Korean Job Discussion Forums

[travelin_shoe]

I am currently in the middle of the visa process and hoping to be placed in Busan. I'm only slightly nervous about not knowing which area of the city I will be living/working in until after EPIK orientation. Has anyone had this experience? I'm going the public school route be because I'm not willing to gamble on hagwons, yet this situation is kind of gamble too. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[BS.Dos.]

It's the luck of the draw really. Best thing to do is once your recruiter gives you the details of the school, put up a few posts on here and see if anyone knows the school or area. Chances are, someone will and will probably know the school itself, unless of course you're going to be the schools first FT, which can either be a very, very good thing or, a not so good thing.

Good luck with it.

[marlow]

You'll end up at some school that has no idea what they are supposed to do with you. Guaranteed.

[maingman]

marlow wrote :

You'll end up at some school that has no idea what they are supposed to do with you. Guaranteed.


yes... and im not with EPIK, or SMOE

[travelin_shoe]

Well here's the kicker... I will know the details of the school before my recruiter will so there aren't many questions I can actually have answered until I get there.[/img]

[EricaSmile84]

I went through EPIK and I'm in Busan. I have one school and a great apartment. It's pretty here, the climate is nice and I'm just a subway ride away from the big part of town. Some friends live in Jangsan and Haeundae but its too busy for me. It's fun on the weekends though! Come to Busan! It's awesome here!

[EricaSmile84]

I didn't even know what grade level I was teaching until 2 days before the orientation ended. You'll just know your province (it will be in your hiring notice paperwork from EPIK).

PM me if you need more details. I just had my orientation in February so its fresh in my mind.

[travelin_shoe]

Thanks for the info Erica. I can't PM yet cause I'm new. I definitely think I'll be happy in Busan and I'm getting really excited to go. I've been reading other posts that say I won't even know the province until orientation. Just slightly confused.

[EricaSmile84]

Hey. If you are hired through EPIK, you will know your province when you get your contract and hiring docs. You will know this before you fly to Korea. EPIK does this cool thing at the orientation where they group people according to their province. Most likely your hotel roommate will be in the same province as you. The same goes with the people who you'll be in seminars with. They do this so that you can socialize with the people who you'll be living near (in the same province) which will make a nice little social network of "people to lean on" while you're here.

As for schools, we all found out whether or not we were teaching elementary school or not (not= either middle or high school) at orientation. A couple days later, they gave me my school name and city where I will be living, along with a map of Busan so all of us could find out where we would all be.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any more questions as the time goes by. I know one girl who is also trying for Busan through EPIK. She's trying for August hiring.

[American_Maverick]

Erica,

Would you recommend the PS in Busan to the hagwons down there for a 1st time teacher? Which of the two tend to have the most structured lesson plans for you to teach from?

I know you are new, but I wonder if you have learned enough in your short time there to answer questions on hagwons vs. ps in Busan for complete newbies.

[EricaSmile84]

Well I don't know much about the hagwons here. What I do know is that there are a lot of them in the bigger areas-- Jangsan and Haeundae. Many of the people I run into who look Western are hagwon teachers over there.

Honestly I've read and heard about many horror stories about hagwons-- contracts, pay, vacation, work-load, etc. I think the pay may be better at hagwons though.

I've never worked for a hagwon so I don't know about the lesson plans. For my public school, I am the native English teacher and I only teach spoken English. The students see me once a week for conversation class and see their Korean teachers for the other 4 days. In my opinion, doing that is much easier than teaching spelling, writing, grammar, reading, phonics. My degree is in communcation (not English or education) so I am very confident in teaching my students spoken English.

The work load at my public school is much less than at a hagwon. I teach 3-4 classes a day which last 45 minutes each. My schedule is set and I don't work weekends, holidays or after 4:30!

I'd say go with the public/private school. I'm pretty happy with my decision.

[daniel9481]

[LBC27]

Travelin_shoe,

I am also applying to EPIK in Busan and feel exactly the same way as you. I am a little nervous about not knowing where I'll be placed, but I feel it is a much smarter gamble than a hagwon. Where are you from? How is the application process going for you?...I'm in the US and the only thing giving me trouble right now is getting the criminal background check done. I have to get fingerprints and then mail them in and wait 4-6 weeks! I just hope it doesnt delay my application too much. Anyway, good luck, hope to hear from you!

LC

[Draz]

[Fishead soup]

If your working with EPIK don't try to teach the lessons alone. The classes are way overcrowded and classes can be really hard to manage without a Korean co-teacher. Some co-teachers will claim they are too busy to try to dodge out of team teaching.