[ginger]

^ My school finally gave me one this morning around 8:50, after I'd asked three times. However, they said, "Um...this will change...a lot."

I didn't have any new co-teachers, though (I thought I might have to work with the 2nd year English teacher who doesn't speak a lick of English), so that was relieving. I had 3 1st year classes right off the bat this morning and all three had completely different personalities.

-ginger.

[B0hemian_Sprite]

I totally wish that Korea connections was more specific about the dress code at orientation at SMOE. I only brought one pair of jeans, damn. But orientation is surprisingly fun.

HI SALLY!!!!!!!!!!

[ginger]

I totally wish that Korea connections was more specific about the dress code at orientation at SMOE. I only brought one pair of jeans, damn. But orientation is surprisingly fun.

HI SALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Oh! Do you know your district yet? If you're free on Saturday, you should come to this big party my friends and I are throwing in Apgujeong. They'll be tonnns of Koreans/foreigners to meet.

-ginger

[sally.h]

I totally wish that Korea connections was more specific about the dress code at orientation at SMOE. I only brought one pair of jeans, damn. But orientation is surprisingly fun.

HI SALLY!!!!!!!!!!

HI PATTIE!!!!!!!!!!! Orientation is fun because you're with me...and please change your jeans.

Oh! Do you know your district yet? If you're free on Saturday, you should come to this big party my friends and I are throwing in Apgujeong. They'll be tonnns of Koreans/foreigners to meet.

-ginger

The Apgujeong party sounds fun! I think we're going to our schools and finding out where we're going to be living on Saturday. We need to meet more people!

[ginger]

HI PATTIE!!!!!!!!!!! Orientation is fun because you're with me...and please change your jeans.



The Apgujeong party sounds fun! I think we're going to our schools and finding out where we're going to be living on Saturday. We need to meet more people!

Yeah, you should be finished with all the technical stuff around 4 or 5? The party starts at 8 but it goes allllll night and into the morning, so you two should totally come. They'll be tons of cool people.

-ginger

[Yubumsuk]

On a gloomier note, at today's exchange rate a new teacher starting out with SMOE on 1.8 million / month will be making $1,100 USD / month. If teachers have to be at school an average of 176 hours per month, that works out to a whopping $6.25 / hour.

And it gets worse. The won will likely sink even lower, but the shortage of jobs in the US and other western countries will mean that young, degreed but jobless foreigners will continue to come to Korea, resulting in no shortage of supply and no rise in salaries.

[ginger]

^ That's gloomy indeed. Luckily, I don't have to pay off any bills at home/send my won back, so I'm just gonna wait it out...hope it gets better.

-ginger

[Yubumsuk]

^ That's gloomy indeed. Luckily, I don't have to pay off any bills at home/send my won back, so I'm just gonna wait it out...hope it gets better.

-ginger

I can't imagine what it's like for an American with loans to pay starting off on that salary. If you never went out, never drank, and never ate out except for kimbab, you'd still be lucky to send $600 home every month.

I also can't believe that SMOE filled all it's positions this year, given that some hagwons are offering starting salaries 33% higher than that. I guess a lot of people really want to live in Seoul but are freaked out by hagwon horror stories.

[KYC]

Wow...my coteacher is pretty awesome then. First day back, I got a new schedule without even asking. I'm only scheduled 18/19 hours instead of the 22. And no more Englishee Village 5 times a week!

Classes started, but I don't teach for another week or so. My coteachers want to teach the first classes by themselves Startin' to like the new semester so far..

[ginger]

Yubumsuk: Yeah, it's surprising, as well, just do to the sheer number that they've hired. SMOE is getting enormous. And yes, the hagwon stories freaked me out when I first started applying, and I didn't get hired with SMOE until the last minute. It was a relief. My friends ended up at hagwons (I came over with a lot of college pals) and they hated their workplaces. They were always in prep time or had to stay after school to work on costumes for a school pageant, always short on cash, and always dying for a vacation. They were still getting paid about $500 less than me each month. Sucked to be them.

