a year plus later

ive gotten many a request for an update, wow, i feel like a celebrity!! i do keep another blog about some minor everyday shizz, in the form of the emails i send to my parents, if you're just really dying to know more about me. stalkers.

in february i finished my one year contract at cdi. i saw 3 runners (teachers who stop showing up to work w/no notice, usually they leave the country & go back home), 3 people get fired, and multiple transfers (teachers requesting or getting sent to a different location). of the 8 or so new teachers that i came in with a year ago, 2 of them finished their contracts.

cdi offered to re-sign me, with no raise. *puh* this is my fault tho, for being technically tardy multiple times. we're to log in on the computer 20 min before class, and i would do a late log in maybe 1 or 2 times a month. update: i asked for and got a raise 6 mo later, holla!

I got a top score of "S" teacher last term, which entitled me to a 1 million won bonus! i didnt get that either, b/c of my tardies. And now that it's been a year, im responsible for my own key money, which i of course dont have saved up, so 1 million won is being pulled out of my paycheck every month for the next 5 months until my key money is paid. i get it back when i move out of the apartment.

with all the above, i feel like a sucker sometimes for re-signing, but honest to goddess, i still love working there. i love the kids. and now that i know the structure, teaching is not labor intensive at all. my prep time for class is 30 min tops, if i take a nap and write left handed. the classes are 3 hours long, but i dont care b/c i love that i only have two sets of kids a day, i feel like i really know my kids. i work 6 hours a day, and i dont take work home with me. i love that i never have to set my alarm clock b/c my work day doesnt start until 4pm. and in my year here, i've never been paid late.

if youre super duper into making money, you could make bank w/cdi. if your score as a top ranked teacher, you get a bonus of 1 million won, second highest set of teachers get 500,000 won, and opportunities for these bonuses are every three months. since class doesnt start until 4pm, you could do (illegal) private lessons in the morning/afternoon (i hear people charge minimum 50$ an hour), with the summer and winter time come cdi "intensive" classes where one month you teach in the morning AND afternoon, but you'll pull a paycheck of over 5 grand. you get paid more if you work your way up to "Head Instructor" but with more work/responsibilities of course. btw, i do none of the above b/c i like my work load as it is and i value my free time.

would i tell people they should come work for cdi? no. i have plenty of gripes about my job. we dont get a year end bonus, we dont get holidays off, we dont get free housing, we dont get health insurance, we dont get paid vacation, we sometimes have to come to mandatory meetings and arent compensated for them. ive seen and experienced things that i thought were unfair. and maybe you wont get easy peasy classes to teach like i do, maybe you'll have these beast classes that require a few hours of prep. im lucky right now, but i fo sho have some coworkers who arent and their workloads are monsters.

so kiddies, check out all kinds of different jobs and pick what works for you. but i do like cdi enough that i'm staying, at least for another year. i have fun at work, the kids are awesome. i love walking down the hallway and seeing a student wave wildly saying, "Oh! Hello Sister Sha!!!!" im happy where i am, things is good. :)