Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazy tigger]

I will be coming to Korea early next year and I have quite a few tefl books etc which I am debating bringing to Korea. Obviously they will be useful but I am concerned about my luggage allowance! Am I likely to be provided with suficient materials in a hogwan? Or should I ship them over at whatever the cost? In which case has anyone used any shipping companies from the UK?

Also would it be useful to bring stuff from home to use as resources (such as leaflets, magazine articles etc) or do Korean students not respond well to this sort of stuff?

[Juregen]

By all means, bring them with you if you have room to spare.

[polonius]

Talk to current teachers at your school. Ask them what kind of materials the school provides. Some schools have many extra materials for resources, some have none. You should also find out whether the books you plan on bringing are in the same vein as the materials taught at the school. It would be a shame to waste luggage space on Toefl books when "Hop on Pop" is the base of a school's curriculum. As far as leaflets and articles, you can use the WWW for extra resources that will be just as useful.

[Hotpants]

I would agree with Polo to ask the teachers at your school.

If you have standard curriculum books, they probably won't be used at your hagwon. They most often have their own texts. In addition, you can buy lots of ESL books here in Korea at reasonable prices - certainly no more expensive than shipping your books. Especially, if you are in Seoul, such bookshops are well stocked with English language material for all ages including magazines, periodicals and newspapers.

However, your idea about bringing a few leaflets might not be a bad one. I brought some leaflets of tourist places such as Legoland and Windsor Castle. They've been periodically useful in both kids and adult classes - although leaflets are quickly shread up by kids!

Lugging books around is really arduous. I typically try to condense materials onto computer files. Perhaps you can scan or photocopy your most useful items. You can also make use of the wealth of photocopiables available from the Internet - just check my site link below to find examples.

[Grotto]

I wouldnt bother...the curriculum should be supplied....and chances are the texts would be way above the abilities of your students.....you might want to spend an hour scanning them into your computer and emailing them to yourself for reference material or putting them on a disc of two!

[OiGirl]

If it's something you have actually used before and loved, ship it to yourself surface. If it's something you think might be nice to use sometime in the future, leave it!

[crazy tigger]

Thanks, I've just heard that many nightmare stories that I was half suspecting the school would provide me with nothing but a blackboard I think I'll stick to scanning a few of my favourites onto the good old laptop and make space for a few more pairs of shoes instead...

[kprrok]

I wouldn't worry about bringing too much with you. You can print newspaper articles off of the net or photocopy them from a paper you subscribe to (KHerald/Times or the IHT/JoongAng Daily).

I bought a bunch of cheap kids books before I came over and have a bit of my own lending library, plus I've bought a bunch here.

For my older students, I use internet news articles, magazines that I have bought here or stuff my parents send to me. If you're looking for magazines here, you can get them at most any big bookstore, but they're about 3x - 4x the cover price back home. On the other hand, you can subscribe before you leave and pay the hefty shipping to Korea. The last option I've come across is the What the Book? magazine subscriptions. I've gotten a couple (yet to actually receive the mag but the subscription is started) that I'll be using. I looked for kids mags as well as the teen rags.

Good luck, and if you want to bring anything over for us, let us know and I could get a small list together for ya!

KPRROK

[some waygug-in]

There are tons of resources available here...if you know where to look.

Kim and Johnson's. English + , Kyobo and many others.

You still should talk to the teachers though. I've only worked at 1 school so far that had sufficient resources. Most will have a textbook or 2 but will lack the materials that are supposed to accompany it.

Some people prefer to make/buy their own. I buy a lot because the school won't and I need new things to keep classes interesting.

One thing I would suggest, if you know the board game "Payday" bring it. I've never seen it here and I think it is a perfect game for practicing English skills.

[HydePark]

I have to say that I end up making materials or using internet resources more than the books I've bought/shipped.
But, I did use Royal Mail (surface) to ship books, which arrived without any problems in a few weeks.
As for making more space for shoes, great idea ...just a word of advice: at my school, we wear slippers instead of shoes inside, so bringing as many slip-on shoes (for ease of coming in and out of the building) is helpful if you know that your school has the same policy.

[Hotpants]