Tefl in South Korea

cloneslad

DamienH wrote: »

I know a few runners back home, all or which are addled with injuries at the moment. You wouldn't think it, as someone who has little interest, but I've heard it can be brutal on the joints. I think I'm only in for about -4 here at the coldest, although it's only 13 degrees here now and I find it cold. If this was in Ireland I'd be saying it's a grand old day

too many miles too soon, it happens us all. It's hard to stop running once you get going and it's hard not to go everyday, forcing yourself to do nothing but rest can be quite hard.

I'm not looking forward to july and august with the humidity, although I am off to the philippines for 9 days at the start of august so it should break up the pain a bit , september and october are great here, nice warm days to enjoy.

DamienH

Ya that's what I've been told. I've spent a fair bit of time in the gym (weights and circuit/intervals) and know it's hard to just sit down and relax if the getting is good.

Oh I've been meaning to ask if you have any idea of the calorie content of any of the usual korean meals. Specifically for me it'd be bibimbap, chamchi kimbap and donkas. I've been watching what I eat over here (not what I drink though) and I've lost about 1kg a week, which I'm pretty happy with. So that's nearly 4kg now. I'm just wondering for myself really, don't want to do anything if it's working, I was just starting to lose weight at home.

Originally I was 122kg at home, then with a few weeks at home and my near 4 over here I'm down to 114.9kg according to the scales at home. I used play front row in rugby but I don't need all this extra weight now.

cloneslad

DamienH wrote: »

Ya that's what I've been told. I've spent a fair bit of time in the gym (weights and circuit/intervals) and know it's hard to just sit down and relax if the getting is good.

Oh I've been meaning to ask if you have any idea of the calorie content of any of the usual korean meals. Specifically for me it'd be bibimbap, chamchi kimbap and donkas. I've been watching what I eat over here (not what I drink though) and I've lost about 1kg a week, which I'm pretty happy with. So that's nearly 4kg now. I'm just wondering for myself really, don't want to do anything if it's working, I was just starting to lose weight at home.

Originally I was 122kg at home, then with a few weeks at home and my near 4 over here I'm down to 114.9kg according to the scales at home. I used play front row in rugby but I don't need all this extra weight now.

well done on the weight loss. I played front row as well. I was about 102 kg myself (only 5ft 9) until I was 20 then I lost most of it and went down to 58 within 6 months, now up at a healthy 65 kilos.

as for the calories, according to calorieking.com

Bibimbap has 560calories but they would be mostly good calories with a high level of protein in there.

gimbap apparently has 484 calories, again with a high level of protein (according to seouleats.com)

as for donggas. I don't have a clue but it's just like a fried pork cutlet. I'd imagine the calories are quite low, with possibly less than 500 for the entire meal you get with the rice and the side salad.

DamienH

Thanks a lot for that man, is there anything about Korea that you don't know!!!!?!??!

cloneslad

DamienH wrote: »

Thanks a lot for that man, is there anything about Korea that you don't know!!!!?!??!

how do their women turn from this




to this



almost overnight????

DamienH

It's all in the genes With wonderous peaks, come crushing lows

K-Pop is slowly eating my soul aswell, I cringe every time I hear it. That "Bo Peep Bo Peep Bo Peep," song is shocking. Also a hit at the norebongs (sp?), which is a big downer.

ARGINITE

DamienH

Jesus, wild horses couldn't drag my hand to click play on that.

ARGINITE

I have to say I kinda miss it!
Do your students sing it in class ?

DamienH

yes yes, they use their hands aswell for the little dance.

livinginkorea

Glad I don't use the local buses to go to work anymore. The radio used to be always playing some cringe worthy song or K-band crap. And in the mix of it all one of my students says he likes the Cranberries! Somebody is looking for a better grade, huh?

