Letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
I am now halfway to D+ with an 8-9 record. Woohoo!
New this week (and hopefully subsequent weeks) is VOD of the week, handled by Fontong!
- Kau
Staff
Kau – Editor
Bloodyc0bbler – The Stove
Chill – Strategy
Nyovne – IRC Comments
Physician – Memory Lane
{88}iNcontroL – Troll Booth Willie, The Shit Bus
Elric – Korean Korner
NeverGG – Progamer Pics
Fontong – VOD of the Week
Table of Contents
Serious Business and Funsies ................ p1
The Stove .............................................. p2
Chalk Talk ............................................. p3
Semi-Funny IRC Comment of the Week ... p4
Progamer Photos ................................... p5
Random Image of the Week .................... p6
A Walk Down Memory Lane .................... p7
Korean Korner ........................................ p8
Troll Booth Willie .................................... p9
The Shit Bus .......................................... p9
Best of Blogs ......................................... p10
Ban of the Week .................................... p11
Vod of the Week .................................... p12
- Another year, another thread about sleeping less and saving time
- Klazart is an author!
- Some game theory for winning auctions
- I'm getting old
- A Glimpse at the Other Side
- Share some of your favorite (but not too personal) PMs
- Fairly nice collection of license plates
- Who remembers artpad?
- 56k beware
- Yay lasers
p1
El Manolete
4/10 Whiskey
3/10 Jerez/Sherry
2/10 Dubonnet
1/10 Tangerine Liquor
Orange Twist and a cherry
Martini glass works fine.
An Argentinean classic. In honor of Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez (Manolete) a great Spanish bullfighter who went by that nick name and died bullfighting (1917-1947). The creator of the drink, Manuel Otero Rey (Manolete), a Spanish immigrant to Argentina, who became a renown barman in that nation, created the drink and coined it with the bullfighters nick name which happened to be his own too.
Thanks Physician
p2
p3
p4
All Star Race Battle Special: Protoss vs Zerg:
A little banter before the action commenced.
Could the Protoss take down the Zergs?
One man had a mission....
p5
from EsX_Raptor's blog
p6
In honor of good relations between authonomy.com and teamliquid here are 4 old teamliquid threads that will reveal to you who reads what. You will have to follow the merry-go-roung though that makes website owners most happy.
Scroll down to my reply and find the 4 teamliquid threads.
Now if the whole Klaz zerg rush bored you, or you didn't find any book worth reading, Manifesto suggests this teamliquid classic:
Now Accepting Applications for Camp Starcraft
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=5428
The next one was suggested by CDRdude who hopes to pin down the origin of the modern 1a2a3a meme on TeamLiquid with it.
Interview with Pusan.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=23111
Q : Is it true that if you get 3 numbered units (meaning 36 units) you press a and designate them to attack and then concentrate on producing units rather than controlling them?
Pusan : Somewhat. I used to do this some time ago but whenever my zealots were destroyed by minds my heart broke so I now try to control them.
: ) Happy reading.
p7
Warning: text wall
+ Show Spoiler +
I've had quite a few questions from people about teaching in Korea. I guess lots of people have got interested in Korea through SC (hihi).
Although the teaching itself is not very rewarding, I think its a great way to spend a year. For people who have just graduated with no experience in the field, the pay is okay (saving and having fun is certainly possible) and you can experience first-hand the really unique Korean culture (as well as making your token appearance in broadcasts and being immortalised via Youtube ^^)
So! Here we go.
Sober up please.
It goes without saying that you should think hard about doing this. There are too many people who think English teaching in Korea is just an easy, rosy cakewalk. People like that come here, get depressed, get bitchy and then pull a runner after a month.
Remember, you're in a totally different culture!!! Strange shit happens a lot. The ESL (English as a Second Language) industry is pretty fucked up in Korea. By fucked up, I mean it is poorly regulated, poorly organised with lots of dodgy practices going on. You're gonna be teaching full-time too. ESL jobs can vary a lot but it can be more work than you expect and job-satisfaction is generally low. Finally, for the most part, Korean administrative practices in ESL are pretty horrible so your patience will be tested.
I said that to really kill your expectations. Good lol There's more to come. But don't fret...because despite all those things, you're gonna have an awesome time here. Just keep that mind OPEN and go with the flow.
General job requirements
-You are a native speaker from an English speaking country
-You have at least a BA from a university in that country
You do not need (except for applying to better jobs):
-A teaching related degree
-Any teaching experience whatsoever
Cutting through the bullshit. (Director's cut)
We need to get this out of the way. Let's be frank. Most of the teaching, at non-adult level is a bad joke. Ignore the over-done bullshit in the job advertisements about 'highly-motivated students', 'specialised curriculums' and 'unrivalled job satisfaction'. Discard the stereotype of good little Asian student robots diligently processing every English command. These exist only in little pockets of anomality, my wettest dreams and the deluded brain of the Korean Ministry of Education.
For public schools, said Ministry's bright idea to improve English speaking in schools is so sad it hurts. They figure that if they put a mystical 'Native Speaker' with normally zero experience in teaching in every classroom, have no set curriculum, no proper training and no exam incentive for students to learn then POOF! magically, students will be fluent by the time they leave high school.
For private english academies (aka hagwons), I have no personal experience so I cannot be as sure about them as public schools. There are some good hagwons out there but generally the result is the same but the means different. The fact is that for most hagwons, Money >>>>> Learning English.
Money comes from student attendance.. and student attendance comes from how happy mummy is to continue sending her kid to the hagwon... So everything is about pleasing mum. I know there is a balance that can be struck between effective teaching and pleasing of mums but the focus is almost completely on the latter.
Many directors are looking for people who can entertain kids for an hour whilst giving the impression that english is being taught seriously. Happy kids = happy mums = fine. Bored kid = unhappy mum = unhappy director = unhappy meeting with teacher where teacher tries to explain that learning a new language isn't always about playing word games = teacher is ignored/fired.
