Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lichtarbeiter]

Before signing my contract at Gyeonggi English Village in Paju, I took an extensive look through the forums here. Some of the things I read about it were a little scary, but it seemed like a cool job that wouldn't be too stressful, so I took a chance. I couldn't be happier that I took that chance. I am loving this job and won't be surprised if I end up renewing my contract despite my earlier plans not to.

There is a lot of information in the forums about the EV that is either outdated or completely untrue, so I would like to shed some light on them for anyone who is considering applying for the EV in the future. I have gone through the various EV through threads, and I will paraphrase (in a few cases, quote) some of the claims people have made about the EV and then respond to them. Please keep in mind that just because I refute an allegation you made does not necessarily mean I'm calling you a liar, it might just mean that the information you provided some time ago is now outdated, and that's no crime.


Claim: You shouldn't teach at Paju EV unless you want to be a "dancing monkey." It's demeaning.

Truth: The people you refer to as dancing monkeys are the edutainers. These are individuals with theatre backgrounds who act in plays geared towards children. I haven't seen any of their plays so I can't respond to the "dancing monkeys" comment (although I've heard their plays are well-done), but what's really bizarre on this board is the misconception that all hired foreigners at the EV are edutainers. In fact, only a small fraction of the foreigners working here are edutainers. The vast majority of foreigners are teachers who teach classes in actual classrooms. As one of those teachers, I can tell you that we are never made to dress up, sing, dance, act, etc. Never. There's nothing I'm made to do here that I didn't have to do when I worked in a hagwon. Just a lot less than I had to do in a hagwon.

Claim: Paju EV is very isolated from everything.

Truth: I'll give you that one. That's probably my least favourite aspect about working here. I have to take 2 buses to get to the local E-Mart, the total trip is about 30-45 minutes each way. That's one way to look at the location. Another way to look at it, however, is that out of all the places you could be working in the country, the EV is a 45-minute bus ride from Hapjeong Station in Seoul, and from there you're only one subway stop away from what is in my opinion the best nightlife on the peninsula. As far as groceries go, since there are many foreign teachers here, often a few get together to split a cab to the supermarket, and that makes it affordable. And if you do ever have to go a few days without food in your fridge, the cafeteria here is open for lunch and dinner, serves decent food, and has buffet-style all-you-can-eat for 3,500 won (the school gives you a 70,000 stipend per month, which basically buys you one meal per working day).

Claim: I went to the EV with my class and it sucked.

Truth: I'm not here to comment on anyone's experiences as a visitor to EV or to promote EV as an attraction. I'm simply here to give readers some clarity on what it's like to work here. I will say though that there isn't much to do here as a visitor. There are a few mediocre restaurants, a few shops geared towards kids, and some architecture that you won't find probably anywhere else in the country, but that's about it.

Claim: The EV treats its foreign teachers poorly.

Truth: In my experience, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have been treated with nothing but kindness and respect by my co-workers, by my superiors, and by the administration. Almost everyone here is friendly. It's one of the things I was surprised by. I haven't heard anything but good things from my co-workers about how they have been treated here.

Claim: The EV is full of Russians, Romanians, and other Eastern Europeans. It does this as a cheap way to "whiten up" the place.

Truth: This might have been closer to the truth a few years ago, but these days there are only two Eastern Europeans working here, both friendly Russians who speak English very well. One works at the convenience store, the other does something else I don't know about. The Korean teachers here speak English very well, with a few almost sounding like native speakers. There are a few Afrikaans-speaking teachers (who are able to get E2s as South Africans), but they are graduates of English-speaking universities and also speak flawless English. All the other teachers and edutainers are native speakers. And the notion that the EV wants white faces is simply not backed up by the demographics of its employees these days. There are at least 10 black people working here, as well as Hispanics and Asian-Americans who speak no Korean.

Claim: "You get practically no vacation."

Truth: You get 4 weeks of paid vacation but have to work national holidays if you are scheduled that day. Two of the weeks are already established as the weeks of Chuseok and Seollal while the other two are up to you. Plus you get 5 paid sick or personal days (apparently personal days are granted no questions asked, it's just you can't use them consecutively to have a week off or whatever). My hagwon was 2 weeks vacation plus national holidays plus 3 sick days that could not be used as personal days. I much prefer the arrangement of the EV. Besides, it seems like national holidays often fall on weekends, and you don't get the Monday off in lieu in Korea. Also, the one time I phoned in sick to my hagwon (because I had practically no voice) I felt like I was totally screwing them over because it's such a small operation, and the owner came and knocked on my door later that evening. The EV has more than enough teachers to get through the day without you.

Claim: "You have to share a flat with another teacher."

Truth: No you don't.

Claim: "The employees (about 600) live in dormitory style accomodation, about 1 km north of the Disneyesque EV."

