Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Rock]

What do you do when you don't get any positive feedback at work? Break the ice? Ask for an evaluation?

I know this is 'Job-related,' but wonder if any of you have felt any reluctance in finding out your job performance. I say this for the following reasons.

1) You feel you're doing a good job and are confident.

2) You know they'll complain about something.

3) You find it impossible to do a good job because of the students.

4) It doesn't matter. You've got a year's contract.

I really feel that there's no such thing as being truly confident here in Asia because it's sometimes misconstrued as being arrogant. Therefore, I feel like I'm kind of in limbo.

[Dome Vans]

I think it all depends on the person. I've always disliked the limelight when I comes to working. I work hard, I enjoy the work I do and am professional when I do it. And with teaching I can see that the kids enjoy it. If I keep to these then there is no way that it can be seen as bad. Feedback is good but being consistent is good enough for me.

But I can feel pleased with myself without always expecting somebody to pick it out. In England nobody ever says that you did a good job, so don't really expect it.

1. That's good. Confidence is good in the classroom. It'll get respect and if it comes to discipline as and when it occurs you'll feel more able to deal with it. I feel confident because my classes are mainly sat in silence and that when they see me waiting they shut up pretty sharpish. In other korean teachers lessons the kids are walking around and talking all the way through.

2. This depends on the co-teacher, I suppose. In most cases they probably learn from you as well, because as we know their englishee isn't always so hot. Also depending on school. I work in a public school, but I suppose in a hogwan, business is business. NO students coming in could be blamed on the teacher.

3. You're the boss of the classroom. You're not going to be able to get all thirty students in the class learning every minute of everyday. But if you maintain discipline and a fun working environment and remain consistent with these you can't go far wrong. My co-teacher complained that when he teaches alone a couple of students will sit tapping their pens to annoy him. They did this today, and my co-teacher just leaves him doing. First thing I did was walk over grab his pen from him. Don't say anything and strangely enough the others stopped doing it to. Easy.

4. A fair few on these boards would fall into this category. Can't comment on this because seems pretty alien to me. Coming days and the clock is not a good past time.

Rant over! Sorry.

[Rock]

Another post of mine in job-related stressed this and someone made a good comment. If you do act confident(which is something that Westerners believe in and thrive on,) your apt to be looked down upon. So be careful of this. You may think you're doing a good job, but it's really not the way to measure your performance over here in Asia.

This is why I'm trying to find out how you can get some feedback, be it positive or negative.

Pass out an evaluation? Ask the students via an evaluation? Get an English speaking Asian to sit in on the class?

You see the thing is, they(the Asians,) don't exactly see things as systematic as we do when it comes to learning, meaning even though you think you're doing a good job many other factors come into play. These are most often what have tripped me up.

They 'feel' things out first, see the students' reactions, the relationships with co-workers, complaints and likes and dislikes. I want to override these by concrete evidence and say Hey, this is the way you wanted things done and I did them the way you'd told me to! Then I can combat discrimmination

In other words, you need something to back you up here.

Believe me, few make it here in Taiwan for more than a few months at a job otherwise. Things are just very incoherent.

[Dome Vans]

I think a few factors come into play here.

Until you really know the culture properly which this takes years wherever you work, you really are just working on your best judgement most of the time. Especially with teaching children, I'll see how Koreans teach and treat their children and can learn from it, but a good litmus test is how the students react to you and to the work that they are given and whether they learn from it. You can see in their eyes whether they have understood, and it's always interesting to see when it clicks, and that's a result.

You can only teach them in the way you know best. If you are well planned and ready for the lesson, this'll give you confidence, but I agree with your idea that in some senses it can be a downfall, but I found that and especially from reading about some posters on this forum, that a lack of confidence and classroom control can be an everyday hell. But it stand to reason that if the students are interested in what you're teaching then they are less likely to misbehave. Another good litmus test.

Its sounds that you are thinking and evaluating a lot of what you are doing. I find after lessons, I'll think about the lesson, what could be done better, how I reacted to certain situations and learn from them, but this is in my own best judgement, which in most cases I do trust. I get a lot of positive feedback from the teachers and VP and P about teaching, and one thing rings true the whole time and they consistently say is that I seem to have the students best interests at heart. I think this is important thing in Korea. But unfortunately I can't comment on Taiwan, it's another culture and completely different value system and you get this in every country.

[Rock]

Yeah Dome, thanks. I feel you have to 'connect'. I can feel this too, depending on how the students react. For this reason and this reason alone, I know I'm doing a good job.

But little idiosyncrasies come into play, like profit over principle. Over in Taiwan, too, they're really big into this sense of having power over you. Therefore, negative feedback is the norm.

Drives me mad.