So there you go. Unless you are a) lucky, b) do your research well or c) teach adults.. chances are that you will find it very hard to teach English in the way that you learned 'French' in high school.. GENERALLY, any ESL teacher in Korea who hypes up his job to be just as professional and exclusive as a normal teaching job is a lying, pathetic fool. Fortunately enough, very few do. Most realise that teaching in Korea is more like a gap year between unis and their real careers.
But these depressing facts are actually why you can even consider teaching anyway. If they wanted proper teachers with proper training, they wouldn't be looking for people like you and me (20-25 year old recent/upcoming graduates who have never taught English before in their lives.) If they were really serious about teaching spoken English, they would hire Korean English teachers who could actually speak English. If they wanted to clean up the corruption in the hagwons, they would start applying the law.. If .. and more ifs..
The best advice is to try and to just accept the reality of the situation. Even if you really hate the teaching, the rest of Korea will more than make up for it. ^^
+ Show Spoiler +
Okay hmm.. that hit me hard.. I'm still up for it though. Where do I start looking?
There are many, many English teaching job sites around that you can use to find a job. You don't need to pay any money, They match up wannabe teachers and their preferences with schools/academies. The agency guides you through the application process, answers all your fears, deals with problems during your job, gets a one-off commission payment from the school and you start your ideal teaching job.
In theory of course lol. Most agencies are as scummy as the hagwons they serve. Many will ignore your preferences, mislead/lie about your concerns and shine a turd of a job so fucking well, you'd think it was solid gold. Then, when you arrive in Korea, they will send you an innocent email, asking "was the flight was comfortable.. was the food good? ^^ got any concerns yet? how is the weather? :D the jetlag is horrible right!? XD" etc. When you hit reply though, you sure as hell aren't ever gonna hear from them again. You just secured their commission.
So be careful. Don't apply to just one agency. Apply to a fuckload** and see what turns up. If anything looks decent, do some RESEARCH. Don't go in blind. Poke those turds very carefully. With a barge pole.
How do I search?
Google of course! There are tens of thousands of sites about ESL generally and hundreds more specifically for Korea. There are agency sites, portals, forums.. etc. etc.
Perhaps the most popular site is daveseslcafe.com. The forums are a very bizarre place but it has been around for a long time, so it has an incredible amount of information. The search function is totally screwed there so use an indirect google search here: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006359271486458796786:_ooozypbm6u
Amongst the mass of trolls and disillusioned English teachers, there are quite a few long term veterans there who will give solid advice. Like with TL though... search first!!
So what am I looking for? What are the different types of jobs?
Public School Programs
There are several programs in Korea which are run by governmental districts/areas of education. E.g. for public schools in Seoul, they are run by SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education), for Gyeonggi-do (area around Seoul), its GEPIK (Gyeonggido English Program in Korea), majority of the rest of Korea, its EPIK etc. etc.
I'm in SMOE, the Seoul one. But all of these public school programs offer very similar contracts with similar job environments:
- hard to/impossible to pick which school you will end up at
- lowest pay (SMOE starts at 1.8million won/month if you have zero teaching exp/quals)
- lowest risk (probably the most important factor giving the probability of being screwed elsewhere. You can always find some official to complain to if you have problems. Compared to your hagwon director who mysteriously disappeared last night with your pay.)
- good holidays (you will get 21 days off in your 1-year contract. but if you are diplomatic, you can get anywhere between 1 week to another 3 months in unofficial leave when the school is on holiday)
- co-teaching (you will always be with another so-called co-teacher in your class. Whether they do anything to help or hinder you is a complete lottery as they sure as hell have no idea what they are supposed to do either)
- Average of 40 unmotivated students per class (see my last blog for one perspective)
- can be elementary, middle or high school (rigged lottery decided by the program)
- good hours (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm,9am-5pm. overtime can be forced upon you, but again, be diplomatic and you can adjust it to suit you)
- little/none contract negotiation (standardised contract which is relatively reasonable anyway)
- largely fixed hiring periods (Korea has 2 semester years starting in September and March, so the main hiring periods are in July-August and January-February)
- can be lonely. you will normally be the only foreign teacher in a school where very few people speak any English. (even the other Korean English teachers)
- the treatment of you will vary from school to school (shit treatment in public schools exists too but is rare)
Hagwons / Private English academies
So, this is the other large category of teaching jobs in Korea. They vary hugely though, some are very suspect, family-sized schools whereas others are multiple city-spanning chains. From what I hear, even within the chains (and more commonly, franchises), the working conditions can vary a lot. I've heard some great stories about some professionally-run hagwons and absolute fucking disaster stories about others. Here are some facts:
-higher pay than public school (should be 2.3million+)
-generally higher working hours (varies hugely, some require a sacrificial Saturday, others shaft you with a split shift where you work in the early mornings and in the late evenings)
-higher risk of being screwed (depends on the director/owner of the hagwon. you can be screwed in any number of ways, from pay, to visa issues, accommodation, non-contracted working hours)
-smaller class sizes (1-20)
-can be teaching any age
-no Korean co-teacher
-contract negotiation possible (harder with large,chain hagwons)
Privately contracted school contracts
An interesting beast. This is where you contract directly with a public or private school. You will have a very similar life to a normal public school teacher. But with added benefits:
-you can choose the goddamn school/area!
-you can negotiate the contract.. which means..
-checking out your accommodation before hand
-higher normal/overtime pay
-clarifying abiguous bits of the standard public school contract such as extra hours and summer/winter programs
Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible for newbies to get these jobs as you need to be in Korea already to sell yourself to these schools. You'll also need to know a bit about teaching already to be able to pick a decent place and get a good contract. Normally, its the more veteran teachers who do this.
Some agencies do have such public schools on file but the possibility that you are being screwed between the agency and the school is greater.
University teaching
Only attainable if you have something extra like a Masters / PhD, teaching experience or a teaching qualification. These generally have:
-the best pay (starting anywhere from 2.5-3.0million)
-longest holidays (they usually follow the uni calendar, meaning you get awesome breaks)
-best chance of developing a long-term career
-motivated adult students (you might actually enjoy teaching here lol)
Be slightly careful of some so-called university jobs though. It has become more trendy for universities to whore out their name to a hagwon. In which case you could be in for a lot more pain than you thought.
