Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kenny Kimchee]

Hi High School Teachers,

I��d like to ask you a few questions about your job(s). I��m currently on JET in Japan as an ALT in junior high school; before JET, I taught in a hagwon in Seoul for 18 months.

I��m in my third and final contract year and am exploring job possibilities for when my contract expires July 2006. I��d like to stick around Japan, but the job market outside of JET is pretty poor so I��m considering making the move back to Korea.

I think I��d like to teach in high school. Like I said, I��m on JET now, so I��m well acquainted with the joys of being a public servant (e.g. miscommunication with co-teachers, bureaucracy, sitting around the office during summer vacation even though there��s no work to do, etc.), but I would like to get some more detailed information regarding the following points. Thanks in advance for your assistance!

1) Autonomy
How much do you have? Do you have to follow a curriculum? Do you have to drag the co-teacher into class with you, or do you run your own show? I��ve been teaching EFL for five years and have a (vague) idea what I��m doing, and I��m not a big fan of ��too many cooks in the kitchen�� so I prefer to teach solo.

2) Pay and Overtime
I��ve got a TEFL certificate, an M.S. Language Education (TESOL) and five years�� experience – how much can I expect to make? How about overtime opportunities and pay rate for overtime?

3) Academic level/gender of your students
Girls, boys, or co-ed? Vocational? Academic?

4) Housing
Self-explanatory.

5) Vacation
How much? Is it discretionary or does it have to be taken during certain periods (e.g. during summer vacation, Chuseok, etc.)?

6) Job Satisfaction
This one is directed towards those who��ve been on the job for six months or more: how��s your job satisfaction? My current gig is dead easy, but job satisfaction is really low. Do you feel like you��re making a difference?

7) How did you get it?
Recruiter? DYI? Through a friend? I��m in Fukuoka now and could easily fly over to go the DYI route – in fact, I��d prefer to do it this way. I��d like to cut out the middleman (read: recruiters). Do you have any websites/directories of public/private schools or school districts?

8 ) Hiring Season/Contract Dates
I��d like to get a job beginning fall term 2006. When do they start recruiting? When do fall contracts begin?

Once again, thanks for your help.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Hi,

1. Autonomy: My co-teacher and I seem to have total autonomy. When I arrived a few weeks after the semester began my co-teacher was doing the regular, traditional Korean grammar-based thing, with the book and endless lists of vocabulary words for the boys to memorize. After several weeks of restructuring, we tossed out that whole approach and now use Side By Side in all our shared classes (which is about 1/2 of my teaching load.) (My co-teacher and I are lucky--we like each other and get along extremely well; that includes a pretty smooth back and forth swapping of teaching in the classroom.)

I also have several elective classes, and I teach them solo and totally control what I teach.

2. Our school pays W2.2 million, which I think is standard for the public schools. Some posters have said they have over-time opportunities. My school does not.

3. I teach in a public boys high school in a tiny town. There are only 118 boys in the whole school, so my required classes are all around 20 students. My elective classes have 3-9 students.

It's difficult to determine what kind of school mine is. It is not vocational. The boys in town who want that go to a nearby town for that. It is not university-track. Our boys are the ones who could not score high enough. From what I can figure out, we have two groups in our school. Slightly over have our guys will go to a college (not university) and the remainder are the totally uninterested in any subject. They are just keeping a seat warm till they scrounge a factory-type job after they graduate.

4. I rented my own place and get W300,000 subsidy. The other teacher in town (at the girls school) has a decent apartment 5 minutes from his job.

5. 10 days during winter vacation and 10 days during summer vacation. The difficulty is getting 'them' to tell me which 10 days during vacation are mine.

6. I've been teaching on this job 2 1/2 months, but have been teaching about 30 years. I can tell that I like the job. The faculty and administration have been super to work with so far. No reason to think that will change significantly.

When I arrived the general attitude among the students was, "I despise the time I have to waste in English class". Once we tossed out the text book and the vocab lists and started them on Book 1 of the conversation book, which is still challenging to most of them, their attitude turned around quickly. I wouldn't go so far as to say they have fallen in love with the English language, but they are far more cooperative than they were. A good example is what happened last Friday. My co-teacher gave an old-fashioned grammar lesson and the boys raised holy heck. She ran out of the room crying. They settled down again when I started teaching. (I'm not trying to come across as super teacher.) They are open to learning if things are presented in any way except the old way.

