Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blubarsk]

Hello, I am looking for a job in Korea. I have no experience, male, 23, university graduate, plan on taking CELTA course this summer.

I have a couple of questions, first of all it seems like you don't really need any certification to teach in Korea, am I wasting my money on the CELTA? I want to be the best possible teacher I can so I feel it may be worth it and I really have no idea how long I am going to be teaching English for, maybe a year, could be more.

Secondly, I absolutely have to be somewhere for about 2-3 weeks next June. I know most jobs only offer vacation around August and Dec/Jan. Are there any jobs that have flexible vacation times that I would be able to choose or do you think there is anyway a Korean employer would let me leave for a few weeks unpaid. What is the best way to approach this? I want to teach for a year, I would be willing to skip the Dec vacation maybe to get on my employers good side. Should I mention this up front or just wait and mention it after I already have the job. I guess one possibility would be to resign but I don't want to do that. Any suggestions?

Also did anyone have to get a criminal record check through Arizona? They are so difficult to work with. The Department of Public Safety and Attorney General's Office say according to Arizona law they can not do this. The sheriff's office won't do it, I went to my local police station and hopefully they will be able to give me something that is sufficient, but who knows. Anybody get this done in Arizona?

I appreciate any feedback any of you may have, this site is really awesome and I appreciate all of you who have helped others out. Just going and reading many posts have helped me greatly.

[moosehead]

here's a link for Az CBC info:

Arizona
http://www.supreme.state.az.us/publicaccess/default.htm
Phone or fax requests: Arizona Department of Corrections; Fax: 602-542-2859; Phone requests: 602-542-5586.
SOR: http://www.azsexoffender.com/


it's from here, which is a link for all states in the U.S.

http://www.casanet.org/program-management/volunteer-manage/criminal-bkg-check.htm

as for your vaca, that's pretty unpredictable; public schools in Seoul might be more flexible than a hakwon IF and only IF the vice p approves of you taking off, you want to renew, etc. that might be your best bet - you would be assigned a school thru SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) there are specific recruiters that hire for SMOE, check the job board, or research this site some more.

however, next year's vaca is definitely NOT something you want to discuss upfront; it will have to be a go-with-the-flow situation and then wait and see.

yes, do your CELTA, you'll be glad you did, it will bring you a bit higher salary here and if you want to change countries, you'll definitely need it. after several years here I'm due to return to the U.S. soon to finish grad school; one of the few regrets I have is not having done a CELTA; I may never need it but then one never knows, does one?

hope this helps and do post if you have difficulties with that CBC link I've provided, it's a bit dated.

[blubarsk]

moosehead, Thanks for your response. Unfortunately the Arizona CBC info you gave didn't really help much. The phone number requires you to enter an extension and I already tried the Department of Public Safety, they don't do criminal record checks. Arizona is probably the worst state for this. I've had friends in many other states that have had no problem.

[moosehead]

well I'm so sorry to hear this - how about calling your local school district office and asking how they go about getting background checks for their teachers? assuming they do?

if all else fails you can always do the FBI check - the only thing is I hear it takes a bit longer.

[OiGirl]

Why not get an FBI check or a check from another state?

[Cerriowen]

I'm from Arizona. I couldn't get it done through there.

It's not that hard to get an FBI check done. It's $18USD for the check, and usually fingerprinting is free or a nominal charge.

You can print the fingerprint paper off the net, and get it back in 4-6 weeks.

OR... if you are *IN* Arizona... you can always go to your local police office and get a criminal records check from there. Even if it's just a very simple letter saying that Officer Billy-Bob has never personally arrested you, and he thinks you're swell. Then get that notarized. Then get a notary of the notary (apostille).

*Per the CELTA... I've heard that it does help prepare you for being a teacher. However from a purely monetary point of view, in S.Korea, it won't bring much more money per month than a TEFL, which is about 1/4 to 1/8 of the cost of a CELTA. In other countries I've heard that is not the case. Just FYI.