Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Iago]

Hi,

I have been receiving a number of contracts to look over, from various hagwans offering jobs. The contracts all seem a little brief and don't cover as much as i would like.

Is it normal for contracts to be quite loose?

And to what degree can you get away with making alterations before it has been signed?

Cheers

[garykasparov]

[ttompatz]

You are going to sign away a year of your life.

Cruise through the contract sticky thread and look at some of the crap and the alterations needed to make them acceptable.

Many experience users have spend a lot of time and effort assisting those who went before you.

The school of hard knocks is a good teacher but she is often not very pleasant while you learn. Learn from their mistakes, experiences and expertise.

Your personal education on this and other related matters is your best defense against spending a year in hakwon hell.

[missmarsters]

Not an expert, but I'll give you my personal opinion. First, post your contract here to get feedback.

With my contract, I was going through a recruiter, and after what I got on here and my own reservations and questions, I just asked my recruiter about all my concerns. We discussed each one, and ammended the contract to fit what I needed to be comfortable while still keeping the school happy. In some cases, he let me rewrite the clauses myself. Most things were not problems just things that needed to be clarified. (How long each class was/What would be in my apartment.) I didn't sign until I was fully sure of the contract. But, you also need to keep in mind that you want to find a medium between what you want, what the school wants, and what the law states you legally need.

Good luck!

[MarionG]

Many schools, if not most schools, are willing to talk about clarification and additions. If they have a that's-our-contract-and-we-won't-change-a-single-thing attitude, you probably don't want to work there...especially if what they don't want to change is loosey-goosey!

On the other hand, some teachers ask for unreasonable things and have unreasonable expectations. For example, this is a job TEACHING, and that means that there will be some preparation time. Some contracts address this (teacher will be at school 30 minutes before his first scheduled class for preparation, or something like that.) Preparation time (a reasonable preparation time) is not overtime. On the otherhand, if they think you should be grading papers for 3 hours after your last class, you have a problem.

One way to address this is for the contract to state 1) teaching hours per week, (i.e. 25 hours) 2) what constitutes a teaching hour, (i.e. 50 minutes=1 teaching hour) and 3) the hours you're expected to be at school (2:30-10:30.) Anything beyond the teaching hours and the hours at school is overtime, and voluntary.

If one teaching hour = 60 minutes, then that means that if you teach 6 classes of 50 minutes each, you've only taught 5 hours, not 6.

[Iago]

Thanks guys, that is all helpful. I had a look at the sticky too, should have looked there first, forgot about them haha.

I have been told schools get upset if you try to change everything, but others say to drive a hard bargain. Like anyone, I dont want to sign any old contract that doesn't cover everything it ought to.

I would post the contract with the alterations i think it may need, but i dont know how to attach it. If i past it, it loses the highlights (which indicate the bits i changed).

No matter tho, i will look over the sticky a bit more and follow the advice you lot have given and see what i can accomplish.

Cheers



[/list][/url]