Korean Job Discussion Forums

mack the knife · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: standing right behind you...

I would advise anyone reading this thread NOT to sign with GEPIK. EPIK and SMOE are, based on the pay scales. Also, current GEPIK teachers have been informed that they will now have to attend unpaid Friday meetings which should last until 8pm, among other scandalous changes to the program.

Just read all the GEPIK/EPIK threads right now and you'll get the big picture. It ain't pretty. Sad

livinginkorea · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Location: Korea, South of the border

I am in the GEPIK and I am not resiging.

Best to avoid it. Hagwons are becoming better in all honesty.

Reason. · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: Los Angeles, CA - for now.

livinginkorea · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Location: Korea, South of the border

You have to teach with somebody who will probably resent you and your actions. Many Korean thinks that we are taking their jobs so a lot of fighting and arguing can happen.

No bonus for most people this year. They are running out of money already after only 3 years. Hagwons have no money.

40 kids in a class compared to 10 kids.

Parents are getting a lot more power so it's becoming like a hagwon.

You spend hours doing nothing but you can't leave.

Teacher training as Mac mentioned above. Late nights with no pay. Would you do it?

Korean teachers really have no idea how to teach English. There is a book but kids get bored of it easily.

On the offical Gepik board very few students are staying on. If it's so good then why don't we stay?? Smile

(Ninja Scroll is pretty darn cool!)

livinginkorea · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Location: Korea, South of the border

Also it really doesn't matter where you teach - it all depends on your boss and your co-teacher. If they are a pain then you are in for a hard time.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

I decided not to renew my contract with GEPIK after the first year for several reasons.

#1. They did not offer any type of raise.
#2. They did not offer any increase in vacation time.
#3. Sitting around the school during winter and summer vacation for 4+ hours a day doing nothing is stupid to the extreme.
#4. The rural isolation.
#5. The people running GEPIK really want hogwan conditions for the FT's.
#6. The program is not set up well.
#7. Mandatory meetings that serve no purpose except to waste the time of the FT's!(90% of the meeting is in Korean and no one tells you what the hell is going on)
#8. Boring boring boring!

All that being said and done.....its still a step up from any hogwan job I had!

Paddycakes · Joined: 05 May 2003 Location: Seoul

What amazes me most about GPIK/EPIK is that they almost want to drive teachers away.

The economy back in Canada and North America is pretty good.

I suggest that all FT's in Korea head back home where they can probably find much better work without having to deal with (as much) idiocy and irrationalism as they would have to deal with in Korea.

Some Koreans are okay, but there is so much pentup hurt and false pride in their national psyche that they can hardly be trusted to ever deal with foreigners in a confident way.

JZer · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: South Korea

Paddycakes · Joined: 05 May 2003 Location: Seoul

Most of the "endless hours" Koreans put in is "face time".

In Korea, it's the image of being at work that counts, not what you actually do -more or less.

Foreign teachers should not be be compared to ordinary Korean workers, or lumped in with them for comparision purposes.

Most expat packages are usually highly paid and include education allowances for your children and a host of other perks to make up for the stresses and inconviences associated with living in other countries.

Foreign teachers do not get these, but then again when it comes to being "expat professionals" in the true sense, most English teachers have to step behind the yellow line on that one (sorry to shatter any illusions there). Still, FT's have to deal with a bunch of other crap the Koreans don't have to, and they should be compensated for that.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

VanIslander · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:04 pm Post subject:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=59286&start=0

JZer · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: South Korea

livinginkorea · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Location: Korea, South of the border

I never had that much free time until recently. I teach 28 hours a week including a parents and teachers class. If you are in a small school then you could be teaching less hours or lots of extra activity classes.

Where I work only one guy is staying on out of 6 schools. That's a huge turnover.

Snowkr · Joined: 03 Jun 2005

just wondering...

what's the difference between GEPIK and SMOE?

I almost took a job with SMOE last summer but funny enough... a Korean lady working at our local mall in Virginia advised me against it and said hogwons were MUCH BETTER than public schools.
Now I'm going to go home and thank her. My hogwon experience has been awesome while many of my friends in the public schools have been miserable.

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004