Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

I'm rolling into a new public elementary and they say that the City School Board has alloted a maximum of 400,000 a month. The school can use no more than that when the school shops for an apt for the foreign English teacher. And the school can NOT put down a deposit/key money. I heard this and just about flipped! So THAT'S why they were showing me a one-room ("come over here, look, but it's a BIG one room"^^. I refused to look at the proposed CELL^^). They said 'don't you know/don't you remember, look in your contract'.

I said off the bat to her that what's in the contract, 300,000 won is in the circumstance that the foreign teacher doesn't want school supplied housing. Thus they get that montly allowance for rent they can use to pay for the apt the foreigner himself/herself finds and rents.

Sure enough, later, I see NOTHING about no stinking 400,000 max the school can use (or anything about them not being able to pay a deposit/key money).

I also said to her at the time that the USUAL for public schools to put out themselves per month for an apt. is 550-650,000 won. I happen to know because there was a thread on Dave's asking this question; everybody said 550-600 thousand won.

It's pretty shitty. They said 'well, if you want a bigger place then you must pay more'. IF the standard allotment is 600 and theirs is substandard, 400, then I'm paying 200 of my own money per month to get it up to snuff. Something's wrong from the start and they ought to be set straight.

Also, how short sighted! If they were able to put down a deposit they could get a much better place and keep it for years as successive foreigners come along. The only type of apt that don't ask for deposits are little, short term, one room sort of places.

Anybody else dealing with this?

In Korean fashion a solution has come up where one of the teachers has a relative who has a bigger place and won't ask for a deposit. So we're getting around this 'rule'/limit and its effects.

[Otherside]

On the other thread I said that I overheard the figure for my apt and it was 550,000. I was wrong.. the figure is 450,000 a month with 5mill key money.

The figure of 600,000 might vary between schools, or be up to the discretion of schools, or might just be a case of someone pocketing a bit of change from your allowance. Where you are really being screwed is on the key money. You can do ok on 400,000 in most areas, provided they put up some decent key money.

[xCustomx]

Your school receives a lump sump of money, about $50,000, to use on you throughout the year. I have heard conflicting answers from my school, from GEPIK, and the local education office. Originally I heard 600,000 per month, but later the education office said no more than 400,000 can be spent. I heard from GEPIK that it's really up to the school's discretion on how much to spend and that as long as the rent they're paying for your place does not cause them to go over the budget, everything is OK. THEN I was told that the education office allots a certain amount of money to be spent on housing, depending on the area. If you live in Bundang then your school can pay up to 700,000/month. If you're in Suwon then it's about 350,000.

Don't let them jerk you around and be firm about what you want and are entitled to.

[captain kirk]

[captain kirk]

[moosehead]

[mountainous]

I met a pub school teacher who likes her apartment in Seoul, they are not all horrendous, just keep poking around til you find something suitable, good luck.

[captain kirk]

How about a sickeningly ^^ happy ending, would that be ok?

About 10km away, half way up a mountain but with a paved road, with only two immediate neigbours (goat farmer and some other kind of mountain farmer) is a trad Korean sort of farmer house and that's what got found. I said to the Korean co-teacher the place is totally charming, I love it! She said she thought the place she picked out for me before, the one room I rejected, was more charming. That place, to me, was a stinking hole. Sure it was clean, and close to the city, but it's a one room. If you're living in a one room there should also be a zoo warden who throws you a bone once in a while^^.

Different ways of looking at things! So now I live in a trad farm house on the side of a mountain. It depends what the Korean person has in mind as a nice place when they're looking for a place for you. I told them, after seeing the hideous one room, the place they find can be isolated, country, dirty, have bugs, I DON'T care as long as it's BIG. Someone knew someone and bypassed the necessity of key money. This happened because I told them what I wanted. Otherwise they never would have guessed. Mold can be killed, bugs can be eradicated, isolation can be solitude, but a one room can't be expanded in size, even with mirrors and op art posters^^.

I don't mind being on a mountainside with almost no neighbours at the end of a winding mountain road. In fact, that's just farking PEACHY. I can see why the young female Korean co-teacher would want a tidy little one-room, though. I'D feel like a piece of bread in a toaster. She didn't like the farmhouse because it's 'dirty, cold (on the mountainside that day), and no friends (not close to shops, other people, etc.)'. Well, I won't invite you over then, Ms Princess Paris Hilton^^

Country roaaaaads. Takkeeee me home. To the Land where I was born, West Virginia, Mountain Mama, Take me home, country roads.....Koreans are in a hurry to forget their rural roots, some of them. Their loss! I have cows, chickens, etc....^^. Let Armaggedon come rolling on down!!!^^

[agoodmouse]

My school pays about 450,000 for my apartment. It's not a one-bedroom like a bunch of my PS and hakwon friends have. Then again, their apartments cost more most of the time. So it's possible to get a non-big-one-bedroom apartment with your bedroom closed off at least in my area. I hope your situation gets worked out.

[rationality]