Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jdog2050]

I used to be in SMOE, and was going to reapply but I got a job in another sector in korea.

What the hell's going on with the program? I've seen so many complaints. When I was there, just last year, it had issues, but none of them major (besides those dorms that they put a lot of newbies in).

Sounds like a lot of the things that were small for me are blowing up big time for new people.

[Ukon]

They just hired a massive number of new teachers.....Me included.....some schools have never had a co-teacher and some are obviously replacing the runners in bad schools......

Most of the people in SMOE I've talked to seem to be enjoying it alot....I've yet to here much bad.

[Bibbitybop]

It's a roll of the dice and quality of life depends on your school. The SMOE office is shooting itself in the foot. They want to increase the number of foreign teachers, but doesn't want to add staff to its own office or foreign teacher program. Seriously, they could hire 2 more admin assistants for the price of 1 foreign teacher.

SMOE is letting problems build over time. Here are big ones:

Lack of clear policies and procedures. Schools end up making things up, lying or being dumbfounded.

Lack of communication. No one can figure out what's going on and can't get any help.

Lack of commitment. Once you are in a school, SMOE would rather not hear from you. They got a "representative teacher" program started last year and neglected it. They wanted representative teachers to help sort out problems, but stopped listening to and stopped helping those representative teachers.

Lack of over all professionalism. SMOE could become a global EFL leader if it took a few steps, but instead it is handled like most Korean business and organizations instead of becoming a globalized, professional organization.



These things were ok in SMOE's infancy. How old is it now? 4 years? It's time to grow up or stay mediocre.


The only thing SMOE is good for is upholding the contract. Too bad they leave tons of gray area for principals and coteachers to screw with.

But remember, if you get a good school, SMOE can beat 85% of the jobs in Korea. Get a bad school and you'll wish you were at a hogwan.

[jdog2050]

[Bibbitybop]

[jkelly80]

I can only speak for the Seobu office, but I've found it to be, by far, the most unprofessional and shoddy management I've ever worked for. And I used to work at Arby's.

[pkang0202]

My school has had 2 runners before me. The last teacher only stayed til the end because he really wanted a high school job, and breaking a SMOE contract basically blackballs you from all the public schools in Seoul.

I'm sticking it out because I know at the end of the year, I'll switch schools.

If I had a say, I would tell SMOE NOT to put any native teachers at my school until they learned how to be professional.

Of course, SMOE doesn't care about working conditions or job satisfaction. All they care about is putting 1 teacher in each school.

[egrog1717]

Hell, I'm still waiting for the last 100k of my flight reimbursement cash, and I've had my co-teacher call the SMOE office 4 times in the last 2 weeks... Their excuses thus far has ranged from "We don't have the budget for it" to "Since you are the only one complaining about this, it is not a big issue"...
Told my co-teacher to rip them a new one for me (which I think she actually did to a degree... she's cool like that...)... I know that if I owed them money, was the only person to owe them money, and didn't have the cash on hand, they would be bugging me for it... Hell, 100k is food for 2 weeks!

[sigmundsmith]

SMOE has a limited operational budget to work with - meaning staffing in their main office. The Aug/Sep intake was for 450 new teachers spread over 10/11 districts (not sure on the number). Almost, straight away they began the process again for the next recruitment process of 250 new teachers for the Feb/Mar intake.

So, SMOE's job is finished once they have placed you in your school. Even though you have a signed contract with SMOE and not your school they don't want to hear anything of or about you. "Discuss it with your school or district supervisor".

Each district, so it seems, has a native representative for both elem and middle school teachers. Many have tried to contact their district supervisors, arrange meetings, discuss issues, have precendences set, develop workshops etc but some (a lot) seem to turn a deaf ear.

English Education is important to Korea/ns but English teachers are not important to Korea/ns.

Yes, SMOE have been told (report submitted) about recommendations of improving the NSET program but nothing has been done to implement any suggestions.

I don't want to come over negative but the Korean way of doing things is just not productive. If they tell us, "hey, you guys are not important, you are really only there for show", great I would accept it a plod along like many recently N.American graduated students. But that has not been the case.

Yes, the SMOE program could go down as one of the biggest professional successes for Korea with the high goals they have set but IMO, they really need to start listening to the people with the feet on the ground if they don't want the program turning into what will be seen as a Large Hagwon Organization.

[Summer Wine]

[prideofidaho]

[ardis]

[Bibbitybop]

[Draz]

[buymybook]