Are English Festivals considered teaching hours.

I have to teach 22 hours a week in my public school.  However, in one of those weeks, I have to do an English Festival where I have to be there for 15 hours. So basically, 22 hours of teaching, plus the 15 hours of the English Festival. Is me being in the English Festival considered a teaching hour?

Are you teaching or leading activities? Then I'd say yes, they count.
If you're just a warm body that's present and its during contract hours, then probably not.

Are you teaching or leading activities? Then I'd say yes, they count.
If you're just a warm body that's present and its during contract hours, then probably not.

Thank you for your reply.

I'm in a specific booth with activities for students to do. I have to interact with them in English. Would that be considered a part of 22 teaching hours per week?

Damn. I bet you're in Gyeonggi, aren't you?  That whole region is such a ****** joke.

IMO, yes, I'd count those as teaching hours. You're not being asked to monitor, but to actually run activities and interact with students. That basically sounds like another version of camp, which you get paid for by the teaching hour.

But it's also possibly a gray area that your school or district is trying to take advantage of with no regard for you and your time.

I'd personally be asking for overtime over this, but you might want to ask someone who knows a lot more about how this would fit in with labor law definitions and your contract. Don't trust what the school or education office has to say about it, they'll interpret it in any way that benefits them the most. You need to talk to someone who knows and understands how legal requirements would actually define this kind of work.

You might want to start with one of the FB legal advise groups, such as SJ's Legal Cafe or LOFT, and go from there. Be careful with LOFT, though, there are a ton of toxic legal wannabes in that group, and they put their egos before others' wellbeing first. I've heard it's improved, but you still want to be careful with any info you get from there. I'd also recommend PALS: Practical Advice for Life Situations, but that group is nowhere near as active as it used to be. You may or may not get a quick answer from there.

Here's another list of legal resources:

https://www.korea4expats.com/article-legal-help-korea.html

Damn. I bet you're in Gyeonggi, aren't you?  That whole region is such a ****** joke.

IMO, yes, I'd count those as teaching hours. You're not being asked to monitor, but to actually run activities and interact with students. That basically sounds like another version of camp, which you get paid for by the teaching hour.

But it's also possibly a gray area that your school or district is trying to take advantage of with no regard for you and your time.

I'd personally be asking for overtime over this, but you might want to ask someone who knows a lot more about how this would fit in with labor law definitions and your contract. Don't trust what the school or education office has to say about it, they'll interpret it in any way that benefits them the most. You need to talk to someone who knows and understands how legal requirements would actually define this kind of work.

You might want to start with one of the FB legal advise groups, such as SJ's Legal Cafe or LOFT, and go from there. Be careful with LOFT, though, there are a ton of toxic legal wannabes in that group, and they put their egos before others' wellbeing first. I've heard it's improved, but you still want to be careful with any info you get from there. I'd also recommend PALS: Practical Advice for Life Situations, but that group is nowhere near as active as it used to be. You may or may not get a quick answer from there.

Here's another list of legal resources:

https://www.korea4expats.com/article-legal-help-korea.html

Thank you for this information. I'll check them out.

I would suggest that yes, it does count as your teaching hours.

I have a question though, if you're doing them in addition to your 22 hours that week, when are you doing them?  37 teaching hours in a week when a standard epik contract of 8.30-4.30(or there abouts) minus lunch breaks doesn't really fit.

If you're doing them after regular hours, you should be getting overtime anyway.  If you are doing them instead of your regular classes you are unlikely to get anything.  If you are essentially teaching from the moment you arrive to leave everyday then yes, they should be giving you extra.

I would suggest that yes, it does count as your teaching hours.

I have a question though, if you're doing them in addition to your 22 hours that week, when are you doing them?  37 teaching hours in a week when a standard epik contract of 8.30-4.30(or there abouts) minus lunch breaks doesn't really fit.

If you're doing them after regular hours, you should be getting overtime anyway.  If you are doing them instead of your regular classes you are unlikely to get anything.  If you are essentially teaching from the moment you arrive to leave everyday then yes, they should be giving you extra.

I need to make a correction. It's 17 teaching hours because my normal morning class once a week has to be cancelled because of this English Festival. The 17 hours is after lunch. My work hours is from 9-5. I work with GEPIK. The English festival is in the morning time from Monday to Friday for three hours a day. 40 minutes (elementary school) and a 10 minute break. Different classes from my school will come to the gym in my school to participate.

