Korean Job Discussion Forums

[khreporter]

Hi, need the answer to a couple of quick questions.
Who is it that "routinely" visits hagwons/schools whatever to check on the documentation of the teachers to see if they are legal? And would they do this without informing the school?

Assume you have just had enough - whatever the reason (non payment, breach of contract et al) - and want to leave your current employer but not Korea? So you do a "midnight."
You show up at immigration the next day and ask for their help to change your visa to allow you to look for another job... what reaction would you expect from the immigration officer?

[butlerian]

Don't expect much sympathy. They're Korean, you're not. That said, if you intend to work at a public school next time, you'll probably be fine getting a new job without a release letter.

[khreporter]

Thanks, but has anyone anything rather more substantive?

[mytime]

1.In my hagwon the guy, that comes here, works for the local education centre
This centre looks over the hagwons in my town and makes sure that the hagwons do everything by the book
This includes many things and the legality of my degree and visa is not nearly the most important thing to them but they did check up on me twice in the two years I've worked here
And yeah he comes whenever he wants to, kinda like a school inspector does back home, and without telling my boss beforehand


2.I cant say for sure but from what I know you definitely can't just change your job here in Korea.
First of all you must honor your contract with your employer and if that means you have to give notice before you quit, then you have to do that
Only after you've done that , can you apply for a new job and then it's up to you and your new employer to arrange for you to leave korea on a "visa-run" in order for you to get a new visa to work for your new employer
You can't change employers without getting a new work-visa and that means you must leave Korea to get such a new visa

[denistron]

YOU CAN'T CANCEL YOUR VISA

haha. why does everyone think you can cancel a visa? You can't. You have to have it terminated by your boss or wait till it expires. Unless you have one of those two things you can't get another job in Korea. You just can't. No. Bad teacher.

Try, I dare you.

[MikeNelson]

The owner of the school will get notice before hand of the inspection, if they are a member of the local hogwon association. You see the schools pay a fee to be members, the inspectors get a cut of that (under the table) and your school gets a warning. If your school is not a member they get no warning and are inspected more often.
It is cheeper to be a member and get the warning of the "surprise inspection" then to get fined for any kind of violation.

[bosintang]

Why are you asking these questions? You're a journalist, are you not? Shouldn't be looking for an answer a tad more official than what some random poster on an internet messageboard says? Or do you work for a rag that has the journalistic ethics of a kindergarten class? Oh, you work for the Korean Herald...carry on.

[khreporter]

Thank you for your insights bosintang. Yes, of course I am checking with the official authorities, but obviously you do not live in the real world. There is often a great deal of difference from the "official" version - and what actually happens on the ground. They tell us what "should" happen, you have the opportunity to tell us what really happens. Hence my original post.

[formerflautist]

Random posters on a forum can tell you what "really" happens and you take this for fact? Okay, that's great reporting.

[khreporter]

Good grief, I give up.

[gang ah jee]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Well, I guess the OP could always PM posters to get confirmation of identity if something very interesting or informative came along.

There's a lot of inconsistency but yes, generally, immigration will not cancel visas without the boss' approval. If that were possible, given the job market, foreign teachers could leave bad jobs and get good ones. Bad hogwans couldn't keep teachers. Bad hogwans would lose more students and more of them would go out of business. Good hogwans would be more likely to stay in business. We couldn't possibly have quality improving as a result of foreigners' descretion, could we?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

BTW, OP, don't feel too bad - most of us who have been here a while feel the same way about all the other English language papers, too, and we have great sypathy for you given some of the chumps with whom you must have to work.