Public v. Private
Its important to bear in mind, that like any Asian country, Korean working culture is pretty demanding. Signed contracts can hold as much weight as secondhand toilet paper. So a school may try to force you to do non-contracted work, pay you late, refuse holidays etc.. Going all Judge Judy on their ass will not help either. Oh sure you can try. Just plan to stay 3 more years while your case crawls through the legal system and rob a few Shinhan banks too, so you can fund it.
Therefore, when thinking about risks, the emphasis should always be on prevention. Getting problems fixed, especially because of the language barrier can be incredibly stressful, time-consuming and sometimes impossible. You're gonna be here for at least a whole year. It's not like problems will be a temporary thing to tolerate. And if you fuck up, don't think you can seamlessly slide into another job while you're there.. visa issues can be a complete pain in the ass.
From what I have heard, it seems to me that if you can find a good hagwon with a director that doesn't treat you like that shit, then it is better than a public school job. The trouble is of course finding this unicorn of a job and making sure that its not actually an aforementioned turd.
If you cannot do this, public schools should be the way to go.
Application process
I reckon you need to spend at least a 1month researching and finding out about teaching/Korea the job etc.. You will almost certainly go through an agency/recruiter who will guide you through the process. To join an agency, you should send your photo, resume/CV and a (possible) cover letter.
You can pick from a list of jobs that the agency have already. Alternatively, you'll get emails with offers that the agency has 'matched' to you. If you like something, the agency will get in touch with the school and see if they like you too. A telephone interview will then be arranged... nothing hard, they really just want to hear you speak English.
After you pass this, it will be at least another 3 weeks before you arrive with your heart-pounding in Incheon airport. (Docs need to be sent to and from Korea)
On the subject of docs... There are a fuckload of documents you need to prepare. So, you should get these sorted well in advance so when the time comes to send off the docs, you don't get delayed. Some of these like the criminal record check can take around a month. Then you need to take a bunch of docs to a solicitor and/or embassy so they can 'legalize" and/or "notarize" it (read: handing over an outrageous sum of money for a few doodles/stamps on your papers).
Important things to bear in mind while applying
Discrimination
Is rampant. There is a reason why the first thing recruiters ask from you is your photograph.
Let me put it to you bluntly. If you are white, you will find (hagwon) jobs 10x more easily than others. This isn't bitter whining. It's the truth. The ideal candidate is a Caucasian woman with blond hair and blue eyes from North America.
As for non-Caucasians, it hurts me to say it, but generally the darker your skin colour, the harder it will be to find a job. Foreign Koreans are at the top of this category for obvious reasons, but even they will be ignored by some hagwons. Just accept it, sorry.
What this means is that for some people, applying to hagwons is practically not an option. Very few will respond, let alone consider your application. You have little choice but to pursue the public school route while is much less discriminating.
Public school applications
Although I said a good tip was to mass join a shitload of agencies. This is true for hagwon searching. BUT, for public schools, you need to be careful that multiple agencies don't apply you for the same program (e.g. SMOE, EPIK etc.). This is because most programs will auto reject any applicant who has sent in multiple applications.
Some agencies specialise in hagwon jobs, while others in a particular program. So obviously, don't mindlessly send an application to two agencies which specialise in the same program.
Hagwon hunting
Imagine Tom Cruise lectures you for 3 hours about Scientologist beliefs and tells you at the end that if you don't believe him, you're a complete fucking moron. Would you be agitated? Raged? Good. I certainly hope so. But this is the same righteous cynical wrath you should employ when dealing with hagwons.
Ask lots of questions. Why exactly is there a vacancy now? (an old teacher left? why? if its during the middle of the term.. RED FLAG... contracts don't usualy end midterm...the guy might have done a runner... there might have been a good reason he did... ). Get photos of the apartment. (theyre saying it isnt necessary? RED FLAG... its not hard to upload photos... what are they afraid of.. ). Can you get the contact details of someone working at the school now? (Why not?! RED FLAGGG)..
I'm exagerrating slightly but I can't tell you how many teachers I've met who have been screwed in some way by their hagwons. Psychotic paranoia can be useful here.
Misc Info
Visas
Most teachers receive the standard E-2 visa. The visa is directly linked to your teaching job, so if that goes, your visa is void.. If your visa is void... you need to be on a plane out within 24 hours. The practical consequence of this is that some bosses will use this leverage against you. I.e. "Listen bitch, start packing your bags unless you do those extra hours".
If you have Korean blood though, you will be immune from this bullshit as you can probably go for some sort of F visa which lets you stay in Korea whatever happens.
Just something to bear in mind.
Long-term Teaching Careers?
Decent, long-term ESL career development prospects are pretty rare. The industry as a whole is geared towards hiring short-term, (1-2 year) recent graduates who have never taught in their life.
If you're still teaching here past the 3 year mark.. it's probably because (in order of exponentially descreasing frequency) 1) you can't find anything better and don't know what to do with your life (sad), 2) you have a seriiiiiiiiiiious case of yellow fever (sad), 3) you're getting married to a Korean (congrats), 4) you're a lucky bastard and snagged one of the few high level / well paid positions (GJ!).
Stigma, in here and in Korea
There is a certain stigma attached to teaching on these forums. Surprisingly though, you shouldn't believe everything thats written on the internet especially from people who have never actually taught before, or from people who have only met the same shallow, retarded, arrogant piece of shits doing the same shit that they themselves are doing in Korea.
There are certainly a lot of asshole teachers here. Just glance at the so called 'job requirements' again - some of the very worst scum come here (usually because they failed their education/lives so hard back in the US). But the majority of teachers I have met are decent, likable people.
No doubt there is some anti-teacher sentiment in Korea.. But 1) I've personally never felt any negative consequence from saying I'm an English teacher here (this could be because I am Asian though and I a work in a public school). And 2) I think that any anti-teacher feeling is part of the whole anti-American white guy feeling. (Typical Asian xenophobia + most foreigners are from America + Korean history + occasional US retard/paedophile in the headlines. It's not a big problem though).