Truth: I truly doubt there were ever 600 employees working here, but besides that, the foreign teachers live right on campus (about a 3 minute walk from class) while the Koreans have their own apartments. I don't know where the two Russians live. If by "dormitory style" you mean we have our own bedrooms but share bathrooms, it's not like that. We have our own studios with kitchen and bathroom, and they are tiny, but that's the norm for FTs in Korea. I don't like the electric stove that takes much longer to heat up than the gas stove I had last year. I do like the bathroom with a separate shower stall that stays dry when you shower. I do like the queen-size bed. I do like the microwave. I do like the clean, drinkable tap water.

Claim: The EV is notorious for violating its FT contracts.

Truth: I've asked around about this. It appears to be unheard of. I'm sure it's happened, but nothing my co-teachers seem to be aware of.

Claim: There are problems with the EV housing.

Truth: There are issues that arise here and there, but that basically puts it in the same category as almost all studio apartment buildings in Korea. Since I got here I have had housing issues arise twice. Both times I reported it to the housing manager (yes, there is a housing manager on staff who speaks fluent English), and both times the maintenance crew were promptly sent up to fix the problem. These minor inconveniences are no different than the ones I've had in my apartments with other schools in the past.

Claim: At EV you probably get stuck teaching a class with a random co-teacher, and that sucks.

Truth: Actually, the co-teacher system is one of the best aspects of the job. The classes usually have 30 students each, so with that second teacher the kids are controlled and often motivated and makes for a fun class. Sometimes 3 or even 4 teachers are scheduled for a single class, although that gets to the point where a teacher is just going to be practically obsolete. Sometimes you have a foreign co-teacher, sometimes you get a Korean one. But these Korean teachers are not the kind who talk to you like you're stupid or criticize you every opportunity they get. These Koreans are internationalized, friendly, and fun-loving. There isn't one Korean teacher here whom I don't enjoy working with. The foreign teachers are great as well. It's quite rare to be put in a class alone (I would say it happens once every few weeks).

The low-down: Working here as a teacher is, in my experience, awesome. I'm not a "dancing monkey." I'm a teacher whose duties are much easier than the average teacher here in Korea. I don't write lesson plans. I don't mark assignments or tests. I don't write report cards or evaluations. I don't have a wonjangnim spying on me. I don't hear complaints from parents. I do very little babysitting. I spend 2-4 hours teaching lessons that are already prepared and taught every week to new students. I spend 2-4 hours playing (well-organized) games or watching movies with the students. I spend 1-2 hours sitting at a computer browsing YouTube or doing my Korean flashcards. I have great co-workers. I have the salary of a hagwon and the vacation time more akin (although not quite as good as) public schools. Life is good.

I encourage any questions or rebuttals you might have.

[oldtactics]

I appreciate posts like this - I'm glad to hear that your experiences with EV have been positive. Thanks for posting, nice to see some of the misconceptions cleared up by someone who actually works/worked there!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Mr. BlackCat]

I'm happy that you enjoy your job, and I'm not here to convince you otherwise. I'm just going to give my own viewpoint of working at the Paju village.

I seriously couldn't imagine living on site in the middle of nowhere. I came to Korea to experience the country, so how can one accomplish that by living in a fake English 'village' miles away from any authentic civilization? Part of what I do in Korea is work, sure, but after work I go for walks, try different food at various restaurants, go to new cafes and bars, visit galleries, go shopping in weird stores, and genearlly just live in Korea. I don't understand, from my perspective and with my objectives, flying thousands of kms to a totally new country only to live in an English compound outside any city. Maybe in Saudi Arabia or someplace, but that would be for alot more money than in Korea.

Second, I saw the staff housing (from the outside) at the village. It's not even like living above your school, it's like living in your school's dystopian nightmare. Every aspect of your life is also your job. I saw 'workers' there eating at the same place my students and I were eating. They were walking around the same streets. Ugh. I moved farther from my school partly because I couldn't handle seeing all my students everytime I walked to the local 7/11. It's not because I hate my students, but there just has to be a division for my mental health. Add to that the fact that you are constantly, and only, surrounded by your co-workers. Yikes.

Third, and again this is only my opinion, I wouldn't like having a constant stream of new students coming through. And, I would assume, these kids take these classes even less seriously than a hogwan. It's like a vacation. I would just find that difficult, to say the least.

But, hey, if you like it I'm not telling you to change your mind. I'm just saying working there presents some obvious drawbacks, at least to me.

[lichtarbeiter]

@ oldtactics
Thanks!

@ TheUrbanMyth
It's true, I have worked here for less than 3 months. However, I feel that I have enough first-hand experience and have heard enough first-hand accounts from others to be able to address most of the allegations that abound in this forum.

The post on this board that scared me the most was one made by a girl some time ago who said that Paju EV owed her a bunch of overtime at the end of her contract that they weren't giving her. I've brought up this story with a few co-workers who have been working here for 2-3 years. They had puzzled looks on their faces, and told me they've never heard of anything like that ever happening here. These co-workers were not EV cheerleaders, as they were at the time telling me how horribly incompetent the former CFO was (that's what prompted me to bring it up). Anyway, these co-workers I talked to have kept in touch with plenty of former co-workers who went home after their contracts and certainly would have heard about any wrong-doing.

