Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gord]

[posco's trumpet]

[Ilsanman]

It's a terrible idea. Kids have not yet mastered english, even though they speak better than any Korean person.

I know people who barely finished high school and they can't spell. I am personally glad that SK requires a degree. It not only keeps the uneducated out, it keeps out people who are fresh out of high school.

[Tiger Beer]

They need to restructure some aspects of teaching English here. For example, these one-year contracts set in stone. Whats up with that?

If they were more flexible as well as had more incentives for good teachers.. they'd attract them.

The majority of schools demand ZERO vacation time.. for one solid year.. plus its one solid year.

I always thought Korea would be cooler if there was more flexibility.. and 6-month contracts or so.. that way you could at least get away and unwind.. one full-year of day in day out tends to drive people a bit crazy.. particularly when there are no escapes.. and you often work so much there is no time to study Korean or get to know Korea (speaking first year experiences and contracts).

After the 2nd year we know where to be, what jobs to get, how to be and be doing what we need to be doing to make ourselves happy, etc., etc.

[Confused Canadian]

[jajdude]

A somewhat similar thing on a small scale happened over 5 years ago when I unfortunately ended up working for some idiots for a few months in Pohang. Well they flew over a bunch of Canadian kids from Surrey, B.C. (they had 2 schools with the same name over there, run by an awful Korean man). Anyway these teenage kids and the woman guardian taught some classes at the school for a week or so while the school was short a foreign teacher. I don't think they minded it so much, but it was still wrong. Mainly I just remember how amazed the Koreans were to see so many white kids in a group in their town. There were about 15 of them.

[steroidmaximus]

confused Canadian wrote:

[canuckistan]

Completely ridiculous idea.

Just think of some of the things that we go through working in hagwons....can you imagine a young child so far from home and parents?
Will the child be surrounded at all times by English speaking guardians in case of any emergency?

10 kids to an apt?

What if the child gets sick here? Still forced to play anyways "because we paid your parents!!?" Who pays the doctor's bills?

Will misbehavior be "corrected" with corporal punishment?

When dealing with minors, things like these are insurance nightmares.

This is all about money. When it's all about money, stupid things happen.
To many what ifs, and frankly the hagwon industry here is still too corrupt to be trusted with this.

[rapier]

The links in english, so i couldn't read it, but am I to understand that a poor waygook kid is to be carted over here, set in classes of a million staring and pointing , screaming korean kids and has to befriend them all and coach them with their english? If any parent puts their kid through that they deserve to be up in front of the social for child abuse.
What is needed is for korean kids to be sent abroad to experience what its like to be in a foreign country. Then they'll grow up knowing that Korea is not the centre of the universe.

[steroidmaximus]

Rapier wrote:

[crazylemongirl]

I find it interesting talking to my kids about being overseas. Some are generally interested in what happens overseas, 'what you mean you don't go to hagwons?'

While others couldn't care less and seem to see korea as the center of the universe.

I think its important for kids to experience as many different ways of life as possible, whether studying abroad or just mixing with kids from different parts of the community. Unfourtantly in korea the society is so monocultural that they have to look abroad.

CLG

[jajdude]

Well, I guess if one never meets a foreigner outside a hagwon until adulthood, Korea is the world. But you can see the longing some have to be in touch with things not Korean. Why else so many foreign language hagwons? And people sometimes trying to communicate with you though the language barrier can be tough. Korea is entering a new era I suppose, where the younger people have never really known the hardships of their elders. And where they have to notice soon enough that Korea is but a small part of this world, and their language only their own. Anyway I have heard there are several millions Koreans overseas, in the USA, China, Canada, etc... and many go to study or work for a while. They study these foreign languages because they can afford it and realize they are cut off with only their own. They deserve credit for the effort though as yet with their monoculture they are still mostly woefully unable to deal with foreigners very well.

[gomurr]

I was pretty disgusted with the whole idea. And I thought Koreans could sink no lower. As a parent myself, I'm leery about sending my kid to a Korean daycare although I'm going have to soon when I move to Incheon (wife and I have job together). It's one thing to have foreign kids already here to do this since I imagine the parents know what is going on. But knowing Korean recruiting practices, parents from poverty areas in the States are going to get taken for a ride. How much protection are these kids going to have once they get here? We're not talking about University students who are big enough to know better. I think that if this does happen it will spread into other things like child prostitution.