Korean Job Discussion Forums

[livinginkorea]

My recuriter told me that there will be 3 days of this in August. I've never had any training before so I'm not sure what to expect. Can anybody give me some information on what happened last year? Any ideas where it is held this year?

Many thanks

[Grotto]

LOL
you will be lectured to in an auditiorium. They will talk about a lot of stuff that doesnt really help you.

The only benefit to the orientation is that you get to meet the other teachers and network a bit.

Last year the orientation was 5 days long and not helpful in the least.

Lets hope they have made some improvements.

[trigger123]

wow, i actually agree with grotto for once...
last year's training wasn't particularly useful,
although meeting other teachers, well one in particular, was.......

[ticktock]

[livinginkorea]

Did you have to stay there last year?

So it was just a lecture all the time? At least it's only 3 days this year!!

What kind of stuff does the lecture talk about? How to teach and things like that?

[Joseph Fitzgerald]

Last year orientation had MAYBE one day of HELPFUL lectures. The rest of the time was spent on Korean culture, culture differences, etc. Our first day was a trip to the Korean Folk Village in Yongin. That pretty much set the tone of orientation , for me. After two years in Korea, I found that orientation was helpful MAYBE for teachers just arriving in Korea.

[livinginkorea]

I went to the Folk Village about 2 months ago!! I enjoyed it but I don't want to go that soon again!!

Tell me what kind of hours did ye have to do last year? Is there lots of bars around to go drinking afterwards?

[Joseph Fitzgerald]

We hit Joki Joki pretty frequently,

[Grotto]

Their idea of a tour of the folk village was to force you into a bus...travel for two hours to get there...give you an hour to get back on the bus and then a lovely 2 hour journey back to the hotel.

[livinginkorea]

[Grotto]

For the first three days everyone was put up at a hotel
for the last 2 or 3 days half of the people got moved into dorms.

[deessell]

For my orientation with Incheon MOE, which was three days all we did was have dinner with the Supervisors once, and then a lunch. No training, no manuels etc. Plus we were put up in a 100,000 won a night hotel and given free reign on the Room service.......so I actually enjoyed my "training period", it put me in good stead for all the sitting around and ceremony of Public School life.

[JacktheCat]

My non-gepic "private" school orientation consisted of taking me out for a night of heavy drinking with the Korean teachers before the first day of classes.

It was a great group bonding experience, and once the Koreans saw I could handle soju "like a real man" (the female music teachers words) I was accepted as part of the group.

[manlyboy]

The GEPIK training course was largely aimed at noobs. Most of us were not noobs. I didn't find the info on using squat toilets, where to find a Baskin Robbins, and how to teach efl 101 very useful. The chicken hof down the street was the highlight for me.