I feel a lot of job satisfaction. I can see and hear the beginnings of progress in our students. I am heartened that the government seems to have given up on the traditional system of English education. I could see this job being a terrific job if they get someone in the middle school who can pick up where the elementary school program leaves off and then feed them into the high school at a higher level of English.

I'm sure you've heard that the government wants a foreigner in every school within the next couple of years. Part of the reason is to give every kid a chance at good English instruction and reduce the need for hakwons. I don't think the hakwons are going to be threatened, but I do feel things are undergoing some deep changes. Finally.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

1) Autonomy
How much do you have? Do you have to follow a curriculum? Do you have to drag the co-teacher into class with you, or do you run your own show? I��ve been teaching EFL for five years and have a (vague) idea what I��m doing, and I��m not a big fan of ��too many cooks in the kitchen�� so I prefer to teach solo.

- I've got the co-teachers out of most of my high school classes and have full autonomy to run my own show if they're there or not. In the ones where they're more help than hindrence they usually only help me with translation. When they're there I'll never get them out of the annoying habit of giving out answers, I'm afraid, which I why I'm glad to have them gone from my grade 2 and 3 classes.


2) Pay and Overtime
I��ve got a TEFL certificate, an M.S. Language Education (TESOL) and five years�� experience – how much can I expect to make? How about overtime opportunities and pay rate for overtime?

- You'll make 2.0 or more which is enough to live very well here and you should work as a teacher for the love of teaching at a good school, not for squeezing out the most won.

3) Academic level/gender of your students
Girls, boys, or co-ed? Vocational? Academic?

- Girls, mostly academic, three vocational classes. They range from brilliant but not fluent to dimmer than a 20 watt bulb, but almost all really nice, pleasant students. A joy to work with apart from some of them being so dead tired. I also do 7 middle school lessons a week which is not an uncommon sort of situation.

4) Housing
Self-explanatory.

- I live in a house the school renovated for me. Two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and study - bed, wardrobe, desk, computer, sofa, table, microwave, vacuum cleaner, lots of other stuff all provided. My only problem is the heating bills.

5) Vacation
How much? Is it discretionary or does it have to be taken during certain periods (e.g. during summer vacation, Chuseok, etc.)?

- 28 working days paid vacation on my contract.

6) Job Satisfaction
This one is directed towards those who��ve been on the job for six months or more: how��s your job satisfaction? My current gig is dead easy, but job satisfaction is really low. Do you feel like you��re making a difference?

- only been on the job 3 months. REally like it; so far results are marginal as to be expected.

7) How did you get it?
Recruiter? DYI? Through a friend? I��m in Fukuoka now and could easily fly over to go the DYI route – in fact, I��d prefer to do it this way. I��d like to cut out the middleman (read: recruiters). Do you have any websites/directories of public/private schools or school districts?

- I was hired by a school district using some English department at a university to recruit. I've heard my district has since started going through recruiters.

8 ) Hiring Season/Contract Dates
I��d like to get a job beginning fall term 2006. When do they start recruiting? When do fall contracts begin?

- contracts are always beginning in Korea, but February and August / September starts seem the most common.

Good luck.

[ifa79]

1- I'll also add that at my high school, I have almost full autonomy over my classes. There are co-teachers there, but they usually just watch and help with the odd translation or explanation. They usually teach grammar every day, so they expect really exciting, alternative and competative type lessons.
2- I made 2.0 my first month until they realized I am a certified and experienced teacher and then offered a raise and overtime, so now I sit at 2.3 for 21 classes/week.
3- My school is academic in a big suburb of Seoul: I have 15 classes of 35-40 students: every Grade 1 class. There are seperate classes for boys and girls. Disabled students are integrated into some of the classes.
4- My apartment is small but only 2 years old and no bugs.
5- I still can't get a clear answer on vacation. This is one of my only complaints. There is supposedly no official school in January and February, but there are camps and administrative work. I think, I'll have 3 to 4 weeks off in Jan/Feb and then 2-3 weeks in July/Aug
6- I'm very satisfied after 3 months. I had a bad job at a hagwon before, so I may be biased and I was a sub teacher in my home country for a bit.
7- I was hired through a recruiter in my home country.

