Korean Job Discussion Forums

[d-rail]

i want to hear what kind of advice people have for my situation. i have 2 years public school experience (middle and high school), and my current contract ends October 31. i have my plane tickets already for feb 13, so i have 3 months to kill (preferably by working). i also have an F2 visa. i cant extend with my current school for 3 months, so i must find something else. so...what should i do? is only 3 months long enough to get a decent customer base for privates? (i don't really think so) do i work at a hagwan full time? part time hagwan and part time privates? something else? what type of suggestions do you have? i'd like some advice.
oh, i'll be moving to yongin, but my wife is a ps teacher in bundang, so i will probably be working in bundang.

[PRagic]

Work for a month then go scuba diving and work on your tan. Your wife should be supportive of this move.

[i]

As for the privates question, I found that it isn't as easy to get a base as posts indicated before I got here. But this is what worked for me. I paid to post fliers in apartments. I chose those which were between subway stops, so not so frequented by foreigners. They have some wealthy residents who live there in older apartments and spend their money on education for their kids. For every complex I put up posters, I got at least 1 student. Spent a couple hundred thousand won and it took a week to fill up my schedule. I paid b/w 30,000 and 50,000 to have the posters up for a week. The downside is waiting to take a bus that might just come every 20 mins.
I tried talking to people, posting on the internet, taking out ads in Korean papers and putting up posters on the street. None of that worked. But paying to put up posters worked. I had to meet with each prospective student, and everyone of them hired me. It helped that I brought my family with me. Most of the kids I teach now are those who have gone to expensive hakwons and didn't get results. I also teach adults and that has been pretty easy since they just want free-talking with a conversation book. I work a lot on prep for the kids, but I am hoping I can keep them all. If not, time to pay to put up more posters. If you try to go cheap by putting up illegal posters like I did, you might just be sitting around waiting for calls that never come like I did, plus being called up by those who call the numbers on the posters to fine those who put them up.