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EPIK is not now and has never been about actual teaching (of English or anything else). They don't care about that. Parents who want their kids to actually learn English send them to hagwons, as MayorHaggar said.

I thought hagwans weren't and never have been about teaching either, just making money.

All of what you said above would be crazy if they were employing teachers with full class room responsibility, like in the Hong Kong NET scheme. However maybe it makes more sense if they're just looking for assistant teachers to do supplement the Korean teacher.

In my school it is 100% about exposing the students to an English speaker, forcing them the converse in a different language and experiencing a different style of 'teaching than the Koreans. I don't teach as much as facilitate English speaking.

I was actually told that this was my main responsibility at my EPIK orientation.

Quote from: eggieguffer on April 02, 2019, 06:18:50 AM

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EPIK is not now and has never been about actual teaching (of English or anything else). They don't care about that. Parents who want their kids to actually learn English send them to hagwons, as MayorHaggar said.

I thought hagwans weren't and never have been about teaching either, just making money.

All of what you said above would be crazy if they were employing teachers with full class room responsibility, like in the Hong Kong NET scheme. However maybe it makes more sense if they're just looking for assistant teachers to do supplement the Korean teacher.

In my school it is 100% about exposing the students to an English speaker, forcing them the converse in a different language and experiencing a different style of 'teaching than the Koreans. I don't teach as much as facilitate English speaking.

I was actually told that this was my main responsibility at my EPIK orientation.

Too bad EPIK and the schools didn't get together and hammer out an agreement on what to say and what to actually believe and implement.  Most of the people in the EPIK offices have no clue.  Nod your head politely, sat thank you, go to your schools, and then ask the schools what's up.  (What do they want to do?)

What EPIK says and what your schools want are often different. 

Quote from: hangook77 on April 02, 2019, 09:47:20 AM

Quote from: Colburnnn on April 02, 2019, 07:48:13 AM

Quote from: eggieguffer on April 02, 2019, 06:18:50 AM

Quote

EPIK is not now and has never been about actual teaching (of English or anything else). They don't care about that. Parents who want their kids to actually learn English send them to hagwons, as MayorHaggar said.

I thought hagwans weren't and never have been about teaching either, just making money.

All of what you said above would be crazy if they were employing teachers with full class room responsibility, like in the Hong Kong NET scheme. However maybe it makes more sense if they're just looking for assistant teachers to do supplement the Korean teacher.

In my school it is 100% about exposing the students to an English speaker, forcing them the converse in a different language and experiencing a different style of 'teaching than the Koreans. I don't teach as much as facilitate English speaking.

I was actually told that this was my main responsibility at my EPIK orientation.

Too bad EPIK and the schools didn't get together and hammer out an agreement on what to say and what to actually believe and implement.  Most of the people in the EPIK offices have no clue.  Nod your head politely, sat thank you, go to your schools, and then ask the schools what's up.  (What do they want to do?)

What EPIK says and what your schools want are often different.

I totally agree with you, and that is what I did. I spent 4-5 classes learning how to read basic story books to Ele kids and then got shoved in one of the best and richest Middle Schools in my city with 35% having lived overseas. (near fluent in English) So I said, ''what do you want me to teach'' and got told ''whatever you want to, just make them speak''. It worked out great but can't believe the amount of pointless exercises beforehand.

I had a middle school like that a long time ago.  I loved the place.  But they were private and the education office didn't want to send natives there anymore.  Really chilled environment and the kids were nearly fluent.  I downloaded some topic lessons from here and added a lot of my own content and flipped it around.  A lot of work, but now I use the files if I have an extra after school class or an extra class for kids at the education office which I have had before.  I also flipped through the textbook even though the teachers told me not to use it.  I took some key expressions and based my topic lessons off whatever one of the chapter themes was.  I took the key expressions and changed them to longer sentences and added more complex words to bring it up to their level of challenge.  The next couple of years I went to middle schools that had 4 classes instead of 3 a week.  They also said don't use the book.  So, I dumber down those lessons slightly and went with it.  Great times.  It was a drag when I later got some schools that wanted me to teach the book.  (So I did listen and speak every two weeks and did my own lesson the week in between.)

