Korean Job Discussion Forums

sparkx · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: thekimchipot.com

I just finished reading a post from someone detailing their typical working day: teaching 3 - 4 hours and then spending the remainder of the day SCUBA diving and barbequing...perma-vacation boy.

I received an email not too long ago from a friend of mine who taught here for a few years and then returned to Canada. She was the type who marked her calandar with red X's and cried at least once a day because she hated korea soooooo much and couldn't wait to go home (why was she my friend? i dunno...). In her email she asked me, out of the blue, if I know of any really good teaching positions available here because she simply can't hack the 8-10 hour work day back home and really wants to return to korea.

Has teaching here marred your work ethic? Discuss

simulated stereo · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:38 pm Post subject:

All I can say is once you've had a job with 16 hours a week and 5.5 months of vacation, everything else just seems to fall short.

Juggertha · Joined: 27 May 2003 Location: Anyang, Korea

Honestly, my work ethic is MINE. Its pretty engrained in me and wouold take alot to change it.

Butterfly · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Kuwait

You got to be careful actually, keep busy if you aren't actually working.

matthewwoodford · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Location, location, location.

They call it an 'ethic' but it's just plain 'work'! Wink

Eazy_E · Joined: 30 Oct 2003 Location: British Columbia, Canada

Work ethic is specific to the person. Even when I had jobs that were more humble than this one, I always put in an honest effort. I feel like I'm cheating myself as much as my employer when I slack. It seems like something that someone with a low self-esteem would do. When people pay good money for you to come here and teach English to their kids, they expect you to try hard.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:08 pm Post subject:

I went through the no-work-expected surprise my first year, and it did affect how I went about my second year of work, yea. However, I came back for round 3 with the intention of putting in an honest day, and the school definitely knows how to run with that ball. 9 am - 8 pm today, lesson planning, scoring essays, so on.

It might sound grueling to some, but I've been actually finding it refreshing. I'm learning quite a bit about the material I'm teaching because of my preparation, and, for some quirky reason, it feels good to go home after a long day of work, fool around for 30 minutes on the computer, and then call it a day.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

Yeah, it is gone but in the sense that I don't think a could work at something that is very structured around a clock with a beginning and ending. Sure classes are that way, but the time in between the classes is mine. To be honest it is a like scary how slack my efforts are at being productive outside of class time, and it is here that I truly feel my work ethic has gone off course.

shortskirt_longjacket · Posted: Wed Jun 30, 2004 3:12 am Post subject:

korea isn't ruining my work ethic, it's refining it. i have to choose to work hard, always, because it's never expected of me (my supervisor and director are the two laziest women in korea, i'm convinced). anything i do with gusto has to come from my own desire. teaching english is easy...it's my native language and i happen to have a natural penchant for the elements of language and for teaching them. laziness is sometimes borne out of doing a job day in and day out that is just plain easy. i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. i think people who go above and (way) beyond the call of duty (when totally unnecessary) are pretentious assholes. and i hate pretentious assholes. regular assholes, i can deal with. pretentious ones? can't do it. can't deal.

sparkx · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: thekimchipot.com

Skywalker26 · Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Up the Kyber Pass

My work ethic is still the same. Get to school 30 minutes before everyone else for some quality photocopier time. Get all my planning and paper work done before I go home. Leave as soon as I am allowed and not let the job stress me out. Life's to short.

Homer · Guest

shortskirt_longjacket,

May have a penchant for the elements of language but you seem to have fallen off a cliff when it comes to paragraphs. Wink

inkoreaforgood · Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Location: Inchon

My work ethic started out very strong, I grew up in a family where it was expected that the children had to do chores and get part time jobs, and work fingers to the bones. My father always said "Why do you think we had you kids? Get to work!!"

Now, it's slid downhill. My job is easy, I've done it for years and have had fewer and fewer problems each year. I try to put much more effort into it, but I have had so much practice that I could teach my classes in my sleep.

I guess I still have a good work ethic still, but it seems to be misplaced. The wife calls me lazy, and I do get off the couch and do something now and then. No one else thinks I'm lazy, and right now that's good enough for me!!

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

I think you adapt to your job.

The jobs I had required different work ethics and you just work harder when you have to, it just depends if you see the money being worth the effort.

Here I'll admit is the easiest time I've ever had in my life. I'm not lazy, just the workdays are so short.

One thing that has changed for me the amount of hours I sleep
If i don't get 8 hours a day now I'm a little peed off whereas before Korea, if I got 8 hours a day I'd be very happy.

shortskirt_longjacket · Posted: Wed Jun 30, 2004 5:48 am Post subject: