Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cracker006]

Avoid this school like the plague! (Unless you enjoy teaching piss drunk and being able to keep your job for 6months to a year before someone gets around to firing you. Why not? Half your class is drunk, and the other half is hung over...)

Foreigners are treated with a lot of hostility. Everywhere else you have korean "Co-Teachers". There, your co-teacher is one of your hundreds of bosses. Everyone is above you. Including some of the students, because they out-rank your boss.

All the charm of a hakwon, with the carte blanche of the government.

They have a huge turn over rate. Supposedly they try to keep 12 foreign teachers. They are usually hiring year-round.

If you don't believe me, just check how frequently this company posts job offers.

[PRagic]

Crap job. Don't know why anyone would apply.

[Ramen]

Attention! Bow to your students!

[Cerriowen]

I worked there. I whole heartedly agree. Everyone I know from there quit. Usually mid-contract, at the end of a semester, when they couldn't handle it anymore.

At one point I was having to have my lessons approved by the STUDENTS before I did anything that wasn't out of the book. So I just stopped doing anything but the book.

Going in and telling them to do something, and a high ranking guy saying "This isn't relevant. We dont' need to know it. Pass."

Ooooh that got on my nerves.

[PRagic]

U.S. Army linguists do the same thing to their Korean teachers. Nothing new.

What's pathetic is that the Korean government won't provide a professional training program for its personnel. They hire BA holders with no experience and chuck them into the classroom. The employment conditions aren't good enough to attract good, long-term teachers.

Idiots. Let the program die on the vine. As it is now, nobody should even bother applying.

[Ya-ta Boy]

delete

[Ya-ta Boy]

I would like to enter a dissenting opinion about this school. Since I work there I think my opinion has some validity.

Disclaimer: I don't for a minute claim this is a wonderful job. I've had 6 jobs in Korea and this one only ranks at #3 or #4 in terms of desirability. If things work out as planned I'll be moving on at the end of this contract.

1. Drunk Students
In my 18 months at the school I've only had a couple of days where any of the students were hung over. The students are forced to live in a dorm on base and their private time is strictly controlled. Drinking is forbidden except at specified times and even then rather carefully watched. Two students that I know of have been sent home for drinking. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've had hung-over students in class.

The criticism is vastly overstated.

To be accurate, there was one class with 'extra' students who we sometimes teach where one of the students had been out all night drinking. It was one of the worst teaching experiences of my life.

(Since my brother went to a high school class drunk on his ass one time, I don't feel I can say this is a uniquely Korean problem.)

2. "being able to keep your job for 6months to a year before someone gets around to firing you."

I don't know what this really means. The school hires and then continues to allow people to teach long after the majority of students and other teachers think they should have been fired. For example, one teacher simply spent his time reading magazines during class and told the students to study. I guess he thought it was just a study hall. The same teacher, when motivated to actually talk to the students, only spoke to the 2-3 best students and ignored the lower ability students. (Out of 10 students in the room.)

3. Hostility
There is an element of truth to this, although again it is overstated. The administration is not friendly, but it is not hostile. However, they may well be hostile to people they are thinking about firing. I don't know about that.

The administration is somewhat chaotic, similar to other Korean schools. We have several layers of administration above us and it is seldom clear who is in charge.

4. "Everyone is above you. Including some of the students, because they out-rank your boss."

I have never felt this coming from the students. I'm addressed as 'Sir' by many of the students even after they have been told it isn't necessary. The response: "Because I respect you." I find the students respectful and affectionate. I have never once had a student pull rank on me.

I don't want to give a false impression. I have had a handful of problem students. It is not all sweetness and light.

It is certainly true that the administration is not at all interested in hearing suggestions from the foreign teachers. In that way, the criticism is accurate. They are the bosses and we are the employees and that is very clear.

5. High turn-over rate
This is true. As Hyeon Een said in another post, this job doesn't appeal to many people, so we don't get very many applications and end up with inexperienced people, some of whom turn out not to be very good in the classroom. Some have turned out disasterously. Some quit, some are fired. Our term ended yesterday and of the 12 here, 4 are leaving because they are unhappy and one more is on the chopping block if the rumor I heard is true.

Here is a direct quote from a teacher:
Me: Obama or Clinton?
Him: The food isn't very good but it's sunny today.

And he talked like that in class. A student would ask a question and be completely mystified by the teacher's response. The rest of the teachers were, too. Coherent conversations were not possible. Can you imagine trying to understand a foreign language and be stuck with this person as your teacher?

For some smut: One teacher was fired because she kept calling in 'sick' on Mondays. What the school didn't know was that she was taking students home for nooners. Some of the Monday absences were because she was home in bed with a married student. If the rumors were true, the guys going home for nooners were not the same guys who were getting their cultural sensitivity training on Mondays.

6. "What's pathetic is that the Korean government won't provide a professional training program for its personnel. They hire BA holders with no experience and chuck them into the classroom."

How many schools in Korea do this? Not many.

One new development here is that the school now allows newbies to observe all the teachers and get some exposure to how to teach this program. It's very limited, but it's a start.

Personally, I think a school has every right to expect to hire someone who already knows how to teach.

7. "The employment conditions aren't good enough to attract good, long-term teachers."

I mostly agree with this. It is a bit below average in employment conditions. There are compensating factors, but many of the good people who have been here while I've been here did not feel they were good enough.

I've tried to give what I feel is a more balanced view of the school. I felt compelled because the students here are 98% terrific people and deserve good teachers. No more sexual harrassers, lazy incompetent people, teachers who can't keep their panties on during class time please.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[CentralCali]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I have a story about why one teacher is no longer with us.

Last summer an Australian woman was hired. Within days the students were up in arms because she was teaching sitting down. Yes, I know that is shocking, but true. I swear. She actually taught while sitting. Even after being told not to.

Then she let it be known that she didn�t like our curriculum. That is not a good strategic move because we have to use it. (I like it, but not everyone does.) The real trouble was that she didn�t substitute anything else for it. She just did small talk to kill time. The students didn�t feel they were benefiting from her chit chat. They complained that she had no �passion�. (Teachers who really try are granted a great deal of leeway by the students. The ones who don�t are not�our students� future career is heavily influenced by their grades at this school.)

But the ultimate affront came at the weekend dinners. She never contributed on the basis that the students asked her out and therefore should pay. (A �salty� broad, to say the least.) Then it came time for her birthday. She dropped off invitations on all the teachers desks and invited her class. None of the teachers accepted her invitation. None. At the restaurant, everyone ate and drank and then put their shoes on to leave. The teacher in question put her shoes on and walked out the door, leaving the students to pay yet again. This is a lesson in �a little knowledge is a dangerous thing�. She knew students would pay for her meals and drinks but didn�t realize that Koreans pay for their own birthday parties. (I�d had an inkling of her attitude of entitlement when she first came. I volunteered to take her to the used furniture shop. I had to pay the taxi fare for the privilege of helping her out.)

On Monday morning the class leader marched into the office and demanded she be fired. She was. However, we teachers didn�t know this. She told us that she had quit. We didn�t learn about the firing until after she�d left although we all heard how angry and insulted her students were.

Cultural insensitivity + lack of effort = no job (It didn't help that she had made up and spread a rumor about one of the other women teachers boinking one of the Korean teachers...the one who has the most say about who is hired and fired.)

[Young FRANKenstein]

[bassexpander]

[CentralCali]

[snehulak]