Korean Job Discussion Forums

[HANGRY]

If you are applying to EPIK, what are your chances of actually landing in a urban area if you pick a province?

It seems to me that picking a province is very risky. For example, if I choose Gangwon: Will I be in Wonju, where there are some people? Or, will I be stationed on some mountain with no internet? I probably have completely the wrong idea about how this works, but I'm just wondering.

Anybody who has been through the EPIK process know if they give you any sort of options? Or is it more like "this is the school we found for you, take it or leave it."

Also anybody know why some provinces aren't available on the application? Like Chungnam isn't on it for some reason...

[DejaVu]

Yeah, I am going to Pusan which I think was my second or third choice. I purposely didn't put any provinces until choice #5 because I thought they would just automatically place me in the middle of nowhere claiming it was similar to my top 5.

When I was first accepted and offered a position it was in Deagu (which was not ANY of my choices). I accepted as it was a "take it or leave it deal" but a week or two later she switched me to Pusan if I moved back my contract by a month.

So, I think she offered Daegu then switched to Pusan (one of my choices) because she wanted to make me feel good after losing a month of employment or else just to make sure I was sincere about my interest in coming to Korea.

[Weigookin74]

[[email protected]]

Luck of the draw alright--but Kentucky is bigger than South Korea and with all the people crammed into it it is amazing how much nature is actually here--but one thing for sure is bus is outstanding. I have my own car, and you can buy a scooter for pretty cheap to get around in (except part of winter) if you get stuck out in the toolies.

You seldom get what you ask for, unless your teaching credentials are high.
Personally, i would concentrate on knowing what your teaching style is (if any) and trying to match the personality of a co-teacher. I do teach elementary and middle school simultaneously and so have a total of 8 different co-teachers, 7 of whom are absolutely wonderful. The other is in my face all the time and about as smart as a bag of hammers. She drives me crazy. I live in the city and work an extremely scenic 30 minute drive
I will resign if given the opportunity--but there are better places to work.

its the kids that i want to stick around for, i have gotten to know them and taught them in 2 grades. i ignore the rest. The way i looked at it was if I get here dont llike it--i will head out right after my first pay and they have provided the entrance allowance.

If its money your after, Taiwan pays better because everything is much cheaper there. Meat especially--and now everything else has gone up 20% higher than the already more than double the us prices (4x if you buy on sale). If you dont like the food you are really in trouble for a terrible experience. check out atek.org.kr association of teachers of english in korea

The weather is 6 months nice, 6 months hell (I am from Nevada and Canada) one thing about being an EPIK teacher if you are not happy you can leave without any problem.
Be sure you get an in and out visa--if you plan to travel while here

[HANGRY]

I qualify F-4 on my mother's side, and the money isn't that important although I do need to pay off some student loan debt from about 8 years of schoolin' around. So I definitely want to come to Korea for the heritage reasons and because I have some friends here and there.

I would really like to get someplace kind of in the middle between total metropolis and total boonies, but it appears that I don't really have a choice with EPIK unless I just luck out.

That's why I thought I would like something with GEPIK, but my recruiter was telling me that it would be really hard to get into this year (if a recruiter is to be believed).

[B of NC]

Chungnam isn't available through EPIK because they do all their own recruiting. Kinda like GEPIK but harder to find info on. I think they use recruiters but I'm not to sure about that.

[sallymonster]