vacation begins!

I'm officially en vacances, from now through Thursday, before the month turns hellish again. I got lucky and was permitted to leave early today since my last couple of students cancelled. I stayed in Kangnam, however, to meet my buddy Jang-woong and his cousin, who works for the vaunted Cheongdahm Institute. What I learned tonight wasn't all good news.

The really bad news: CDI is a hagwon for children.

I'm still wondering how this could have escaped me.

Other bad news: they don't provide housing, though they'll loan you up to 5 million won as a "key deposit" on a place. You pay your own rent.

You're guaranteed 18 hours of work (per week) at W30,000 per hour. Most teachers teach around five days, though, which puts them up in the 3.8- or 3.9 million won range.

More bad news: you work five days a week, but don't necessarily get two consecutive days off. You're required to work one weekend day.

The way I see it, CDI is at best a fallback option. The pay has the potential to be fantastic (and you never work split shifts), but sacrificing half my weekend and teaching 15-20 children for six hours a day isn't exactly what I had in mind. If I can, I'd rather end up at a university, even if the pay is only 2 million won a month.

More on this as it happens.

My next post: an explanation of all 75 Star Trek quotes from my quiz.


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