Korean Job Discussion Forums

[william beckerson]

[Zyzyfer]

Yea...I for one take pleasure in my 1.85 middle school job! I even turned down one of those fancy little government jobs, because the bossman gave me hassles about the plane ticket versus my intended plan of coming back to Korea.

Could I learn something from people like Captain Obvious? Sure.

Do I want to learn something from a pompous guy? No.

And that's all the mud I'll sling concerning the issue. Arrogance really gets under my skin...

[hack]

[william beckerson]

Actually, I used to be the same way. Then I grew to realize that the sun doesnt shine out of my neither regions and I was as full of shit as everyone else.

[Zyzyfer]

[Canuckophile]

I'm sure there are hogwons where kids do learn English.... I haven't worked in one yet though!

I think the whole hogwon system (whether English or other subjects) is a disaster for Korean kids and deprives them of their childhoods.

I do think Koreans CAN learn English, but not at hogwons. They need immersion programs that are NATIVE SPEAKER ONLY taught. They should be employing Kyopos to teach these, along with regular native speakers. Few Koeans are qualified to teach English -- even if they know the rules, they have strong accents and the kids imitate these, cuz it's easier than imitating the native speakers.

And I think the crazy bit of Korean teachers teachng in hogwons(supposedly qualified to teach English, but with strong Korean accents and little knowledge of conversational English) should be abolished. They do more damage to the kids' learning English than anything else.

This whole system just mimics the public schools' failure to teach English. I am always amazed when I go to a dept. store and ask some young (early 20's) clerk the simplest question: Where are ... (the dishes/ the kitchen "stuff," ... where are sheets, etc.) and he/she runs in terror to drag another unlucky employee to answer my Q. Good grief, they've taken English for at least 6 years and cannot comprehend, let along answer, the simplest question.

The Korean govt is wasting its money on the English programs in the public schools, the parents are wasting their money at the hogwons.

But hey, we'll have jobs for at least another century at the rate this nation will ever learn English.

Cynically, I would say that hogwon education is a waste. Not the immersion programs that start with the kindies (although it's counterproductive to employ Korean teachers - the kids just imitate their accents) -- but the traditional after school hogwon English programs -- total waste of money in most cases. There are a few exceptions, but not many.

[Captain Obvious 2.0]

[some waygug-in]

Hmmm. Well, let's allow a word in edgewise from a self confessed "poor craftsman". I think hagwans (or at least a good number of them) are poorly run scam jobs and are a waste of money. But I must add, that I think Koreans could make hagwans more effective and could make them not so terrible places to work at the same time.

All they would have to do is support their teachers. Help their teachers instead of always blaming them for every problem that comes up.

If Captain Obvious is able to work in places where he can have control of the books used, the speed at which those books are covered and most of all have the ability to discipline or extract disruptive students from the class, well good for him.. But I would venture a guess that he is in the extreme minority.

Wouldn't it be great if we could all work in such wonderful conditions? I am not saying I doubt what he writes, but I do say that he has been darn lucky! I don't think he has ever experienced the true Korean Hagwan experience.

Wouldn't it be great if hagwan directors actually came up with a plan for dealing with disruptive students? I heard of one place where such students were taken out of the class and were put into a room where they had to work one on one with a teacher for that class period. Kind of tedious, but at least it is something.
Having the director flip flop from week to week and change everything depending on the latest parent's complaint is not "directing", it is reacting.

Wouldn't it be great if the director would actually call the parents when teachers ask for it, instead of "no, we can't ever do that!" ?

Wouldn't it be great if ........? Well You know.

Cheers
Some Waygug-in

[Canadian Teacher]

Hagwans are nothing but daycare centres. Captain dumb-ass is simply full of crap or too stupid to realise it.

[matko]

I had one of the better Hagwon experiences.
Discipline was never a major problem. If the kids acted up, all we had to do was tell the director and the kids were forced to go into the foyer, kneel down, hold their bags over their heads and get reamed out for a good 10 to 20 minutes or until they were in tears.
After this happened a few times, all the kids in the school knew what the consequences would be if they acted up, and believe me, few ever did.
However, I have heard that my school has gone to hell in a hand basket now, as there is a new owner and director.
It just goes to show that with the right person in charge and a little "tough love" things can work out for everyone.

[Captain Obvious 2.0]

[Sloth]

[some waygug-in]

Before that, I worked at a school in Ansan with no major issues except for the Australian who quit after one day to move into a bar, then on Payday a month later demanded his full salary despite never working. Great humour for all.

The only problem I had at my current school was when I started. Prior to my starting, they went through five teachers in 3 months. Because of that, the Korean staff was indifferent to me because they assumed I would be gone in a couple weeks as well, plus the previous teachers were mostly babysitters instead of teachers. Since then, things have much improved.[/quote]

So The great Captain admits that he works in better schools than most of us with "no major issues", yet he has the audacity to get snarky with us lesser beings who work in the hellholes that he wouldn't dare set foot in, all the while claiming to be the absolute authority on hagwan teaching in Korea. What right have you to judge the rest of us? Who the f*** are you anyway?

[Felix the Cat]

I have a theory about Captain O:

He is paid double because he is unable to leave his hagweon. With a head so grotesquely swollen as his own, it is a physical impossibility for him to do so without causing severe damage to the door frame. Faced with the choice of major structural damage to the building, or paying their pompous Anglophone pet a little extra, they opted for the latter.

[Captain Obvious 2.0]