Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Corporal]

Rather than being a real situation this is probably Yu Bum Suk's personal fantasy.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

PM me a phone number where you can be reached and I'll be happy to let Mr Kim attempt to explain it to you in broken English.

[peppermint]

This has got to be the dumbest idea ever cooked up by a Korean school- ever. If the parents trust you guys with their little girls in a foreign country for a week, I'll be incredibly surprised.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[JongnoGuru]

[xtchr]

The 'believe it or not' bit for me, is that YBS was given notice now, and asked to actually plan for something that's not until the end of July.

That's not the Korea I know - what's wrong with the old way of being kept completely in the dark before being told in mid July about it, followed by the question "Oh, didn't you know?"

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[3baekwon]

I actually did a trip like that several years ago at the end of my 2nd contract, though all 10 of my boys and girls were in elementary school. We spent just over two weeks in the US together... and despite the exhaustion, it was a great experience (for all of us!) I often think about it, and just a week or so ago one of the students suddenly emailed me. She mentioned the trip and how much fun it had been. I'd been teaching them for two years at that point and thought some "real" English would be good for them. I suggested the trip to my boss, and we started planning. I didn't get any extra pay, but that was fine because I really wanted to do it. (But the fees that the kids paid to cover expenses did include my airfare....)

I described it this way: I became a single mother of 10 kids overnight. (A helper of either gender would have been a welcomed relief!)
I was exhausted... trying to tend to the emotional and physical needs of 10 young kids... then the cleaning, laundry... fixing breakfast for 10 while packing 10 paper sack lunches was an experience for sure... then 10 dinners again that night.... I had brought with me enough Korean food items for 2 meals, so we had one each week. It was pretty simple, but the kids enjoyed a taste of home. (highly recommended)

Details:
We stayed at my parents' house. Koreans are comfortable sleeping on the floor (thank goodness!), so we threw down some sheets and blankets and let them sort it out themselves.

I signed the kids up (in advance) for 2 weeks of day camp. This would allow them the opportunity to see the same people day after day and allow them to make friends and use "real" English (as well as taking up a large portion of the day). They actually did succeed in making friends - the other kids loved them and the camp staff adored them.

Then every evening we did something that is hard-to-find or nonexistant in Korea, such as miniature golf, laser tag, shopping (possible in Korea, but the products are different!)... The kids loved all of it! They went nuts at the "Everything's a dollar" store; it was really cute! (I don't mean they were wild, running all over the place... they just bought everything the store had!)

We didn't travel anywhere... it was just an opportunity to live in and experience my little corner of the US. Traveling (for the most part) seems to bore kids anyways. After a while, the sites, the buildings and the mountains all look pretty much the same.

None of them showered *voluntarily* throughout the entire time. It wasn't too rough because the camp took them swimming every afternoon. I forced them to shower, and they (despite my careful instructions and demonstrations) flooded the bathroom. After that, I stood in the bathroom and instructed them step-by-step. (They entered the shower fully dressed and stripped behind the curtain, showered, dried off, got dressed, and then exited the shower - it was kosher.) I left the bathroom door open so that it was obvious that nothing odd was going on. Still, as a westerner, I felt really uncomfortable but it didn't seem to bother the kids - and my parents were relieved to see that the bathroom had remained intact.

The most expensive part of the trip was transportation. A rental van big enough to hold all of us cost us (with insurance) almost US$2000. It was the insurance that got us - it was outrageously expensive!

I quickly discovered that I needed (what I called) a diaper bag. This was for wet wipes, tissues, scissors, clippers, tweezers, band-aids, Tylenol, paper cups, snacks, plastic bags... everything. Since mine were younger, I also had their passports and a portion of their spending money.

I had several criers (some nightly!) which was emotionally draining, but you probably won't have to deal with that. I had one "wanderer" which you very well may have to deal with. After several attempts to get him to stay with us I solved that with a trip to "Toys R Us" to buy one of those toddler 'leashes' that you put around the wrist. It didn't seem to bother him, and I always knew where he was. I'm not sure how well this solution would work for teens, though...

