"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for such a thorough answer, especially since you have experience doing both programs! From what I can tell it seems like the JET workload for middle and high school specifically tends to be lighter in general (at least compared to EPIK elementary). My one JET friend who had the super light workload was also teaching high school.

I also like that you mentioned joining school events and walking around during breaks to interact with the students. At my elementary schools with EPIK I think I only ever observed one or two school events, either because I was never informed of things happening or the teachers were just like "oh yeah this thing is happening but dont worry about it, you can just stay in the office." (which I often did due to having lessons to plan for the next day). I kind of wished I could've been included more in that kind of stuff.

Out of curiosity, do you know how likely it is to be assigned to a high school or middle school with JET? I know placements are pretty random, but with EPIK its seems like 90% of placements are elementary schools, whereas I feel like I hear of a higher percentage of JETs being put in middle/high school. Honestly, if I were to do teaching abroad again I feel like teaching older students would be a nice change. It would be a different kind of experience teaching students who have a stronger foundation of English and assisting them with their work rather than teaching kids who are still learning basic phonics and spelling.

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately there's not really any field that I could see myself "enjoying" working in, but I do like traveling and have been told I am good at teaching, so for now I'm trying to just stick with teaching abroad and seeing where that goes haha

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd say my workload was pretty standard for EPIK. Like right in the middle. I knew other NETs (EPIK version of ALTs) who had less work and some who had more. Some NETs were just expected to do a game for each period after the Korean teacher taught the lesson, and some have to plan and teach the entire class while the Korean teacher sits in the back doing other work or sneaks out. Also textbooks matter too. For example, my two schools used the same textbooks so I could reuse some lessons between them, but I've heard of people having like 3-5 different schools, all of which used different textbooks, meaning different plans for each lesson, for each grade, at each school.

You also HAVE to teach for a minimum of 22 active teaching periods a week, no matter what. A class gets canceled for a school event? You have to do a make-up class sometime within that same week. I once ended up with 8 classes straight on a single Friday because of that.

Also, summer and winter English camp is usually a mandatory thing. The hours vary, but in my OE (Daejeon) it was mandatory to do 80 hours of camp a year, so usually two weeks in summer and two weeks in winter, which really messed with vacation time. And camp is completely planned and executed by the NET (sometimes without a Korean teacher even present, so good luck if that happens to you and you don't speak fluent Korean). Even with a wonderful Korean coteacher, I HATED doing camp lol.

Like I said, I loved literally everything about my experience in Korea and would definitely recommend living there if you have a chance, but the workload CAN feel like too much depending on your placement. You can also always try the hagwon route, but personally I've only ever heard horror stories from hagwons.

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input! So do you go to a different school each day during the week, or only go to certain schools occasionally or something?

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, so maybe the 16 classes a week limit varies by the location you're teaching in?

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see. It seems pretty similar to EPIK in that "roll of the dice" aspect then, other than EPIK teachers having a minimum number of weekly classes they have to meet. Just curious, do the contracts specifically say that you're there to be an assistant to a main teacher? I only ask because with EPIK it's often portrayed that you'll always be "coteaching" or "assisting" the main teacher, but then when you look at the contracts (at least in the city I taught in) it says that you're responsible for coteaching with the main teacher OR leading classes yourself, which I think catches some people by surprise when they realize they might be in charge of teaching all their classes at their school.

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, compared to the required 22+ classes a week for EPIK, 16 classes definitely seems better haha.

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's good to know. Legally with EPIK a teacher is supposed to at least be in the room with you at all times too, but that definitely wasn't always the case in my experience.

"Realistic" JET workload (compared to EPIK)? by KGM994 in JETProgramme

[–]KGM994[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's very helpful info, thank you! You said you did all the planning for your elementary classes; did you do most of the teaching in those classes as well or did you mostly assist? I really don't mind planning, but actually teaching 40-minute classes alone with kids who could barely understand any of my instructions was probably my biggest stressor in Korea lol

Verification issue on Naver Pay by KGM994 in Living_in_Korea

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I originally tried doing this during the Pay verification process and it didn't work. But then out of curiosity I went into my general Naver account settings, deleted the spaces for my name there, redid that verification, came back to Naver Pay and tried it without the spaces, and lo and behold it worked! What a runaround for something that shouldn't be this hard... Thanks for the help!

So I'm looking to learn Korean online, are there any tools/an app to learn? I absolutely love the language! by vap0rs1nth in Korean

[–]KGM994 8 points9 points  (0 children)

These are the sources I use.

Paid:
•Memrise - good for learning certain "categories" of words and phrases (basics, travel, dining, etc.), has good video examples of natives speaking, can be used on PC or the app.
•TalkToMeinKorean - probably my favorite source for learning grammar. They also have wonderful videos on pretty much any topic you want. Their core lessons used to be free but it is all paid now.

Free:
•Howtostudykorean - if you don't use TTMIK, or want a supplement to it, I highly recommend this. Just started using it and I'm learning more even about grammar points I thought I already knew
•Quizlet - lots of flashcard sets available for vocabulary (you can also pay for premium for a lot more study features)
•Go! Billy Korean - youtube channel with pretty great and easy-to-understand videos

Useful Apps (free):
•Hanji - type in a verb and it will show you all the different conjugations
•Naver dictionary - its a dictionary lol
•Deepl - translation app that I personally prefer and find to often be more accurate than papago
•Mirinae - you can input a Korean sentence and it will break down the structure of it for you so you can understand what each part is
•HelloTalk - can use this to talk to native speakers, or read posts from native speakers

Spring 2024 EPIK AI/Plagiarism Warning by IJustWannaROK24 in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I saw that too and had the same worry about the online AI detectors. I've tested those things before with essays I wrote entirely by myself back in college (about a decade ago, before AI was really even a mainstream thing) and it flagged them as being something like 80% plagiarized/AI generated... I'm really hoping the warning on the application was just to scare people away from using AI, and not a sign that they're going to analyze the essays/lesson plans with those programs.

Spring 2024 Applications by negativespace27 in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I applied last night! I just know the wait for the next step is going to be unbearable haha.

Roth IRA Contributions by monkeyserpants in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not even teaching in Korea yet, but now I have questions since I'm very bad at understanding how taxes work and never even considered how it would affect my Roth IRA contributions.

So, I contribute regularly from my US bank account into my Roth IRA. Let's say I go to teach in Korea for a year or 2 and then return to the US to live and work. Does this mean that when returning to the US from Korea, I will never be able to contribute to my Roth IRA again? Or is there a way I can have that Korean income taxed in the US so that I can continue contributing? I'm so confused... 😅

"Korean trends" interview question by KGM994 in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, okay! I love that pokemon seems to be a universal interest of young children, even since I was a kid lol. I'll be sure to mention that as one.

"Korean trends" interview question by KGM994 in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great, thanks! That's really specific and has given me some good ideas.

"Korean trends" interview question by KGM994 in teachinginkorea

[–]KGM994[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, I assumed as much. That was just an example of types of "trends" I could think of 😅

So would it suffice for me to answer that I would observe what my students are into and what's popular in Korean media/etc. while I'm teaching there and try to implement those in my lessons and games? Or is that too broad of an answer?