Tefl in South Korea

squeakyduck

anyone up for the rugby final tomorrow....scrooges....!?

roosh

kraggy wrote: »

You two are starting mid-semester with EPIK, yeah? I presume your contract finishes next August?

Just wondering if your recruiters told you that you'll have to sign a second contract (6 months) when your initial contract finishes next August to get the flight allowance and contract completion bonus? i.e. you'll have to work til February 28th 2013 to get them.

My recruiter never told me. I found out by accident just as I was signing the contracts and sending them back. So my initial contract is for 10 months and I'll have to sign for another 6 months to get the extras. I was livid when I found out!

Having said that, it could have been worse. I know a Canadian girl here who started just 1 day late and they made her sign another 6 month contract to get the extra benefits. So she had to work 18 months to get everything. Talk about cruel..

no, the recruiter never mentioned that. the provisional contract I received though - to get the visa - was for a full 12 months, from October to October. That could of course change.

When you renew do you have to leave the country for a while, or what is the story? I need to try and get back for my mates wedding on the 31st of August, so just wondering if that would facilitate that in any way?

roosh

I completely forgot to get any gifts for my headmaster and co-teachers before leaving home - I was too focused on getting my overweight and oversized carry-on luggage on board, at both Dublin and Abu Dhabi. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could get here??

roosh

squeakyduck wrote: »

anyone up for the rugby final tomorrow....scrooges....!?

is that the name of a bar in Seoul?

we're gonna hook the laptop up to the tv here in the NIIED and stream it

squeakyduck

roosh wrote: »

is that the name of a bar in Seoul?

we're gonna hook the laptop up to the tv here in the NIIED and stream it

It is indeed. And a fine pub it is too!

on the topic of your last post...when did you get here? You only a newbie?

roosh

squeakyduck wrote: »

It is indeed. And a fine pub it is too!

on the topic of your last post...when did you get here? You only a newbie?

got here on thursday, and yes, very much a noob!

squeakyduck

Culture shock hit yet??

where are you living then???

kraggy

roosh wrote: »

no, the recruiter never mentioned that. the provisional contract I received though - to get the visa - was for a full 12 months, from October to October. That could of course change.

When you renew do you have to leave the country for a while, or what is the story? I need to try and get back for my mates wedding on the 31st of August, so just wondering if that would facilitate that in any way?

ARe you with SMOE? Or who are you working for?

If you're with SMOE you won't be getting a 12 month contract after starting in October. You'll get one to bring you up to the end of next August and then you'll have to resign for another 6 months to get the bonuses/flight allowance for flight home.

ekevosu

I just brought a big big tin of walkers biscuits from Costco and a pack of vitamin c drinks for all the teachers et al to share. I didn't do a gift for the headmaster or vice.

You don't have to leave the country to renew your visa so that won't work unfortunately.

kraggy

What's the story with all the people on Dave's talking about visa runs? Who has to do a visa run and who doesn't?

If you're public and you renew your contract for a second year, do you automatically get your visa renewed by immigration?

My visa will expire about a month into my next contract as I didn't start in a block recruitment period, will I have to do a visa run or will it be renewed by immigration when I sign a new contract I wonder?

ekevosu

If you are hired by the government then you don't have to leave the country to renew or get a new visa workingpp. Your visa can be done at the immigration office. If you are working for a hagwon then you will have to leave to renew or get a new visa.

cloneslad

ekevosu wrote: »

If you are hired by the government then you don't have to leave the country to renew or get a new visa workingpp. Your visa can be done at the immigration office. If you are working for a hagwon then you will have to leave to renew or get a new visa.

This is true, to a point.

If you extend your contract with the same hagwon then you don't have to do a visa run, you do have to submit all your documents again though. Although they are supposed to be getting rid of the need to submit the police check if you haven't gone back home for longer than 3 months or something like that (not sure if this has come in to force)

If you are changing hagwons, the only way to get around a visa run is to get your previous employer to tranfer your visa over to your new employer. My school did it for a teacher as she fancied a move straight to seoul after her contract was up. Most schools won't oblige you with this though, as they usually can't be bothered with the hassle, or take it as a personal insult that you won't be extending with them.

medici

Hi folks - have a bit of a predicament that I'd greatly welcome any advice on.

