The job hunt, that is! We've been in Korea for over 8 months now, working at hagwons, which are private, after-school academies for Korean kids to learn/practice English. We've enjoyed our jobs for the most part, but we are exploring our possibilities for new jobs after our contracts are up (first week of June). The hagwons have been good jobs, but they are pretty much run as businesses rather than schools. It can be frustrating as things change from day to day with complaints of parents, etc. They just try to please the parents because it is a very lucrative business and they want to keep as many students as possible. Honestly, though, these have been some of the easiest jobs that Michael and I have ever had, so we are not complaining about that! I don't even feel like I really teach at my job--I just give kids practice tests and then feedback and teach them how to do better on the TOEFL exam. It's kind of like SAT prep or something. Michael does more actual teaching than I do, since his students are younger and less fluent in English, but I do more correcting essays and such. Anyway, since I am an actual certified teacher, with a master's degree in education (to teach at a hagwon you just have to have a Bachelor's degree in any subject), there are a lot more options out there for me, and honestly we'd like to find jobs that would pay more, have better vacation time, housing, etc. since part of our motivation in being here is to save as much money as we can, while still being able to do a fair bit of traveling. With our current jobs, we get a total of 10 vacation days during the year, 5 of which were pre-chosen for us (and not all at the same time). So, we haven't had enough time to really leave the country for a good trip somewhere else. Hopefully that will change, though, if we get new jobs elsewhere!
The other options for teaching are public schools (teaching Korean students English, but you have 40+ kids in class and only see them once a week. Right now at our hagwons, our classes have 10-12 students and we see them about 2 or 3 days a week), universities (usually teaching lower level conversational English classes to college freshman, and most universities require teachers to have a master's degree), and international schools. These are generally on an American/western calendar/curriculum, and they teach all subjects in English, just like schools in the US. The difference is the students usually have to have a foreign passport (not Korean) to attend these schools because they are designed to serve the foreign community (meaning, non-Korean citizens). These usually require a teaching certificate in order to work at one.
The Korean school year starts in March and ends in Feb. but they often hire teachers to start in September because that is the start of their second semester. The universities also hire for both semesters starting in March and September, though the majority of jobs for both are open in March. Since our contracts aren't up until June, we can't apply for either of those types of jobs until probably July or August. Korean employers do not seem to hire very far in advance, plus most employees only have to give maybe 1 or 2 month's notice (not quite sure about that though, at least that's how it is for us). So, if we end up going this route, it will be a while before we will be able to apply or know anything, most likely.
On the other hand, the international schools try to hire early in the year. The school year usually runs Aug-June (like a US school) and most require a 2-yr contract. They seem to post their jobs in January and then hire by spring time. This is nice for people who are planners, like me! :) Anyway, since they are hiring now, we've been working on applying for jobs. Right now we are just applying for international Christian schools, though, since Michael does not have a teaching degree but a degree in Biblical studies. Ideally we would both get jobs at the same school so that we would have the same vacations and schedules. The one thing about the international schools, that most people have said, is that they require a lot more time and hard work. Of course, they are similar to teaching in the U.S., so that is kind of a given. However, they do pay a lot more (half of the salary is in $US, so no matter the exchange rate, we could be saving good money), and usually provide much nicer accommodations. They also observe the American holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas with decent vacations.
I had an interview last week with one int'l school for an elementary librarian position. This is honestly my dream job--getting to teach children but not having the same stresses and responsibilities of a classroom teacher, getting to encourage them to read great books and enjoy reading, and getting to help teachers with multimedia stuff that is hard to implement in the regular classroom. I have toyed over the last year with the possibility of getting another master's degree in Library/Media so I could be a school librarian, but don't really want to pay the money for another degree right now. So, having the chance to work as one without having to go back to school is very appealing to me! I felt like the interview went pretty well, but am still waiting to hear back from them, as they have had some administrators recruiting for several positions in the US and Canada over the past few weeks. Also, they do not know if there will be any Bible positions open for Michael to fill yet. We've heard hearsay from other teachers who work there, but nothing official has been posted yet. So, that is a possibility. We know that they do like to hire couples, especially if they're already living in Korea, because we've already adjusted to whatever culture shock there is to adjust to. haha
Also, this week I discovered two more schools with available positions. One has some elementary positions, grades 2 and 5, and some Bible classes (we are going there on Tuesday to talk with the principal about it) and the other has elementary grades 1-5 and an elementary Chaplain position. We are working on getting together the paperwork to send to the second school to hopefully get an interview as well.
So, we definitely have some options that we are praying about. We just really want to be where the Lord wants us, where He can use us most. If one of these schools works out, that would be awesome! But, we want to be open to other options if they don't. Please keep us in your prayers that we will be able to discern the Lord's will for us in this area.
We like living in Korea. We have some good friends and a great church full of ministry opportunities. We can lead a financially comfortable life here while being able to save much more than we ever could living in the U.S., which will be great for when we decide to start a family. We do have different stresses here, but overall life here for a foreigner is generally low-stress (as opposed to the extremely stressed-out Koreans), which is nice and is good for my health. We feel like we will be in Korea until God tells us to go. Honestly, this is the first time in my life as far back as Jr. high that I have not been extremely focused on the future instead of the present. I've realized that I have spent a lot of my life worrying about what is to come next, what's the next step, where will I go and what will I do, rather than living in the now. Kind of funny to say this, as this whole blog post is about what jobs will be next for us, but honestly, that is not on the forefront of my mind in all of this. I just feel like we are here in Korea and God will take care of the rest, and I am not worrying about it. It's a great feeling!
Oh, also...seeing as how whatever jobs we take will either start in Aug. or Sept., we will be returning home for at least a month or so in June/July to visit with family and friends! Depending on what happens with jobs, we will be working out an itinerary and will let you know when we will be where. All we know right now is we are flying straight to Denver for my dear friend Heidi's wedding on June 6th, and from there on out we are uncertain.
Have a great Valentine's Day weekend!
~Leslie
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