Good luck with your search

[Kenny Kimchee]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your helpful feedback. I have a few more follow-up questions:

Ya-ta Boy: How did you get your job? Through a recruiter?

Yu_Bum_suk: Do those 28 paid vacation days include national holidays, or is that 28 days + national holidays? Where are you located?

All: How many classes do have each week or month with each individual class?

What appeals to me the most about high school jobs is the ability to make a difference (and the attendant job satisfaction that comes with it). Sure, uni jobs seem to have great perks (though those appear to be dwindling), but one of the perks of high school jobs is the chance to really make some progress.

My first teaching gig was at a hagwon in Korea. The job had it's ups and downs (as all jobs do), but it was pretty good as hagwons go, and I really enoyed seeing my students' progress; however, I don't think that I'd want to go the hagwon route again. A friend of mine teaches at a fairly high level academic high school here in Japan. I've helped her out with a couple of English workshops and her students are awesome - polite, attentive, and eager to learn. I'd love to have a situation like hers, but I'd be willing to teach in a less-academic environment, as long as the students are roughly the same level. Lesson planning in JHS is pretty tough - in a class of 35 students, you've got kids who will go on to university in the same class with kids who are borderline mentally disabled. Educational tracking is wrong on many levels, but one must say that it makes a teacher's job a lot easier.

Again, thanks for all your help. I look forward to other replies.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Yeah, our district probably won't be hiring again until next summer.

I've got 7 middle school lessons a week and started with 15 HS but that has been cut back, and I've been doing some extra work with some of the better HS and MS kids which has been nice. The middle school deal isn't bad as I get to work with kids of more ages, and some of them surprise me. One of the middle school co-teachers is getting annoying but on the plus side I'm now working with a few middle schoolers almost every day preparing something for a competition - it's like taking a few of the best hogwan kids you ever had an getting to do something they want to do every day.

If you are experienced, I would try to go to find a job that wants a solo teacher, especially if you're working at an academic HS.

As I understand the vacation time in my contract, it's 28 days on top of national holidays, minimum two weeks in summer and two weeks in winter. We'll ss what happens this winter. Summer I started out on three weeks paid vacation - can't think of too many jobs that start out like that!

[Kenny Kimchee]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Mr. Pink]

1) Autonomy
I don't have a co-teacher like public school teachers have. I work at a private high school. In 5+yrs I have only had my class watched once. I'd like to think I have more automony than most native teachers in a high school setting.

2) Pay and Overtime
I don't really want to describe my pay, but my school starts teachers at 1.9-2.xx depending on experience and education. We have an opportunity to do a few overtime classes a week. It isn't much but it can add up.

3) Academic level/gender of your students
Co-ed school, I would say the academic level is very high as this is a private high school that has an admissions test to get in. As for English speaking ability, that differs from highly advanced to intermediate/high beginner.

4) Housing
Recently my school started to provide housing. I obtained my own house as I feel it is an undue stress on myself to have to worry about employer provided housing. I get a housing allowance of 400k a month to cover some of my housing expenses.

5) Vacation
Roughly 8-10 weeks a year, paid. Not all in one block however.

6) Job Satisfaction
I have been at my school for over 5 years. I'd say I am satisfied.

7) How did you get it?
A teacher was leaving the school and advertised on some low budget ESL website that I had been checking out. I guess I was the best qualified person to answer that ad.

8 ) Hiring Season/Contract Dates
Soon we will be looking for people. We hire for March.

[marcus]

I used to work on JET last year and in September I moved to a foreign language high school here in September. It's great. If you can find one that's hiring around the time you're looking for, definitely go for it. I do much more work than I did on JET but my job satisfaction is significantly higher. But I miss yakitori that isn't swimming in hot sauce.

[Kenny Kimchee]

[Kenny Kimchee]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all of your responses and assistance. Does anyone else have any experiences or information they'd like to share?

Thanks,

Kenny