KYC: I'm happy about my 18 hours, as well! What I *don't* like is that I have 3/5 days of just teaching one grade. For instance, my Mondays are only 1st grade, while my Tues/Thursdays are only 3rd grade. I like my days to have a mix of both. Ah, well. I was happy to work this first week so I could lay the smack down from the start. A little healthy fear/apprehension never hurt anyone.

-ginger

[Yubumsuk]

Yubumsuk: Yeah, it's surprising, as well, just do to the sheer number that they've hired. SMOE is getting enormous. And yes, the hagwon stories freaked me out when I first started applying, and I didn't get hired with SMOE until the last minute. It was a relief. My friends ended up at hagwons (I came over with a lot of college pals) and they hated their workplaces. They were always in prep time or had to stay after school to work on costumes for a school pageant, always short on cash, and always dying for a vacation. They were still getting paid about $500 less than me each month. Sucked to be them.

KYC: I'm happy about my 18 hours, as well! What I *don't* like is that I have 3/5 days of just teaching one grade. For instance, my Mondays are only 1st grade, while my Tues/Thursdays are only 3rd grade. I like my days to have a mix of both. Ah, well. I was happy to work this first week so I could lay the smack down from the start. A little healthy fear/apprehension never hurt anyone.

-ginger

My students have been really great this week - or maybe it's just that I'm rediscovering the joy of teaching after several month off. Even a few students who had a tendency to piss me off sometimes last year were being really lovely.

I find it strange to hear more and more stories of public school teachers getting jobs at hagwons. It used to be that people pretty much only moved in the other direction. However, if all the good hagwon gigs are being snapped up by people already in the country that means that the odds of ending up at a bad one from rolling the dice with a recruiter are even higher.

[KYC]

KYC: I'm happy about my 18 hours, as well! What I *don't* like is that I have 3/5 days of just teaching one grade. For instance, my Mondays are only 1st grade, while my Tues/Thursdays are only 3rd grade. I like my days to have a mix of both. Ah, well. I was happy to work this first week so I could lay the smack down from the start. A little healthy fear/apprehension never hurt anyone.

-ginger

Yeah me too!! I have no idea why they like to do that. And I always have to teach 6th grade on Fridays! I always ended up having a crappy weekend because my 6th graders always pissed me off. I hate having to do the very SAME lesson 5 times a day.

[ginger]

Yeah me too!! I have no idea why they like to do that. And I always have to teach 6th grade on Fridays! I always ended up having a crappy weekend because my 6th graders always pissed me off. I hate having to do the very SAME lesson 5 times a day.

Exactly. When it's a good lesson over and over again, it puts me in a great mood. When it's a bad lesson, it's like a day at the dentist's office. Last year, I had a kind of bad class at the end of my Friday. However, when my co-teacher and I sensed that the class was starting to go downhill (maybe two months into teaching), we kind of re-arranged our teaching styles, became a lot tougher, enforced punishments (silly ones), etc. By the end of the year, that class was one of the best. My co-teacher and I loved it because it was a great way to end the week. The kids, once they realized that they wouldn't be able to laze around, really hunkered down and did the work. Probably to their surprise, they realized it wasn't this crazy hard thing and that it could actually be *gasp* fun. I would walk home on cloud 9. A great class is so uplifting.

Speaking of uplifting...one of my favorite students ever just came back to visit a second ago! She graduated last month and I haven't seen her since. She's now going to the high school just down the road and she said she'll visit often. It was kind of cool...because she only sat down and talked to me for about thirty minutes. For the other teachers, she just went up, did some small talk, and left. As the "extra" on the teaching staff, it's easy to kind of feel like you're not making a great enough impression on your students. They can't converse with you as easily, they're more nervous, they don't have as much history/inside jokes. It was really cheering that she wanted to talk and hang out. Her English is really good (she was placed in the most advanced level this year), as well, so it was comfortable for me.

After she left, my co-teacher beside me jokingly admitted that the girl was on her list of "future hypothetical daughter-in-laws" for her second son. The girl is just such a good kid. I have only high hopes for her.

**WEEKEND TIME**!!!!

-ginger

[kpopholic]

wow...
i didn't think i would find this topic on here...
but i've been thinking about teaching abroad in South Korea in particular...
but i wasn't sure which program was the best or which offer i should consider...
however, after reading everyone's posts, there's a little hope in the air....

i hope that everyone who has taught or are still teaching will be able to provide me with more information in the near future!