About the food, I think bibinbab is very healthy depending on the addition of sauces because it's basically rice and vegetables while kimbab is not really as healthy in my opinion because it has a lot of fake or imitation crab or cheese or beef. Dongas would be a lot because it is deep friend but with rice and salad (again the dressing has a huge amount of calories) it wouldn't be so much for lunch. Soju and samgyupsal on the other hand would have a huge amount of calories!

livinginkorea

cloneslad wrote: »

how do their women turn from this




to this



almost overnight????

Another more prudent question is why do they all (young or old) look the same as their peers, whatever age they are! It's amazing that a large amount of K women have the same hair style, fashion and plastic surgery.

cloneslad

livinginkorea wrote: »

About the food, I think bibinbab is very healthy depending on the addition of sauces because it's basically rice and vegetables while kimbab is not really as healthy in my opinion because it has a lot of fake or imitation crab or cheese or beef. Dongas would be a lot because it is deep friend but with rice and salad (again the dressing has a huge amount of calories) it wouldn't be so much for lunch. Soju and samgyupsal on the other hand would have a huge amount of calories!

Bibimbap is really good for you. You could cut out some of the bad calories by eliminating the egg or the pepper paste but it wouldn't be as nice without the paste, it would be to dry for me.

Gimbap...horrible stuff, wouldn't eat it if you paid me!!

Dongas deepfried is not very healthy but at the same time there is practically nothing inside those little things from what I have seen. I doubt the nutritional level or meat content is too high. I don't eat the stuff often, I usually stick to bibimbap / bokumbap / dopbap.

Samgypsal has over 650 calories for a 200g serving with 25% of that being fat. you would proably eat 4-500grams in a sitting so thats a lot of calories and a hell of a lot of fat. But if you eat it in moderation, once a month maybe twice, it's not all that bad for you.

Soju has 540 calories per bottle with no nutritional value of any kind to it. As I don't drink this one does not worry me.

cavanmaniac

DamienH wrote: »

Ya twas tiger english, can't recommend them highly enough. They got me a sweet job in Ulsan in a really good school. Get onto them!

I'm all hooked up with them now. Fingers crossed I get a good deal like yourself. And end up meeting lots of nice young wimmins like yer wan in the (top) photograph above I know little about Korean food now but I'd say she's no fan of the Samgypsal like.

cloneslad

cavanmaniac wrote: »

I'm all hooked up with them now. Fingers crossed I get a good deal like yourself. And end up meeting lots of nice young wimmins like yer wan in the (top) photograph above I know little about Korean food now but I'd say she's no fan of the Samgypsal like.

I could be crude and say I have pork here for her if she wants it but I won't (although I will let it be known it's what I was thinking.


But on a serious note, if they don't like galbi or samgyupsal......they have no place in my life!!

DamienH

Haha "Would the madam like some Samgypsal? *snigger*" I do love the Korean BBQs alright though, not a bad shout for the weekend.

livinginkorea

DamienH wrote: »

Haha "Would the madam like some Samgypsal? *snigger*" I do love the Korean BBQs alright though, not a bad shout for the weekend.

Is that what they are calling it now? Beats calling it gochu!

Cook the kimchi too on the fire with the meat. Damn it's good!

DamienH

I'll take the tip, think I'll have it sunday. A girl brought me in some cake today that her grandmother made, think it was called sou-duck, or something like that. It's bright green and the colour of snot but it doesn't taste so bad, she said it was made out of vegetables!? It's a chewy little beast though....

ARGINITE

Some of the stuff the kids brought into me was funny, I got a lot of soap and face wash for teachers day. Felt like I was being bribed!

DamienH

Teachers day is this Saturday so I'm hoping they bring me in goodies tomorrow, can't wait to see what sort of madness I come out with. Soap/shower gel seems to be pretty common, us being dirty foreigners and all that:D

cloneslad

just found out that my mountain run is cancelled. It falls on rememberance day this year, which is more significant due to the norkies sinking the south korean ship earlier this year.