If you are applying for EPIK with the qualifications to meet the top salary level there is not a chance on this earth you are going to get hired. It's all about the Benjamins.

A long time ago EPIK was begging people to come and make the program work out the standards were lower then and the pay didn't go downhill yet. Nowadays it's all about cheap labor and having a foreign looking person in the classroom to make teaching English seem more legit. If you're highly qualified and they reject you it's their loss they will get what they paid for.

Quote from: eggieguffer on April 02, 2019, 06:18:50 AM

Quote

EPIK is not now and has never been about actual teaching (of English or anything else). They don't care about that. Parents who want their kids to actually learn English send them to hagwons, as MayorHaggar said.

I thought hagwans weren't and never have been about teaching either, just making money.

All of what you said above would be crazy if they were employing teachers with full class room responsibility, like in the Hong Kong NET scheme. However maybe it makes more sense if they're just looking for assistant teachers to do supplement the Korean teacher.

In my school it is 100% about exposing the students to an English speaker, forcing them the converse in a different language and experiencing a different style of 'teaching than the Koreans. I don't teach as much as facilitate English speaking.

I was actually told that this was my main responsibility at my EPIK orientation.

This is only true to a certain extent.  The actual reasons you are there as an EPIK teacher are as follows:

1) To have a "foreign" face in the class, preferably white, female and young.
2) To give the students a class where they don't have to do a ton of work (like their other classes)

Whether you can be there to "supplement the Korean teacher" depends largely on the Korean teacher you are working with.  In fact, 90% OF YOUR JOB will be determined by the Korean teacher.  This could either be great, or it could be terrible depending on the personality of the teacher in question and what they think of you. If for whatever reason they don't like you, you are screwed and pretty much have no recourse.

I've taught at more than one school through EPIK or GEPIK (I have 6 years of experience with this system), where both what I was supposed to teach, and how the job went, totally changed when the teacher I had to work with changed.

Having said that, about 80% of the Korean teachers I've had to deal with, were pretty cool or at least tolerable.  However, I did have a few teachers that were difficult to deal with. The problem is, if that happens, there's nothing you can do about it.  As a NET, you don't have any authority in your school.

EPIK is an ok short term plan, but a terrible long term plan.  I have never heard of a teacher that stayed in EPIK or GEPIK for more than 7 years or so (I stayed for 6 but worked for 4 different schools).  I did see teachers who stayed at one school for 3 years.  1 or 2 years is common, but more than 3 years is rare. The reasons for this are as follows:

1) The changing nature of the job, as explained above (i.e. you start out with a good teacher to work with, but then a different teacher comes in that you can't get along with)
2) It's impossible to move up in EPIK.  So even if you are there say, 20 years, you are still an EPIK teacher and not really part of the Korean education system proper.  So you can't move up to being a homeroom teacher, or the principal of the school, for example.
3) As explained by others, once you move up the pay scale, they are less likely to want to hire you.  So if you do manage to stay in a school for 3 years, that puts you on top of the pay scale.  So if you decide you are tired of that school and want to move, you are going to have a hard time convincing a new school to hire you.

EPIK is a GREAT idea if you fall into one or more of these categories:
1) You want to get a little bit of teaching experience (assuming you are starting out)
2) You are just out of college, still young, and want to see Asia a little.  Korea has A LOT to offer you if you are willing to travel around the country. I recommend getting a car if you can, or just travel on your own.  Don't travel with other Koreans too much if you can avoid it.
3) You need a stop-gap job for a few years while you are studying to improve your skills so you can be more employable elsewhere (like studying computer programming for example).

EPIK is a terrible idea if you fall into these categories:
1) You are old (i.e. 40+)
2) You want a job where you can stay long term (i.e. 3 years or more)

What's the starting salary for EPIK these days? I started at 2.2 million Won per month in September 2005. I had a very nice big 2 bedroom apartment fully furnished including computer with a printer/scanner/copier, TV with satellite dish, new bed and mattress. In fact most of the stuff was still in boxes or plastic.

