Gyeongnam

Submitted by I on 25 September 2006 - 12:42pm

Tags:

Gyeongnam is located on the south-east coast and is below Gyeongbuk.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

arriving in the POE of Gyeongnam

Submitted by lizm on 17 October 2006 - 3:01pm.

was not a great experience. our poe supervisor (if that's what he was... i'm still not sure) didn't know that we were coming until just a few days prior to our arrival from orientation. needless to say, they weren't ready for us. it didn't help that they have their own provincial program, which is similar to epik... so we got "second choice" - i ended up in the city i asked for, but i was one of the lucky ones - most did not.

i haven't had a thing to do with them since they shipped me off to gimhae... and probably never will again.

the district is another matter. they're the ones that actually pay me and take care of paying for the apartment and filling it with furniture, appliances etc. they were pretty good about it - though i had no apartment for the first day i was here, it was my "co-teacher" that helped me find that and buy all the necessities. i later found out that i actually had a budget for this shopping, but he didn't tell me about it and instead skimped on a few things. i could have totally taken advantage and loaded up on lots of other things... like some people did. anyway, i pretty much have everything i need after spending my 300,000W settlement allowance. which, by the way, i had within a week of getting here. it took a little longer cause i didn't have a bank account yet, but i still managed to get it a lot faster than other people.

all in all i would say that my POE could be worse... there are always glitches and cracks for people to fall through, but gyeongnam was pretty quick to fix them.... my "co-teacher" is another matter...

lizm :)

Namhae-eup

Submitted by Ogedei on 9 November 2006 - 3:38pm.

Namhae-eup is a small county town and is on an island that is connected to the mainland via the Namhae and Samcheonpo Bridges. The people are quite nice and though Namhae County is dwindling as people move away to Sacheon-si and Jinju-si (the "big cities" here), Namhae-eup is the county's service center and depends on a mix of agriculture and tourism (as it's becoming more of a touristy place). For a town as small as this, there's a surprising number of foreign teachers - about a half dozen. I'm the only one here that is from the EPIK program and no one (even my three co-teachers) except for the principal has even heard the program; the other foreign teachers here were hired via "Footprints" and provincial programs. My experience so far is that I've been given a lot of support; the apartment already had basic furnishings when I first moved in (though it was quite dusty) and all of the extra things I needed for the apartment was paid for by the school, as I also had an allowance.

I actually chose Namhae as my first choice (Geoje-si and Hadong-gun were my second and third choices) and I'm quite satisfied with things so far. The provincial office did specifically ask if I had complaints about my situations on two occasions, which is a surprise since I've read from other's experiences that it's not always the case that the provincial office would take time to ask about your gripes.

Yangsan-Si, Jungbu Elementary School

Submitted by William G. Federer (not verified) on 29 June 2009 - 1:38pm.

My ordeal at Jungbu Elementary School in Yangsan, Gyeongnam has been an experience from hell. I was placed at a school as the first foreign teacher they have ever had. I als o had two 40 year old Korean women as my coteachers. Each of which had been teaching for over 10 years ALONE and were now forced to work with an American 25 year old male. They treated me as a nuisance right from the start. - Actually one of them, Mrs. Cho, pretended she was my best friend, but then one day she was not pleased and she became my worst enemy.
The first week I had to sign a contract for my utilities- pretty standard. Refridgerator, microwave, and 10,000 won chopsticks and a 15,000 plate?? I asked about the plate- If I break it with in the entire year do I have to buy another 15,000 won plate. They got angry and told me "ust dsign it!!"
I was scared.
My first class we were doing hello how are you. The teacher said to me "Ok now practice with the students. So I asked a girl "Hello. How are you?" My co teacher got furious in front of the entire class and said "Thats not how it was in the book!!"
The next week (my second week ) I was still giving personal introductions to a class. My co teacher was prepping the students. One student was being goofy and I let out a silent laugh. My coteacher angrily turned to me and said What! What is soo funny? Why are you laughing?" I couldn't explain so I said "Nothing. I didn't mean to." and she continued to aks me why in front of all the students. The students even were getting scared.. I later found out she thought I laughed at her English- which I was not (but Mrs. Cho's English is pretty bad)
It has only gotten worse and worse. I almost quit and I gave them a letter saying I would leave. They talked me into staying saying they wanted to "start over".
I have worked so hard after that to keep relations good.
Then May 25th 2009. I was teaching a class with Mrs. Cho.
She suddenly got angry at two students who didnt finish writing and said it was my fault that I didnt check their writing. I have about 35 students in this class and two didnt finish. (By the way- I have never seen her check their work)
After class I asked whats wrong and in fron of all the teachers she angrily said "Not now- I dont want to argue!!" I said "me neither I am just talking.." She got angry and we had a small arguement.
On Wednesday I said good morning as usual, and they didnt say it back. They just looked at me. So I said "Is there a problem?" and they said "YEA!" and wanted to talk to the principle. So I had a meeting with my two Korean co-teachers, the vice principle and the principle. me and 4 Koreans and the entire meeting was in Korea (my principles cannot speak english) Finally my coteacher Mrs. Cho said "What do you want to do now??!!" in an angry voice.
I told them I want to quit.

After all of this EPIK did not ever help me once. My POE never helped me, or even called me to ask my opinion.
and I still have to pay back 1,600,000 won because I am leving at 5 months not 6.
People join EPIK because they think it is better than a hogwan. WRONG! I worked at a hogwan and it was great- and they understood foreigners+better pay. but less vacation.
I regret ever joining EPIK and it has been a wadte of time and Money.
I hope you reading this take warning as I am broke and still don't know what the problem was except that these women felt I was invading their space.