Expacked – Issue #1

Welcome

This is the first edition of Expacked, a brand new (and free) weekly newsletter for  native English teachers working in Korea.  Expacked is a brief, weekly summary highlighting key news stories, interesting events and hints on how to get the most out of your Korean experience.  

If you are like me, you can probably relate to some of the following questions:

• How many times have you found out about cool events after it has already happened?  
• How hard has it been to find out local news of interest to you?  
• Do you think you should be aware of any issues affecting you and your employment in South Korea?  
• Are you afraid you are missing out on key experiences in Korea?  
• Are other English teachers having the same problems as you?  

If so, hopefully this newsletter goes some way in making life in Korea easier for you.

My name is Ken Wilson and I am currently working as an English teacher in Seoul.  I’m amazed at how hard it is to find out whats going in Korea.  I love the place and I believe that this newsletter can help our community of English teachers stay more informed and connected.  We all want to maximise our enjoyment of living and teaching in South Korea!

If you are interested in finding out about events that are on, we have included an Events Page for your reference (At the top of this page).  If you there are any events you would like to add to this list, please email the details through to us on expacked@gmail.com.  

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Expacked also includes a joke of the week.  We like to keep things light hearted here!  I would appreciate any comments you have to help support and improve Expacked.  The new website is www.expacked.wordpress.com

This Week’s Stories

• English Teachers Complain about Employers
• GEPIK Holding One Day Conference
• Seoul City Opens Skating Rinks
• Ministry Launches Service to Disclose School Information
• English Teachers – Information about 2009 Visa Extension & Airfares (ETIS)
• Nerine Viljoen Has Passed Away
• Japanese No Longer ‘Lost in Translation’
• Primary Schools Rush for Career Development
• English-only FM Radio Station Launched
• Celebrate with Concerts for Christmas
• A bit of Light Relief

 

English Teachers Complain about Employers

Several foreign teachers say that not only hagwon, but also a number of private and public schools – including universities – fudge on wages, health insurance and pension benefits. Often they say teachers, like Kieron, realize what’s happening only when they become ill.

Severance pay and the standard 10 days of vacation sometimes prove to be nonexistent, as well. Also sometimes missing is the promised free ticket home, some English teachers complain. They also say some hagwon fire teachers 11 months into their contract, avoiding the severance pay that comes after a year’s service.  Click here for full story

GEPIK Holding One Day Conference

There is a short one day conference for GEPIK teachers being held this week.  Secondary school teachers have their conference on Wednesday 17th of December, while elementary teachers are meeting on Thursday 18th December.   

Not much is know about this event, as GEPIK only informed teachers about this event last week.  With over 500 teachers attending this event, I hope that we get a lot out of it.  GEPIK are posting the names of those attending, as well as further information, on their website http://cge.ken.go.kr

Seoul City Opens Skating Rinks

Two ice skating rinks opened up for winter on Friday at the square in front of Seoul City Hall.  One of them is for children and has been introduced for the first time.  It is 600 sq.m of ice connected to a larger 1,500 sq.m skating rink.

The rinks will stay open through Feb. 15 and admission is W1,000 (US$1=W1,377) per hour.

From Monday through Thursday the rinks are open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Fridays and weekends, skaters can stay an hour later.  Those with disabilities or over 65 years of age can get in free.

The city government is also accepting applications for skating classes online.

Arirang News

Ministry Launches Service to Disclose School Information

Primary and secondary schools as well as higher education institutions started disclosing details about their school operation via the Internet on December 1, 2008.  The launching of the online service is pursuant to the “Enforcement Decree of the Exemption Law on the Information Disclosure of Educational Institutions, announced by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on November 17.

Under the new regulation, 11,283 primary and secondary schools, and 414 higher education institutions, are required to regularly display key information updates on www.schoolinfo.go.kr and www.academyinfo.go.kr, respectively.  Information is also available through each school and institution’s home page.

Primary and secondary schools are to disclose 39 information items according to 15 categories including the number of students and teachers, cases of school violence, meal service and facilities, financial status and after-school programs.  Universities and junior colleges are to disclose 55 items under 13 categories including the graduate employment rate, student admission results, tuition level, scholarship provisions, number of enrolled students and full-time faculty rate.

The disclosure system is expected to promote the transparency of school administration and help students make informed choices, thus inducing schools to work more to raise their educational quality.  By means of the system, the ministry also looks forward to bringing more sound competition into the higher education sector, and lead universities to voluntarily reform themselves towards higher competitiveness.