It's better now I assume, you know, 14 years on.....

Lowest level starting salary will see you placed out in the boonies at 2.2 million. If you opt for a city, it's 2.0 million. Bus and taxi drivers make more than you do. Retail associates make more than you do. In a few years when the minimum wage is raised, you'll be earning slightly more than a convenience store worker.

http://www.epik.go.kr/contents.do?contentsNo=49&menuNo=278

On the other hand, after making the +1 bracket (possible after your second year), you can be making 2.7. Add the .15 for 3+ schools, another .1 for rural, and that's 2.95 million.
Get your own apartment, and suddenly you're making 3.35 million.
Do a few weekend camps every year, and you can round that number up to 3.4 million per month, which is pretty decent when you take into consideration all the other monetary perks the EPIK contract gives us.

I mean, youre not wrong: teaching was far more lucrative back around the turn of the millennium, but honestly, a lot of that money was basically hardship pay.

Rural is 200k :p

Quote from: Kayos on Yesterday at 07:56:43 AM

Rural is 200k :p

Not in my neck of the woods, unfortunately. 
Although, if you're a masochist and want to live on Ulleung-do, then rural pay is 500,000 won! 

Oh wow, in both areas I've lived in, it's been 200k.
But damn, 500k, that's crazy :o Ulleungdo is an island though, right?

Quote from: Kayos on Yesterday at 09:22:22 AM

Quote from: kyndo on Yesterday at 08:02:39 AM

Quote from: Kayos on Yesterday at 07:56:43 AM

Rural is 200k :p

Not in my neck of the woods, unfortunately. 
Although, if you're a masochist and want to live on Ulleung-do, then rural pay is 500,000 won! 

Oh wow, in both areas I've lived in, it's been 200k.
But damn, 500k, that's crazy :o Ulleungdo is an island though, right?

nicest place I've been to in Korea.  when I was there I looked at the schools and thought, 'yeh, I could do this'.  problem is, I'd probably end up getting addicted to Cass and walking around in my purple fluffy pyjama-suit all day.

I camped there for a week and I would agree that it might be the most beautiful place in South Korea. Spent several days hiking along the coast chasing those beautiful black butterflies that they have over there. It was late summer, so all the tiger lilies were in bloom, which in turn meant that the island was chock-full of hummingbird moths. Those guys are pretty cool.
I was also lucky enough to be there for the squid festival, which was pretty nifty. They filled a big swimming pool about thigh deep, then dumped in a few dozen squid. Then they tossed in about 2 or 3 hundred screaming children to slosh about chasing (or more often, running away from) the terrified squids.

Quote from: Ronnie Omelettes on Yesterday at 09:24:34 AM

Quote from: Kayos on Yesterday at 09:22:22 AM

Quote from: kyndo on Yesterday at 08:02:39 AM

Quote from: Kayos on Yesterday at 07:56:43 AM

Rural is 200k :p

Not in my neck of the woods, unfortunately. 
Although, if you're a masochist and want to live on Ulleung-do, then rural pay is 500,000 won! 

Oh wow, in both areas I've lived in, it's been 200k.
But damn, 500k, that's crazy :o Ulleungdo is an island though, right?

nicest place I've been to in Korea.  when I was there I looked at the schools and thought, 'yeh, I could do this'.  problem is, I'd probably end up getting addicted to Cass and walking around in my purple fluffy pyjama-suit all day.

I camped there for a week and I would agree that it might be the most beautiful place in South Korea. Spent several days hiking along the coast chasing those beautiful black butterflies that they have over there. It was late summer, so all the tiger lilies were in bloom, which in turn meant that the island was chock-full of hummingbird moths. Those guys are pretty cool.
I was also lucky enough to be there for the squid festival, which was pretty nifty. They filled a big swimming pool about thigh deep, then dumped in a few dozen squid. Then they tossed in about 2 or 3 hundred screaming children to slosh about chasing (or more often, running away from) the terrified squids.

I've always wanted to go there and now I want to go even more haha!!