Now obviously it would be absurd for me to conclude that the girl was lying, and I have no reason to suspect her of lying. I will say that there are two sides to every story, and I will also say that if she was in fact cheated, it certainly doesn't seem to be the norm here. I encourage anyone who reads my OP to take it strictly at face value. That is, your conclusion should not be "the EV never violates contracts" but rather "a few experienced teachers at EV are not aware of any contract violations."

I will also add that we have so many teachers working here now that, to the best of my knowledge, nobody ever works overtime.

@ Mr. BlackCat
I wouldn't exactly call it the middle of nowhere. Yes, the village itself is surrounded by trees, but when you can catch a bus right outside the entrance that drops you at Hapjeong Station in 45 minutes, the feeling of isolation isn't all that intense. I think everybody working here uses their weekends to go to Geumchon or Ilsan or Seoul to experience Korea. I like to use my evenings at home to increase my Korean vocabulary and grammtical competence, and then use my weekends to go to "Korea" where I can put it into practice, so it works out alright for me. But I must say, this isn't the kind of job you want because of where it is, it's the kind of job you want despite where it is.

As far as seeing your students outside of work, it never happens to me. Most teachers are in the One Week Program where kids from a certain school come here and stay in the hotels from Monday to Friday. During this time, they are never free to roam around the village. They are always either in class, in the cafeteria for a meal, or in their dorms. Each class gets to do a field trip to the conveniece store and to the coffee shop once a week, but that probably occurs during your working hours anyway. If you're eating in the cafeteria you eat upstairs while the students eat downstairs. There are no kids chewing ddokbokki in your ear.

I don't find it being a problem being surrounded by my co-workers when I like my co-workers. It's just like having several friendly neighbours that you know.

I actually LOVE the fact that we get new students every week. One week is not enough time for the students to get out of that honeymoon phase with you. It's not like a hagwon where you stop becoming a novelty after some time and the students start to try to find ways to get on your nerves.

I also originally had the same conception that the kids treat the week like a holiday and don't want to participate. I was wrong. I wouldn't say they take the classes seriously as if their futures depend on it, but they are surprisingly engaged in the lessons. Most classrooms are divided into 5 tables, with each being a team, and the entire lesson is basically a game where teams get points for behaving, identifying correct answers, and getting their work done. They really get into the game, and if a kid is speaking Korean and we deduct a point from his team, his teammates get pissed at him and say "muoyaaaaa." I've never had a class that was difficult to get through because of the kids' behaviour. Of course having that second or third teacher there helps a lot.

[askingquestions]

Anyone who is assuming anything doesn't know. That's not meant to be rude, but it's true. It's not very helpful or constructive to say anything bad without evidence to back it up.

I also work at Paju EV. Everything that lichtarbeiter said is correct. I worked in Korea before and I loved that my neighborhood was just a small Korean neighborhood where I got the chance to experience 'real' Korea, and as far as Paju goes, that's the only drawback. You do live in the 'make believe world' but as lichtarbeiter said, everyone is always going somewhere after work and on the weekends. Half the people have cars. There are two seperate 'real korean' streets about a 20 min walk away. And the cultural/artist village of Heyri is across the street.

There are many people to meet and make friends with, and with so many english speakers (korean and foreign) you aren't expected to hang out with everyone all the time and the 'dorm' buildings aren't like university dorms where everyone parties loudly and leaves their doors open. If you can't find anyone to like, you have your own apt to hang out in. As far are only being surrounded by your coworkers - do you plan on knocking on your local korean family's door and bringing them some homemade kimchi?

According to the many teachers here who have worked in hagwons before, this is the best environment to work in, best classes, and best use of teacher input for lesson development. In hagwons, you are also the white person that they cart out to show off. Only here it's spread out over many teachers ! And the students are confined to preplanned programs and you do not run into them outside of business hours. Sometimes during the day you'll have to smile at some day visitors, but that's cuz you are nice and not cuz someone is holding a gun to your head.

As far as people getting shafted.... as far as I know the only official government run EV is Paju. Other sites have been leased the idea/name. The Ansan camp was legit, but it (meaning the building as it no longer runs under the name EV) was sold a couple years back. So if someone is employed by another English Village style school, I can't comment on whether or not they got shafted. The Paju camp (and the Ansan camp) were completely upright. As for the visa situation, it's not only onto the employer to get the visa, it's up to the government and then the local consulate to approve the process before people can arrive in the country. Anyone who has tried to get any form of a Korean visa can attest to the fact they love double and triple checking things, so I don't think anyone is working here illegally. Cheaper than the teachers? Sure - different countries have different relations, and also they are doing a different job. They signed on knowing the pay.

Basically, any job on paper is going to have pros and cons, and I guess it depends on your personality if you have to have certain things in your life. I'm not sure what I hope to achieve by this post, but as soon as I read that anyone was saying something bad about EV I got defensive. I really like working here so I'm glad that lichtarbeiter clarified the negative comments about EV.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Based on these testimonials, Paju EV is officially on my targeted list of employers should I decide to return to the ROK. I've been to Paju and Geumcheon, and both of them look like quaint, generic Korean towns. I would totally work there.