Hope that was helpful to some of you.
This is completely broken-record style but... just remember that every second you spend finding more about the job, means less time wasted dealing with post-fan-hitting-shit scenarios in Korea.
Good Luck~
Although the teaching itself is not very rewarding, I think its a great way to spend a year. For people who have just graduated with no experience in the field, the pay is okay (saving and having fun is certainly possible) and you can experience first-hand the really unique Korean culture (as well as making your token appearance in broadcasts and being immortalised via Youtube ^^)
So! Here we go.
Sober up please.
It goes without saying that you should think hard about doing this. There are too many people who think English teaching in Korea is just an easy, rosy cakewalk. People like that come here, get depressed, get bitchy and then pull a runner after a month.
Remember, you're in a totally different culture!!! Strange shit happens a lot. The ESL (English as a Second Language) industry is pretty fucked up in Korea. By fucked up, I mean it is poorly regulated, poorly organised with lots of dodgy practices going on. You're gonna be teaching full-time too. ESL jobs can vary a lot but it can be more work than you expect and job-satisfaction is generally low. Finally, for the most part, Korean administrative practices in ESL are pretty horrible so your patience will be tested.
I said that to really kill your expectations. Good lol There's more to come. But don't fret...because despite all those things, you're gonna have an awesome time here. Just keep that mind OPEN and go with the flow.
General job requirements
-You are a native speaker from an English speaking country
-You have at least a BA from a university in that country
You do not need (except for applying to better jobs):
-A teaching related degree
-Any teaching experience whatsoever
Cutting through the bullshit. (Director's cut)
We need to get this out of the way. Let's be frank. Most of the teaching, at non-adult level is a bad joke. Ignore the over-done bullshit in the job advertisements about 'highly-motivated students', 'specialised curriculums' and 'unrivalled job satisfaction'. Discard the stereotype of good little Asian student robots diligently processing every English command. These exist only in little pockets of anomality, my wettest dreams and the deluded brain of the Korean Ministry of Education.
For public schools, said Ministry's bright idea to improve English speaking in schools is so sad it hurts. They figure that if they put a mystical 'Native Speaker' with normally zero experience in teaching in every classroom, have no set curriculum, no proper training and no exam incentive for students to learn then POOF! magically, students will be fluent by the time they leave high school.
For private english academies (aka hagwons), I have no personal experience so I cannot be as sure about them as public schools. There are some good hagwons out there but generally the result is the same but the means different. The fact is that for most hagwons, Money >>>>> Learning English.
Money comes from student attendance.. and student attendance comes from how happy mummy is to continue sending her kid to the hagwon... So everything is about pleasing mum. I know there is a balance that can be struck between effective teaching and pleasing of mums but the focus is almost completely on the latter.
Many directors are looking for people who can entertain kids for an hour whilst giving the impression that english is being taught seriously. Happy kids = happy mums = fine. Bored kid = unhappy mum = unhappy director = unhappy meeting with teacher where teacher tries to explain that learning a new language isn't always about playing word games = teacher is ignored/fired.
So there you go. Unless you are a) lucky, b) do your research well or c) teach adults.. chances are that you will find it very hard to teach English in the way that you learned 'French' in high school.. GENERALLY, any ESL teacher in Korea who hypes up his job to be just as professional and exclusive as a normal teaching job is a lying, pathetic fool. Fortunately enough, very few do. Most realise that teaching in Korea is more like a gap year between unis and their real careers.
But these depressing facts are actually why you can even consider teaching anyway. If they wanted proper teachers with proper training, they wouldn't be looking for people like you and me (20-25 year old recent/upcoming graduates who have never taught English before in their lives.) If they were really serious about teaching spoken English, they would hire Korean English teachers who could actually speak English. If they wanted to clean up the corruption in the hagwons, they would start applying the law.. If .. and more ifs..
The best advice is to try and to just accept the reality of the situation. Even if you really hate the teaching, the rest of Korea will more than make up for it. ^^
+ Show Spoiler +
Btw, I'm not saying you should accept a teaching contract without giving a shit about teaching. That's completely unacceptable. It's tough but you should still try. It's your goddamn job! You signed a contract after all.
But just don't come to Korea thinking you definitely will be able to make a major difference to any student's English ability. You will be sad. Trust me.
But just don't come to Korea thinking you definitely will be able to make a major difference to any student's English ability. You will be sad. Trust me.
Okay hmm.. that hit me hard.. I'm still up for it though. Where do I start looking?
There are many, many English teaching job sites around that you can use to find a job. You don't need to pay any money, They match up wannabe teachers and their preferences with schools/academies. The agency guides you through the application process, answers all your fears, deals with problems during your job, gets a one-off commission payment from the school and you start your ideal teaching job.
In theory of course lol. Most agencies are as scummy as the hagwons they serve. Many will ignore your preferences, mislead/lie about your concerns and shine a turd of a job so fucking well, you'd think it was solid gold. Then, when you arrive in Korea, they will send you an innocent email, asking "was the flight was comfortable.. was the food good? ^^ got any concerns yet? how is the weather? :D the jetlag is horrible right!? XD" etc. When you hit reply though, you sure as hell aren't ever gonna hear from them again. You just secured their commission.
So be careful. Don't apply to just one agency. Apply to a fuckload** and see what turns up. If anything looks decent, do some RESEARCH. Don't go in blind. Poke those turds very carefully. With a barge pole.
How do I search?
Google of course! There are tens of thousands of sites about ESL generally and hundreds more specifically for Korea. There are agency sites, portals, forums.. etc. etc.
Perhaps the most popular site is daveseslcafe.com. The forums are a very bizarre place but it has been around for a long time, so it has an incredible amount of information. The search function is totally screwed there so use an indirect google search here: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006359271486458796786:_ooozypbm6u
Amongst the mass of trolls and disillusioned English teachers, there are quite a few long term veterans there who will give solid advice. Like with TL though... search first!!
