Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Redstanggt01]

I've submitted my application/two LORS to EPIK on the first day of them accepting applications. My recruiter told me later on that EPIK is in the process of scheduling my interview. Honestly, I'm not really that great when it comes to interviews, as I have been applying for work in Japan for 1 1/2 years now and have recently chosen to move on to Korea instead for the time being. All the interviews I've had for teaching positions so far, I've flunked. I just get really nervous and choked up whenever I do an interview for these kinds of positions. I'm not jobless however, as I'm currently working for an auto insurance company to get by.

What are some common tips/advice/questions I should keep in mind to pass the Epik interview? I already have my stage 2 documents ready to submit, so at this point only the interview is keeping me from getting the job. Anything would be appreciated.

[Zalithian]

Luckily I got a native English speaker. There are some question lists that have questions you can expect. The hardest ones for me were coming up with good reasons for picking my specific references - I mean they're mostly just people who were either teachers or bosses I got along with. My interviewer seemed impressed with my knowledge of Korea as well. Definitely have some good knowledge about Korean history, culture, and maybe geography. Think about how your degree can help you with teaching too. My degree is in linguistics, with a minor in TESL, so it was easy for me - but if you majored in history or something it might require some creativity.

p.s. I am also from Florida.

[Redstanggt01]

[Zalithian]

I would just mention some basic customs and insights you have in the culture. Stay away from pop culture and mainstream stuff. I don't think they'll care if you don't know the history. If you want some quick historical stuff - pick some things from the Joseon (pronounced Cho-sun) dynasty. A lot of modern Korean traditions and customs are derived from there. Stay away from war topics though.

Oh, definitely be ready to answer how you'll deal with co-worker problems and an unruly classroom. They'll almost certainly ask you about classroom management, educational philosophy, and cultural or co-worker conflicts.

[Redstanggt01]

[Zalithian]

For conflict it could be something like: Your co teacher is teaching the students incorrect English, what would you do?

I think the best thing to do is go along with it and try to talk to them about it in private. As you mentioned, you don't want to embarrass them in front of anyone (or at all I'd imagine). If the co-teacher is afraid of speaking English, you could try to socialize with them, help them with their English, or speak your poor Korean in front of them. Maybe they'll be more likely to speak English in front of you.

[Redstanggt01]

Thank you for the very helpful advice Zalithian. I truly appreciate it.

For the part with customs/history, there is so many things to talk about, so can I just talk about 3-4 customs in which I think is the most important in Korea, and maybe tie that in with Korean history from the Joeseon Dynasty?

[mayorhaggar]

- be able to say what EPIK stands for
- be able to say what your educational philosophy is, and maybe have a sound bite for it...mine boiled down to "student-centered" which seemed to impress my interviewer.
- be able to answer questions like "how would you deal with a difficult co-teacher" or "how would you deal with a co-teacher with very poor English"
- be able to discuss the co-teacher system

Etc. There's a pretty limited but unpredictable number of questions that tend to get asked...see if you can find some discussion about it online. My recruiter told me to prepare for all these questions and gave advice about how to respond, and it helped me a lot.

[jvalmer]

The biggest thing the interviewer is looking for is how you adapt culturally with the rest of the teaching staff. If the interviewer thinks you're going to spout off on Dave's, or FB, after the first sign of trouble, it's no contract for you.

Things like if you can actually eat foreign cafeteria food (aka bad food), don't come in smelling of booze every morning, not arguing with your ct, and not embarrassing the school when you're stumbling home on a weekend.

[Redstanggt01]

[mayorhaggar]

Sometimes Korean cafeteria food is actually really good, but I think around this time of year they run out of budget money so the food's been pretty awful at my school. But when it is good, it's 10,000 times better than crappy American cafeteria food.

If it comes up in the interview just say you love Korean food and trying new dishes. Don't be fussy.

Basically throughout the interview don't be negative about anything, especially Korea. They are looking for excuses to deny your application, don't give them any. Don't insist on being yourself just because you refuse to do otherwise...you need to focus the interview on your strengths as a teacher, not on how inflexible you are at moving to a different country. Someone who says "I'm a vegan and I refuse to eat anything that has come in contact with meat, and I have to go to the gym every day and do yoga, and also I have concerns about dog meat consumption" is probably not going to be approved, even if they look like they'd be a decent teacher on paper.

That said, if you are a vegan or a vegetarian, I honestly really wouldn't recommend Korea, meat is everything here, and it's really delicious. Usually.

[Redstanggt01]

I'm more of a meat lover than for veggies, so I don't think that's going to be a problem. It's the same way in Japan too in that they also eat a lot of meat over there, so I'm used to that diet more or less.


I'm currently working on my questions right now and I should have them finished by the end of the week. I'll most likely need help making them shorter, as I need to make sure I can answer them without a problem. I don't know how I'd feel about posting my answers on here though because I may be afraid of getting them stolen or something...idk. If anyone knowlegeable is able to help by PM, it would be a great help.

[Redstanggt01]

Ok, so basically my interview is tomorrow. Fortunately, I was able to get time off today to get my questions done. I have all my questions answered except for these.



• The interviewer will surely ask you a number of questions about the relationship you’ll share with your Korean co-teacher. These question group will likely include:

o How would you approach differences & solve problems between you and your co-teacher

o How would you deal with constructive criticism from your co-teacher?

o How would you respond to mistakes made by your co-teacher in the classroom?

o How would you react in situations where you don’t see eye to eye with your co-teacher?


I just don't have that much knowledge of working with a co-teacher and finding information about them on the internet is rather scarce. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[Lucas]

[Weigookin74]

I don't know what they are doing for these interviews. I've seen a lot of folks with long hair, braids, and beards showing up, along with big people, etc showing up in rural conservative country places. (These are guys, I mean.) Given my own experience with the countryside, I'm sure a lot of older teachers are besides themselves when these folks show up as English teachers. (I don't really care or have a problem myself, but am just surprised EPIK would hire them given the conservative culture in the schools here - more so in the countryside.) So, maybe these interviews and job photos aren't so important. Unless the best sounding and most professional looking ones get to teach in the best places and the others go to the countryside.