Koreabridge Job Advice Forums

[j.p.]

Recently got word from someone who completed the E-2 prescreening interview at the Korean consulate in Vancouver. Some of the questions asked in the interview were:

1) Where will you be employed?
2) Do you enjoy working with children?
3) What is your educational background?, transcripts were reviewed and discussed with interviewer.
4) Why do you want to work in Korea?
5) What is your teaching philosophy?
6) If you weren't going to teach in Korea, what would you be doing?
7) Do you smoke?
Have you done drugs in the past?
9) Have you ever broken the law?
10) How long do you want to stay in Korea?

..just a heads up for those newcomers to Korea who plan on teaching in 'land of the morning high-rise apart'

[Bozo Yoroshiku]

#2 I hope is asked only if the individual is actually working with children (Would they deny me a visa if I said "No, that's why I'm teaching adults"?)

#3 I don't see why transcripts would be discussed. They've accepted basket weaving as adequate in the past, why would they change now when they are desperate for teachers?

#8,9 are no brainer "No" answers, regardless of the truth. And what's with the smoking question? I would think they they would ask the drinking question if they're trying to weed out the B&L crowd.

I do like Q#6... I'd love to hear some of the BS answers some of these jokers give.

But who the **** are they to judge teaching philosophy? They are not educators, nor are they teachers... so how do they judge what a "good" answer is, and what isn't?
_________________
"Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, 'What the fuck'.
'What the fuck' gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future [...]
If you can't say it, you can't do it."

[new ddb]

Where's the 'Have you tried kim-chi' question?

Come on... all Koreans talk about is food. I find it hard to beleive that it's not asked in all seriousness.

[pusanvirgin]

I'm surprised. It is not a bad set of questions. Maybe they are treating this seriously...

[PhD]

I don't see these as very invasive or offensive questions. They should be the questions that any hogwan asks prospective candidates, but we all know how often that happens.

They could have just as easily asked the same questions on a form. Maybe they have specially trained staff to detect a person who is lying?

What concerns me is why they would ask a prospective teacher to travel hours to an interview where that is all they asked.

But then US immigration does the same thing in Seoul to students applying for a visa to study in the US. (3 or 4 hour trip, 2 - 3 hour wait in one line followed by 1 more hour waiting for the interview, 2 or three questions, and a kid's whole future is decided on the basis of an immigration officers first impression.)
_________________
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

[Bozo Yoroshiku]

[pusanvirgin]

[PhD]

They are supposed to allow telephone interviews for people with a long distance to travel.
_________________
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

[pusanvirgin]

[Bozo Yoroshiku]

[new ddb]

....or simply not bother coming to korea. That's the real choice people are making these days. All of that crap to take this abuse and probably not finish contract A anyway.....seems silly

[denverdeath]

[Bozo Yoroshiku]