Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Audrey]

Hi,
Like many other naive first time Korean teachers, I was wondering if anyone has worked for or heard about ELCedu summer camps. I'm thinking about working at one of their 4 week camps at the Catholic University in Bucheon this summer, and I'd like a little advice before signing up.

Thanks for your help!

[Seoulio]

Yeah i did that camp 3 summers ago

Goods - The kids are decent, they are all leveled before you get there and set up in classes, you teach 50 minutes and get 10 off between, you have ( or at least I did) a number of differne kinds of lessons, andyou also take an hour a day to do a play that will be performed on the last day, and it was rewarding, you get paid on time, and most countries don't even get taxed so you make the full amount they offer.

Bads, its a long day, and the last hour is filling out documents that you usually finsih in half the time, you have to work saturdays so it makes for a long week, as do the hours. The lucnh was average at best and the line ups were huge.

Overal I liked it, I even tried to do it again but the wanted me to jump trhough a whole bunch of different hoops again and like fil out redundant stuff again, and I just said, listen you guys have it on file, you know I rocked, send me a contract or don't.

They said, no sorry you have to fill out this ( SAME) questionaire blah blah blah, and then they even said Id have to interview again ( give me a break) so I just sad See ya!

BUt overall it was decent as an experience, I had a blast and it was an emotional end watching all the performances

[Audrey]

Thanks for the info. I figured it is going to be a long day, but I'm happy to at least have the evenings off.

It's comforting to know that you were paid on time and everything worked out alright. Speaking of getting paid...did you have to open up a Korean bank account? They are saying they would prefer that I do that, but I'm not real thrilled about opening/accessing my account since I will only be there for the summer and I was just wondering if there were other options.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[Seoulio]

[yakey]

I worked with this outfit for a while.

Pay was always on time. I always liked it too that they paid about 1/3 of your salary at the beginning and the other 2/3 at the end.

If you go to Catholic, guard your purse/wallet with your life. They had all the girls put their purses in a "safe" classroom before going to lunch and afterward every purse was gone. They found them later in a nearby bathroom trash can - minus the money. We had about half a dozen crying Korean teaching assistants that day.

One time when I was teaching at Catholic, I saw some bushes moving outside of the classroom. It was the owner of the company spying on my class as I taught it. In my opinion he's a good guy, but watches people like a hawk. He's very detail-oriented. There's a lot of lesson planning and documentation to do, more than any of the other dozen or so camps I've been involved with.

The students are usually great. The textbooks are first-rate, although I personally didn't like it because they don't let you keep anything - I like keeping materials that I work with in camps. Catholic always seemed to have a lot of kids. If you do your job and show up on time, then you should enjoy this camp.

[musicmunky]

im quite keen on summer work looks good

[Seoulio]

[yakey]

Seoulio,

I'm having trouble buying that you can teach English since you can't spell a simple word like "experience" correctly in your first sentence.

This clown will probably be shamed into editing this, so just know that he spelled it "experiecne."

Sounds like you have an agenda with this company, or maybe you work for them now brown noser.

I said nice things and things I didn't like. I think that's what people want to know - the truth. If you say it's some kind of great job, you're dead wrong. At best it's a little better than so-so.

So now I'll say another bad thing they had (or is it you had) in the last contract I saw. It had all kinds of cash penalties for things you'd do wrong, like messing up the yogwan room where they put you up or being late a certain number of times.

I've never seen another camp with those kinds of negative stipulations. When I saw that I said I'd never work for them again, and I never did.

And from the times I worked, there was always huge turnover at ELC on every account - Korean staff and foreign staff. It's a hard job, and people burn out fast. Many people leave that camp just wanting out, not thinking about what a great time they had or going back.

I also said good things. They've got some of the best textbooks you'll work with. They have their camps at nice universities with good classrooms. They pay well and on time. The Korean assistants are nice to work with and usually pretty helpful. The performance we did at the end was a nice day for the parents and the teachers. So I'm not trying to throw this camp under the bus. I'm merely stating it as factually as I can.

[Seoulio]