Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiduncan]

How many people here have taken time off teaching in order to study Korean full time for a few months? I might have two or three months free when I return to Korea and I'm considering swallowing my pride and finally actually paying to study Korean. If I come back on a tourist visa will a standard hagwon accept me or will they insist on me having a student visa? I know a university would want a student visa but I imagine if I'm only studying for two months a tourist visa would be ok.

Also, what has been your basic impression of the Korean classes offered by private schools? I think my study needs a bit more structure than just reading Korean online guides to organic gardening and chasing down Korean students at Sainsburys .

As a teacher I'm always wondering if my teaching style and habits are really helping my students. Perhaps being on the receiving end of a language class will make me more aware of good and bad teaching methods. What was your impression of Korean teachers in Korean classes? Did they dominate or facilitate? Did they ever throw in English words or phrases as prompts? Did they seem well prepared?

Any opinions or advice would be very useful.

Cheers,

Duncan

[Ginormousaurus]

I don't have time to give a detailed answer as I'm busy studying for my final exams at the moment. But don't worry about studying on a tourist visa. I studied at Yonsei for 6 months on a tourist visa. Private Korean hagwons can't even sponser you for a visa.

Since I graduate on Friday, my student visa will expire. I leaving the country on Saturday and returning on a tourist visa and plan to study for the next few months at a Korean hagwon.

[LuckyNomad]

I have way more free time in public school than teaching time, so I use most of my free time(roughly 4 hours a day) to study Korean. I don't take formal lessons. Just self-study and language exchange with my friend.

[robot]

learning korean will certainly make you a much better teacher. taking that one step further, if i were an employer i'd be very suspcious of any language teacher's abilities if they haven't learned a language themselves...

personally i wouldn't take time off to study; it's just too much of a financial loss. learning korean is awesome, but thousands (potentially tens of thousands) of dollars in lost wages just isn't worth it. i dunno, that's just for me. others may value other things in life more than the mighty won.

i aim for the best of both worlds: i find that it's possible to make significant progress in my spare time, even with an overloaded work and social schedule... just speak and read korean every other second of the day.

[kiwiduncan]

Thanks for the advice. I've always preferred self-study to class study myself, but I think it might be interesting to try a class for a while. I can consider the classes 'undercover' teacher training, as I'm really curious about Korean teaching methods. Once I get working again I'll just go back to self-study.

I'm at the level where I really need to be back in Korea in order to make more progress. My Korean students here in England insist that I am upper intermediate but, while I am more fluent that some of the Japanese and Koreans who fluked their tests and got into the upper intermediate classes, some of the Koreans and the Europeans in the same classes just blow me away. Personally I think my Korean has slipped back down to intermediate while in the UK, but one good thing about having the break from Korea is that I'll come back very motivated.

My motivation in Korea has always been more financial than educational, but I agree that learning Korean is cool and fun and shows respect for the host country and a better understanding of language study.

Good luck with the exams Ginormousaurus

Cheers,

Duncan

[mithridates]

[kiwiduncan]

Cheers Mithradites, your advice is exactly what I tell my Korean students when they are interested in going to New Zealand. I also poo-poo the idea of spending 12 months in big city language schools hanging out with other 유학생s and I'm a big promoter of working holidays and wwoofing etc. My three-year plan consists of spending most of the time lost out in the wop-wops of rural Korea, with nothing but a bunch of Korean mountain biking magazines, the latest 달빚요정역전만루홈런 album and a copy of '우리 민속 오천년' to keep me company. I'll be happy to go cycling with a bunch of old ajosshis and plant vegetables with their wives for a few years - hongdae was never my cup of tea

But, I must admit a couple of months in a Korean hagwon would certainly be a giggle. I know that when I teach English I regularly use Korean as a prompt to force my students to speak English, and I am curious if I'd find these kind of tricks annoying or useful if I was on the receiving end.

[Son Deureo!]

I studied Korean at YBM on Jongno as well as at Sogang after having gotten to a pretty good level through self-study and I found it very helpful. I especially recommend Sogang. The classes themselves were pretty good, but probably the best part of it was meeting and hanging out with my Japanese classmates, who were not only a lot of fun, but I still had to use Korean to speak with. I am still in touch with some of them.

It was a very positive experience for me, so I say give it a try.

[VirginIslander]

Why does it alwasy have to be one or the other. Why can't you go to private classes a few times a week and study for two hours a day--between the hours of 8 and 10 in the morning. Then, for another 5-10 hours on the weekend. Thats up to 20 hours a week! Find a hawgron job with fewer hours.

Also, its not as if most of us are doing excessive lesson planning. Unless you have a family here, you should have lots of free time. Get rid of the computer and TV for several months. I've stopped watcing TV and that has given me lots of time to read. Now, if I could onlly get off the internet.

And remember, for every month you spend studying and not working, you are probably loosing $2,000 a month (a grand in saving and a grand in supporting yourself).

For me to study to Korean for six months and loose $12,000 is just insane--unless one plans on staying here for more than 5 years.

[kiwiduncan]

I agree. At the end of the day I am returning to Korea to save a load of cash working, not to spend a load of cash studying, and I make decent enough progress self-studying in the past. But I am going to be at a bit of a loose end when I get back in October as the university jobs I'm interested in applying for all start in the new year.

I've asked on Daves before about my chances to swing a very short-term (ie, three months or so) job or even do some kind of volunteer work for a few months so I don't need to touch my savings, but apart from advice about teaching in winter camps there was not much on offer.

Basically, I'll consider anything for three months if it is a) legal and b) doesn't require me spending a lot of money. I don't want to run the risk of being busted for privates. I'm still interested in a couple of months at somewhere like YBM or Sogang because then I can steal my teachers' ideas