Korean Job Discussion Forums

[English Matt]

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[Countrygirl]

Why the heck would a construction worker or waitress want to make such little money in Korea? A construction worker would make more on EI than working as an intern. I get that waitressing is a crappy job, but the tips should make up for it. They won't save any money here with the exchange rate. Sounds strange to me.

[English Matt]

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[Yu_Bum_suk]

Yesterday I finally got to meet two of the TaLK 'scholars' working in my school district. They seemed like really nice guys but I couldn't for the life of me see my high school students taking them very seriously, no matter how bilingual they may be.

[Some of the Mothers Said]

OP You make some excellent points.
Take my situation. I work in a private High school which is funded by GEPIK. I have worked at this school for two years, and in Korea since 1999. I love my job. My co-workers are cool, the kids are fun, and the admin is very flexible and mature. However, because we need to be given a grant each year by GEPIK, my school can't guarantee a position for me until they find out if they have been awarded funding mid January. Meanwhile, just like last year, I'm sitting on job offers of which are very nice, and the head of the English Department is going nuts trying to keep me from taking one. If GEPIK really want to keep the costs down, they need to retain the teachers they already have.
You mentioned increasing wages. Get this! My co-worker said that this year the school could have requested an English Immersion set, room- thing, with an airport, shop and something else I can't recall. The funding for this is 65 million won! Can you believe this? 65 million won! That's a lot of money! I'm sure 65 teachers would like an extra million in their pay each year as a bonus for returning to the same school.
I have heard that GEPIK puts in around 100 million for each foreign teacher for each year. Now, I get about a third of that in wages. What happens to the rest? Immersion rooms? Perhaps they should spend some dollars on researching priorities.

[farrepatt]

There's an intern at my school hired through the GEPIK program. She was hired while I was back in the states getting my visa and started a few weeks after I did. She's Korean, but lived six years in England, so that apparently qualifies her for internship status. She co-teaches the third and fourth grade students, while I work with the fifth and sixth graders. She also teaches all of the after-school classes (I have none because of her) and will have a three-week camp alongside mine for winter vacation.

I'm not exactly clear on why she's here... she's been working at hagwons and I would assume they would pay her more (she makes 1.6 here - our school very nicely puts our paystubs on the same page). But, she has three kids and lives right next to the school, and her husband seems to have a pretty good job (it's a nice area), so maybe it's more about the location than anything else.

She's not fluent, but she's pretty close. The only thing I have to complain about is that she's older than me, so she does, at times, act like my boss and handler.

[English Matt]

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[wylies99]

Do these "interns" get health insurance and pension?

[English Matt]

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[EuroFunk]

yeah we get the health coverage, even though I'm a beast and never get sick.

not sure about the pension though.

[wylies99]

[farrepatt]

They get both health insurance and pension.

I was a bit upset that I don't get extra after-school classes to bump my pay - I had heaps last year at my old school and it was great. However, the intern only has ten regular teaching hours a week, the after-school classes bring her schedule up to 22 hours a week, and since they're inside of school hours, she gets no extra pay for them.

That being said, I don't know that any of the english education programs done by GEPIK are that smart or well-done.

[English Matt]

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[yingwenlaoshi]

[marlow]