Worst part is, I registered after the ship went down and some of my mates were able to register last friday. I really don't see why they couldn't dedicate the race in memory of the soldiers instead of cancelling it.

Looks like a bunch of us are hiring a car /minivan for the following weekend and doing a half marathon yeonggwang (which is pretty close to gwang-ju in the south jeolla province)

blackalicious

Hey damien,
got a few questions for ya if you don't mind.
wat your working hours are like? and also was ulsan your first choice? do you think it would be difficult to get a job in seoul through tiger english.

and also a more general question. Tiger English emailed me today and asked me if i wanted to apply for public school jobs starting in augusut. They said that public schools have better hours, more stable and offer you an orientation. I think I remember cloneslad saying that in fact you can work less hours in a private school. So im a bit unsure which to go for. Any recommendations?

thanks a million

cloneslad

blackalicious wrote: »

Hey damien,
got a few questions for ya if you don't mind.
wat your working hours are like? and also was ulsan your first choice? do you think it would be difficult to get a job in seoul through tiger english.

and also a more general question. Tiger English emailed me today and asked me if i wanted to apply for public school jobs starting in augusut. They said that public schools have better hours, more stable and offer you an orientation. I think I remember cloneslad saying that in fact you can work less hours in a private school. So im a bit unsure which to go for. Any recommendations?

thanks a million

Just for clarification, this is not in all cases, some private schools will have you start at 9 and finish at one then start again at two and work until 5 /6/7. You can get a nice hagwon gig with less hours than a public school but I don't want you to think it is always that way. I have less hours in my school than a public school (21 per week). I think Damian does too, as do about 75% of my mates over here but I do know people in hagwons who are in school 9-7 or or 8 every day. If you get offered a job from a 'wonderland' don't take it........ever!!! long hours and usually a pain to work for.

with public schools your hours are pretty much guaranteed at 8:30 - 4:30. With hagwons, if you don't teach kindi (try avoid it or you will most likely end up with one of those long days from above) your hours will be something like 3-9 /2-8 / 3-10 / 2-9 or some sort of variation of these. plus you will have smaller classes and you won't have a korean teacher in the class with you (your class is your own).

DamienH

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I originally planned to do it but I fell asleep while I was writing it and then just plain forgot about it.

My working hours are from 3pm to 10pm. I don't actually start till 3:30 but I have to be in there for 3. We're on a two day rota and it just so happens that this week it my worse set up. For instance today I had 3x 35min classes, then a 40 min break and then right through until 9:50, 6x35min classes. That only happens once every two weeks though. We get ten minutes between every other class aswell so it's grand for me. People complain but I can't honestly see how you can complain about the work, I used to be a labourer for my brother at home so this is like a walk in the park listening to your favourite music.

The schedule tomorrow though is far better. I get my worst day done then I get my best day. Teach the usual 3, then a 40 min break. Then only 3 classes and then I've got three periods where I can do what I want, that's almost 2 hours! 3 of my classes have a grammar test aswell tomorrow so I just get to sit there. All in all I'll be teaching for only 2hrs, sweet deal. Friday is Buddah's birthday aswell so it's a short week, woop woop!

Public school do seem to be a sweeter deal, I've met a good few people over here in them. The holidays are far superior but I think wages may be a little less, I think you'd be on about 50euros a week less. But in all honesty I think it's a pretty good trade off. I like being on my own in the class, but I can see why some would prefer a korean in there with you. I'm working in a pretty good hogwon though, I've heard some horror stories. 85% of people I talk to are more than happy with where they're working, public or private.

I'd never heard of Ulsan until a 2 weeks before I came over here. I always wanted to go to Seoul but tbh I'm happy I didn't now. It's pricier than other cities (I can save more money) and it is huge apparently. From someone who thinks Dublin is massive I honestly think Seoul would blow my mind. I'm more than likely going to go to Busan at the weekend and from pictures I've seen that's going to be an experience aswell. Ulsan is a lovely place though, it's just big enough and there's plenty of westerners bopping around to let you know whats what.

