Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lifeinkorea]

I have been getting job offers like the one below. Is this just a matter of the school not knowing the average hours to expect relative to pay?

Job Title Teaching position in Seoul (nice location)
Starting date 15 of March 2010 (Monday)
05 of April 2010 (Monday)
Location Seocho Gu, Seoul(close to Gangnam downtown) - nice location
Monthly Salary 2.1~2.4 Million won
Severance pay Equal amount of one month salary at the end of the one year contract
Overtime Pay 18,000 won per hour Won / hour
Working days Monday ~ Friday
Working time Mon, Wed, Friday : 9:30 - 18:30
Tue, Thur : 9:30 - 19:30
Weekly teaching hours 34hours a week
Class Size 10 Students
Teaching Level Kindergarten, Elementary
Number of Current
Korean teachers 12
Number of Current
Foreign teachers 10
Housing Furnished Single housing
Distance from Housing
to School It takes 15 minutes by walk from school to housing.
Health insurance 50%
Airfare Round trip airfare provided
(Half upon your arrival, Half at the end of contract)
Paid holidays 10 days

[Street Magic]

[lifeinkorea]

Either they are Seoul jobs, or they are rural jobs where they want you to work at several schools. I am not how that works out as far as visa regulations are concerned.

[spc525]

The Gangnam area has been increasing hours for the last several years, without an equal increase in pay. It has to do with the area being the most desired area to live in. Not sure why, really. Most areas in Seoul look the same and the people are less friendly there.

Schools can get away with it due to the poor economy back in the States. Believe it or not, a lot of teachers actually stay at these places for the full year.

[Satchel Paige]

[jhuntingtonus]

Can't speak to the Seoul situation in particular, but 34 is sure a boatload of teaching hours - think 22 is still the standard...

[blackjack]

[jb283k]

That sounds like my school! PM me if you find out the name of the school and want to know more!

[Troglodyte]

[yingwenlaoshi]

30 fifty-minute classes is the max. This contract, like posters have pointed out above, could be actual hours. They try to fool you and if classes are 40 minutes long, watch out! Also, with the kindy classes, you may find yourself getting a "free lunch." That's up to an hour "eating your lunch" while serving the kids and having to hang out with them. But you don't get paid for it, because you're not working. You're busy eating your 2-dollar, crappy kimchi and rice and whathaveyou for an hour.

Yeah, nice one. Free lunch! Wow! Thank you! And can I stay from 9 am to 8 pm every day? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase? And work my arse off and do prep for you? Because it's my duty to be an endentured slave and not question you. That is my goal.

Rather be homeless. Don't do those 9 to 6 jobs. You're better off getting a lower salary with a short block shift from early afternoon to early evening.

[Troglodyte]

True. The pay would have be quite high for me to even consider those split shift or spread out jobs.

To anyone applying for a job or reviewing job offers, you contract should state your WORKING times. When does the school open, when does it close, OR when are you obliged to arrive and when can you leave. THAT time should not be more than 7 or 8 hours a day, and should be Monday to Friday (or any other fixed 5 consecutive days). It should also state how many hours per week you have to teach (not more than 30). Preferably it should state that classes are no less than 50 min each (any classes less are considered to be worth 50min). If the contract doesn't state these things, get it changed or turn it down.

In this case, they might give you 50min classes and thereby slip in an extra class per day (doing 7 instead of 6) but it stops them from giving you 12 half hour classes spread out over the entire day.

Sure 30 min classes are easier to teach than a 60 min class. After greetings and warm up game, the class is almost ready to send on their way. BUT you're still going to have to prep for the class. You'll still have to do evaluations for those kids. You'll still have to check homework. In the end, the effort put into a single 60 min class is less than that put into two 30min classes, especially if they are different levels.

If you are coming to Korea just because you wanted to get a job and you noticed that it pays well for the number of hours "worked" (i.e. just the time sitting in front of the kids in the classroom), then ya, it's good. BUT if you have to sit around the school for hours on end doing nothing and you're not getting any extra pay for it, then your $$$ / hour drops significantly. If you spend 6 hours teaching and 6 hours between classes, you just used up 12 hours. If you were doing office work, you get paid from when you come in to when you leave. If the boss has nothing for a receptionist to do, or if there are no customers in buying burgers, or there are no cars waiting to enter the car wash, and no one waiting at the bar for a beer for half an hour, the employee still gets paid. No one is paid for half an hour of work and not for the half hour of "pause" before the next half hour of work. No one except hogwan teachers. You aren't working freelance. You're on a contract. You're a full time employee. How much money would you make back home flipping burgers for 12 hours straight, five days a week? Less than a hogwan but it's getting close.

[smee18]

Man, America must be in a real mess for people to be taking that job, coz, lets face it, Korea is a bit of a dump. I expect some compensation for having to live here, like less of a workload than I would have back at home (Australia).

[carleverson]

[misher]

It is funny because after lurking on Dave's for a few years I've come to the conclusion that the standard pay is 2.1-2.4 for 30 hours a week plus all of the other perks like pension, severance, flight and APARTMENT.

I've been living in Seoul now for 6 months and I've met many people that make 1.9/2.0 working way more hours teaching snot nosed kids with NO HOUSING PAID FOR or a skimpy housing allowance. Without Dave's and doing a bit of research I would have thought that was the norm. However according to the status quo these people are idiots and working for peanuts.

I think most people are working for less now which kinda depresses me as I am looking to work in the next few months. Hagwon owners must be laughing their asses off. This sure isn't 2002/2003 anymore.

[smee18]

I get 2.3 for 16 hours of actually teaching ... 24 40mins class a week. Oh, 2 of those are paid as overtime. Yay for public school!!!