So what am I looking for? What are the different types of jobs?
Public School Programs
There are several programs in Korea which are run by governmental districts/areas of education. E.g. for public schools in Seoul, they are run by SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education), for Gyeonggi-do (area around Seoul), its GEPIK (Gyeonggido English Program in Korea), majority of the rest of Korea, its EPIK etc. etc.
I'm in SMOE, the Seoul one. But all of these public school programs offer very similar contracts with similar job environments:
- hard to/impossible to pick which school you will end up at
- lowest pay (SMOE starts at 1.8million won/month if you have zero teaching exp/quals)
- lowest risk (probably the most important factor giving the probability of being screwed elsewhere. You can always find some official to complain to if you have problems. Compared to your hagwon director who mysteriously disappeared last night with your pay.)
- good holidays (you will get 21 days off in your 1-year contract. but if you are diplomatic, you can get anywhere between 1 week to another 3 months in unofficial leave when the school is on holiday)
- co-teaching (you will always be with another so-called co-teacher in your class. Whether they do anything to help or hinder you is a complete lottery as they sure as hell have no idea what they are supposed to do either)
- Average of 40 unmotivated students per class (see my last blog for one perspective)
- can be elementary, middle or high school (rigged lottery decided by the program)
- good hours (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm,9am-5pm. overtime can be forced upon you, but again, be diplomatic and you can adjust it to suit you)
- little/none contract negotiation (standardised contract which is relatively reasonable anyway)
- largely fixed hiring periods (Korea has 2 semester years starting in September and March, so the main hiring periods are in July-August and January-February)
- can be lonely. you will normally be the only foreign teacher in a school where very few people speak any English. (even the other Korean English teachers)
- the treatment of you will vary from school to school (shit treatment in public schools exists too but is rare)
Hagwons / Private English academies
So, this is the other large category of teaching jobs in Korea. They vary hugely though, some are very suspect, family-sized schools whereas others are multiple city-spanning chains. From what I hear, even within the chains (and more commonly, franchises), the working conditions can vary a lot. I've heard some great stories about some professionally-run hagwons and absolute fucking disaster stories about others. Here are some facts:
-higher pay than public school (should be 2.3million+)
-generally higher working hours (varies hugely, some require a sacrificial Saturday, others shaft you with a split shift where you work in the early mornings and in the late evenings)
-higher risk of being screwed (depends on the director/owner of the hagwon. you can be screwed in any number of ways, from pay, to visa issues, accommodation, non-contracted working hours)
-smaller class sizes (1-20)
-can be teaching any age
-no Korean co-teacher
-contract negotiation possible (harder with large,chain hagwons)
Privately contracted school contracts
An interesting beast. This is where you contract directly with a public or private school. You will have a very similar life to a normal public school teacher. But with added benefits:
-you can choose the goddamn school/area!
-you can negotiate the contract.. which means..
-checking out your accommodation before hand
-higher normal/overtime pay
-clarifying abiguous bits of the standard public school contract such as extra hours and summer/winter programs
Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible for newbies to get these jobs as you need to be in Korea already to sell yourself to these schools. You'll also need to know a bit about teaching already to be able to pick a decent place and get a good contract. Normally, its the more veteran teachers who do this.
Some agencies do have such public schools on file but the possibility that you are being screwed between the agency and the school is greater.
University teaching
Only attainable if you have something extra like a Masters / PhD, teaching experience or a teaching qualification. These generally have:
-the best pay (starting anywhere from 2.5-3.0million)
-longest holidays (they usually follow the uni calendar, meaning you get awesome breaks)
-best chance of developing a long-term career
-motivated adult students (you might actually enjoy teaching here lol)
Be slightly careful of some so-called university jobs though. It has become more trendy for universities to whore out their name to a hagwon. In which case you could be in for a lot more pain than you thought.
Public v. Private
Its important to bear in mind, that like any Asian country, Korean working culture is pretty demanding. Signed contracts can hold as much weight as secondhand toilet paper. So a school may try to force you to do non-contracted work, pay you late, refuse holidays etc.. Going all Judge Judy on their ass will not help either. Oh sure you can try. Just plan to stay 3 more years while your case crawls through the legal system and rob a few Shinhan banks too, so you can fund it.
Therefore, when thinking about risks, the emphasis should always be on prevention. Getting problems fixed, especially because of the language barrier can be incredibly stressful, time-consuming and sometimes impossible. You're gonna be here for at least a whole year. It's not like problems will be a temporary thing to tolerate. And if you fuck up, don't think you can seamlessly slide into another job while you're there.. visa issues can be a complete pain in the ass.
From what I have heard, it seems to me that if you can find a good hagwon with a director that doesn't treat you like that shit, then it is better than a public school job. The trouble is of course finding this unicorn of a job and making sure that its not actually an aforementioned turd.
If you cannot do this, public schools should be the way to go.
Application process
I reckon you need to spend at least a 1month researching and finding out about teaching/Korea the job etc.. You will almost certainly go through an agency/recruiter who will guide you through the process. To join an agency, you should send your photo, resume/CV and a (possible) cover letter.
You can pick from a list of jobs that the agency have already. Alternatively, you'll get emails with offers that the agency has 'matched' to you. If you like something, the agency will get in touch with the school and see if they like you too. A telephone interview will then be arranged... nothing hard, they really just want to hear you speak English.
After you pass this, it will be at least another 3 weeks before you arrive with your heart-pounding in Incheon airport. (Docs need to be sent to and from Korea)
On the subject of docs... There are a fuckload of documents you need to prepare. So, you should get these sorted well in advance so when the time comes to send off the docs, you don't get delayed. Some of these like the criminal record check can take around a month. Then you need to take a bunch of docs to a solicitor and/or embassy so they can 'legalize" and/or "notarize" it (read: handing over an outrageous sum of money for a few doodles/stamps on your papers).
Important things to bear in mind while applying
Discrimination
Is rampant. There is a reason why the first thing recruiters ask from you is your photograph.
