Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Karabeara]

For those of you at universities that hire BAs:

1. What is the average starting pay at your university for a new teacher with a BA?
2. How many hours do they work for that in a week?
3. What is their vacation amount?
4. Are you required to work camps, and if so, are they an extra amount above your paid time?
5. Housing paid, etc? Other benefits?

Thank-you!

I am asking because I heard a friend complain that 1.9 for teaching 15 hours is way too low, and that I would be encouraging them to screw me over by accepting something so low. I, however, have seen several university jobs on Daves that seem to offer a similar pay rate. What should I be expecting?

[denverdeath]

[Homer]

1.9 for 15 hours is too low?


Standard hakwon job is 1.9-2.1 for 30 hours....


Do the math please.

[the_beaver]

[Karabeara]

I am concerned about burn-out.

15 hagwon hours is a dream. 15 university hours? I have no idea. You say you would work 40 hours per week to make 15 hours be good? That sounds nuts. I definately would not want this job, then, because I am working about 17 hours per week at a public school and making 200,000 won per month more. I do some butt-sitting between 10 and 4, but I am definately not busting tail 40 hours a week! With the exception of corrections teachers give me, and the once-a-year demo class hell, I am usually not doing much outside of school hours.

University jobs do not sound so appealing anymore. At least not this one, and with the prospect of the schools that offer 5 months of vacation per week drying up and cutting it down, I do not think universities are the good-job hope of the future. Sad to say!

As for this place, I was told by one Korean staff member that pay could be around the 50,000 range per hour for the camp hours and for OT, on top of regular pay. One friend thought that sounded crazy-high. Maybe it is not, according to what you said?

The students are supposed to be upper-level, mostly. But the university is not highly-ranked. Is it easier to teach upper-level, or lower-level students? Are the upper-level ones too demanding? About 25 to 30 students per class average.

They want me to teach grammar, conversation, and writing. The writing and grammer scare the hell out of me, as I just do not see myself as having a lot of experience in that. I worry I would be expected to know more than I really do. I had hoped it would be mostly conversation stuff.

[the_beaver]

[merrilee]

The job is what you make of it. If you want to be a slacker and do no prep, you'll probably get by. If you want to be a good teacher and try to make a difference, it will take more prep.

Even with extra prep (I'm probably close to the beaver in terms of hours, if you count the time during vacation when I make my curriculum), I'd still rather teach university.

BTW, when they tell you they have upper-level students... well, even if their students were retarded, they probably wouldn't admit it. My students are definitely NOT upper level, but I enjoy teaching them.

There are definite advantages of teaching at a low ranked uni.

[Karabeara]

Ok, so beav takes pride in his job, for sure. Merilee, what are the advantages to being at a small school, in your opinion?

And guys, would you rather teach low-level or high-level? I would think teaching high-level would be easier, but then again, they may require more homework (do you give much homework at a uni, btw?) and might ask tough grammatical questions I can\'t answer.

Loving the opinions! Please do tell more.

[Homer]

Having worked with both higher level and lower level students I can offer an opinion.

I found that teaching the higher level students was more demanding on the perparation side and regarding grammar. You have to be ready for those classes and those questions.

Also, motivating adults or higher level students is a different ballgame. Most of the time they are already eager to learn but in university, if it is freshman English (especially the mandatory class) you might find they have little motivation or real interest.

Lower level students required some prep. too but its a different type of work. For kids, the motivating part is easier (in my experience anyway) and you have fewer grammar questions to prepare for.

I think that prep. time is a must anyway if you intend on doing a good job. Like the Beaver, I do quite a bit of prep. and some research to improve my classes.

[the_beaver]

[merrilee]

What Beaver said. Higher level students are much more demanding. If you're new at teaching uni, I think lower level students would be much easier to start with, if you're not sure what you're doing.

And some other stufff... I'll pm you.

[SuperHero]

[Karabeara]

Thanks for the answers. It's all appreciated.

Personally, I am just buying time and building experience until your university limits you to 3 years, then I can slide in there and take your job. Beav. Ahem. Superhero. Ahem.

[hack]