Korean Job Discussion Forums

[boatofcar]

I've been a public school teacher in the US for going on four years now and plan on coming to Korea in August. Those of you who've taught in the US, how would you compare teaching in Korea? Frankly, after teaching in Southeast DC and the part of Newport News 50 Cent affectionately dubbed "Bad Newz," I don't think it could be much worse

[Satin]

Good news. You won't have to worry about the kids attacking you physcially with major weapons!
Most students show respect; very, very few would swear at you to your face (and if they did, you probably wouldn't realize it if you don't understand Korean).
Rarely will you see young teenagers caught up in showing affection publicly. College level - yes.

Watching the outward expressions of emotions is like riding a roller coaster. They can laugh, cry or be somber within seconds. Much more expressive than we're accustomed to in public.

Student motivation depends on where you teach and the career goals of the students. College-bound students are more eager than say, a student who is average and might eventually learn technical or farming skills.

[thegadfly]

The absolute worst teaching job I have ever had in Korea (Mokdong Wonderland, 1996) was about a hojillion times better than my previous US teaching gig (Houston, Texas, Nimitz High School).

Even in a chain hakwon like Wonderland, if you behave professionally, and your actions and requests (always request, never demand) are clearly educationally sound, you should be given free rein. At Wonderland, I was unhappy with the quality of the "canned" lessons (the so-called curriculum), and I was given permission to simply write my own lessons for the levels with which I was unhappy...which the school then purchased from me...I ended up re-writing about 20 or 30 month-long unit plans (which were what I would have done anyway), and got paid for putting them into a format suitable for other teachers to follow.

There will be politics and administrative BS here, but I found it much worse in the US. Here, the pecking order is usually determined by which teacher is best liked, not by which teacher has been at the school longest.
I like that.

Contrary to some opinions expressed on the board, you do NOT have to pander to your students to be well liked -- you CAN pander, or you can teach them something (with measurable, or at least noticeable results). Another example from my own experience -- I got reprimanded at Wonderland for assigning homework and giving quizzes in my phonics class -- the director said it was causing too much stress, that students had complained, and that they were quitting as a result. I was to play more games and not give homework. So, I surveyed my class and found it was only one student making all the noise...told my boss (and asked the students to ask their parents to call). The parents had been noticing that little Jonny could suddenly read a few words, so they were thrilled with the results, but hadn't said anything (if it ain't broke...). The next week, I received an apology from my boss, and was asked to reinstate my homework and quizzes.

There are so so so many ways that teaching here is better than the US...if you are trying to teach. If you want to coast along, I actually think it is easier in the US, but if you put forth a sincere effort, I think you reap more rewards here. Another example -- my second week at my current gig, I got tonsilitis (common for me in the fall). My voice was noticeably raspy, and I was visibly uncomfortable. One of the mothers in the class got up and left (the parents are allowed, even encouraged, to sit in on classes, so that they know what is going on). She was waiting outside when I opened my door to dismiss class, about 30 minutes later. She had an armload of packaged ginseng-honey tea, some ginseng-honey lozenges, some herbal medicine packs of various types, and a sandwich for me. She had waited outside because she did not want to interrupt my class again by coming back in.

It is common for the mothers to bring me food or vitamins/herbal supplements. They say I work hard, and they want me to stay healthy. I worked just as hard in the US, but it was seldom noticed, let alone appreciated.

I could go on and on -- PM me if you have questions.

Of course, nothing is perfect -- there ARE a lot of problems here, but I would trade the problems here for the problems in the US in a heartbeat (er...and I have!)

[boatofcar]

Thanks for the replies I imagine most who complain about teaching here have nothing else to compare it to--I've had a knife pulled on me, been physically attacked when trying to break up a fight, and had a student come to school after seeing his mom shot and killed in front of him by her boyfriend. Frankly, I think I'm up to the challenge of Korean kids

[thegadfly]

The worst I have had in Korea -- an eight year old girl called me a "crazy bastid" in Korean. I made her stand with her nose in the corner. She never did it again, and no other student in 7 years has called me a name to my face.

The main "problem" is getting kids to do the homework you assign...the "problem" kids are the ones that don't do the homework. Scary, eh? I've never had a knife pulled on me, but I was a "first-responder" in two of my US schools...been hit a fair number of times, both intentionally and by accident (got in the way of a punch intended for another kid quite a few times).

[VirginIslander]

I agree with the previous posters. There is no comparison in regards to apathy and disobedience in American public schools.