Let me put it to you bluntly. If you are white, you will find (hagwon) jobs 10x more easily than others. This isn't bitter whining. It's the truth. The ideal candidate is a Caucasian woman with blond hair and blue eyes from North America.
As for non-Caucasians, it hurts me to say it, but generally the darker your skin colour, the harder it will be to find a job. Foreign Koreans are at the top of this category for obvious reasons, but even they will be ignored by some hagwons. Just accept it, sorry.
What this means is that for some people, applying to hagwons is practically not an option. Very few will respond, let alone consider your application. You have little choice but to pursue the public school route while is much less discriminating.
Public school applications
Although I said a good tip was to mass join a shitload of agencies. This is true for hagwon searching. BUT, for public schools, you need to be careful that multiple agencies don't apply you for the same program (e.g. SMOE, EPIK etc.). This is because most programs will auto reject any applicant who has sent in multiple applications.
Some agencies specialise in hagwon jobs, while others in a particular program. So obviously, don't mindlessly send an application to two agencies which specialise in the same program.
Hagwon hunting
Imagine Tom Cruise lectures you for 3 hours about Scientologist beliefs and tells you at the end that if you don't believe him, you're a complete fucking moron. Would you be agitated? Raged? Good. I certainly hope so. But this is the same righteous cynical wrath you should employ when dealing with hagwons.
Ask lots of questions. Why exactly is there a vacancy now? (an old teacher left? why? if its during the middle of the term.. RED FLAG... contracts don't usualy end midterm...the guy might have done a runner... there might have been a good reason he did... ). Get photos of the apartment. (theyre saying it isnt necessary? RED FLAG... its not hard to upload photos... what are they afraid of.. ). Can you get the contact details of someone working at the school now? (Why not?! RED FLAGGG)..
I'm exagerrating slightly but I can't tell you how many teachers I've met who have been screwed in some way by their hagwons. Psychotic paranoia can be useful here.
Misc Info
Visas
Most teachers receive the standard E-2 visa. The visa is directly linked to your teaching job, so if that goes, your visa is void.. If your visa is void... you need to be on a plane out within 24 hours. The practical consequence of this is that some bosses will use this leverage against you. I.e. "Listen bitch, start packing your bags unless you do those extra hours".
If you have Korean blood though, you will be immune from this bullshit as you can probably go for some sort of F visa which lets you stay in Korea whatever happens.
Just something to bear in mind.
Long-term Teaching Careers?
Decent, long-term ESL career development prospects are pretty rare. The industry as a whole is geared towards hiring short-term, (1-2 year) recent graduates who have never taught in their life.
If you're still teaching here past the 3 year mark.. it's probably because (in order of exponentially descreasing frequency) 1) you can't find anything better and don't know what to do with your life (sad), 2) you have a seriiiiiiiiiiious case of yellow fever (sad), 3) you're getting married to a Korean (congrats), 4) you're a lucky bastard and snagged one of the few high level / well paid positions (GJ!).
Stigma, in here and in Korea
There is a certain stigma attached to teaching on these forums. Surprisingly though, you shouldn't believe everything thats written on the internet especially from people who have never actually taught before, or from people who have only met the same shallow, retarded, arrogant piece of shits doing the same shit that they themselves are doing in Korea.
There are certainly a lot of asshole teachers here. Just glance at the so called 'job requirements' again - some of the very worst scum come here (usually because they failed their education/lives so hard back in the US). But the majority of teachers I have met are decent, likable people.
No doubt there is some anti-teacher sentiment in Korea.. But 1) I've personally never felt any negative consequence from saying I'm an English teacher here (this could be because I am Asian though and I a work in a public school). And 2) I think that any anti-teacher feeling is part of the whole anti-American white guy feeling. (Typical Asian xenophobia + most foreigners are from America + Korean history + occasional US retard/paedophile in the headlines. It's not a big problem though).
Hope that was helpful to some of you.
This is completely broken-record style but... just remember that every second you spend finding more about the job, means less time wasted dealing with post-fan-hitting-shit scenarios in Korea.
Good Luck~
p8
On March 21 2009 14:50 BunkerPush wrote:
Yea folks! chicka chicka yeeeaaaaa pro gammeerrrr
Yea folks! chicka chicka yeeeaaaaa pro gammeerrrr
On March 23 2009 07:33 CDRdude wrote:
You're full of shit, I know a stage when I see one.
You can't tell me that it isn't a stage. And you were playing the real life Rock Band challenge on a stage...do you think I'm an idiot? They even say "please leave the stage" at the end. We know what's really going on here.
+ Show Spoiler +
You're full of shit, I know a stage when I see one.
You can't tell me that it isn't a stage. And you were playing the real life Rock Band challenge on a stage...do you think I'm an idiot? They even say "please leave the stage" at the end. We know what's really going on here.
+ Show Spoiler +
+ Show Spoiler [massive post] +
On March 21 2009 10:23 Farm wrote:
For the real fun of seeing IdrA's attitude-in-need-of-adjustment, scroll down to near the end (or Ctrl+F "Manner Bear"), although I certainly encourage you to read my report of the game first!
Comments (about the report, although you can comment on IdrA too if you want, I won't ban you from my blog) are most welcome!
Hi guys!
It's me again, although most of you probably don't remember me, I decided to write a battlereport of CJ_Idra vs 3D.Strelok. Note that this contains spoilers of Broodsport/Liquibition of Strelok vs F91. If you somehow have not seen those and do not want to be spoiled (then my congratulations to you for somehow avoiding it while still reading TL...), then do not read this.
IdrA vs Strelok @ Chupung-Ryeong
The Replay
Anyway, the replay is hosted on GosuGamers.net and at repdepot. I won't tell you how to find it because I'm not supposed to link to IdrA replays. I'm sure you can find it yourself at gosugamers.net's starcraft replay section, it's not that hard.
The Map
Twelve professional TvTs have been played on Chupung-Ryeong, but I can't say much interesting about the balance of the map as it's TvT! I'm not a good enough player to be able to say whether the 1 or the 7 position have an appreciable advantage against the other in TvT.
