Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Voyeur]

How many of you have to be on-site 40 hours a week at your Hagwon, regardless of teaching hours?

This seems to be a trend, perhaps inspired by Public Schools. I'm curious to see how far it has gone.

Also, since generally you teach about 27 hours a week at a Hagwon, is there enough prep to fill that extra 13 hours? Do you do what you want? Do they give you extra unpaid duties during that time?

[Tobias]

I teach at a college, and each day consists of 2 hours teaching in the morning and 3 hours teaching in the afternoon. I have to come in at 9 and stay until 6. 9 hours per day, 5 days a week, 45 hours per week, for teaching 5 hours a day, 25 hours a week. I do about 5 hours planning a week for the summer classes. A 40-hour week might be nice.

[icicle]

The hours I am required to be at work are from 9:30 to 6:30 (M W F) and 6:00 (Tue Thu). I think I was teaching around 22.5 last Semester and just under 30 hours during Summer school. (Contract is up to 30 teaching hours). I don't have a lot of "free" time at school but in normal Semester I had enough time to prepare for my classes while there. I am personally happier with less "nothing to do" time than I was last year in a Public Middle School ... I have much more preparation to do because I am teaching more different classes ... rather than repeating a similar lesson multiple times. Summer workload has been tougher because I have very little non teaching time ... and that which I get is usually at the very end of the day when I am too tired to make good use of it.

To the am I doing other non teaching things at school ... I guess the answer is yes ... But the good will that I get from it ... and the feeling of being part of things is worth that sometimes ... I guess the way I see that is that if I am being paid to be there for that amount of time ... then doing something else when I am not on class ... is not an unreasonable request ...

[wylies99]

OP, many hagwon teachers are at their hagwons more than 40 hours per week, regardless of teaching hours. Good teachers often get BURIED with extra work and more classes.

[yingwenlaoshi]

I'm at 35, but I only teach 24 forty-minute classes. I start my day off with 2 hours of prep time. I don't really have to do much though. Go out to eat, surf the Net, etc. Sometimes I com in late. Start teaching at 4. Finish at different times: 8:25 (Mon), 8:05 (Tue), 8:55 (Thu), and 7:35 (Wed & Fri). I don't really have to stay until 9 (2 to 9). My contract, however, states that I must be in at 2. Stay until 9 if necessary.

[PRagic]

Tobias, you need to find a real university job. That's the worst deal I've ever heard of!

[KoreanAmbition]

Pragic,

Tobias said he teaches "college". Just curious, is college synonymous with university in this country?

[Tobias]

PRagic, I hear ya. Actually, my job was reasonable last year before the department hired a Korean DOS. 9-6 was the norm, and I had 11-5 days during the summer of 2007. But all good things....

Being as my "boss" is Korean, the Korean rulers make certain demands of him. And if he is forced to stay at the school 9-12 hours a day for 5 hours of teaching, then, by God, so do I and my colleague. He nearly cost me three weeks of vacation last February. Luckily his boss ignored his whining and I was able to get my allotted 5 weeks.

So my problem has more to do with a Korean DOS than the school itself.

My school is a college, it's not a uni. It's bucking for uni-hood, though. I hope it gets it. I'll list it as a uni on my resume even if the transformation happens after I'm long gone.

[PRagic]

My bad, actually. A 'college' is indeed, as he said, a 2-year school. Still, I'd be looking for better and more flexible conditions, ESPECIALLY from a 2-year college!

Tell them to take a hike. If you wanted to get a 9-5 job, you would get out of education. Start looking immediately.

[Young FRANKenstein]