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april
Joined: 23 Oct 2009
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 Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:21 pm Post subject: airfare |
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| I just read that I might have to purchase my own airfare and then the school reimburses you when you get there? Is it always this way? ugh |
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jmuns
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
Location: earth
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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| if you are going into a public school then yes. |
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Michelle
Joined: 18 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| jmuns wrote: |
| if you are going into a public school then yes. |
Hi There,
I just want to add that if it is a PS a loaned airfare may very easily be worth it in a short time. |
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april
Joined: 23 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks! its actually a hagwon. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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| april wrote: |
| Thanks! its actually a hagwon. |
Then I would be VERY careful about paying for airfare out of your own pocket.
90% prepay the air ticket. Those that don't may have other issues that you have to deal with as well.
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:41 am Post subject: |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| april wrote: |
| Thanks! its actually a hagwon. |
Then I would be VERY careful about paying for airfare out of your own pocket.
90% prepay the air ticket. Those that don't may have other issues that you have to deal with as well.
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I suspect that the percentage of teachers who have their airfare reimbursed rather than prepaid is much higher than 10% of the total number of teachers employed by hogwans. This time Ttompatz has pulled a number out of the air.
There is little reason to worry about being reimbursed for your airfare, since if the school doesn't reimburse you for your ticket when you arrive, you can just quit and go home. The school needs you to stay and start working, so they will reimburse you right away. Even at schools that may try to cheat you later, there is an incentive for the school to be honest about airfare reimbursement.
The best hogwans do not prepay for airfare. They don't have to. Requiring the teacher to pay his or her own way to Korea helps weed out teachers who are dishonest or untrustworthy, and also eliminates some of the less serious and less reliable teachers. It is a good sign if you find a school that doesn't prepay airfare.
A better indicator of schools to watch out for is schools that take large security deposits out of your pay for the first one, two or three months. These are the schools that are having problems with bad teachers, or runners due to failure to pay or other poor conditions. |
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aaron.southkorea
Joined: 20 Jan 2010
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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<>
Last edited by aaron.southkorea on Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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hari seldon
Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
...There is little reason to worry about being reimbursed for your airfare, since if the school doesn't reimburse you for your ticket when you arrive, you can just quit and go home. The school needs you to stay and start working, so they will reimburse you right away. Even at schools that may try to cheat you later, there is an incentive for the school to be honest about airfare reimbursement.
The best hogwans do not prepay for airfare. They don't have to. Requiring the teacher to pay his or her own way to Korea helps weed out teachers who are dishonest or untrustworthy, and also eliminates some of the less serious and less reliable teachers. It is a good sign if you find a school that doesn't prepay airfare... |
Are you serious? This is terrible advice. There's been a number of cases reported here over the years of hakwon directors changing their mind about hiring a teacher within hours or days of their arrival. They can decide they don't like the way you look or whatever. Good luck then getting your $1000+ ticket reimbursed.
Also, I'm flabbergasted that anyone could believe that the best schools don't provide prepaid tickets. That's absurd. Alarm bells should start ringing in your head when a private school won't pay for your ticket up front. I would immediately suspect that the school has financial problems. If they won't prepay your ticket, then they probably won't pay you on time, won't provide national health insurance and pension, won't provide a decent apartment, etc.
When you get a bad vibe, there's probably something wrong. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:11 am Post subject: |
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| hari seldon wrote: |
There's been a number of cases reported here over the years of hakwon directors changing their mind about hiring a teacher within hours or days of their arrival. They can decide they don't like the way you look or whatever. Good luck then getting your $1000+ ticket reimbursed.
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If you are fired during your first six months you will have to repay the ticket. This is true in nearly 100% of teaching contracts. So, it is irrelevant since they will just deduct the ticket from your pay if you had a prepaid ticket and, of course, if you are fired right away they will not reimburse, or deduct the ticket from your pay if they have already reimbursed the teacher.
In any case, you have to be a pretty bad teacher if you are fired in the first few weeks or months.
Schools that reimburse and do not prepay tickets have better management. They are more cautious about business matters and will be better able to pay their obligations. The fact that they can mainain a reimbursement policy means that teachers have understood this policy and determined that they want to work for the school anyway. The school gets enough teachers, so this better policy means the school and the teachers are better off.
Schools that whip out the credit card to pay the airfare of unknown teachers are exhibiting a kind of reckless and desperate behavior. They are either bad financial managers or so desperate to get a teacher that they will prepay to avoid hard questions . They are more likely to have other reckless spending habits that will put the school in financial jeopardy. They are more likely to be defrauded by some dishonest teacher or other dishonest vendor and suffer difficult financial cash flow and payments problems. |
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blonde researcher
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Location: Globalizing in Korea for the time being
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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If you are working through a recruiter inside Korea, this agent may very well take a risk and pay for the airticket on behalf of the director and not let on to you that this is the case. Especially if the director wants to hire the teacher, and won't prepay the ticket, and the agent doesn't want to lose the teacher and the teacher is demanding a prepaid ticket or they will not come to the job.
Just as recruiters desperate for a hire to a hagwon can make a multitude of promises to you about the job conditions and then you arrive and find the split shifts do exist!!!
Be more direct to the recruiter about any prepaid ticket , maybe ask to speak direct to the director if you are getting a message of it not being paid.
As the other Op said ...It could even be a red flag if a prepaid ticket is offered easily to you! Desperate hagwons and agents will agree to anything at times .
Few directors or good franchises like Avalon ever prepay the ticket unless they are doing a direct hire. BUT agents working for bigger franchises lsometimes do offer it
Agents on the ground in Korea can be desperate to win a good teacher for a hagwon and to save face, so the risk is worth taking. When the teacher arrives the hagwon director pays back the agent.I think if you check around you will find that this is the case with many hagwons.
Public schools (EPIK etc) have never prepaid any airtickets !!
Much of the rhetoric of 'demanding a prepaid ticket' is historical. It was needed a few years ago because of the lack of ethical behavior by many agents and hagwons.The prepaid airticket was certainly a problem pre 2008 when many teachers were brought to Korea ASAP,for a job starting 'yesterday', with diplomas in hand and made to do a visa run to Japan.
A somewhat bald colleague I know (only 38 at the time) funded his own ticket to Korea and was fired on arrival as he did not have enough hair!! (His passport photo was an old one so the director felt deceived) The director apparently told the agent to "take him away' when delivered to the hagwon as the E2 was not yet in his passport. With no visa in hand he was out of pocket big time. With all teachers now having to arrive with visas already in their passports, the hagwons have already invested in committing to the paperwork and would have to cancel this visa and invest in time and effort and cost to get an E2 for a new teacher.
Unethical behavior has always happened with a minority of terrible hagwons and their directors in Korea and you won't always find that having a prepaid ticket solves these scams if you end up getting ripped off with extra hours and no holidays when you do arrive 'with a prepaid ticket'. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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Public school doesn't reimburse immediately upon arriving; plan on it taking about 4 weeks to be paid any monies. It requires an alien ID card and a Korean bank account to be paid, both of which I still don't have after 3 weeks even though I applied at immigration nearly 2 weeks ago. I'm eagerly awaiting my ID card, bank account, internet service, settlement allowance, air allowance, first month salary, and a cell phone.
You need about $2000 minimum cash or credit to start a public school job and better with $3000. |
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