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Korean Job Discussion Forums "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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dreaming_saturn

Joined: 26 May 2004
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:03 am Post subject: The Killer split shift? |
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I've been offered a position at a school that looks quite good - small groups of adults, nice housing withing 7 minutes walking distance, reasonable but not fantastic pay, spoken to current teachers, etc, but the one drawback is the split shift -
It involves working 7-8 , 11-12 and 5-9 Monday through Friday, one long weekend a month and national holidays.
I'd like some feedback from anyone who has done this type of split shift before - were you actually able to pull it off with power naps in the afternoon?
In addition, there isn't too much on teaching adults in Korea on this site so any feeback would be helpful - are they like adults in China ( i.e. a lot of grammar/passive knowledge but need work with speaking and listening skills)
Thanks for any advice. |
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poof
Joined: 23 May 2005
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:10 am Post subject: |
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14 hours a day with virtually zero vacation!! I couldn't do it for more than a few months at most. If it only offers average salary, is there any reason why you can't try to get another position? Or is it that it's one of these adult learner institutes and you want adults only? Teaching adults here has no big wow factor. Honestly. |
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dreaming_saturn

Joined: 26 May 2004
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:24 am Post subject: |
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Hey poof , I do virtually the same thing here in the Netherlands to make ends meet, but here it's private so no show = no pay. However as a freelancer I take as many vacations as I want. I know the drain, but in my case I also only work 4 days a week but have to travel 45 minutes between home and work.
Teaching adults anywhere is no big woop, though I enjoy it, it's just less physically draining, especially with groups.
As such, i'ts 6 hours a day, you'd really need to be able to take a power nap in the afternoon - but is it really possible? |
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Col.Brandon

Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:09 am Post subject: |
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Standard split shifts are an absolute nightmare, and you're considering a double split there.
It'd be way better to work just one shift with them (if they'll still sponsor you), then find something else to fill up the rest of your day. There are pleanty of other good gigs out there. Honestly, don't do it. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:56 am Post subject: |
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One split is more than enough.
Chances are there will be an elementary school right across the street from where you live or a construction site next door. You will be fried within a week. Psychotic within two. |
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4 months left

Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:38 am Post subject: |
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It depends what you do between the shifts. I did a similar schedule and went to the gym, studied or had a nap if I was tired. It is tough but it beats teaching kids.
I hope you mean you get one long weekend a month and national holidays off? Some schools do this, working only 20 days a month.
Usually the students want to work on speaking and mistake correction. Their grammar is usually quite high but many have not had much practice to speak. In my experience they'll want to have lunch with you and go out drinking. But be careful not to let yourself be taken advantage of, a few may do this but many will want to make your experience here a good one. |
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dreaming_saturn

Joined: 26 May 2004
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:38 am Post subject: |
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Ya-ta Boy have you worked split shifts with adults before? I currently do about the same thing and it's draining, but not impossible.
To be honest a day with kids takes a lot more out of me, I've done the summer camp thing in China. Maybe the only reason I'm still considering this is that I've been doing it for four years in the NL.
I just wish I could find a job teaching adults didn't turn out to be crappy. Warnings well heeded ...if I take it I can only blame myself. Anyone have experience with a split like this?
edit: Thanks 4 months, we were posting at the same time. What specifically do you mean by take advantage?? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:55 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
Ya-ta Boy have you worked split shifts with adults before? |
Yes, I have. I did split shifts for 6 months--early morning, late afternoon/evening for 6 months. I was exhausted the whole time. The main problem was that after work at night I couldn't just go home and go to sleep. I needed to unwind. By the time I'd achieved that state of mind it was late. Went home, slept, dragged myself out of bed at 6AM (I'm normally a morning person), go in to work a couple of hours and then head home for 'free time'....construction sites around, elementary school across the streettraffic, neighbors banging around, but most importantly, no way to really relax because I knew I had to go back to work at 4.
If you are the kind of person who can walk out of class and just curl up and fall asleep, then you are blessed. I couldn't do it. [/quote] |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:09 am Post subject: |
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I did it for my first year here. It was exhausting, but the teaching was rewarding compared to kids.
The problem was that being tired all the time is not great for your health either. I was never so sick, so often as that year. I must have caught every cold and flu bug that went around and the way sick days were set up.......I couldn't really take any without losing a lot of pay.
Bottom line....it sucks, but it's doable.
I also agree that the double split is not a good idea. They should be able to schedule all your classes into 2 blocks, if they can't they are probably not a big school and there may be other changes to your schedule that you won't be told about until after you are here......... be careful. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:45 am Post subject: |
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I'm going to be an arrogant bastard and quote myself from a previous thread:
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I've done my time at an adult hogwon, just a few months shy of two years. On the upside, I saved a whack of cash, learned a lot about Korean culture and society, I stopped getting laryngitis every other month from trying to shout at or over children, and the experience helped me get a uni job.
For a long time teaching adults instead of kids, I didn't really mind the splits too much. After all, I only really need 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night to function, right? It didn't take long, however, for the split shifts month in month out to grind me down. After a little over a year of sleep deprivation and having and hearing the exact same conversations about movies and dating and drinking early every morning and late every night I began to get increasingly irritable with everyone around me. Every time I caught a cold it lasted for at least two weeks because I couldn't get a decent night's sleep. I gained weight from drinking too much Maxim, eating too many kimbap triangles and sitting for hours on end listening to and correcting conversations. That lifestyle just isn't healthy.
If I'd stayed for a third year, I'd have gotten a pretty fat raise but it just wasn't worth it for me.
If you want a change of pace from teaching kids it's not a bad experience for a year, but if you do it, be sure to move on to bigger and better things afterwards |
The shift you describe sounds like it's not the worst out there, since you have 10 hours between the end and start of your days, so you can get a decent night's sleep. That's the only good thing I can say about it, though. You have a 3 hour gap and a 5 hour gap in your day. If you're not a napper, you'll be able to do your shopping and banking in the middle of the day. You may be able to see a movie all by yourself in your apartment or a theater from time to time (if there's one near you), but that will get old fast. You might be able to take a Korean class somewhere, if you can find someplace near you that actually offers a class at the right time and your schedule and theirs remain stable. You'll get a lot of reading or other solitary hobbies done.
If you don't need much sleep and enjoy doing things by yourself this might be OK for you. I emphasize the by yourself part because you will probably find it difficult to synchronize that schedule with very many other people besides your coworkers (maybe).
I also notice that you will only be teaching 6 hours of class per day, so I have a hunch you'll be making 2 million or less per month after housing, tax, etc. You'll be working long days and not saving a lot for your trouble.
I put up with it for a while, because I needed a change from teaching kids and the corporate adult hogwons here are a hell of a lot more stable than the mom and pop kiddie hogwons. I'm really glad I'm not doing it anymore, though, and I'd never do it again.
It really is exhausting. |
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dreaming_saturn

