Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ttompatz]

http://www.epik.go.kr/
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Title Policy Preference for TEFL/TESOL Certificates 2012-08-01

[ippy]

ouch! Thats a bit of a toughie. Might be time to call an end to the whole public school thing and switch to hagwon. Ill see how im feeling here. Its not like i hate thailand, its just a bit intense (plus my brain is screaming the word SNOWBOARDING!!!) at me. The kids are lovely though, and despite the horror stories class sizes are very manageable (from 18-35 students per class depending on year group). I also live in a part of thailand loads of people would kill to live in. Must appreciate what i have!

Just gonna have to think about this a bit more. If thailand does get a bit much (i feel like i already have dengue ), then ill bail at the end of my contract and go for Hagwon life (which i genuinely worry about because my teaching experience is ENTIRELY public school). Since the writing is on the wall for middle school positions though... maybe its something i should be doing anyways... plus public school prospectively pays less.

If on the other hand i start to settle in a bit and acclimatize, (and what with it moving into the cooler/drier part of the year after october) then another 4-6 months likely wont kill me. Do the TEFL in october and bish bosh: Travel freedoms. It just seems such a mickey mouse qualification to get for such an outrageous cost. Maybe i should just jump into a delta instead. Im bright. Ive read books on teaching methods. Ive been teaching for years. How hard can it be? (rhetorical, im off to research that exact question ).

[ttompatz]

If you're in Thailand, get your gold card and don't work for less than 60k (2.2million krw).
http://www.ksp.or.th/Khurusapha/en/userfiles/02%20Routes%20to%20teaching%20license.pdf

T'ain't that hard to do (I knocked all 4 tests out in test cycle 10 - first try) ...
http://www.ksp.or.th/Khurusapha/en/

60k goes a lot further in Thailand than 2.2m krw goes in Korea.

.

[ippy]

hehe, i would Ttom, but thailand is just too darned hot. Im a proper pale blue, never tan, scotsman. The relentlessness of it blows my mind. I mean sometimes its cool - and by cool i mean very high 20s. And thats a blessed relief. And i do get aircon in my classroom, so i should count my blessings... but heat just isnt my thing. If the money was insane and things moved faster than snails pace (if you continually poke people to do something that needs to be done maybe sometime before the deadline as opposed to a couple of months after it), then im sure i could handle it... for a while. But genuinely we arent a great fit. I can see why it would be amazing for other people. But i like my temperatures more on the chilly side and my management more on the efficient side.

The kids are adorable though. Proper bounce of the walls enthusiasm. But despite that, i dont really see me staying here longer than a year.

[AubreeB]

So i have a question. My recruiter and i came to an agreement on a certain amount of TEFL hours for my certification, but now unfortunately i can not afford the 120 hours. I was going to just buy the 100 hours certification but we've already sent in my epik app with the previous agreement on there. Should i suck it up and try to pay for the extra hours or can something be changed after submission? Btw I'm in the process of waiting for my interview.