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Been There, Taught That
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Mungyeong: not a village, not yet a metroplex.
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 Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:38 am Post subject: Public vs. Private Atmosphere |
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| I worked at three different hagwons my first time in Korea (when there essentially were only hagwon jobs available), and the relationships and atmospheres were naturally personal and employees worked in fairly close quarters. Now am coming back to a public elementary in Suwon, and I'm wondering how the intimacy of public compares with private institutes. Is it less personal on the job or comparably personal. or does everyone just work together and go their separate ways? Has anyone made the transition either way and found vast differences, been unhappy, ecstatic, relieved, anything? |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:51 am Post subject: Re: Public vs. Private Atmosphere |
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| Been There, Taught That wrote: |
| I worked at three different hagwons my first time in Korea (when there essentially were only hagwon jobs available), and the relationships and atmospheres were naturally personal and employees worked in fairly close quarters. Now am coming back to a public elementary in Suwon, and I'm wondering how the intimacy of public compares with private institutes. Is it less personal on the job or comparably personal. or does everyone just work together and go their separate ways? Has anyone made the transition either way and found vast differences, been unhappy, ecstatic, relieved, anything? |
can't compare to a hogwan but in a PS, you generally work and then go your seperate ways. Part of the reason is that most teachers live in different towns/cities, and you probably know are reassigned to different schools after at most 5 years.
Of course relationships are formed between teachers at school, and sometimes teachers will go out to dinner together, etc etc. but in my school, my general observation would be work together, go seperate ways.
Suits me just fine. Though I enjoy the company of many of my Korean co-workers, the language barrier and my inability to constantly enjoy typical Korean "culture, food and social interaction" means I like getting it in very small and controlled doses. |
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Draz
Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Location: Land of Morning Clam
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:55 am Post subject: |
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The hagwon feels more friendly, maybe because it's easier to exclude the one person who doesn't speak Korean than it is to ignore half the office, especially when everyone in the office is at least decent at one common language. (That would be English.)
Not much outside of work interaction in either group, I'm only talking about the working environment here. |
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Been There, Taught That
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Mungyeong: not a village, not yet a metroplex.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:15 am Post subject: |
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. . .my general observation would be work together, go seperate ways.
Suits me just fine. Though I enjoy the company of many of my Korean co-workers, the language barrier and my inability to constantly enjoy typical Korean "culture, food and social interaction" means I like getting it in very small and controlled doses. |
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| everyone in the office is at least decent at one common language. (That would be English.) |
Thanks for the reminders. Commonalities are what I found most appealing about the atmosphere at the hagwons. I liked the forced friendliness, because eventually it had to turn into something real between coworkers. I do try hard at the language and cultural understanding (one of the reasons beyond the work I showed up in Korea at all), and at contributing my knowledge of English.
Does this mean that the language barrier can be even more a problem in the PS office? I got the feeling with privates that foreigners speaking Korean wasn't encouraged, so everyone had to be passable with English, which just happens to be the lifeline keeping those businesses alive. Maybe PS's don't feel that type of pressure. |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:25 am Post subject: |
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| Been There, Taught That wrote: |
| Quote: |
. . .my general observation would be work together, go seperate ways.
Suits me just fine. Though I enjoy the company of many of my Korean co-workers, the language barrier and my inability to constantly enjoy typical Korean "culture, food and social interaction" means I like getting it in very small and controlled doses. |
| Quote: |
| everyone in the office is at least decent at one common language. (That would be English.) |
Thanks for the reminders. Commonalities are what I found most appealing about the atmosphere at the hagwons. I liked the forced friendliness, because eventually it had to turn into something real between coworkers. I do try hard at the language and cultural understanding (one of the reasons beyond the work I showed up in Korea at all), and at contributing my knowledge of English.
Does this mean that the language barrier can be even more a problem in the PS office? I got the feeling with privates that foreigners speaking Korean wasn't encouraged, so everyone had to be passable with English, which just happens to be the lifeline keeping those businesses alive. Maybe PS's don't feel that type of pressure. |
you will find the English levels at MOST pschools to be very very low (you may even be shocked at how some Korean "English teachers" aren't as proficient as you believe they should be)
so, very very FEW will be "passable at English", beyond hello, goodbye.
This does not mean though that they may not want to socialize with you, become friends with you, etc. They make actually like you for reasons other than wanting to get 'free English lessons/conversation'.
But the language barrier will make it frustrating for any real relationships to develop as both you and your Korean friend/partner will become frustrated at the inability to communicate beyond the very most basic of levels. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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| At a hagwon you're almost always interacting in every situation whereas at a public school a lot of things will be happening around you. At elementary schools the staff room is a much less important place than at hagwons or middle / high schools. If you have your own English classroom and / or office you'll likely find that you're much less a part of the school atmosphere than at a hagwon; whether that's a good of bad thing all depends. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| In Hogwans there's a foreigner community. In Public schools you're a lone wolf. I find making friends and socializing with public school teachers is easy and it can come in handy if you get transfered and you run into problems down the road. |
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EricaSmile84
Joined: 23 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm alone at my public school. My closest friends are some of the students because they are friendly and they can speak English. |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| In many cases you only have your coteacher for company. If their attitude, English or both sucks - well it`s not going to be pretty. |
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