Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CdnTeacher]

I see a lot of posts about the living arrangements, social life etc..

What's the teaching like? I've seen teachers here(Canada) at the local public school burn out in three months. One class (gr.7) made their teacher burst into tears almost weekly, I frequently had to leave my class of 34 students to run into her class and get them back on task. As she was running down the hall crying and heading to Principal's office.

SO what are the students like there. I'm not a big fan of doing any kindergarten classes, although if it's a small group I could handle it.

What are some of your experiences?

[Rand Al Thor]

[IconsFanatic]

I had one of those teachers in my high school. Apparently he had some connection with Kermit the Frog. Right off his gord.

Poor chap though... some kids would shout out "Kermit's dead", and the bloke would go absolutely batty. His wife had to accompany him in class for the first month or two of his post-breakdown return to teaching.

Kids can be so cruel.....

[Bulsajo]

Hard to answer a general question like that; You've got the classes that amaze you, fill you with hope and pride, and the classes where every minute seems like an hour...
I found that the crucial factor between generally good and generally crap classes rested on the school's curriculum (duh, seems obvious, but I wonder how many would-be teachers ask potential employers about the curriculum)- if you had something halfway decent to work with you could at least hope to have some interesting classes for students; Schools where they said "here's the photocopier, there's the classroom" were pretty bad, but the worst is a school that has complete garbage for textbooks/curriculum and expects you to follow it to the letter.

[Zyzyfer]

My abbreviated view on the classes:

Kindergarten-hell on earth.
Elementary-weiner and fart jokes are funny to me, and funny to them.
Middle School-in a hakwon, the middle school classes are insanely boring, but if you teach at a middle school, it can actually be a bit fun.
Adults-best environment, but you do actually have to prepare well-thought-out lessons, or know English like the back of your hand.

You WILL take some verbal abuse, especially if you are hairy, balding, or even have a slightly pudgy stomach. I let that kind of stuff bother me for a while, but finally stopped caring.

Peer pressure is a huuuuuuuuge factor in operating and controlling classes.

Remember, that's just my take. There's a billion different takes out there.

[weatherman]

I would say the teaching is good. I have never had any out of controll class. Many students don't really care, but then again they don't really care to act up in class either. Some classes with the right chemistry can be so great you really start to lookward to the class as the big event in your day. Then there are the freshmen classes, which depending on the factors can be good, to "why won't my watch go faster." Your qustion is huge and the more I think about it in a Korean context a lot is determined by your personality and appearance, the students group personality, how much you care to be a good teacher and make a good lesson, how much you really know and have internalized the field of English linguistics, and a bit of luck, all in that order.

[yoda]

Every teacher I have met in Korea that was a teacher back in Canada or the U.S. has said that teaching here is a breeze. The problem will not be your students. It will be your director or your manager. Some of those can be . . . well . . . unstable. Yes, some of the horror stories about hagwons and universities ARE true.

People who have problems with the actual teaching here often have had no experience teaching back home and little knowledge of ESL. They are unwilling to prepare and are more interested in the party. No wonder their jobs suck.

Try this site for ESL materials: http://bogglesworld.com

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

[Captain Obvious 2.0]

[captain kirk]

you will likely be teaching in the infamous hagwon 'sensurround' experience, where little rooms echo with the shenanigans of small children, with yourself as their captain. the core of which will be elementary students whose base humour related to bodily functions will be endlessly titillating to all. there will be moments when a tense standoff involving a student who has 'lost face'/is being teased will call a complete halt to the festivities. if there's too much carrying on and you threaten to call the director in he will be out driving the bus.....and when you return without Him the kids'll get a big laugh out of it. the director is at the complete beck and call of the MOTHERS. the unseen and total influence of THE MOTHERS will dictate the director's apparent flip-flop of instructions/directives to you. one class will be congenial and put you in a relaxed mood, but the next could be a total ambush which might cause you to bellow like a gored bull (bullseye for the guerillas). it's a jungle in that their hagwon. a mission, should you choose to accept it......for me, the most enjoyable students are the class clowns who are active because they are often literally full of gas (you won't escape their base humour in that square little barrel of monkeys). by the way, you will be a monkey, fat, old, ugly, whatever they think can get your goat. sound like a zoo?

[BTM]

I taught high school in Canada after getting post-grad certified at UBC many moons ago, and after 4 months on a temp contract, I swore I'd never teach again.

Showed up here almost a decade later. Teaching here in Korea is, well if not a joy, at least pleasant by comparison - although I've always refused to teach kids younger than middle school and am at a university at the moment - to teaching at a (small town) Canadian high school. Harder work, if you're keen to actually teach, especially at a hagwon, but yadda yadda.

That said, the points made upthread by others are pretty spot on as well.

[Derrek]

Check out my video on my www link below this post, "Teaching In Korea."

[itchy]

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[VanIslander]

Teaching Korean kids is easier once you use the social norms to your advantage and realize that every kid wants to fit in and keep up with the others.

I compare it to gym class back home, where few students really want to be there but everybody will do the exercise if everybody else will do it. So, encouraging the leaders is what it's all about, and being a tough coach sometimes too. Adding an element of team competitiveness also works wonders.

I'd be too scared to teach the individual-minded, rebellious slackers who populated my own math and science classes in high school back home.

[phaedrus]

Kindergarten is cruel. They would make me cry on a daily basis. Oh, the pain and memories are coming back just thinking about it.