Yesterday, I received a contract in the post for a public school position with the start date of November 26th. I've been dealing with Footprints Recruitment in getting this position. Before I heard anything about this particular post though, I applied for a job as a full-time lecturer - without the aid of Footprints.

I'm now being encouraged to sign the contract asap and get my visa (by the Ministry of Education and Footprints) but when I asked the university for some info on my application for the lecturer job, they said it'll take another fortnight before the selection committee makes a decision.

Considering the better pay, holidays, location of the university - should I take the public-school job and have a definite job lined up - or turn it down in the hope the university position might come good?

WHAT should I do!?!

cloneslad

medici wrote: »

Hi folks - have a bit of a predicament that I'd greatly welcome any advice on.

Yesterday, I received a contract in the post for a public school position with the start date of November 26th. I've been dealing with Footprints Recruitment in getting this position. Before I heard anything about this particular post though, I applied for a job as a full-time lecturer - without the aid of Footprints.

I'm now being encouraged to sign the contract asap and get my visa (by the Ministry of Education and Footprints) but when I asked the university for some info on my application for the lecturer job, they said it'll take another fortnight before the selection committee makes a decision.

Considering the better pay, holidays, location of the university - should I take the public-school job and have a definite job lined up - or turn it down in the hope the university position might come good?

WHAT should I do!?!

I think it's a decision only you can make.

weigh up the pros and cons of waiting for the uni or signing with the school.

You could try and hold them off as long as possible, tell them you are waiting on some document or other to be sent to you for the visa process etc...perhaps say that you're waiting on your background check.

R.D. aka MR.D

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking in this thread for 3 months and now i'm finally posting!

Basically I'm hoping to be over there by March. I'm doing a CELTA course from the 16th of January to the 10th of February. I know you don't need it really but I want to have it in case i decide to go elsewhere directly after Korea.

So I was thinking about waiting and contacting recruiters in January or should i start before that? I've decided not to apply for EPIK, i know that is going on now for Feb/Mar starts.

I want to try to get as many documents sorted now as possible. I'm a little bit confused about what i need.

How do I get a copy of my degree? Do I need to get it from college? My mam has my original in a frame and all so I don't want to have to send that. Also how many copies of my transcipts should i get to be on the prepared side! My degree is from Trinity so anyone who has dealt with the rather grumpy Student Records Office who could offer help would be great!

I know these questions have been asked a million and ten times but sometimes it's hard to relate the answers to my situation.

I'll really appreciate any help.

Thanks!!

medici

cloneslad wrote: »

I think it's a decision only you can make.

weigh up the pros and cons of waiting for the uni or signing with the school.

You could try and hold them off as long as possible, tell them you are waiting on some document or other to be sent to you for the visa process etc...perhaps say that you're waiting on your background check.

Heya Cloneslad, yeah trying to weigh things up alright. Like I said - it's easy to go with the public-school because it's a dead cert but the perks (compared to uni) seem a bit spartan. Think I might use a few delaying tactics like that to try and wait for news from the university.

medici

R.D. aka MR.D wrote: »

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking in this thread for 3 months and now i'm finally posting!

Basically I'm hoping to be over there by March. I'm doing a CELTA course from the 16th of January to the 10th of February. I know you don't need it really but I want to have it in case i decide to go elsewhere directly after Korea.

So I was thinking about waiting and contacting recruiters in January or should i start before that? I've decided not to apply for EPIK, i know that is going on now for Feb/Mar starts.

I want to try to get as many documents sorted now as possible. I'm a little bit confused about what i need.

How do I get a copy of my degree? Do I need to get it from college? My mam has my original in a frame and all so I don't want to have to send that. Also how many copies of my transcipts should i get to be on the prepared side! My degree is from Trinity so anyone who has dealt with the rather grumpy Student Records Office who could offer help would be great!

I know these questions have been asked a million and ten times but sometimes it's hard to relate the answers to my situation.

I'll really appreciate any help.

Thanks!!

I simply photocopied my degree a few times (it was also in a frame on the wall) and have used these for my application ever since. I've been dealing with Footprints recruiting for the past while and they (initially) needed a digital scan of the original.

