And the teacher probably has to make up for those lost days by teaching on a Saturday.

[jacl]

I think that before you sign a public school contract, you should get them include more benefits and higher pay. Screw 'em over contract-wise, but do a really good job. Doesn't matter because you're basically there for show anyway. Might as well make it as easy as possible on yourself.

If I had one of those jobs, I'd dog fuk the hell out of it, because there is no way possilbe to make much headway in students' English development teaching 50,000,000 kids at once with 6 20-minute classes/month.

By "do a good job", I mean put up the appearance of doing a good job. These public school positions are a joke at best. and they say hagwon jobs are for the clowns. I don't think so.

As for this extra money that you might make: fuggetaoudit. It's not contractual.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[kiwikid]

The tax thing they are talking about might be the same deal as I have. If you are teaching in a public school and have been in Korea less than 2 years you don't have to pay tax, only an admistration fee of approx 11000W per month. I remembered someone posting something about that on here ages ago so when I started my contract I got the school to ring the tax people and find out.