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jamiekarin
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Location: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do
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 Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject: Good First Job??? |
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| My girlfriend and I are headed to Korea for our first ESL jobs. We have numerous private school offers, and one public school. We would be teaching middleschool/public school and upto 40 students per class and would be the only esl teachers at the school. I've heard public school jobs are better, but aren't good if you are a first timer. We both have our degrees and my girlfriend has her bachelor of education? Should we take the public school job or go with a private/hagwon? |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:31 am Post subject: |
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Hagwon pros: your boss is more likely to speak English, much small class sizes, higher likelihood of foreign co-workers.
Public school pros: won't go bankrupt, less likely to blatantly screw you over. Also I'd much much much rather teach korean middle school than the elementary kiddies you'd probably get in a hagwon.
Basically if you want to play it safe, public school might be better, going to a hagwon sight unseen is a real crapshoot.
What kind of pay, hours, location and vacation is the public school offering you? If your gf has an education degree they should be paying her good money. |
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jamiekarin
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Location: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| We are teaching about 9-5 for the public school but only like 22 teaching hours, its for the Gyeonngi board of education, the job we are looking at is in Bucheon. The only real concern we have is that we are at different schools obviously, and we are both about a 20-30 minute bus ride away from the school which blows! |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 8:15 am Post subject: |
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| jamiekarin wrote: |
| We are teaching about 9-5 for the public school but only like 22 teaching hours, its for the Gyeonngi board of education, the job we are looking at is in Bucheon. The only real concern we have is that we are at different schools obviously, and we are both about a 20-30 minute bus ride away from the school which blows! |
Ah Buchon's about perfect. Its cheap to live there (one of Seoul's poorer suburbs) but its RIGHT next to Seoul so you can get into the city any time you want very easily.
9-5 is earlier in the morning than I'd like but doable. No saturdays I assume. That kind of vacation/pay are they offering? |
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jamiekarin
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Location: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:49 am Post subject: |
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| yeah we are guaranteed two weeks paid vacation, plus all national hollidays. Plus they said you often get more. We think the city looks good and has a great location, the only thing we don't really like is that it is a 30 minute bus ride to school everyday. Do you know how the public transportation is there?? Thanks |
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MrsAdams
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: in hiding
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:24 pm Post subject: |
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| we don't really like is that it is a 30 minute bus ride to school everyday. |
Thirty minutes will seem like nothing once you get used to life in and near Seoul. An employer of mine farmed me out to different hakwons all over the place. It was nothing to ride the subway for 45 minutes then walk another 15 minutes to the building.
You may find you will like living away from the building. Gives you a bit more privacy--folks not all up in your business. |
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gsxr750r
Joined: 29 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Just curious.... you are at two schools. Are they paying you for housing from both? For example, is one school providing your housing, and the other compensating you with 300,000 or so per month for not having to get you housing? |
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jamiekarin
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Location: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Is public transport pretty affordable in Bucheon? Also are the buses easy to use, and are they pretty busy? |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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| jamiekarin wrote: |
| yeah we are guaranteed two weeks paid vacation, plus all national hollidays. Plus they said you often get more. We think the city looks good and has a great location, the only thing we don't really like is that it is a 30 minute bus ride to school everyday. Do you know how the public transportation is there?? Thanks |
2 week of vacation is a bit short for public school I believe, which means they'll be having teach classes while the kids are out on vacation. Plenty of public transportation in Bucheon, some subway stations and plenty of buses (both good and cheap, love the seoul subway system).
I'd probably take it IF they're offering you good money, BEds are in short supply in Korea and you should try to get as much money off of that as possible. How much money they offering? |
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jamiekarin
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Location: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:44 am Post subject: |
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| they are offering me 2.1 and karin 2.2 because she has her bachelor of education.... should we ask for more? |
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Scouse Mouse
Joined: 07 Jan 2007
Location: Cloud #9
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:42 am Post subject: |
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Gyonngi province are spending a small fortune on making life good for their new native speakers so the school can do a ton to make your stay comfortable. They have also started running a course for co-teachers and providing them with training and a manual so that they can help you with anything you need. Even if you have to pay for it yourself, they make sure the co-teachers know how to help you get it!
My school have bought me my laptop, a cellphone (and they guaranteed the contract) and keep asking me what else I need... I casually mentioned to my co-teacher last week that I bought too much food at costco and my freezer was full to the max. Shortly after she told me that they were going to get me a bigger one and I had to spend a lot of time convincing her that it wasn't necessary.
Good luck finding that in a hagwon  |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:02 am Post subject: |
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| jamiekarin wrote: |
| they are offering me 2.1 and karin 2.2 because she has her bachelor of education.... should we ask for more? |
2.1 is decent enough, but hardly stellar, if there's nothing about yourself that you can pimp, just 100,000/month extra for a BEd is rather low, that's what they usually pay extra for the various ESL certifications that you can get in a summer course. Last time I was looking for a job I remember lots of job postings for 2.5 for BEds. With a BEd you can DEFINATELY get more than 2.2. However, a public school is more secure than a hagwon so it might be worth taking a hit in pay, but at least try negotiating for higher pay. |
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Scouse Mouse
Joined: 07 Jan 2007
Location: Cloud #9
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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Or you can just do a few afterschool classes and use that to bump the pay. You still do less actual teaching time than a hagwan but may need to be at school a little later.
I am at school for 2 extra hours per week and I am doing 4 extra hours teaching. This amounts to more than 300K extra per month. |
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