However, for my actual application the photocopies did need to be notarised (by a "notary public") and also apostilled (read "stamped") by the Dept of Foreign Affairs.

Other documents I've had to source that you'll probably also need are:

- Garda Criminal Record Check (also notarised and apostilled)
- Copies of college transcripts (mine had to be in sealed envelopes stamped by college)
- 2 reference letters from previous employers/lecturers etc
- Some passport photos
- Copy of CELTA/TEFL Certificate

check out Footprints for reference to these documents.

Hope this helps

king_crisps

Hey all,

Does anyone have any experience of/thoughts about the GnB school near Dongchun St in Incheon? I'm in Ireland and have been offered a job there starting ASAP. Need to make a decision quickly so any advice would be greatly appreciated as I've heard good and bad things about GnB, which I suppose is to be expected of a franchise.

Cheers in advance

cloneslad

king_crisps wrote: »

Hey all,

Does anyone have any experience of/thoughts about the GnB school near Dongchun St in Incheon? I'm in Ireland and have been offered a job there starting ASAP. Need to make a decision quickly so any advice would be greatly appreciated as I've heard good and bad things about GnB, which I suppose is to be expected of a franchise.

Cheers in advance

GnB is a franchise so they are only a name. They are mostly owned and run independently of one another. Some could be crap, some could be great.

Get in touch with the current teacher there and ask them as many questions as you can, to find out everything about the place.

Do that for every school you get offered.

king_crisps

cloneslad wrote: »

GnB is a franchise so they are only a name. They are mostly owned and run independently of one another. Some could be crap, some could be great.

Get in touch with the current teacher there and ask them as many questions as you can, to find out everything about the place.

Do that for every school you get offered.

Thanks for that. Have contacted the agency to try and arrange this for tomorrow so hopefully that'll clarify a few things. Thought I'd seek out some info here too

roosh

How's it going guys; I return to the oracle from the other side!

Just moved into my apartment in Taebaek in Gangwan-do, and it's a bit of a kip. Now, I would gladly stick it out for the year if I thought that it was fairly standard but just a quick google search turned up a youtube video of an apartment tour, of an apartment [in Taebaek] with which I would be more than happy with; so I'm thinking that there are probably better apartments out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about trying to get a better apartment? My co-teacher (who is also the head teacher) brought me to the apartment and helped me move in. He asked me what I thought and I didn't really feel in a position to turn around and say, sorry but this isn't good enough. Any suggestions on how to deal with it?

roosh

Just on the topic of getting gifts for the principal and co-teacher and stuff: my aunt gave me a bottle of holy water [from Lough Derg] before coming over; I was thinking I could just give it to the principal and say that it is a "blessing for the school" or something to that effect. How would the koreans view something like that does anyone have any idea?

SpatialPlanning

roosh wrote: »

How's it going guys; I return to the oracle from the other side!

Just moved into my apartment in Taebaek in Gangwan-do, and it's a bit of a kip. Now, I would gladly stick it out for the year if I thought that it was fairly standard but just a quick google search turned up a youtube video of an apartment tour, of an apartment [in Taebaek] with which I would be more than happy with; so I'm thinking that there are probably better apartments out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about trying to get a better apartment? My co-teacher (who is also the head teacher) brought me to the apartment and helped me move in. He asked me what I thought and I didn't really feel in a position to turn around and say, sorry but this isn't good enough. Any suggestions on how to deal with it?

My apartment is the worst I've seen (and I just re-signed for a second year). Not sure if there is anything you can do right away. The school has probably put down key money for the place so you may have to wait until the contract is up.. Not sure on this. Maybe your school will give you the 400k and let you find your own place. I wouldn't say much just yet. Better not to rock the boat too early if you can avoid it...

roosh

SpatialPlanning wrote: »

My apartment is the worst I've seen (and I just re-signed for a second year). Not sure if there is anything you can do right away. The school has probably put down key money for the place so you may have to wait until the contract is up.. Not sure on this. Maybe your school will give you the 400k and let you find your own place. I wouldn't say much just yet. Better not to rock the boat too early if you can avoid it...

