Korean Job Discussion Forums

Muffin · Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Location: Turkey

My hagwon has just been sold. The previous owner provided us with a meal everyday (the perks like free dinner and transport were one reason I accepted the job although the pay is only average). The new owners are phasing it out, we got a dinner the first two days, then bread and jam or sandwiches. Needless to say we are not amused as we are not in the town centre and do not have many restaurants nearby. Also supermarkets are quite expensive here and a big weekly shop would dent the budget.

I was wondering if we were just spoiled and if our previous director's kindness was unusual.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

whats your contract say?

If its in your contract then is should continue...if it isnt... Crying or Very sad

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

While it is common for places to offer a free meal, it is by no means general. I think it is the exception rather than the rule.

VanIslander · Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 4:23 pm Post subject:

denverdeath · Joined: 21 May 2005 Location: Boo-sahn

I'm at my seventh place now and have never had free daily meals. Most of the places brought us out for free dinners sometimes and a couple of places offered discounts on cafetaria meals, but no freebies guaranteed on a daily basis. Delivery should only cost you about 15-20,000 extra a week(or less), but as Grotto said, you may want to fight it if it's in your contract.

crystal · Joined: 04 May 2006

we get lunch everyday which is basically rice and some side dishes, what the kindy kids get. Then in the evening there is some food ordered in but its just two or three dishes between all the teachers, though not everybody eats, plus it's like feeding time at the zoo for the K teachers - it's scary how much some of them can chow down in a short space of time so mostly I'm lucky to get anything at all. Theres a budget of 10000 for these evening munchies, not exactly a free dinner. It all depends on the place I guess but food here is really not that expensive to order in, it's really not gonna cost you much to pay for your own dinner if you can't convince your new boss to carry on the tradition.

Lemonade · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: South Korea

Muffin, you were lucky! Here's why I can say that:

When I first came to Korea, my director dumped me off in a dirty apartment on a Friday with no way to cook and only a fridge. I was not shown a single place to eat. I begged the other male teachers to help me find places to eat and they either laughed at me or they were too busy banging Korean females to help show me around. The director was suppose to show up on Saturday to show me around but he forgot. So I called the hagwon and got ahold of some Korean TOEIC teacher I never met who took mercy on me by forgoing his church meeting and by taking me to Carrefour where I paid for my own meal. He asked me why I didn't have the other foreign teachers help me and I told him exactly why... they were too busy banging Korean females or out there trying to bang Korean females. He just laughed and said, "they only like Korean girls." He just didn't understand that I was interested in finding my way around and not sex.

Sunday comes around and I'm eating out of a fridge and things I would only snack on back home... not good!

Monday rolls around and I'm at work. It gets close to lunch time and I'm all alone again. I ask a Korean guy there about lunch and he says he's going out to eat lunch with the director like they do every day. Before I know it, they are gone. By the time dinner rolls around I'm starting to ask people if I can pay for their dinner if they will just show me where to eat. So here I am paying for Koreans to eat dinner and thinking how backward this feels.

There were a few people who hadn't seen me for a week and they noticed that I lost weight. They say that Korea will do that to you.

As for the owner of the hagwon, I only had a handshake from him on the first day. After that, he never said a word to me, nor many of the other people at that hagwon other than the director. He walked around with a pompous attitude that he was better than anyone and no one there deserved to speak to his royal arse.

So you say the owner of your hagwon use to pay for your meals? YOU were definately very very lucky! Transportation too, huh? Wow, spoiled!