[ahsieee]

^ Nice to have you here. It must be nice to teach at an academy where you don't have to deal with elementary students.

Wednesday and I still don't have my schedule. I can't remember things ever being this disorganised at the start of the year. I've just been scanning through the temporary schedule looking for 영 and wondering if I'm supposed to teach it or somebody else is.

I have smarter students actually... I really was lucky when I got here :]
Most of them have studied abroad, so I don't have to slow down for them when I speak. I can actually joke around with them~

I have heard some horror stories too, but I think it really depends on who you work with. My Korean coworkers are all really nice and welcoming!
We go out to eat after work, but one huge disadvantage to working at an academy is the hours..

Sorry, I couldn't make it to the party! I hope you guys had fun. Next time, I will DEFINITELY come out.
Hope the party was a hit

[ginger]

I have smarter students actually... I really was lucky when I got here :]
Most of them have studied abroad, so I don't have to slow down for them when I speak. I can actually joke around with them~

I have heard some horror stories too, but I think it really depends on who you work with. My Korean coworkers are all really nice and welcoming!
We go out to eat after work, but one huge disadvantage to working at an academy is the hours..

Sorry, I couldn't make it to the party! I hope you guys had fun. Next time, I will DEFINITELY come out.
Hope the party was a hit

Yeah, when I came to Korea, I did a summer immersion program and my homeroom kids were 3-5th grade. Many of them had family abroad or had visited English-speaking countries, so they were incredibly fast with picking up new vocab and concepts. I didn't need a co-teacher to translate because they understood about 75% of what I was saying, and I wasn't speaking that slowly. So it was kind of a huuuuge shock when I came to middle school and I had handfuls of kids in each class that couldn't even write their names in English.

The party was fun! Um, I know of at least one Soompier that I met, don't know if any others showed up. I got there around 7 to help set up and started drinking really early...my mistake. My boyfriend had to take me home around 2 AM. But this party is the first of many (we were pretty pleased with the turnout), so expect to hear about more soon! My boyfriend's birthday is in 2 weeks, and they're going to throw him a huge one. Will post details later.

-ginger

[j00n]

I'm actually seeing a sharp decrease in teaching jobs and an increase in those seeking work, especially when it comes to Korean Americans. There's a TON of Korean Americans looking for teaching jobs, and very little jobs available for them.

[Yubumsuk]

I'm actually seeing a sharp decrease in teaching jobs and an increase in those seeking work, especially when it comes to Korean Americans. There's a TON of Korean Americans looking for teaching jobs, and very little jobs available for them.

I'm quite surprised how many job-seekers there are at the moment, given the exchange rate. Imagine how flooded the job market would be if it were 1:1,000.

[jurassic5]

I'm quite surprised how many job-seekers there are at the moment, given the exchange rate. Imagine how flooded the job market would be if it were 1:1,000.

i think the increase in job seekers is because of the rough economy in the teachers' home countries. if the exchange were back to 1:1,000, that would probably mean the world economy wouldn't be as rocky and probably mean less job seekers in Korea.

[ginger]

Can I just say...I'm feeling incredible right now. Yesterday, four of my best/most memorable students came back to visit and we talked for about TWO HOURS. It was crazy. And today, everyone seems to have caught the English bug. I sat outside during lunch, as usual, and probably about 30 kids stuck around to chat for the entire break. Usually, I have about five kids that want to really talk while dozens of other kids run up for a quick, "How are you? I'm fine thank you and you *giggle giggle giggle*." But today...the kids actually wanted to *talk.* They talked about their speech contests, school band auditions, new PE teachers, Super Junior vs. Shinee, the food at lunch, their plans for the weekend...

it was crazy and fantastic. The combo of the good weather, light Friday load, and enthusiastic kids has put me in such a good mood. I even went and emailed one of my college professors just for a chat because...I really appreciated it when my kids visited me yesterday. She deserves the same.

So even though I rag on English teaching in Korea sometimes...there are enough great moments like the ones I've had today to keep me more than sane.

Happy Friday!

-ginger