Korean Job Discussion Forums

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Public schools are trying to get native teachers and the public school jobs are more attractive than the hagwons.

How long do you think until they hagwons realize that the public schools are taking all the native teachers and they have to do something before they go out of business?

I would think the hagwons would have to sweeten the pot a great deal in order to keep teachers from leaving. Whats your take on it?

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

They aren't. Public school offers aren't that good. Pay is too low.

There's no way in hell I would change my hagwon job for a public school gig. They'd have to pay me a base salary of about 3.5 milllion. Plus it's more of a clown position than anything, seeing the students like 40 minutes a week. You're just a poser.

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

Hagwons can only afford to pay the foreigners so much before they go out of business. Hopefully the push by public schools to get teachers will put the bad hagwons out of business because of their inability to get teachers.

What I'm hoping for at the hagwons are more perks: free meal/more holidays/less teaching hours, etc.

Canuck Teacher · Joined: 18 Feb 2007

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

That's the thing. Experienced teachers are normally making more at hagwons. Of course there are some, on this board, too, that make a very decent living at public schools. It tops out though. The lucky ones are getting more overtime on top of the higher-end salaries at public schools, but I have to think that their OT is more sporadic than at a hagwon.

I like my job having more meaning. And ends to the means. At public schools I don't think you get that kind of job satisfaction. It's more like a "Hey, this is our token foreigner". I really don't see what good these teachers do. I think that there are some out there that might teach students more full-time than the 40 to 80-minute/week deal, but I have my doubts.

I really couldn't hack it at a public school.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

rokgryphon · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

This tends to beg the question though, which does the better job of teaching the students English. Hogwans, I believe, have clients (the parents) not really students, I think Public Schools have students. ( A caveat being I have experience teaching in a hogwan but not public/middle/high schools.) I am not sure that either system is working well though. I teach at a university (not a unigwon) and the first things I have to cover with my students (in an intermediate level of a 3 level program) are how to make correct yes/no and WH~ questions. We move on to things like simple past and present perfect, invitations, requests and offers etc. I have also had studetns, sports majors mind you; that can't even read!! If there was any real teaching taking place I would think that the students would be far more advanced than that by the time they get to me, but their English seems to be woefully inadequate; considering all the teaching they have had. So what do you teach your students? This is not meant to be insulting; just something that I have been wondering for some time now.

dogshed · Joined: 28 Apr 2006

I'm a newbie working at a public school. For a first year person the pay is about the same. Having never been in Korea before a public school just sounded safer to me. My situation is ok but I have read on another list that some teachers have had problems with low quality housing but the last thing I read indicated it was in the process of being fixed.

The limited time with students is a little discouraging, but I do the best I can with the time I have. I see my job as motivating the kids to study English on their own. I make up study sheets and I've also experimented with making mp3 files for them to listen to.

I know I'm putting on a dancing monkey show, but I'm trying to use my dancing monkey show to manipulate the kids into wanting to learn English while providing them with the tools to do it.

-Jeff

Octavius Hite · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:16 am Post subject:

Boys, I don't know what hogwons you work at but my public school rocks. I get 3 months + of paid vacation. Plus my own classroom, no BS, no saturdays ever, no profit motive, no moms pissing and moaning, etc.

Public school is where its at. Maybe I would take a great hogwon job but most of them, 99%, are crap.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Hagwon teachers definitely have a better environment to actually teach the students.

I'm in public elementary school and its just about impossible to teach them anything other than the very basics of the basics.

How can you teach the kids? Out of 35 6th grade students, 5 can't read/speak English at all, 10 can barely get by, 15 are about average, and the other 5 students are a few years ahead of their level.

Needless to say, those students that are ahead of the curve go to English hagwons.

Another big barrier is you see each class for a total of 80 minutes. 2 forty minute classes in one week. I compare it to 1 commercial break in a 4 hour movie.

No doubt good English teachers are getting paid very well at Hagwons. However, there are a lot of risks involved working at Hagwons that aren't a problem in public schools. Things like getting paid on time and job security. Also, you aren't at the mercy of parents or hagwon bosses.

I've seen a trend that most new English teachers are going to Public Schools. With the bonuses for renewing another year, it would be har dfor a hagwon to match that offer.

Lets say I'm about to renew my contract for 1 year. Public school will give me 2 week vacation plus free round trip ticket home. They'll give me more vacation time and a raise. Also, I stay at the school where I've gotten used to the daily routine.

In order for a Hagwon to lure me away from my public school job would be to offer the same round trip paid 2 week vacation back home, pay me a little more than the public school job, provide me housing comparable to the place I'm at now, and then give me the same vacation days.

That just seems like a pretty tall order for hagwons. For that reason, teachers going into public schools will most likely stay in public schools. Do you think hagwons will be able to offer contracts good enough to lure renewing teachers away from their schools?

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

ontheway · Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:56 am Post subject:

The Hogwans are for serious teachers who really want to teach. You can see your students progress from knowning absolutely no English, not even "hello" or the ABCs, to reading books like "A Scarlet Letter" in English only. No one gets to do that in a public school. These children become like your own. You can raise them, discipline them, mold them. They love you. Their parents love you. That reward is better than money.

On top of it all, if you are a really good teacher and stay at one school for many years, you can earn multiples of the public teachers' pay level.

What do you get in public schools? A lot of vacation yes. The job is easy because there are few demands and expectations. Parents don't complain because they already know that public schools can't teach. The parents expect NOTHING so they are never disappointed.

Public school is a great place for teachers who can't deliver real education. It is an all-day babysitting job shared by many. After school, the kids go to hogwans where they really learn. It's sad that many good teachers with real talent are wasted there. It isn't the teachers that make the public schools bad, it's the system. Systems WITHOUT a profit and loss regulator ALWAYS fail to serve their real function.