Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

just started a new job. the last teacher 'left' because she was 'inexperienced' and 'couldn't discipline the kids'. monday of the first week the boss wants to implement a computer homework checking program. i immediately said that sounds like a lot of extra work. already there are seven fifty minute classes a day. the contract says that and 'minimal prep time' up to an hour a day before class. i asked the one other teacher who is an overworked korean teacher (overworked making schedules and tests and calling parents, etc. you know the drill) and she said she spends ninety minutes a day after class doing this computer checking of homework. kids speak into a website and teacher listens and checks. lot of finnicky fiddling, right?( i'm trying to embark on a contract without the esl kowboy apprach riding out of the west on my horse. or instilling a mutiny among my peers toppling the reckless captain.) realizing that in korea the boss is the boss. the korean teacher is conditioned to realize this. that the boss is superior and as employee she is inferior. just by questioning this time consuming computer homework checking i, by korean perspective, made the boss 'lose face'. he gave me stony, 'i'll get you looks' after that. meanwhile mothers came in to sign their kids up so the wash of the dollar smooths the waves.
i've been in hagwon situations where the boss will 'suggest' programs and the supervisor or intermediary will say 'who else is going to do it?'. it has been put into place, some new, time-consuming add-on and that's that. it must be done. do you want your job or not? or it'll be like this; if the foreign 'prima donna' baulks, then the already overworked korean teachers will be further loaded.
i said that ten minute breaks between seven fifty minute classes are just that, ten minute breaks. time to stare into space and recharge or, you know the score, become an ogre snarling, slamming, and scaring the kids. to me the important thing is class. but that's the opinion of the 'indentured servant' of the boss.
i've read since various shoot-outs and attempted mutinys in my earlier, reckless esl kowboy career that if one causes the boss to 'lose face' by questioning his authority or method then bad weather comes. the captain asserts his authority by getting tough and humiliating, to show all around that he is superior to inferiors who contradict him or baulk.
my response to this will be to stick to the classes and the small prep time before work. anything else is something else again. i think that's reasonable. the previous teacher refused to do the computer homework checking because she was told two months before i arrived that a new teacher would be arriving. she shlepped through work until i did, naturally.

[william beckerson]

Y'know, I once believed that workers had the right to dignity in Korea. Then long hard experience taught me that the only difference between me and the kid at McDonalds was the lack of grease stains on my shirt.

No one respects ESL teachers, least of all your boss. And his view is that there's a million more where you came from.

Good luck, you're gonna need it.

[Zyzyfer]

It sounds like a lot of Hocus Pocus to me. Discipline of children usually isn't required by the foreign teacher, even frowned upon in some instances. Any real problems often require the assistance of a Korean staff member to find out the real situation and resolve it...

The added fact that he tried to implement it with the previous teacher but didn't go through when she refused to do it also says something. You shouldn't fall in the guilt trip pattern...I know I did it incessantly at my last job. Many Sundays were spent at work "extracurricular" functions with people I've seen the past 6 days and don't want to see on my day off, simply because I felt sorry for someone else.