Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CtotheB]

This is a public elementary after school job summary that a recruiter sent me a few days ago and I want some opinions on it. It sounds good on paper, but I need some more opinions on dealing with an uncommon situation. There would likely be hagwon-sized classes.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1sEgqoaK_OIt09fxz5vryhSKUFKNyUiDbwKlP90SIsnw

Questions:

-It's in Seongbuk-gu, near Korea University. Anyone know anything about this district? I hadn't heard about it until this. I know North Seoul is generally "older" so... yeah, more info needed. Anyone ever been/lived there?

-Housing: which option would be better if I don't want to live in a shoebox? Is 10 million enough to make it so the 500,000 covers most, if not all of my rent? (Supposing I want an officetel or something nicer?). Since I'm not in Korea right now, how hard would it be to find housing?

-The school is right on line 6. How accessible is it to the rest of the city? Specifically, the magical "#2 green line of fun"?

-Would you take this job? (If the current/past teachers said it was a good place)

The computer/office/up front airfare all seem too good to be true. I just need some thoughts on this.

[Big Mac]

This looks like a hogwan job to me. What makes you think it is a public school?

You can check out the subway map here:

http://www.smrt.co.kr/Train/Subwaymap/Eng/Subwaymap.jsp

Line six isn't a bad line. You can catch up with the major lines from it, and line 2 is only four stops from Korea University. Itaewon is also on line 6. I don't think the location is really all that bad. North Seoul is older than south of the river, but it's not like it's necessarily a bad part of the city. Most of Seoul is pretty modern...they don't like to keep really old buildings around.

I would go with the provided housing. You're not really going to get anything much better than what they get you for 500,000 Won and it will be a hassle you don't really need. You're just going to have to get used to living in a smaller space, as all of us did when we moved to Korea.

This job seems pretty normal to me, but it's hard to tell without seeing the contract. I don't know what makes you think it is an uncommon situation.

[CtotheB]

The job is at a public school, I just left that part out of the post for privacy and protection purposes.

Thanks for the info, though. I guess I can always ask for pictures of the housing or something, or ask the current teacher. If it sucks then maybe I can just get a love motel for a few days until I can find a decent place.

[Big Mac]

It's just strange hours for a public school. You usually have to be at a public school job for 8:30 and you're usually done at 4:30 or 5. Also, public school contracts are pretty much always 22 contract hours a week.

There's something fishy about this. Perhaps it is some sort of private company that is using public school facilities, like an after school program or something. Some of those after school programs can be dodgy.

[CtotheB]

As I said in the OP, it's an after school position.