Actually, does anyone have any experience of going to temples on Buddah's Birthday? I was originally planning on going to Seoul but the girl I was going with can't go and I don't really want to spend three days with workmates and their boyfriends, third wheel and all the rest of it. I know a guy who went to a temple in Busan last weekend and it looks beautiful but I don't know what it would be like.
Any other questions shout away.

blackalicious wrote: »

Hey damien,
got a few questions for ya if you don't mind.
wat your working hours are like? and also was ulsan your first choice? do you think it would be difficult to get a job in seoul through tiger english.

and also a more general question. Tiger English emailed me today and asked me if i wanted to apply for public school jobs starting in augusut. They said that public schools have better hours, more stable and offer you an orientation. I think I remember cloneslad saying that in fact you can work less hours in a private school. So im a bit unsure which to go for. Any recommendations?

thanks a million

edit: I just worked out how many hours a week I actually work for the crack. It came out to be just over 21 hours. I'm obviously in there for a bit more than that, 30hrs real time. Still though for the money I'm making it's insane. If you're not doing anything at home get over here!

Also I put the kimchi of the bbq tonight, nom nom nom nom! I cleaned bowls of all sorts of stuff, and all for 10Kwon! The kimchi was rolled out wholesale, they didn't let a bowl so clean before they were back with more. Madness!

blackalicious

thanks cloneslad for clearing that up. i think i will just apply for both public and private and see which ones offer me the best contract.

cheers damien, your setup sounds pretty sweet ill love the idea of starting at 3 as im more of a nigt person. Did you have many interviews before you chose the school your in now? Also whats Ulsan like?

DamienH

Ya I know what you mean about starting at 3, the nights suit me perfectly. I took the first job I got offered, I was really eager to get over here and get started. I'd been planning it for almost 4 months.

I absolutely love Ulsan. There's lots of parks and it's surrounded by great big green hills. Plenty to do and it's based really near some other big cities e.g. Busan. There's also a lot of engineers here so you get a decent mix of people. I regret absolutely nothing about leaving home, I've been here 5 weeks and I'm still loving it!

blackalicious

happy days, originally i was thinking i would only go to seoul but now im thinking of my be somewhere else. id say is be alot happier with a good job and be somewhere besides seoul than be in seoul with a terrible job.. anyway ill prob have more questions down the line, cheers for all the help

DamienH

No problem, I'm subscribed to the thread so if you post I'll get an email. Take it easy.

livinginkorea

DamienH wrote: »

I like being on my own in the class, but I can see why some would prefer a korean in there with you.

In my experience I have found it both helpful and annoying when working with Korean teachers in the classroom. Some try to micro-manage while others disappear for hours at end. Some want you to follow the lesson plan to the letter while others went to divide the lesson into parts - theirs and yours.

I think that once you have some experience teaching and you are confident with your classroom management and teaching skills then it would be better to go it alone unless your co-teacher is amazingly open and helpful. Sadly this is not the case for most of the teachers in public school.

DamienH

Anyone got any info on going to a temple for buddah's birthday? Would it bea good day to go?

cloneslad

DamienH wrote: »

Anyone got any info on going to a temple for buddah's birthday? Would it bea good day to go?

depending on which ones you intend to visit it could be very busy. The temples will usually be done up really nicely throughout the year anyway but on Buddha's birthday they will have colourful lanterns on display that people have paid to have their names placed on.

On this day, most temples will also provide people with some food or green tea / rice tea (some sort of tea, I don't like hot water so I don't drink it).

It would be a good time to go and visit it, just make sure it's not one of the most popular ones or else you could find yourself surrounded by waaay too many other people.

