Purchasing Korean Basketball Tickets in Korea

Here's the question:

I want to take my girlfriend to a Korean Basketball League game on Valentine's day.  I have a Korean teacher at my hagwon helping me with tickets.  He called and got some info.  You can't purchase tickets until 1 week before, and they are only available online.  The only tickets that will be available the day of at the box office are the left overs, from what hasn't sold online throughout the week.  He helped me with a profile on ticketlink.  But I've heard that even with this profile, foreigners can have difficulty purchasing tickets online, something about the citizen ID # being required.  So I'm assuming that my ID # from my Alien Card won't work.

I didn't actually get around to answering the question. Luckily, the questioner told me that he had solved the problem. Check out his answer and his blog over at Rip City to Seoul.

Summer Camp Jobs

Here's the question:

I'm currently working in Korea, but my contract ends in May. I don't really want to get tied into another 12 month contract straight away (unless I can find my dream ESL job!) so am considering teaching at summer camps.

Do you know if any recruiters specialise in recruiting for summer camps? And when do summer camp jobs normally become available? Finally, is there much competition for these positions?

Summer camps are great ways to pick-up some nice, quick cash. They're really great if you're already in-country as well. Being February, there won't be many summer camp gigs being advertised yet, but in April you'll start seeing more and more.

There are a couple different types of summer camps as well. People who teach in public schools know that"summer camp" does not mean really mean "camp" and it usually requires longer days (sometimes with better pay). But you're looking for a contracted summer gig that usually lasts 4-6 weeks. Some jobs will be longer/shorter, but most of them offer pretty decent deals. 

I personally don't know any recruiters who specialize in summer camps. I doubt the cash-flow is consistent enough to warrant an agency dedicated to that, but I might be wrong. As far as competition goes, it's usually not that stiff. The busy hiring season in Korea is in the spring and fall, so the applicant pool isn't as crowded. That means that summer/winter camps often look for teachers who are abroad as well. Since you'd be here, I'd think you'd have an easier time locking in a job. Remember though, the market has tightened a lot over the past couple of years, so get your resume ready and start scouring the job boards in about two months.

I'd shoot for Jeju. That seems like a nice parting-image from the country.

• I'm sure that Lost on Jeju might be able to help. (Summer camp post here)

•  You could also shoot an email to Jeju-based Jung Hae-min: smilebiglala@gmail.com

 

Anyone else have any leads?

"After-school" Programs in Korea

Here's the question:

I am still in Canada searching for teaching work in Korea. It's been like two months and I just don't know what job I want. There are so many that advertise LONG hours and those don't appeal to me and these so-called recruiters never listen to my demands.

Nothing better than new young teachers who want a job, but don't like working. That mentality --in part-- is why I don't hire young teachers or anyone fresh out of college anymore.

I started to see more afterschool and afternoon positions recently. They sound great! Why doesn't everyone want those? Are they hard to get?

First of all, there is usually a difference between  "afternoon" and "after-school" positions. An "afternoon" position is at a hagwon and will typically start at 3 or 4pm and run till 9 or 10pm. An "after-school" position is at a public school and typically runs from 12 0r 1pm until 5 0r 6pm.

It sounds like you want to an "after-school" position. I've worked at several in my time here and all of them are essentially the same. Although the venue is a public school, you are actually working for a recruiter/education company. For example,  ABC Education is a recruiting/education company. They have a curriculum, books, managers, supplies and teachers all within their company. These companies go from school to school trying to make contracts with the principals. Once they have the contracts, they choose the teacher who best suits each school (which means the prinipal has a say). So, each teacher is not actually working for the public school system, but rather a separate company.

The pay varies greatly as well. If you're north of the river, then expect your pay to be less than if you're in the south. And even in the south, you'll be paid based on the neighborhood. For instance, in Yangjae I was making okay money, but then I moved over to Songpa and was making 30% more. Now, I'm in Gangnam making nearly 60% more than I was in Yangjae. Of course, the higher the pay, the more competitive the job is.

