Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wipeters1]

Hi.

Anyone else work at a foreign language high school? I am just looking to compare my experience to others, and to hopefully gain a better insight into the workings at these types of schools.

I have been working at Hagwans for the past four years; decided to try my hand at a public school.

I have just started a job in a foreign language high school in Suwon. It is a new school that has just opened. I work 21 hours a week, 830 till 4 for 2.5 won a month. So far I have been teaching all of my classes with my co-teachers. We currently only have first grade at our high school.

In a few months the school has asked my wife and I to move to the school dorm. They told us that they will have 12 rooms set aside for foreign teachers. Anyone have experience living in a high school dorm? What is it like? What should I expect?

How does vocation time work at a high school? My contract says the usually 14 days a year. But I got the impression that teachers at high school receive more than this.
Can anyone comment?

Thanks in advance.

[idealjetsam]

It sounds like the money you are making is good for just teaching conversation or possibly reading. Team-teaching at an FLHS is odd, however.

In the future you may be asked to teach afternoon/evening classes in TOEFL and essay writing and no matter what the school says, at some point they will need teacher who can teach SAT subjects as Yu-Hak(Study Abroad) programs are all the rage at the FLHSs these days. I strongly recommend you get in the know with studying in the United States(not sure where you are from), TOEFL if you aren't familiar with the test, and the programs many of the elite universities here have for students to gain admission through English essay tests and interviews. As long as you don't know about these things, you will be of limited use to these very ambitious kids and subject to being replaced by someone who does in a year or two when the school is better established.

You should put a lid on that dormitory talk ASAP. All of the dorms I have seen have been barely adequate for a single adult: if you are 22 and just got out of the dorm last year, you might be able to deal. But if you are a married adult, you need to get them to supplement your income and supply key money. If you take no for an answer, you will be establishing a precedent for future screwing with. Also, I think you should get ready for potential problems: any school administration that is either senseless or guileful enough to request a married adult move into a dorm is likely to be less than proactive in treating you as a valued professional.

Hope this helps. I worked at an FLHS for about three years before moving on to grad school and other things. Let me know if you have other questions.

Also, are you in Suwon or Seongnam? I thought that Seongnam Wae-Go was the only public FLHS in the country.

Oh, vacation: although the other FLHSs get lots more than you have been offered, it is not paid. The FLHSs in Seoul generally think it is honor enough to work there and "fringe" benefits like health care and paid vacation time are unecessary. No joke, the teachers at Daewon FLHS don't even get housing and the school wants them to take an SAT exam, and score above 750 on the writing and verbal sections, before being offered work there. The stump and balls some people have...

Working at an FLHS is generally a mix of students you love and an administration that you want to murder one by one. Hope this position works out for you. I actually have a lot of hope for the idea of public Wae-Gos so I would love to hear more about it.

Cheers.

[stevemcgarrett]

I concur with idealjetsam. No dorm rooms, especially considering you have a wife. They should know better (probably do but don't care). Insist on faculty housing or, if none is available on campus, arranged housing in the vicinity of the school. End of discussion.

Salary is on par for this kind of school, although some are much higher (upwards of 3 mil won). Don't let them pull the "tip of the iceberg" trick of adding on more duties month by month. Many an unscrupulous Korean (and Chinese) business likes to do that. You should make a salary equivalent to your educational attainment and years of experience and comparable to your Korean colleagues. Anything less is unfair and insulting, but that's just me.

McGarrett takes his job very seriously, bruddah.

[UncleAlex]

Your monthly salary of 2.5 would be great if an apartment were included.
If you must use 300 to 400Gs won a month to pay rent, after having been
granted key money, then it's just an average salary. About the dorm, I
tried living in a dorm at a high school a few years ago. After one semester
I had to get out of it because the kids were too noisy and disturbing, although
we teachers were segregated on the top floor. Avoid a dorm at all cost.