That's kind of what I was thinking myself. It's gas though, I went out for a stroll by myself earlier to go get some food and check the place out; just as I was about to start getting disillusioned, I randomly bumped into a couple of other english teachers who were on their way for food themselves, so I tagged along with them; they met up with a couple of more and after hanging out with them for a while I started thinking that the apartment will be grand.

EDIT: I have free internet too [for the time being] on someone else's wi-fi, which is helping.

p.s. sorry to hear about the apartment btw

warofthebutton

hi yall
I've been offered a position in a school in Daejeon, I flicked back through older posts and there doesn't seem to be too much said about the place. I know its a fairly big city and all that but does anyone have any advice about the area?
Also on another note how do the people who work the later hour contracts like the 1 to 9 or 12 to 8 find it? I've worked nights before but this seems a very different working style all together:)
Any advice greatly appreciated

JohnJoe1987

I need to get my degree notarised this week, so does anyone know a cheapish notary public in Dublin to get this done. I have contacted 5 or 6 offices already but they are charging 30 or 40 euro per copy to get notarised. I thought the cost of this might be 15 or 20 euro at the most. Also will one copy be enough to get notarised or how many would you recommend to get done? Cheers

cloneslad

roosh wrote: »

How's it going guys; I return to the oracle from the other side!

Just moved into my apartment in Taebaek in Gangwan-do, and it's a bit of a kip. Now, I would gladly stick it out for the year if I thought that it was fairly standard but just a quick google search turned up a youtube video of an apartment tour, of an apartment [in Taebaek] with which I would be more than happy with; so I'm thinking that there are probably better apartments out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about trying to get a better apartment? My co-teacher (who is also the head teacher) brought me to the apartment and helped me move in. He asked me what I thought and I didn't really feel in a position to turn around and say, sorry but this isn't good enough. Any suggestions on how to deal with it?

I spent a very wet late night in Taebeak in Sept last year. It was just a passing visit to get some food on the way down towards andong. The group of us ended up eating an abnormal amount of fried chicken in Kyochon. We were all starving after enduring a really long, diverted drive from seoraksan, to the penis park, to the u.s submarine and then over some crazy assed, death mountain (with fog and rain so thick I couldn't see more than 2-3 metres ahead), before finally getting in to Taebek.

Then we followed the sat nav out of the town, only for us to end up down the world's more narrow side street, which got so narrow the car couldn't go any further. We had to try reverse out...How I never scraped the crap out of that car I'll never know.

Let us know what Taekbek is actually like, because it was too wet, cold and late to actually pay much attention to it. It seemed like a very very very small place, in the middle of nowhere.

cloneslad

JohnJoe1987 wrote: »

I need to get my degree notarised this week, so does anyone know a cheapish notary public in Dublin to get this done. I have contacted 5 or 6 offices already but they are charging 30 or 40 euro per copy to get notarised. I thought the cost of this might be 15 or 20 euro at the most. Also will one copy be enough to get notarised or how many would you recommend to get done? Cheers

One should do, just don't send it to anyone without having a contract. Obviously more is better, but just be careful who you send it to and don't just send it to a recruiter on the promise of them finding you a job.

It needs to be a commissioner for oaths from what I remember. I used a soliciter in Dublin (near the four courts) about 5 years ago and he charged €20, then I used a pharmicist in my hometown last year and he only charged me €10. Just shop around.

dapto1

king_crisps wrote: »

Hey all,

Does anyone have any experience of/thoughts about the GnB school near Dongchun St in Incheon? I'm in Ireland and have been offered a job there starting ASAP. Need to make a decision quickly so any advice would be greatly appreciated as I've heard good and bad things about GnB, which I suppose is to be expected of a franchise.

Cheers in advance

There is a FB group for Incheon called "Incheon English Teachers". Ask on there, someone is bound to know.

old hippy

roosh wrote: »

Just on the topic of getting gifts for the principal and co-teacher and stuff: my aunt gave me a bottle of holy water [from Lough Derg] before coming over; I was thinking I could just give it to the principal and say that it is a "blessing for the school" or something to that effect. How would the koreans view something like that does anyone have any idea?

Depends. There's quite a high percentage (for countries in that region) of Christians in SK. Something like 30% iirc. They'd probably understand the gesture. In the same way a teacher in Ireland would graciously receive a Bhuddist or Confucian talisman or memento, I imagine.