Korean Job Discussion Forums

icnelly · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Location: Bucheon

I just started a GEPIK position in Bucheon, and was offered school lunches, but I have to pay for them. Has this happened to other public school teachers as well? I thought I had heard that they were free.

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

Yes, you have to pay. No, they are not free.

Wrench · Joined: 07 Apr 2005

epik is free but gepik isn't

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

I paid 1700 a meal, with seconds if I wanted it. Can't really get angry at that.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

I just thumbed through my GEPIK contract and there's nothing in there about school lunches. I just follow the other teachers to the Cafeteria and wait in line like everyone else.

how do you know if they are charging you for lunch? Do they deduct monthly? Yearly?

Ced · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: Korea

If you want free lunches go to a hagwon, yummy fish head soup.... and it's free! Also octopus mixed through the rice, delicious!

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

Pak Yu Man · Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Location: The Ida galaxy

Some places will pay, sme you get them for free. I was in one high school once and the guy in charge of the budget was so cheap. I visited the school a week before I started and ate lunch witht he teachers. Budget guy was worried about who was going to pay for that one meal.

icnelly · Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Location: Bucheon

The accounting lady said that lunch would cost 1700, and they would deduct it monthly.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

No one has mentioned anything to me about paying for lunch. I go down everyday and get a tray full of food like everyone else. No one has mentioned anything about paying.

Does that mean I don't have to pay if they flip me with the bill?

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Damn, in that case I'm not going to hesitate to get seconds or thirds.

babtangee · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:33 am Post subject:

No one ever told me I had to pay. For six months. Then the school changed principals. Suddenly I got a bill for my month's lunches. "WTF is this?" I demanded.

"That's for the lunches."

"All of a sudden I have to pay for the lunches? Don't you think you people should have told me this before I ate them?"

"The last principal paid for yours. But the new principal says you should pay like everyone else."

It was fair enough, though I was still pretty pissed they never told me until they handed me the bill (though the bill was meager... it was the principle of the matter...)

The meals are cheap, but I found most of the time you got what you paid for.

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

saybanana · Joined: 28 Mar 2006 Location: LA

I get charged between 33,00O-40,000 won a month for school lunch, depending on the number of work days of that month. For the summer and winter vacation I dont pay at all, because no lunch is served. I do wish they do cuz they make me stay at school from 9-5, and then I have to brown bag it.

Sometimes it isnt worth it, but other times it great. I am usually one of the last to eat, so I try to get the leftovers and eat it for my afterschool snack. It's mostly just expensive fruit I would otherwise not pay for like a 2000 won apple, or the fruit of the month, strawberries. (I'm cheap)