DamienH

Thanks for that, I've been thinking about going to one just outside of Busan. I've seen photos and it looks incredible. I think I'll go anyway, no doubt it's going to be packed though!

minners

Hi guys... DamienH great to hear your having a ball over there!! Im currently trying to get things moving to do the same myself. Was just wondering how you went about the whole process... I wa on the Tiger English site earlier having a look but im always a bit wary of the middle man, are these a good crowd to work with or does anyone have experience with them?

Also, are there specific other sites and organisations you would recommend? Its a relatively new venture for me at the moment but like I mentioned, I am really eager to go. Any info at all would help!

Thanks a million

red_bairn

minners wrote: »

...im always a bit wary of the middle man, are these a good crowd to work with or does anyone have experience with them?

Sure, c'mon over! They are recruiting foreigners as soldiers (if no teaching jobs) against the North.


...jk.

Yeah. I don't know about Tiger but i-to-i got me over here in one piece (don't listen to the bad mouth boardsies, i-to-i is ok)...:)

DamienH

From what i've heard anyway i-to-i is grand but tigerenglish is better. I didn't have to pay them a penny and they organised the whole lot for me. I only used tigerenglish and they got me an amazing job over here. They treated me very well, in short a perfect experience.

red_bairn

DamienH wrote: »

From what i've heard anyway i-to-i is grand but tigerenglish is better. I didn't have to pay them a penny and they organised the whole lot for me. I only used tigerenglish and they got me an amazing job over here. They treated me very well, in short a perfect experience.

Did you pay for a course with them? Or did you just get a job through them for free.

DamienH

I did a tefl course alright but it wasn't through them. I wouldn't bother with it though unless it's the 100hr one.

I got the job off them for nothing at all, my school paid them for finding me. That's why I think it's better than i-to-i.

red_bairn

yeah i-to-i can be pretty expensive If you don't have the money or fas is to scabby to help you out with the fee.

I reckon that a nice chunk of the monies goes towards the middle man in the foreign country. Though you don't pay anything extra for getting the job. The job placement is included in the 100hr/120hr package. I don't know about the lesser ones.

Esse85

DamienH is it still all good over there?

Im going onto Tiger English now to see if they can find me something.

cloneslad

Tomorrow sees the start of my summer vacation.........................so in short, it's frickin awesome!!

Esse85

How long were people waiting to hear back from Tiger English?

Esse85

Bump

cloneslad

it's vacation time over here. A lot of the teachers are probably in Japan, China, Thailand etc etc.

I'm in the Philippines and have my netbook with me but you can't be sure we all have access to the internet.

In relation to your question, I've never used then. DamianH has so you will have to wait until he is back online to ask him.

Why don't you get in touch with them and show them you want to go soon? Have you got all your documents ready to send over? When you have these you'll find you won't be long getting a job sorted as they know it will be easy to get their commission from getting you a job.

From what I remember, Damian went from having no job and nothing set up to being in Korea in the space of about 3-4 weeks. Although he had all his documents ready to go so it was easier for him.

For example: If you have all your stuff ready, photos, background check, apostilles, notarised copy of degree, medical form etc then all you need is your contract.say you got qa job offer tomorrow (6th) and you thought about it and accepted on sunday. You could have all these sent on a monday(9th), get to korea on a tuesday(10th), have a visa number the thurs/fri of the following week (19th), arrange an interview and go to the embassy buy a ticket and be in korea before the following fri/sat(27th).

It really is that quick and easy to get sorted, you just must show them that you have everything you need to get to korea as soon as possible.


Now this is all showing you how quick it can be done, but don't forget to search up on the area you have been offered, talk to some current teachers, find out as much as you need about a school before accepting it. Don't just rush out and sign for the school beacuase you have had no offers yet. If you have your documents you'll get a school....one that you like, not one that you chose out of haste.

DamienH

Cloneslad has said it all above, follow that advice and it's all going to go well.

I managed to get 4 days vacation and with the weekend that made 6. I ended up going to Seoul and had a good time. Itaewon is a strange place considering I've seen the same group of waygooks for 4 months.

