Korean Job Discussion Forums

[DCJames]

I feel it's a complete joke.

Koreans simply want good looking whities as teachers to show that they are "serious" about learning English. In reality, nothing more could be further from the truth. The superficial Koreans are more concerned with appearances ("keeping face"). They want to LOOK LIKE they're serious about learning even if they're really not.

Koreans are interested only in KEEPING FACE. It really doesn't matter if they learn anything or not. As long as they LOOK LIKE their learning that's good enough for Koreans.

That's why Koreans will NEVER be considered serious players on the world stage.

Koreans are all about style not substance.

[Draz]

Are you sure you are talking about "Koreans" and not "the annoying children you have to teach every day"?

I like my students, but they're kids. Of course they don't bring a ton of insight to the process, or really give a damn about it. They're kids!

[American_Maverick]

Any job where I collect a paycheck is a "real job" as far as I'm concerned.

[Fresh Prince]

I'm not so sure there are any "real jobs" left anywhere, anymore. I've found a lot of employers at home that want a bachelors/masters degree with years of experience, for a job that utilizes almost none of the technical skills acquired during that education.

[Join Me]

What happens once you close the door to your classroom is up to you. You can either run a classroom or a zoo. If you are doing the later, it is very easy to question whether your job is a "real job." I have been here for four years and each year I have become a bit better at doing my job and observed the results in my students (and myself). Seeing this gives me far greater satisfaction than any so called �real job� I had back in the States. Whatever it is that I am doing, I really enjoy it now. Maybe that means it isn�t a �real job.� It pays my bills though.

When I hear people question if this is a real job, I think what they are usually saying is that they just aren�t comfortable doing it. These same people wouldn�t be comfortable working with kids back in their own country I imagine. Teaching kids isn�t for everyone that is for sure. No harm in that and most people realize that it isn't for them and move on after the first year.

For those who work with adult students and question whether they have a real job, I have no idea what their issues are. If they were back in their own country, they would be running around proudly telling everyone in ears shot they are a "consultant."

[Netz]

[VanIslander]

[Zaria32]

It's a complete joke only if you make it so...

[pkang0202]

I teach elementary and it can be frustrating at times. These are just kids though. They don't realize that English will be very important for them to be successful. Why should they? They are only 10-13 years old. All they care about now is beating a game on the DS or what Big Bang did last week.

Were we any different when we were kids? When I was in elementary school, the last thing on my mind was, "I need to study so that I can get into a great college and get a good job."

If you are talking about teaching adults, then you have people who are genuinely interested in English, and people that don't.

What I'm trying to say is that you can lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink. What you CAN do as a teacher is make that water look so good and refreshing that the horse will WANT to drink it.

Did you ever think that it was not the students you teach but your teaching style?

[R. S. Refugee]

Yeah. It's real.

Get up at 6:30. Get to work by 8:30. Teach 5 classes most days but only 2 on Friday. Leave at 4:30. Get a paycheck.

Oh yeah. And get to have a lot of fun teaching. I like teaching. I have great rapport with most of my middle school students and reasonably good rapport with my Korean colleagues. Nobody hassles me. They know they're fortunate to have a high-quality foreign teacher there. They seen the other kind already.

I've got to admit my attitude has made a noticeable upward trajectory since I moved out of my one-room shoe box (7-pyeong) apartment a couple of weeks ago into a small (but multi-room) apartment. I enjoy being home now. I didn't enjoy being home before the move. But my attitude toward teaching was still very positive even when my attitude toward my housing wasn't.

It's real. And I'm really happy (most of the time )

Good luck finding a teaching situation you can feel more positive about.

[captain kirk]

[captain kirk]

[wylies99]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

I don't understand people who say this isn't a real job. You go to work, you get money, it's a job. It beats having all the right qualifications yet still working two lousy, humiliating jobs back home just to scrape by because it's an employers market and they can pretty much do what they want to.

Here, it's an employee's market so you don't ever have to fight for a job... in fact, it's such an employee's market that you can be a crap teacher who isn't interested in improving and doesn't care or try and still have a job. At the same time, those people often leave saying 'it's not a real job' because they didn't treat it like one and were here on a vacation-- during which they probably just wanted to get drunk or laid and accumulate stories and/or 'authentic' experiences (not to broaden their minds, but to impress people back home, probably so that they could get laid back home)... of course, they usually get absolutely nothing out of it.

Employers here will hire people for their looks, but usually what they really want is a good teacher (who is also good looking)-- and a good personality goes a lot further in the long run. I've known lots of people who were hired for their looks but left the bosses feeling rather unimpressed, and fat, old balding men who have earned respect of their bosses because they know what they're doing.

If you get the right job and they give you a chance you can influence things for the better... and if you get into it and don't just treat it like a joke, then it can be rewarding. Even if the Koreans are conservative and Confucian, they're not all incapable of two-way communication (I hope)... if a hagwon owner can't do that right, they're not going to have a successful school. Word will spread about frustrated teachers and frustrated students and the parents will take their children somewhere else.

The only thing that sucks about this job is the 'out of place' feeling (which is good in small doses, but monumentally depressing in large ones), not always being able to choose your friends, and having little to no face-to-face contact with the people back home.

[VanIslander]