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madowlspeaks
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Location: Somewhere in time and space
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 Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:32 am Post subject: What's better? Public schools or uni? |
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Yes, yes they both have their perks.
Uni
Pro's
* long vacations
* lots of autonomy
*shorter teaching hours (usually)
Con's
* smaller apartments
* less pay
Public School
Pro's
* larger apartments
* more pay
Con's
* shorter vacations (just how long are they anyway??)
* less autonomy
*more hours
I have heard that some public school gigs are phenomenal-to the extent that they outweigh uni benefits. Is this so?
Please share why you think it is better to work at public school or uni and why. |
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The_Source
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:29 pm Post subject: Re: What's better? Public schools or uni? |
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Uni
Pro's
* long vacations |
This is changing nowadays. Korean universities are requiring their teachers to do extra classes during the summer & winter vacations, at no additional pay.
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| * lots of autonomy |
This is also changing. They are moving towards requiring all of their FTs to use the same textbook and teach the same topics.
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| *shorter teaching hours (usually) |
Yes, but the amount of time spent on prep and grading substantially adds to the total number of working hours.
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Con's
* smaller apartments |
Many offer NO apartments. Some don't provide a housing allowance, either. This means the teachers pay for their own apartments out of their (already low) salaries.
And it keeps getting worse.
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| I have heard that some public school gigs are phenomenal-to the extent that they outweigh uni benefits. |
As far as I'm concerned, there is no benefit to working at Korean universities. I've worked at Korean universities before, and I never will again. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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Public schools are decent but there are some bad ones...for instance mine is awesome and offering some wel paying after school classes....by septemeber I should be making a sweet 2.9 a month....on the flipside, the girl in the school next to me has no co-teacher and was pretty sure she was gonna leave by the end of the year.
My other friend has a school that for the most part dislikes her...my school loves me....however staff at PS jobs switch every couple of year...You could have awesome co-teachers one year, then get crappy ones the next....so the losers who caused other people to run just simply get moved, not fired.
The few long term veterans I've met who were leaving mentioned this as a factor.....they loved their staff for the first couple of years, then the d-bags moved in. |
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hugekebab
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: What's better? Public schools or uni? |
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| The_Source wrote: |
| Quote: |
Uni
Pro's
* long vacations |
This is changing nowadays. Korean universities are requiring their teachers to do extra classes during the summer & winter vacations, at no additional pay.
| Quote: |
| * lots of autonomy |
This is also changing. They are moving towards requiring all of their FTs to use the same textbook and teach the same topics.
| Quote: |
| *shorter teaching hours (usually) |
Yes, but the amount of time spent on prep and grading substantially adds to the total number of working hours.
| Quote: |
Con's
* smaller apartments |
Many offer NO apartments. Some don't provide a housing allowance, either. This means the teachers pay for their own apartments out of their (already low) salaries.
And it keeps getting worse.
| Quote: |
| I have heard that some public school gigs are phenomenal-to the extent that they outweigh uni benefits. |
As far as I'm concerned, there is no benefit to working at Korean universities. I've worked at Korean universities before, and I never will again. |
To balance this...I'm at one of the crappest private unis in my area. In reality with all the canceled classes and 'festivals' that the students attend I end up working max about 15-16 hours per week. grading is not a big deal here I can do the grading straight after my exams; takes 15 -25 min each class and you only do it twice per semester. Last summer I had 2.5 months off. This winter I will have 7-8 weeks off. I get paid on top of my basic for any special classes that we do (they do love special classes) The awful, awful management is stressful as hell cus they drop everything on us last minute, and theres always the Hilary Clinton 3am phonecall, but if that doesn't bother you then I would take a uni job like mine. He's right though, lots of uni positions are shit and getting shitter. |
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IMF crisis
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Where are these crappy uni jobs? Outside Seoul, I'm guessing. I work uni and have friends that work uni and we love it. The pay is not great, but we do actually get raises every year. We don't have to teach any summer or winter stuff if we choose not to. We teach 12 hours a week and have absolute control over what we teach. Oh, and I would mich rather teach uni students than middle or high school kids. |
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withnail
Joined: 13 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul, South Korea.
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Please see my post on pissing contests... |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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It really depends.
There are fewer great uni jobs, while at the same time, a whole lot of crappy unigwon jobs have been added.
The easiest job of all time was working at an all-girls high school in a rich area. I loved the Korean staff there -- miss them tons. The chairman actually married my wife and I. I was also becoming a bit bored with it, though.
University is more work (checking crap) and hours are split all over. I have days off during the week, though. The vacation is nice at my school, but at many unis, this is going away.
Treat any job the same -- weigh the pros and cons -- then decide.
Yes, many public school jobs are very nice. Some unis are nice too. Univs are fewer in number, and you stand a better chance of hearing what it's like to work there before you dive into a bad situation. |
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JabberJabber
Joined: 02 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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sounds like a lot of people aren't prepping much or developing much in terms of program, activities or testing.
ahh the joys of working in the esl industry in korea.
it is always a wonder why people here demand to be treated with high regards when all they do is show-up for class.
administration believes a monkey could do this job because people put the least amount of effort as possible in what they do.
but i digress
i've worked in all areas of esl in korea and, i can tell you that some hagwons are better than some uni jobs, some uni jobs are better than some public school jobs and some public school jobs are better than some foreign language school jobs.
it all depends what you are looking for and where you choose to work. |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| JabberJabber wrote: |
| sounds like a lot of people aren't prepping much or developing much in terms of program, activities or testing. |
My hands are tied by skill level (lack of), coteacher interference and very little money for English. |
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makemischief
Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Location: Traveling
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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so the simplified answer:
good uni jobs are better than public school gigs, hands down.
public school gigs are better than sub-par uni jobs.
would that be safe to say? |
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JabberJabber
Joined: 02 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Xuanzang wrote: |
| JabberJabber wrote: |
| sounds like a lot of people aren't prepping much or developing much in terms of program, activities or testing. |
My hands are tied by skill level (lack of), coteacher interference and very little money for English. |
skill level shouldn't be tying you up but, the co-teacher can be a major pain.
not sure if the following will work but, it worked for me.
i used to prep a few activities on my own. then, i'd look them over with my CT and i'd ask her if we could try one out the next day. after a while, i was helping to prep the whole class and running most of the class time.
i've had quite a few CT and, once i was running the class, some would chill in their corner and some would get motivated. the ones that got motivated woud be great to work with and the ones that chilled, i just let them be. when the contract was up, i'd move on and if the admnistartion asked why, i would tell them.
when i first started, i tried to prep with other NT in the region. we'd get toegther over coffee and we'd try to come up with a few activities for each chapter. if you are unsure about how to go about it, start a prep group with the other teachers of the region. it worked wonders for us. |
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JabberJabber
Joined: 02 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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| makemischief wrote: |
so the simplified answer:
good uni jobs are better than public school gigs, hands down.
public school gigs are better than sub-par uni jobs.
would that be safe to say? |
yes.
but don't forget about foreign schools and private schools. |
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Billy Pilgrim
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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Quite frankly, I'm very happy to see people claim uni jobs are crap.
Take that however you like. |
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madowlspeaks
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Location: Somewhere in time and space
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:10 am Post subject: |
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eeeeks
Co-teacher?? This had not even crossed my mind.
Having a CT would definitely be a deciding factor for me.  |
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