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JD_Tiberius
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 2:48 pm Post subject: GEPIK - living near the subway/school/downtown? |
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Would it be better to have an apartment near a subway line, near the downtown area of town, or near the school?
Theres a good chance that if, and thats a big IF, I got onto the GEPIK programe I could be located rurally, so asking to be placed near the school would be the most logical choice, but I want to hear the opinions of others, Especially former and current GEPIK teachers. |
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jameltoe
Joined: 25 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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| I chose near subway due to not knowing how far I'd be from my school. According to the application, your housing could be up to an hour away from your school so being close to a subway station is good situation. |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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| being close to a subway station is good situation |
They will just tell you to take a bus. You need to find out where your apartment is and where the school is. Also, ask how you would get to both subway station and the school so you can budget the costs. The school WON'T pay for transportation if you have to take the bus 10-15 minutes.
Another thing to consider is if you want to live further out near a school and take a bus to a subway station. There are 2 advantages of this. One, you only need to pay this 2 times a week (for weekend trips) instead of 5 times during the school week. Another advantage is you can save money when you take the subway. They won't charge you another initial fare cost (~1,000) if you get on the subway within 30 minutes of getting off the bus.
Get a transportation card and pay 900 won instead, and ALWAYS scan your can before you leave the bus or you will be charged more. You can even get up before it stops and scan then. This way everyone isn't doing it at the same time. It gets awfully crowded when middle school students get on the bus.
Also, I have done both and found living near the school or commuting a long distance didn't matter. It's the TOTAL number of hours that matters. Find out if you will work less if you travel more. If you are teaching 22 hours, sitting in the teachers' room for 18 hours, and then traveling 10 hours a week, that's 50 total hours. That isn't really a good schedule in my opinion, and I would be looking elsewhere. Try to keep everything under 43 hours.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you are out in a rural area, the buses won't come that often. So, plan on waiting 5-10 minutes more EACH time. Bring something along to entertain you (ipod, psp, book, etc...) |
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Paladin Brewer
Joined: 25 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Where at exactly? I think it depends on what rural area you are getting situated in. I am in a rural area myself for GEPIK, but I am within walking distance of the school, and the bus station is even closer. |
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JD_Tiberius
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| Quote: |
| being close to a subway station is good situation |
They will just tell you to take a bus. You need to find out where your apartment is and where the school is. Also, ask how you would get to both subway station and the school so you can budget the costs. The school WON'T pay for transportation if you have to take the bus 10-15 minutes.
Another thing to consider is if you want to live further out near a school and take a bus to a subway station. There are 2 advantages of this. One, you only need to pay this 2 times a week (for weekend trips) instead of 5 times during the school week. Another advantage is you can save money when you take the subway. They won't charge you another initial fare cost (~1,000) if you get on the subway within 30 minutes of getting off the bus.
Get a transportation card and pay 900 won instead, and ALWAYS scan your can before you leave the bus or you will be charged more. You can even get up before it stops and scan then. This way everyone isn't doing it at the same time. It gets awfully crowded when middle school students get on the bus.
Also, I have done both and found living near the school or commuting a long distance didn't matter. It's the TOTAL number of hours that matters. Find out if you will work less if you travel more. If you are teaching 22 hours, sitting in the teachers' room for 18 hours, and then traveling 10 hours a week, that's 50 total hours. That isn't really a good schedule in my opinion, and I would be looking elsewhere. Try to keep everything under 43 hours.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you are out in a rural area, the buses won't come that often. So, plan on waiting 5-10 minutes more EACH time. Bring something along to entertain you (ipod, psp, book, etc...) |
Yeah, the money aspect is why I came to the conclusion that staying near the school is the most logical option.
In all honesty though, commuting long distances doesn't bother me. When I was at University I did a 1 hour each way commute every day using the terrible public transport here, and now at my current job here in the UK I do a 1.5 hour commute each way, sometimes up to 7 days in a row. add that to my current 8.5 hours a day work schedule and I can be looking to be out on average 57.5 hours a week. Brutal. I have an Ipod and a DS anyway for those long and tedious journeys.
| Paladin Brewer wrote: |
| Where at exactly? I think it depends on what rural area you are getting situated in. I am in a rural area myself for GEPIK, but I am within walking distance of the school, and the bus station is even closer. |
No location in particular right now, theres no guarantee that I will even get into GEPIK(going through the head office route with my recruiter). I was just looking for the general opinions of others with regards to which location is better, before completing the corresponding question on the GEPIK application form.
What I have gathered so far is that being close to the school makes the most sense from a financial point of view, while being close to the subway is a good general purpose location. The only big no-no is living downtown because there appears to be no value as you still have to get a bus to school, and also get a bus to the nearest town with a subway station for weekend trips, correct? |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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| The only big no-no is living downtown because there appears to be no value |
If you go out drinking or out somewhere late, then you can only take a taxi back home. So, if you live far out, then you are stuck spending the night at a motel. You can't do this when you have morning classes. It's more of a weekend thing.
If you want to go out with friends after work, then living downtown is better. I am not a bar groupie, so it was never my thing to do this. |
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