Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tesseract]

I just received a contract to review from a school near Seoul. The offer sounds pretty standard: 2.1 per month for 30 hours per week, 10 days vacation, furnished housing, etc. I have heard some good things about the recruiter I used and I have also received a few e-mails from teachers at the school who seemed happy with their jobs. I understand that the contract was written by someone whose 1st language is not English, but to me the wording of the contract sounds awkward and it is vague on some points. I plan to ask for clarification on some things like the actual date I will receive reimbursement for my plane ticket and when I can use my vacation time. The school itself seems fine, it's just that the contract doesn't sound professional to me and that gives me an uneasy feeling. Any advice on that?

[thelaststraw]

I would suggest having all the points that you are not comfortable with cleared up before you sign. If theres one thing that ive learned in the almost 4 years teaching here its that even if your contract is crystal clear your boss could try to manipulate it to his own benefit.
Definately check out about the vacation days, ive gotten burned on this one myself as my contract also said 10 vacation days, but i didnt clear it up before i got here and then was told that i really dont get 10 vacation days but instead i get all the Korean National hollidays off and if there were a few remaining days i would get that in extra pay at the end of my contract.
Nothing will ever be perfect at a hagwan but if you start out right it can be quite tolerable....

[dannylelievre]

A lot of times hagwons won't even budge with the contract as they have four other teachers on the line. So 1st, don't think you can do whatever you want and get everything you say. There's almost a 100% chance, that if you're going to a reputable school, they will not change the contract. Why should they for just one person when the rest of their staff has a different contract? But, you can get grammar and some words changed, just the small things.

Also, are you teaching 30 hours a week? That's a ton, how many minutes is an 'hour' in your contract? I, and most all the people I know, teach 22 full hours a week. I only teach 19. You might want to check that out, that's way too much teaching.

[Pak Yu Man]

Just re-write the contract (ask the boss first) then tell him that's the one he should use in the future.

I did that at my first job. I didn't even have to use any of the loop-holes I added for fun.