The Situation
Strelok and Idra... two of the top foreigner Terrans. Interestingly enough, they both played and lost TvZ vs F91 recently. Strelok lost 2-5 in games, and Idra lost 2-5 in games! Strelok is known for having a strong TvT, while Idra's TvT is lesser-known. However, with the map being Chupung-Ryeong and Idra having professional level practice partners, that historical TvT imbalance would seem to be minimized.
IdrA lacks the respect for Strelok that Strelok has for him, however, so it will be a game that IdrA definitely does not want to lose!
The Game
Idra lands his teal Command Center at the 7 o'clock position, while Strelok speedily builds his red one at the 1. Note: Idra was actually yellow and Strelok was orange. This makes for bad screenshots! I've used ally colours so that's why they are those colors. Through use of slavic speed, Strelok rapidly siezes the advantage by building his SCV .00001 seconds faster!
Idra; Strelok. Green vs Red--a contest to determine the best Christmas colour!
IdrA begins my mining minerals with his SCVs, whereas Strelok begins mining minerals with his SCVs anddoing a standard build scouting with one of his first four SCVs (what!?).
Strelok attempts some sort of cheese? Time shall tell!
Strelok makes a Barracks on 6 supply below/right of IdrA's natural. Idra, meanwhile, is at 8/10 supply with his 8th SCV about to finish.
Strelok's proxy cheese. One can imagine IdrA's reaction now if he had gone 14 CC and not scouted it
Progamer SCV sense of star saves the day!
IdrA continues standardly with Barracks/Refinery, while Strelok adds a Supply Depot at home.
"Fuck off!" "No you!" "Fine T_T"
Strelok is forced to cancel his proxy Barracks because IdrA's SCV was attacking his building SCV. Now comfortably behind, Strelok makes another Barracks in his main and takes his own gas.
Status Check!
Strelok is down by a little less than 2 SCVs, economically. His Barracks is less than half-done while IdrA's is already complete. Similarly with the geysers.
Idra adds a second Depot before starting his Factory, while Strelok (when his lazy SCV finally finishes the epic project of the Barracks) throws his down prior to the second depot. Because of this, IdrA's factory is only slightly ahead of Strelok's.
Strelok makes a single Marine and then floats his Barracks, while IdrA instructs 3 men on the use of Gauss Rifles before lifting his.
You may have stopped my proxy, but I'm going to have a Barracks at you one way or another!
Both players go 2 fact, researching mines first, although Strelok's second factory ended up significantly behind due to his opening.
IdrA attacks Strelok's forces. Strelok has no Siege Tank, and loses a Marine immediately, before pulling back behind the mines.
IdrA mentally curses a mine for blowing up half his men
IdrA and Strelok continue by researching Ionic Thrusters, while Strelok adds a Starport, hidden at the top right corner of his base. Strelok also adds a third factory.
IdrA's expansion CC is blocked! Meanwhile, at Strelok's corner....
Strelok's CC was roughly 650 HP slower than IdrA's due to his more diverse tech choices. Strelok also elected to cancel that third factory he was making. Strelok thus has 2 factories and a starport against IdrA's (now) four factories and armory/academy which he just started.
An attack!
Meanwhile... The wraiths kill many SCVs (at time of that screenshot they had 9 kills between them, but they got many more (we're talking 25+)
Strelok, "the SCV assassin", is everywhere!
Hm
Attempting to prove his point, IdrA attacks!
Having given up his natural as unsalvageable, IdrA migrated that CC to the 9 expansion. Strelok also took the 3 at this time.
All was not well at IdrA's 9, however...
IdrA's main gets dropped, but he managed to shut down Strelok's 3 o'clock expansion, while taking his own near the bottom right.
IdrA quickly gets frustrated with trying to defend his last expansion, however, and leaves.
IdrA the "Manner Bear"
Strelok posted in support of IdrA after IdrA's loss in broodsport:
So how exactly did IdrA leave? Did he type "gg", or even "g"? Well...
Thanks To:
Teamliquid.net, for being the best StarCraft website out there!
Strelok, for being a good player and playing awesome StarCraft!
Imageshack, for hosting the images!
GosuGamers.net, for being where I originally got the replay!
Idra, for being consistently bm and cocky, without which the replay would just have been a good TvT, but not motivating enough for me to write this!
Note to Moderators/Admins:
Hopefully you respect me and my contribution enough to keep this open, unlike the IdrA bm vs Strelok topic which was previously closed before (and it was admittedly short on content apart from bashing Idra so I don't disagree with that decision, but I've attempted to mitigate that problem by actually writing a battlereport about the game itself).
For the real fun of seeing IdrA's attitude-in-need-of-adjustment, scroll down to near the end (or Ctrl+F "Manner Bear"), although I certainly encourage you to read my report of the game first!
Comments (about the report, although you can comment on IdrA too if you want, I won't ban you from my blog) are most welcome!
Hi guys!
It's me again, although most of you probably don't remember me, I decided to write a battlereport of CJ_Idra vs 3D.Strelok. Note that this contains spoilers of Broodsport/Liquibition of Strelok vs F91. If you somehow have not seen those and do not want to be spoiled (then my congratulations to you for somehow avoiding it while still reading TL...), then do not read this.
IdrA vs Strelok @ Chupung-Ryeong
The Replay
Anyway, the replay is hosted on GosuGamers.net and at repdepot. I won't tell you how to find it because I'm not supposed to link to IdrA replays. I'm sure you can find it yourself at gosugamers.net's starcraft replay section, it's not that hard.
The Map
Twelve professional TvTs have been played on Chupung-Ryeong, but I can't say much interesting about the balance of the map as it's TvT! I'm not a good enough player to be able to say whether the 1 or the 7 position have an appreciable advantage against the other in TvT.
The Situation
Strelok and Idra... two of the top foreigner Terrans. Interestingly enough, they both played and lost TvZ vs F91 recently. Strelok lost 2-5 in games, and Idra lost 2-5 in games! Strelok is known for having a strong TvT, while Idra's TvT is lesser-known. However, with the map being Chupung-Ryeong and Idra having professional level practice partners, that historical TvT imbalance would seem to be minimized.