You asked "why doesn't everbody want those" jobs? Well, a lot of people do want those jobs. In fact, many of those positions require an in-person interview which puts teachers abroad at a disadvantage. However, it's still worth trying.

On a side note, the after-school jobs are oftentimes looking for teachers on the F2 visa. They do that because F2's are easy to hire, have been in Korea for awhile and usually have housing already. These days, however, some F2's are even being forced to submit the same paperwork at E2's. I protested at first but soon realized that if I didn't do it, then I wouldn't get the job.

In short, the afterschool jobs are great. You're typically teaching medium-sized Elementary classes (10-20 students), have relative freedom in the class (even with the Korean co-teacher) and get a lot of free time. The details of the contract depend on the job and company, but for the most part, they're super sweet gigs.

Is this the end of Seollal and Chuseok?

Here's the question:

Since so many people live in Seoul now, what's going to happen during Chusok and Chinese New Years in the future? No more traffic jams? 

I can't tell you how many times I've thought about this. In fact, I often take it a step further and wonder if some of the traditions that make Chuseok and Seollal so fun and unique will go the wayside once the 70+ generation dies off, presumably changing the "hometown" from a provincial town/village to Seoul or another big city. 

This recent Seollal doesn't appear to have been much different from the others before it. Tons of people headed to their grandparents/parents or in-laws for the holidays just like they always have. The Korea Times reported that 3.6 million people were heading out of Seoul for the holiday and over 22 million people were going to be moving around the country. That's a pretty big number. The population of South Korea is hovering around 50 million these days, so we're looking at nearly half of the population still heading somewhere for the holidays. For now, it seems that the holiday and the adherence to the traditions seem safe.

However, as Seoul's population continues to increase and more and more people are considering Seoul as their official "hometown", it'll certainly be interesting to see how that pans out in the future. I know  from personal experience that many Seoulites are opting to either delay the family visit and take a much needed vacation or are skipping the holiday altogether. They're probably in the minority though. 

I guess I could speculate that younger Koreans might not be as "into" traditional holidays as they used to be and maybe that would be true, but I think that there are other factors working against the holidays. The biggest obstacle --to me-- seems to be that the majority of Koreans are not buried anymore; they're cremated. And not only are 60% of Koreans cremated, but 9 out of 10 Korean prefer cremation to burial.

That's fine except that one of the crucial ceremonies of both holidays is 절 or the bowing to elders/ancestors. Most Koreans have a tomb they visit where they offer some form of alcohol, fish or fruit before they bow and pay respects to their ancestors. That ancestor is typically a parent, grandparent or maybe even a great-grandparent.  One would think that this trend would continue for some time since Korea is such a rapidly ageing society, but the issue is not a shortage of old people, it's a shortage of tombs and space.

That shortage is the crux of my argument. As each generation trucks on, the ancestral tombs will fade further into the grey. Honestly (and you might not agree), no one wants to visit the tomb of their great-grandmother every year. I've seen my great-grandmother's grave in Indiana twice and that's enough for now. Maybe some Koreans will drop-in every five years or so if they're in the area, but the annual traffic-fighting voyage to a town that isn't your "hometown" anymore just doesn't sound realistic to me.

Just because the tomb trips might become less common or Seoul is their official "hometown",  doesn't mean they can't partake in the traditions though. As with everything, traditions usually take a hit as times passes. That's normal. Still, Koreans can still bow and the family can still gather for the holiday.  It might just mean a trip from Gangnam to Nowon, rather than Seoul to Daegu and if that's the case --well-- I guess there will be more traffic in Seoul, but that's nothing new.

The Morning Clam

I must apologize to my questioners and readers. I've tried to answer some through email and I intend to catch-up next week. On a side note, I've been putting in some time on my old blog which I moved over to Wordpress recently. I haven't exported any of the old stuff, but there's plenty of new posts to read.

Check it out...

The Morning Clam 

"...it takes a look at the current states of American and South Korean politics in an effort to garner a better understanding of both the domestic political climates in each respective nation and how they interact with each other on the world stage."