Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

Welcome to the first dave's esl hagwon disorganisation awards. The awards began in 2003 when a bunch of tired and jaded teachers got together to laugh at eachother's misery.

So calling one and all. Tell us some tales of woe from the hagwon when you find schedules are changed, field trips arranged and cancelled at moments notice, and your pay cheque is 3 weeks late.

The prize will be a bevvie of your choice (within CLG's budget) at the next gathering.

CLG

[canuckistan]

Oh I had to laugh at this post...YES!

This is the way things go at my hagwon:

1. Boss cooks up "new program" over soju with his buddies. Has no grand plan.
2. Hires teachers.
3. Fails to manage program because he doesn't really have a clue=problems arise.
4. Only pays attention when problems begin hitting him in the face.
5. Micromanages problems with no grand plan=more problems arise due to micromanagment with no grand plan.
6. Scraps program, too many problems.
7. Starts new program.

Repeat steps 1 through 7 several times.

[maxxx_power]

[rapier]

Good thread CLG.: I'm on my 3rd hakwon, the best and most organised so far, what a relief- even if its not the best paying...
At former hakwons, I faced
1) no syllabus: I had to make my own plans then got blamed when parents said it was not in logical graded order:
2) Late paychecks: i had to actually walk out after waiting 3 weeks before they pulled me back in and got the money...
3) Constant last minute changes to my schedule and other various totally unforessen surprises.
4)Chronically dysfunctional photocopiers
5) No disciplinary support over the kids..

But the most disorganised event in memory was when my boss sent me to Osaka for the visa- despite my warnings- on a SATURDAY. On arrival at the embassy I called to say it was closed just as I'd predicted...his advice was just stay until Monday". I had to find accomodation, change flights etc- and survive it all on the 200.000w he'd given me. Another story altogether.....

Hopefully, all things of the past!!!!

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

I'd signed my uni contract at the end of July to start at the beginning of September. They took ages to get me the blue contract confirmation paper I needed for my new visa. With one week to go before classes I harassed them again, as I told them I wanted to make my trip to Japan a holiday as well. They told me it would be ready in a couple of days and I should go over and they would fax it to me. When I got there I emailed my fax number, then no cantact for a week, not even email and they weren't answering the phone. When I finally got an email they said it was taking some more time, and gave me a date, then I got another email, they couldn't fax it and would send it, three more days later I got the form. I missed the whole first week of classes. Of course they knew it was their fault and I didn't get trouble for it. In fact I had a great time there. But if I had not been staying with friends ( and they didn't know I was doing that ) it would have been a very expensive nightmare.

[eamo]

My place ran a teacher-training meeting yesterday which consisted of watching the New Interchange teachers video.

Sounds reasonable you might say.....

Problem is we have been using the New Interchange books for over 2 months now and are almost finished them, and apparently there are no plans to use them again.

Why didn't they show it when we started the books??......I'll never know.

[Mashimaro]

[peppermint]

On my last contract:

- I was in St. John's NF and packing my bags to leave on April 26. On April25, I get a phone call;"We have a small problem- you aren't in Saint John New Brunswick by any chance, are you? That's where we have you flying out of tomorrow. . " ( it's 1075km away) Top it off, I had to pay for the flight to the other city and get reimbursed, but they refused to pay above a certain price. I wasn't certain of when exactly I was leaving untill 3 hours before.

The guy who arranged private lessons would continually schedule me for privates when I had a class. The one time he checked and arranged things properly at the school, he neglected to call the company who's students I would teach and thus- the class never happened.

The new manager at the school had some bright ideas:
-instead of each teacher having an attendance sheet, he put the attendance sheets in folders sorted by classroom.

- changing the fung shui of the staff room in order to boost attendance. ( He never said this out right, but every week for a month it was rearranged)

- changing classrooms without telling the teachers.

Good riddance..

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'd like to enter this contest.

I was teaching at an adult hogwon a couple of years ago. One day the boss showed up to tell us we'd be adding some kid classes and we should start preparing lessons.

After moaning and groaning about teaching kids, we asked what language level these kids would be so we could start preparing lessons. He said he didn't know yet.

Could he tell us what materials we might be using? No he couldn't.

Could he tell us how long the classes would be? No he couldn't.

So we didn't prepare any lessons.

A few weeks go by. We send in a delegate to get the pertinent info so we could begin preparing. No info yet. "Just be flexible".

In the end we were told the day classes started how long the classes would last and what level our kids would be.

Oh yes. Instead of the 15 maximum per class, there were around 30 students in each.