Joined: 26 May 2004
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:58 am Post subject: |
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Son Deureo! wrote: |
If you don't need much sleep and enjoy doing things by yourself this might be OK for you.
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I might have forgot to mention that my husband, who works from home, will be there every other month or so for at least 4 weeks for the first 6 months, and if he likes it joining me (he's got a mobile job that can be done from anywhere with a computer), so I don't think I'll be too lonely. My schedule now is also antisocial, but so is his
Son Deureo! wrote: |
I also notice that you will only be teaching 6 hours of class per day, so I have a hunch you'll be making 2 million or less per month after housing, tax, etc. You'll be working long days and not saving a lot for your trouble.
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it's in a smaller city so housing is included, and it's quite big. 2.0 is what I'll be making, flights paid for just have to pay for utilities.
Thank you for all of the info, I can picture it with your descriptive post. I agree with you that it is tough, but knowing myself and kids with pushy parents, that'd be a lot more stressful.
Do block shift jobs teaching adults with a decent pay exist anywhere? Maybe just a dream  |
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sadsac
Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Gwangwang
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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You will be a physical and emotional wreck in 3 months. Splits like that are a nightmare and throw in the unexpected factor of such and such isn't available, could you do this just once please and it'seven more stressful. Teaching adults is either a love or hate thing. A good group, you love them and they are great, the other side of the coin is the moaners and whingers who think everything is too hard or too easy, or she spoke longer than I did, or teacher likes him better than me. This group is a nightmare and I've taught both and the latter, you want to take to them with an ax. Look at other positions, they probably offer more. 
Last edited by sadsac on Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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JeJuJitsu

Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Location: McDonald's
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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I wish people would stop taking, ne, considering these split shift jobs. They'll go away eventually if people don't take them. |
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4 months left

Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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JeJuJitsu wrote: |
I wish people would stop taking, ne, considering these split shift jobs. They'll go away eventually if people don't take them. |
They're never going to go away because adults are usually only available early in the morning or evening and some people including me never want to teach children.
It is draining but if you exercise, eat well and don't drink much during the week it's okay.
Saturn: It sounds like you have some experience, try looking for a job in a company where you are more likely to get a block shift. They are harder to find but if you are patient you might find one. Some adult school chains have you work 3 or 6 months splits and then 3 or 6 months block. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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dreaming_saturn wrote: |
Do block shift jobs teaching adults with a decent pay exist anywhere? Maybe just a dream  |
Obviously, these are very hard to come by. That's why so many teachers who teach adults end up on splits.
There are three ways that I know of to teach adults on a block shift:
University
In-house corporate positions
Having seniority in some of the larger adult hogwons in downtown Seoul (Jongro YBM comes to mind).
The first two are not that easy to come by without good qualifications of one type or another. The second takes a bit of time, and you probably wouldn't be making much money for a while.
The split shift is doable, but a recipe for burnout in the long term. Having your husband with you, and working flexible hours at that, would make it much more bearable.
Split shift or not, teaching adults can open up other great opportunities here, and can often be a good chance to make Korean friends. I'm glad I did it, but I'm equally glad that I can get a decent night's sleep now. |
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