Sort out your documents and just sit tight. You will get an offer, just hold on. Make sure you talk to some teachers at the hogwon and research the area a bit.

rivalius13

DamienH wrote: »

I did a tefl course alright but it wasn't through them. I wouldn't bother with it though unless it's the 100hr one.

I got the job off them for nothing at all, my school paid them for finding me. That's why I think it's better than i-to-i.

What TEFL course did you take? Can you link me up?

Also, I'm looking at Tiger English and signing up, all was well until it started to get into specifics, what age groups are best to teach? Also, salary expectations, my most hated question.....what are mine? Photo I take it is a passport photo. And standard Irish CV?

Cheers for your help, reading this thread has made me excited for the possibility of going over there and really, really hungry.

Actually, just thought of something, what's the deal with Christmas?

cloneslad

rivalius13 wrote: »

What TEFL course did you take? Can you link me up?

Also, I'm looking at Tiger English and signing up, all was well until it started to get into specifics, what age groups are best to teach? Also, salary expectations, my most hated question.....what are mine? Photo I take it is a passport photo. And standard Irish CV?

Cheers for your help, reading this thread has made me excited for the possibility of going over there and really, really hungry.

Actually, just thought of something, what's the deal with Christmas?

My advice would be to not waste your money on a cheap TEFL course, you will get hired without one anyway. If you are worried about not knowing some grammar then just buy a book, get one in the library or read up on the internet...don't hand over your money for a 60/80/100 hour online course that will have no benefits to you at all.

If you are considering a CELTA or something similar then that would be okay as you would get some teaching help too.

as for salary, just put in omething along the lines of 'competitive' or even say 2.1 /2.2million won or above (it's a good enough salary for a first timer here).

As for christmas, it will all depend where you work.

I gave up one of my days off at new year to allow me to have an entire week off at chuseok (september). Originally I had sat/sun/mon/tue/wed/thurs off for chuseok but we spoke to our principal and she gave us the friday off too, in return we lost a wednesday off over new year so our new year hol is thurs/fri/sat/sun for the last week in december.

We get no days off for christmas in our school as christmas is on a saturday this year and it's not really celebrated like back home. (we would have gotten christmas day off if it was a weekday)

you will get more time off over february for 설날 (lunar new year)

DamienH

Cloneslad's advice is pretty much what I would of told you. He knows his stuff!

Cloneslad, would you know of any good travel agents that I could use to book some holidays for chuseok? I want to get to Cambodia and I'd like it if I could find the cheapest flights possible. I've sent a message off to kangsan and xandu, do you know anymore?

DamienH

You really don't need a TEFL as cloneslad has said, just get out here! A CELTA is the only one worth having but you'd want to make sure that you like teaching before you dive into that.

<quoted post from spammer removed>

rivalius13

Oh, another question, I've a masters, from reading through the internets that gives me a better chance of getting in at universities, which seem like the holy grail of jobs. Can you go over first time and get in a university or is it something you have to work up to? I'm pretty sure I've about a hundred more questions to ask you guys...

cloneslad

I reported that post above...I bloody hate advertisers when they come on boards and just start trying to sell you their site on their first post!!


As for the masters degree, yes it will help you get a job in a university, but most will only hire people already in the country. You should cut your teeth with public schools / private schools first.

Also is your masters in TESOL / TEFL etc? If it's not and you haven't taught English as a second / foregin language before I think it's a bit naiive to think you should start out teaching in a uni. You may have the ability to do it, but it would be better to get rid of the nerves, or any shortcomings you have by working in a school of some sort then when you have improved your ability you could start looking for uni jobs.

the poster 'livinginkorea' has a uni job in Korea and is one of the Lecturers for the masters in TESOL which is run in Korea by the university of Birmingham. It is possible that if you find you like teaching over here that you could start the masters and gaain a good qualification to help get a job in a good uni.


if you have any questions, post them up. It's better to get answers than to assume and be let down when it goes wrong.