Korean Job Discussion Forums

[happygirl]

I have tried repeatedly to find employment info with the local public school admin in JinJu. Korean buddies have also looked at the website and cannot find any info whatsoever. There is not an English speaking person at the Education office. Decided against GEPIK because of all the negative posts since the new contracts came out. EPIK deadline is past.

Haven't been offered any Uni positions I've submitted for and I'm going home this week. Before I get slammed let me say that I have been applying for almost 2 months. With an MS, 1 year in Korea, slightly older but look 30ish, blonde, blue eyes and experience working with kids at home I thought a Uni job was really possible. I have great references and all that.

Can anyone help?

[Demophobe]

The problem with finding schools that aren't EPIK or GEPIK is that they don't get any funding to pay for you, and even at 2.2 million/mo, you are quite expensive. So, they will want to share you with another school. Now, if the school is small, they can share you and get all of their own classes covered. Gr 3, 4 once a week and Gr. 5, 6 twice a week. If there are 2 or 3 classes for each grade, you can see how the hours pile up. And the classes will all be in the morning.

If you do get into a smaller school and they share you, then you will need transportation or find schools in the same area. City schools are rarely small, so one would be looking in the more rural areas.

If they don't share you, they may charge students a nominal fee for the afternoon classes, and this is a drag. You are responsible for paying your own salary, in a sense, as the tuition is actually going towards your pay, to ease the burden from the school. If the numbers drop, the school will cast an evil eye on you as now you have become a burden. Not a good situation.

If you really want to get a public school job but without all the EPIK/GEPIK hassles, then you will have to get in touch with a recruiter or pound the pavement with a smaple GEPIK/EPIK contract in hand to serve as a guideline and to stop them from thinking it's impossible to work out the logistics of getting a foreign teacher privately.

Seeing as you are leaving, get in touch with some recruiters and tell them exactly what you want. They will either help you or not. A recruiter got me my job 4 years ago, but my situation isn't common. I still say try....you never know.

I do know of a couple of small country schools that really want to hire someone. Good hours, good pay,, longer vacations than GEPIK/EPIK and no co-teacher, but the schools are remote. One would need a car and unfortunately, need your own housing. Not too bad if you don't mind a one-room or similar. The school would probably be able to help with the key money and there will be 300,000 for rent each month in the contract.

[jinju]

No, thats not true Demo. I work for Gangnam. Believe me, we have more funding than Gepik and Epik probably do combined. Im glad to say my school and this district have nothing to do with Epik or Gepik.

[Demophobe]

Gangnam. Yeah...

I was talking about small schools, not in the cities. I wasn't clear about that.

I will never work in a city again and for anyone who really wants to have a good public school experience (as well as a far more "Korean" experience than a big city will allow), I strongly recommend going somewhere a bit more remote. It raises your worth and thus brings a lot more bargaining power to your side of the contract. The kids and staff are far more appreciative of your being there and, IMO, folks are just more mellow in the country.

How many students in your school jinju? Both of mine have less than 100 total. I am not resigning with one of them for personal reasosns...nothing to do with the school, and the new one I will sign with has less than 80. Great learning environment.

I should point out to all, including those who sent me PMs asking about the schools, that noone really speaks English in these country schools. I mean, nobody speaks fluently enough to deal with a foreigner on an English-only basis. This is a big problem for some people, but generally, help can be found. It's just not the most convenient situation, and if one speaks no Korean, it may lead to some frustration.

[jinju]

My shool is large. How many? I would put the number at say 30 students a class, 6 grade levels, 5 classes per grade level. Thats over 900 students so yeah, its much bigger than yours I am on my 2nd contract here and will stay for a 3rd if they want, and I think they will. Its a good, easy, comfortable gig.

I would not work elsewhere. It pretty much has to be Seoul so this gig is perfect for me.

[I_Am_Wrong]

1) private schools.

2) gu offices and city halls that have established their own programs. ie. kangnam, sanbon etc.

[ttompatz]

[Dev]

Just choose a city where you wouldn't mind teaching, do a websearch and find the city's web page - Busan for example. Then try to find the Education office's email or phone number.

It's too late to apply through EPIK, but from my understanding, it's not too late to go through the individual city's education departments. They're trying to get as many teachers as they can.

[formerflautist]

My public high school job is GMOE, I think. The school is outside of Seoul. I was also talking to some ladies this weekend who said their public school is hiring. But they also live south of Seoul. Oh, and I went through NetKorea in case you were wondering.