Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dizzyl]

Hi all, I am currently waiting for the October jobs to start hitting the job boards. I am not too fussed with where I work... though now having thought about it I am going to miss coaching track and field a lot! Do public schools have sport clubs etc for the kids? and if so would I be able/allowed/encouraged to help?
So if any of you working in public schools could shed some light I would be very much obliged!
I don't want to wait till February for the next EPIK intake, I don't think I could last at my current job in the UK that long but then also want the best experience possible.

So any one experienced in these area have any other suggestions that would be good too!

Cheers

[DosEquisXX]

My public school did not have any sports teams.

However, they did have a really nice gym and many of my students would spend their recess time playing soccer or basketball.

Physical education is not a major emphasis in the Korean public school system. The government and people can blame the "Western Diet" for their problems all they want. If their kids got some exercise, they wouldn't have any complaints.

[jvalmer]

I'm impressed that Korea makes PE mandatory in High School. When I was going through school, in Canada, PE was optional in high school and most in the academic track courses didn't take PE.

[warmachinenkorea]

Many schools have some kinda team. It might not be a serious competative team like I'm accustomed to in the US. My wife's school has a boxing team and my previous HS had a rugby team. Both of these teams are compete in events around Korea. My wife's school also has a soccer team and one of my little country schools has some kinda track team. My old HS had a basketball team but they only played 1-3 times a year. There might be teams that you never see but they might be there.

[triple50]

Man I was thinking the same thing. I coach track in the US and was researching track in Korea and it looks like its not very big at all over there. I was hoping to get involved with some kind of track club if possible over there but have yet to find anything.

[Horangi Munshin]

The teachers play volleyball at my school. More so before the annual competition. There is a kids soccer team.

[shane556]

My middle school has a team for badminton and in the past had a couple of individual golf players. A hopelessly shameful program if I ever saw one. The students involved are exempt from almost everything, including classes. They only attend morning classes, are free to 'practice' in the afternoon, don't have to wear uniforms, and spend almost no time with the other kids in their classes. Good job training potentially international competitors who can barely even get out the English word, 'hello.' Must be a sweet life.

[JBomb]

My school also plays teachers volleyball once a week. Fun times. Although foreigners were banned from the big interschool competition this season. Our gym has no aircon so we kind of stopped practicing after May. The kids have a footy side, a ping pong, badminton, and basketball clubs. They also have two sports days a year. Elementary Schools are much more into making them healthy, I have heard it changes big time in Middle School though as parents are more worried about their health as in Science, Math, and English Hagwon is much more healthy then kicking a ball.

[warmachinenkorea]

I've noticed in MS the kids get a small pass if they are athletes. In HS it's an all out pass. The Rugby guys jsut came to a few classes in the winter time. Other than that they ate breakfast, lifted weights, disapeared for film or a nap, ate lunch, practiced until around 5-6.

Someone said they were a track coach. I was and wil be when I return to the US basketball coach. My HS had a semi-organized team. When they introduced me to the coach he jsut bowed and walked off. I watched a practice and just laughed at what they did. It was a joke. Most of the time the coach was palying the kids one-on-one to build his ego. We have a guy from South Africa that has soem rugby experince and he was asked to help at his MS. He didn't seem to enjoy it.

[dizzyl]

That really is a dire scene I guess it all depends where you end up! I was getting excited thinking there must be a Track and Field scene as the World Champs are being held in Deagu next year! How very odd.
Oh well will have to become quickly passable in Korean and see if I can find a team outside of school, so if I can't coach I can try to improve my currently below national level scores.
Or just take up paragliding!!

[Senior]

[matthews_world]

One countryside school that I worked at had a Korean wrestling club.

Soccer clubs are often found at each level. Baseball would come a close second.

Hardly any organized interscholastic sports like you'd find in the west.

Most of the potentials are trained outside the school and developed by private coaches and travel to compete across the country.

Not much like this for the girls.

Koreans believe more earnestly, I find, in classroom education rather than physical development.

[zappadelta]

When I worked at a public school 5 years ago, I started an American football team. I was lucky to have a really good principal. I drafted a plan to explain what we were going to be doing, and got a little funding (I think 100,000) won for equipment. I ended up doing it for 1 1/2 years there, it was really a great experience.

[Steve_Rogers2008]

it was great during the Field Day my PS had, and the parents organized a tug-of-war... one dad was bright enough to decide to get the blond-haired American guy on his team.... and the rest is history....


they wanted to get me something as a sign of victory, but i figured the science teacher was off-limits right now, so I passed.... but I got a bottle of sojy anyway.


Now to find a way to get the science teacher to join me for a drink...