IdrA lacks the respect for Strelok that Strelok has for him, however, so it will be a game that IdrA definitely does not want to lose!
The Game
Idra lands his teal Command Center at the 7 o'clock position, while Strelok speedily builds his red one at the 1. Note: Idra was actually yellow and Strelok was orange. This makes for bad screenshots! I've used ally colours so that's why they are those colors. Through use of slavic speed, Strelok rapidly siezes the advantage by building his SCV .00001 seconds faster!
Idra; Strelok. Green vs Red--a contest to determine the best Christmas colour!
IdrA begins my mining minerals with his SCVs, whereas Strelok begins mining minerals with his SCVs and
Strelok attempts some sort of cheese? Time shall tell!
Strelok makes a Barracks on 6 supply below/right of IdrA's natural. Idra, meanwhile, is at 8/10 supply with his 8th SCV about to finish.
Strelok's proxy cheese. One can imagine IdrA's reaction now if he had gone 14 CC and not scouted it
Progamer SCV sense of star saves the day!
IdrA continues standardly with Barracks/Refinery, while Strelok adds a Supply Depot at home.
"Fuck off!" "No you!" "Fine T_T"
Strelok is forced to cancel his proxy Barracks because IdrA's SCV was attacking his building SCV. Now comfortably behind, Strelok makes another Barracks in his main and takes his own gas.
Status Check!
Strelok is down by a little less than 2 SCVs, economically. His Barracks is less than half-done while IdrA's is already complete. Similarly with the geysers.
Idra adds a second Depot before starting his Factory, while Strelok (when his lazy SCV finally finishes the epic project of the Barracks) throws his down prior to the second depot. Because of this, IdrA's factory is only slightly ahead of Strelok's.
Strelok makes a single Marine and then floats his Barracks, while IdrA instructs 3 men on the use of Gauss Rifles before lifting his.
You may have stopped my proxy, but I'm going to have a Barracks at you one way or another!
Both players go 2 fact, researching mines first, although Strelok's second factory ended up significantly behind due to his opening.
IdrA attacks Strelok's forces. Strelok has no Siege Tank, and loses a Marine immediately, before pulling back behind the mines.
IdrA mentally curses a mine for blowing up half his men
IdrA and Strelok continue by researching Ionic Thrusters, while Strelok adds a Starport, hidden at the top right corner of his base. Strelok also adds a third factory.
IdrA's expansion CC is blocked! Meanwhile, at Strelok's corner....
Strelok's CC was roughly 650 HP slower than IdrA's due to his more diverse tech choices. Strelok also elected to cancel that third factory he was making. Strelok thus has 2 factories and a starport against IdrA's (now) four factories and armory/academy which he just started.
An attack!
Meanwhile... The wraiths kill many SCVs (at time of that screenshot they had 9 kills between them, but they got many more (we're talking 25+)
Strelok, "the SCV assassin", is everywhere!
Hm
Attempting to prove his point, IdrA attacks!
Having given up his natural as unsalvageable, IdrA migrated that CC to the 9 expansion. Strelok also took the 3 at this time.
All was not well at IdrA's 9, however...
IdrA's main gets dropped, but he managed to shut down Strelok's 3 o'clock expansion, while taking his own near the bottom right.
IdrA quickly gets frustrated with trying to defend his last expansion, however, and leaves.
IdrA the "Manner Bear"
Strelok posted in support of IdrA after IdrA's loss in broodsport:
So how exactly did IdrA leave? Did he type "gg", or even "g"? Well...
Thanks To:
Teamliquid.net, for being the best StarCraft website out there!
Strelok, for being a good player and playing awesome StarCraft!
Imageshack, for hosting the images!
GosuGamers.net, for being where I originally got the replay!
Idra, for being consistently bm and cocky, without which the replay would just have been a good TvT, but not motivating enough for me to write this!
Note to Moderators/Admins:
Hopefully you respect me and my contribution enough to keep this open, unlike the IdrA bm vs Strelok topic which was previously closed before (and it was admittedly short on content apart from bashing Idra so I don't disagree with that decision, but I've attempted to mitigate that problem by actually writing a battlereport about the game itself).
The Shit Bus
On March 22 2009 14:32 rushz0rz wrote:
Don't you need Greater Spire for level 3 ground upgrades?
Don't you need Greater Spire for level 3 ground upgrades?
Thanks Harem
p9
- Scooter shows us who can beat Mario 1-1 without looking
- CDRdude has a Python cake
- ShoCkeyy graffitti
- Lz Reps
- Saddles continues his quest...
- StRyKeR starts a gg debate
- RoieTRS School Success Tip # 67: Read the Instructions
- Valentine has a girlfriend (Awww)
- rushz0rz presents: The Scarab Whisper
- Nitrogen is a photographer?
- Binky's new credit card
- fusionsdf map imbalance competition
p10
Monoxide was just temp banned for 2 days by EvilTeletubby.
That account was created on 2007-01-02 22:57:15 and had 641 posts.
Reason: Arbiter[frolix] is too nice. You ruined the MSL Final results for a lot of people, a 2-day ban is absolute minimum. Don't ever do it again.
That account was created on 2007-01-02 22:57:15 and had 641 posts.
Reason: Arbiter[frolix] is too nice. You ruined the MSL Final results for a lot of people, a 2-day ban is absolute minimum. Don't ever do it again.
p11
VOD of the Week
VOD of the Week(KTF vs OZ spoiler):
+ Show Spoiler +
Flash vs Jaedong @ Rush Hour 3 from WL Playoffs Day 2:
There was no doubt in my mind in choosing the first video in this series. This is an epic clash of titans featuring hidden expansions, amazing SK terran, idle lurker traps(not hold lurker--watch to find out), 3 port vessels, and hydra/plague. Definitely one of the most suspenseful TvZs played in a long time.
Also check out Bisu and Hoejja from last weeks games if you haven't seen it yet!
Question of the Week
Can CJ do it?
p12