I need to make a correction. It's 17 teaching hours because my normal morning class once a week has to be cancelled because of this English Festival. The 17 hours is after lunch. My work hours is from 9-5. I work with GEPIK. The English festival is in the morning time from Monday to Friday for three hours a day. 40 minutes (elementary school) and a 10 minute break. Different classes from my school will come to the gym in my school to participate.

Sorry, I'm a little confused by this - 17 hours total or 32 hours (17 regular teaching hours + 15 festival hours)?

Sorry, I'm a little confused by this - 17 hours total or 32 hours (17 regular teaching hours + 15 festival hours)?

Normally I teach 17 hours of afterschool program class and 5 hours of morning class which totals 22 teaching hours a week. However, In that upcoming specific of the week, my morning class in cancelled due to the English festival. So 17 hours of in class teaching + 15 festival hours.

I have to teach 22 hours a week in my public school.  However, in one of those weeks, I have to do an English Festival where I have to be there for 15 hours. So basically, 22 hours of teaching, plus the 15 hours of the English Festival. Is me being in the English Festival considered a teaching hour?

They should technically pay overtime if you are teaching 22 hours plus 15 hours on top of that.  But if 15 hours are swapped out for 15 of the 22 then no extra overtime pay.  However, if your school is relaxed with you and not too strict with the contract, then just do it as a favor and let it go.  If you go hardcore on the contract then your schools and the education office will do the same to you.  If they give you some slackness in some areas IE  Less desk warming during the vacation, etc or some similar perks, then just do them the favor and don't push it.  I actually went to my schools on a couple of Saturdays before as a favor though not for a long time.  I did it for free, but they were cool with me on things.  Let me leave early on vacations, etc.  One of these was a travel school years ago that let me come in late and go home early due to the far travel distance.  They called me on Saturday morning asked me to meet them in my town where I lived.  I went and did it for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning.  They were cool to me, I was cool to them. 


Of course re reading this the contract may have a vague clause doing "duties" for the school if you are not actually teaching them.  Anyways, you know your school and situation best. 

Normally I teach 17 hours of afterschool program class and 5 hours of morning class which totals 22 teaching hours a week. However, In that upcoming specific of the week, my morning class in cancelled due to the English festival. So 17 hours of in class teaching + 15 festival hours.

Wow, you're basically an afterschool teacher then.  Only five curriculum classes a week. 

If you go hardcore on the contract then your schools and the education office will do the same to you. 

This is an important point, one of those pick your battles situation.  If they are constantly hardcore on the contract anyway then you should speak to the education office if they're not offering overtime at a school level.  However, if it's a back scratching exercise probably best to let it go.  Only you will know that.

So, in this specific week you have 32 hours of classes?  Unless things have changed, they can't tack on a bunch of hours one week and claim it's ok because normally you only work 17.  It's not cumulative hours over a semester.  It's based on a single week.  I would definitely expect overtime for a 32 hour week. 

In the summer of 2006 i was one of just 2 foreigners working at hagwons in Hadong (famous for the cherry blossom festival along the Seomjin river, for the Toji "Land" book festival, celebrating yearly before COVID one of Korea's epic early novels, written about the region by a woman from Tongyeong, and for the historic trading post upriver between Gyeongsang & Jeolla provinces, where many hikers ascend Jiri mountain).

And there was where Fridays I didn't work. But I'd join them eagerly on trip days: river rafting, paintballing, Muju sledding, park Easter egg hunting like, etc. I didn't get paid (was on a Monday-to-Thursday contract - a condition their recruiter recommended they offer to attract applicants to a rural town) but i didn't care: each trip was great, i had my paint ball team flank the opposition, asked for a 2-person suicide squad as diversion, and we then took out the opposition (the two who volunteered to get covered in paint we chanted "hero!" and "MVP!" all the way back to town - after getting ice cream. Those were good days.

Festivals sound like fun. Enjoy them. Don't worry about money unless your pocket's pinched, as they say.

If you are 'required' to be somewhere, then that is considered the same as teaching time.

You don't only count time in the 'classroom'.  If your coteacher/admin disagrees, politely agree to disagree and either prepare to be abused or let go for being 'difficult'.

What are 'English festivals'? Do they have free meat pies and ale? Because I'd volunteer up for that!