Parents:
The parents were thrilled to sign their kids up and did so without as much as a question about my family. It concerned me that they were so eager to give their kids an "English experience" that they would be willing to put them in (potential) danger. Even though I'd been the kids' teacher for 2 years, they didn't know me THAT well, and they didn't know my parents at all! Of course *I* knew that my dad wasn't a predator and that my mother wouldn't beat the kids, but my point is that the parents didn't know nor did they seem to care. The blind trust that parents have (just in foreigners?) is scary.

(I think) the parents signed some sort of form giving me permission to give permission to the hospital (did you get that?) to treat the kids in the event of an emergency... there were also some extra forms for the camp. Two questions from those forms that proved very useful:
1. Has your daughter had her first period?
2. If 'no', then has she been told about it?
Great information!! I don't think any of my girls had been told about menstruation. I got a call from a mother explaining that her daughter was about to have her period and would I be willing to take care of it. So I did, but the kid knew nothing... what a pad was, where it goes.. nothing. It turned out that it was fuss about nothing. My best guess is that the mother had been to a fortune-teller and had been told that her daughter would start "any day now." Poor kid. She was all worked up for no reason at all...

My boss "suggested" that I write to the parents every couple of days telling them what the kids were up to... this proved to be a disaster. If that suggestion is made, REFUSE! The kids called their parents and the parents called their kids, so it was completely unnecessary... As a single person taking care of 10 young children, it was excruciatingly difficult to find time to sit down and email parents. *IF* I had the time to sit down (rarely!!) then I wanted to relax and take a second to pull myself together, not email repetitive info to parents...

A tip that didn't fit in anywhere: go to the airport and get the arrival/departure cards in advance. Fill them out in class and then collect them. Helping 10 kids dicipher/fill out the cards takes a LONG time, especially if you're already running late for your flight. Yes, the cards are in Korean, but remember that their parents have filled out every official document they've needed up until now....

It was an incredible trip, and those 10 kids are among the best travel buddies I've ever had. They were amazing! I hope your experience will be a positive one, too!

Hmmm... did I miss anything? If so, feel free to PM me....

[JongnoGuru]

Well now.... After 3baekwon's excruciatingly informative post, and I thank her for it, I trust no-one is still doubting what Korea parents will agree to as regards sending their children halfway around the world to be looked after by near-stranger foreigners, are you, Peppermint & Corporal? (<== That must come across as snotty, but I don't mean it that way. If you could hear the semi-incredulous tone of my voice, then you'd understand that I'm ... as semi-incredulous as you two also might be about this. And surely you won't now do an about-face and say it's all cool simply because 3baekwon is a girl. Or would you? )

And 3baekwon, please don't you take my comments amiss here. I'm not suggesting that you or your family weren't/aren't fabulous minders & hosts.

But this bit really got me:

[jacl]

For free?

I take it that the OP is not getting compensated for this. That would be my first question. Or, statement

Boss: "You have to plan a 2-week field trip to another country"
Me: "Oh, that's quite expensive for the school and parents. 2 million on top of my salary is quite expensive."

[3baekwon]

No offense taken, JongnoGuru.... It surprised me too. It caused me a great deal of concern... not for my kids, but for kids whose parents were trusting of dangerous / harmful strangers or near-strangers.

Sorry for the length of the post.... My New Year's resolution is to learn the art of brevity, but I'm obviously not doing very well!

[Homer]

Took 20 students from my school (a few years back) to Vancouver for 10 days.

I was working with another teacher (Korean) to plan the trip.

We did have to arrange everything...but...we also got to plan the activities. This ended up being a good experience for the kids and for us.

If you want my advice, prepare 2 proposals. Each with a cost estimate, a basic list of activies/places to see and what educational value this can have.

We visited both cultural sites and educational facilities (UBC, and some high schools). I arranged for the students to be able to sit in on some classes in a school and they loved the experience. We also visited two hakwon type places in Van where students go to study English.

Hope that helps ya out Yum....

[Grotto]

My advice would be to pad the expenses and pocket an extra 4 or 5 million won or so.

If you take a trip where you are going to be working 24/7 for two weeks straight the pay should reflect that.

While the experience sounds exceedingly rewarding for the students...it also sounds physically and emotionally exhausting for the teacher.

[peppermint]

Guru, believing the idea was colossally stupid, is not the same as believing it is improbable here. I had a near escape from taking 8 elementary school kids to Jejudo ( with my Korean co-teacher) over the winter holidays.