However, I taught in US Virgin Islands for about two years. One thing that is lacking here is an emotional connection to students and their families. I used to live with my student's grandparents and at the vice principal's brother's house. I swam at the beach with coworkers and their familes, drank at the bar with my student's fathers, played sports after school with my students and went to church with my student's mothers.

Some parents were pathetic and indifferent to their children's educational needs but I will never build a connection with people like I did in the VI. A second family really.

On the other hand, I taught at a private school and after a football game against a public school rivarly, I was jumped by a bunch of poor, public high school kids while I was a family. That would never happend here. Peace of mind goes a long way.

[postfundie]

British schools have got to be worse for back talk and disrespect than American Schools. Nice thing though is that the Brits Brats don't have guns

[Adventurer]

[Adventurer]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[oneofthesarahs]

Hell, if you can teach ANYWHERE in DC, you can survive in Korea.

The kids are mostly well behaved. And when they're not behaving, it's definitely more of a benign sort of misbehaving than you get in the United States. The biggest problem I've run into is that most of my students have a healthy vocabulary of English curse words. (Although f*ck you usually comes out as b*ck you.) If you lay the hammer down pretty hard on cursing right off the bat, it's not too hard to control.

I've also busted up a fight or two, but luckily you don't have to worry about weapons or anything, which you might in US schools.

When I was in the US, I taught ESL to Hispanic students, and that job was a million times more frustrating than teaching here, even though the English level of my students in the States was generally much more advanced.

[bosintang]

I think it depends.

I've worked several private schools (hagwons) and I found the behaviour of the children much better than the behaviour of the students I have in a public school right now, mind you I may be in one of the rougher schools.

However the misbehaviour is a different kind of misbehaviour. In hagwons, I found the students who misbehave are just being naughty, spoiled, or are just exhausted from studying too much and having too much pressure put on them. In my public school, many kids come from broken homes and are bullying other students, stealing money, or are involved with that kind of trouble.

Serious violence is extremely rare though, and weapons are absolutely unheard of. When students have discipline problems, it's mostly the homeroom teachers job to deal with them. For me as a foreign teacher, my problems are just basically that students can be very loud and noisy, and/or moody and apathetic.

[PRagic]

DO NOT BOTHER COMING TO KOREA! WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS, YOU SHOULD BE TEACHING IN HONG KONG. FIND OUT ABOUT THE 'NET' PROGRAM THERE AND APPLY. You can always come to Korea for a visit.

Reasons:

1) MUCH higher pay
2) MUCH easier to adjust
3) MUCH more profesional work environment
3) MUCH better social aspect

In Korea, you will make roughly half of what you would in Hong Kong, and you may not even be working in a major city (if that is indeed what you want). The bulk of the public school teachers in Korea are not certified to teach in their home countries. If you have a pulse and a BA, you can teach in Korea.

Just some food for thought. If I were in your shoes, it'd be a no-brainer.

[justagirl]

One thing that really needs to be mentioned, is a lot will depend on where you choose to work. Not your location, but what kind of school you work for. You have choices:

public school
hakwon
university
private school (International school, DODDS)

If you work in a hakwon, you need to realize that the first priority of the institute is NOT teaching, it is making money. I think it can be a difficult change from "real" teaching, depending on what your educational philosophy is. You'll have some teachers that do absolutely no prep, which can be quite frustrating because you may feel that you're putting in more effort and care more about students' learning (and rightly so).

I'm sure others can add more about this particular point, but with actual teaching experience, I'd strongly recommend a private school setting or a university.

Wish I could write more explaining, but it's past 11 and I have to get to bed so I'm awake for my students tomorrow!

justagirl

[thegadfly]

PRagic,

Hong Kong you say? You can make much more you say? Could you toss out any numbers? I do not scour the job boards for Hong Kong, so I may miss the high end numbers, but I am seeing around $20,000 HKD a month...dunno what the cost of living is in Hong Kong, so not sure what percent of that I would personally be sending home, but that is noticeably less than my current salary...appreciate the heads-up on it, but last time I crunched the numbers all the way through, only the UAE offered a better financial deal than Korea, all told, and I wasn't willing to put up with the UAE for a bit more money...I know Japan pays more but I would save less, as the cost of living would eat up a larger chunk of my pay than it does here....

Thanks for the suggestion, but would like to see one of the prime gigs which cause you to call it a "no-brainer." Pretty please? Link or ballpark figure is cool, and I will happily pull a Rainman and crunch my numbers quietly in a corner....