Press release: Minisry of Education, Schience and Technology
  

English Teachers – Information about 2009 Visa Extension & Airfares (ETIS)

For those teachers who are finishing up, or resigning, their employment contracts in early 2009, English Teachers in Seoul have released a guide to help with airfares and visa extensions.  Although this only directly relates to SOME teachers, much of this would also be relevent to most teachers in Korea.  Click here for more information.

Nerine Viljoen Has Passed Away

There is some sad news about Nerine Viljoen, the South African English teacher badly burned in an apartment fire two weeks ago.  She passed away at 11:00 on Monday morning.   Her heart failed and the doctors could not get it going again.  The memorial service was held Tuesday morning in Mokpo.

For further information, including details on making donations, please follow the link below.  The family appears interested in setting up a fund to handle future incidents like this.  This is a great idea, I just hope this kind of situation does not been again.  Click here for more information.

Japanese No Longer ‘Lost in Translation’

Arinori Mori, a key player in the Meiji Restoration and Japan’s first minister of education, wrote a book, “Education of Japan,” in 1873 based on his experiences overseas, including in England and the U.S., as a diplomat. In the preface, he suggests the drastic measure of eliminating the Japanese language, saying all Japanese should learn English instead. According to him, Japanese has vocabulary insufficient to convey abstract ideas and is over-reliant on Chinese, which hardly helps Japanese people digest and adopt western cultures.  Click here for the full story

Primary Schools Rush for Career Development

Career planning and development are no longer missions confined to jobseekers and university applicants here. Secondary school students and even children in primary schools are joining the career-developing race to get an advantage in landing a position at a prestigious school.

A Seoul elementary school fifth grader was awarded three certificates including a state-issued one this year. He aspires to attend an international middle school, which is well regarded for its English-immersion programs and student-friendly curriculum.  Click here for the full story

English-only FM Radio Station Launched

The radio station TBS (its handle stands for “Traffic Broadcasting System”) started off as a project by Seoul City’s government to give up-to-the-minute traffic news to drivers in and around the city. It soon became more than that – providing radio programs with fun, entertainment and music to local audiences, with traffic updates from time to time. There is also TBS TV, available by satellite, and in new technology there is TBS DMB, which means Koreans can listen to DMB anywhere through their cell phones. As of yesterday, Dec. 1, there is now TBS eFM – all English, all the time, for Seoul’s English-speaking population.  Click here for the full story

Celebrate with Concerts for Christmas

Whether you like pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, jazz or classical music there’s a concert for you this holiday season.  Tickets to performances are mostly available on Korean ticket Web sites, Interpark (ticket.interpark.com), Auction (ticket.auction.co.kr) and Ticketlink (www.ticketlink.co.kr).  Click here for the full story

A Bit of Light Relief

I like to finish every issue with a bit of light relief.  I know at least some of these will hit the spot.  Enjoy.
You Know You’ve Been In Korea Too Long (Part One)

• You are immune to the smell of “the kimchi breath.”
• You no longer come to a complete stop at the stop sign and you never yield the right-of-way.
• You can pick up a single strand of noodles with chopsticks.
• You ask for more “ko-chu” because the kimchi-chige soup is not hot enough.
• You enjoy slurping your noodles as loudly as you can.
• Your back is sore from bowing.
• You walk down the street holding hands with your buddy.
• You ask your wife to stand outside with a baseball bat to protect your public parking space in front of the house.
• You can eat barefooted in a restaurant with a foot in your lap.
• You can cut in at the front of the line of waiting people with the best of them.
• You look forward to winter in your off-post housing so you can store beer and frozen foods in your bedroom or bathroom.
• You can fall asleep on the city bus and wake up at your stop.
• You can shovel in an entire bowl of rice and half a course of Bulkogi into your mouth before you swallow.
• You rather watch local TV than AFKN.
• You can make a left turn looking only to the right.
• You can convert any US unit measurements into metric measurements in your head.
• You look forward to Chusok and the Lunar New Year each year.
• You think that Korea’s greatest natural resource is good looking young women.
• You only lock your door if there are lots of “Mi-gooks” around.
• People ask if you want to go by car and you respond, “No, I’m in a hurry.”
• Someone says, “Bed,” and you think “Yol.”
• You realize that it is safer to “J” walk than use a pedestrian crosswalk.
• You wear white socks with a dark suit.
• You can use a public bathroom for both genders and think nothing of it.
• You know every interchange on the Seoul-Pusan Expressway by heart.
• You know all the words to the Korean National Anthem and you enjoy singing it.
• You don’t need a restroom to relieve yourself.

 

On that note, I look forward to sending out the next issue of Expacked.  This is only the beginning as I am planning a lot of new features and improvements in the weeks and months to come.  If you have any ideas or thoughts about Expacked, please send me an email on expacked@gmail.com

Cheers,

Ken

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