So I'm moving to another department at CUK. My previous director was fantastic, especially when my grandfather passed away and I had to leave Korea for a week and a haf, but after two years of teaching New Interchange (three if you count my previous job) I was looking for a new challenge. I was having difficulty being creative with only two hours a week and a requirement to cover the text.
Plus as some of the regualr readers will know (almost 300 different people/day now), I was having issues with some teachers being given raises and a warning that the raise promised me might not be given. At the new department I get more vacation time - I teach only the two 16 week semesters with no summer or winter camp.
And there's a bit more prestige within the university as every teacher in my new department has at least a Masters. In my old one a few of us had Masters, but not all (I'm not saying that you need a Masters to be a good language teacher, just that when everyone has a Masters the department gets more prestige).
I'm told that one of us had no teaching experience of any kind - just an undergrad degree. Again, this person might be a brilliant teacher (though no experience makes this more unlikely than no advanced degree), but some people must wonder why the school calls us visiting professors.
Posted by James Trotta at February 3, 2005 2:47 AMI am sorry to hear that you didn’t get a raise. Some Korean employers don’t care about the contract, which (they consider) is just a piece of paper. They knew nothing you could do about it (suing for bleaching the contract?). Believe or not, I didn’t sign any contract for the Korean company that I am currently writing for. I just trust their name and credibility. But when I work with Americans, the first thing they do is to send me a contract. I guess that it’s a cultural difference. Hope you enjoy your new department though.
uugh.
There was no breach of contract regarding the raise - there had been a verbal promise from a director who then went on leave...
Posted by: James Trotta at February 6, 2005 3:32 PMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.