Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bucheonguy]

I was curious how many of you still take this ESL job seriously.

For me, when I first got here I was dedicated and serious. I was determined to do a good job. Now, a year has almost past and I find that I just roll in here 10-15 minutes late, go on youtube all day and collect my pay check. This place has beat the life out of me (I'm sure you can find my other posts on here.) From having my work constantly reject to getting harassed on a regular basis from my coworkers I could really care less. I'm just holding out for my bonus at the end. I also realized that despite my best efforts and intentions, the kids were not going to get better when I saw 40 students one hour a week for a month. They were then left to the mercy of the K teacher who really is terrible at English.

So, there you have it. The job is a total joke and I've become the ultimate slacker. What about the rest of you? Any thoughts? Any good experiences? Any thing at all?

[Easter Clark]

Same here.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=135413&highlight=

[nomad-ish]

i came here with good intentions and took the job seriously for a while, eventually i got screwed out of extra class pay, and became increasingly bitter. then i tried another school thinking it'd be different, worked hard for a few months, started getting more and more work to do, teachers treating me like a child, got even more bitter, and now i don't take anything seriously about this job.

[Tobias]

[poet13]

Nope. I love teaching. Even when my coteacher is an idiot, and half of the students need some tender loving strangling, there's always the few who make it worth it.

If I get to the slacker point, I will go back to retirement.

[Easter Clark]

I forgot to add something...

The thing about this job (public school, that is) is that whether you work your ass off or do the minimum required to get by, the results are the same: some kids will learn but the majority won't. Hard work in public school is rewarded not with greater responsibility or higher status; but with more (usually pointless) work.

I found this out the hard way. If I spend hours or minutes preparing a lesson, the results are the same. If I do my best to have all of my paperwork in on time or if I get it done past the 11th hour, the results are the same. In my experience, public school punishes hard work, so why bother?

Building relationships with coworkers can make the job go a but more smoothly, but when it comes time for you to leave (and your usefulness is exhausted), you may as well be a stranger.

[Bucheonguy]

Wow... I checked out the link above and, with the sleep blogging comment, I guess my post has been done before hahaha.

Either way it makes me feel better hearing this stuff. I've been feeling guilty about my lack of enthusiasm these days. To be fair, I have one after school class that I teach alone that I can dredge up some passion for still. THe rest of it, the paper work, the lesson plans, the coworker relationships... meh. I've tried making good relationships with them and they just snub me. If I finish my work quickly I get more work or am accused of my work being garbage cause it was done fast. I don't even have the freedom to make what I want so I gotta do what my joke coworkers tell me to do in class which is put on a little song and dance and occasionally prattle out how great Korea is in English.

I'll never, ever go back to another public school again.

[Bucheonguy]

Wow... I checked out the link above and, with the sleep blogging comment, I guess my post has been done before hahaha.

Either way it makes me feel better hearing this stuff. I've been feeling guilty about my lack of enthusiasm these days. To be fair, I have one after school class that I teach alone that I can dredge up some passion for still. THe rest of it, the paper work, the lesson plans, the coworker relationships... meh. I've tried making good relationships with them and they just snub me. If I finish my work quickly I get more work or am accused of my work being garbage cause it was done fast. I don't even have the freedom to make what I want so I gotta do what my joke coworkers tell me to do in class which is put on a little song and dance and occasionally prattle out how great Korea is in English.

I'll never, ever go back to another public school again.

[Bucheonguy]

Wow... I checked out the link above and, with the sleep blogging comment, I guess my post has been done before hahaha.

Either way it makes me feel better hearing this stuff. I've been feeling guilty about my lack of enthusiasm these days. To be fair, I have one after school class that I teach alone that I can dredge up some passion for still. THe rest of it, the paper work, the lesson plans, the coworker relationships... meh. I've tried making good relationships with them and they just snub me. If I finish my work quickly I get more work or am accused of my work being garbage cause it was done fast. I don't even have the freedom to make what I want so I gotta do what my joke coworkers tell me to do in class which is put on a little song and dance and occasionally prattle out how great Korea is in English.

I'll never, ever go back to another public school again.

[Xuanzang]

It`s funny but I think their private academies teach them more than I ever could (as a PS teacher). MY lessons have to be dumbed down and we were told at SMOE orientation to let the smart kids fend for themselves. Iagree, lately I have been feeling like I have senoritis. Must be the icebox classroom and lack of sunshine. I just see this as glorified babysitting, especially the afterschool programs where they send me "special" kids for remedial lessons.

I like my PS job better than my former hagwon and junior college jobs. More downtime and I have a coteacher that I actually respect as a person. My relationships with the other Koreans is simply "hello and good bye". I prefer it that way as rumors tend to spread among these cliques about anything and everything.

[VanIslander]

[BS.Dos.]

I was full of both beans and enthusiam when I arrived 16-months ago. I put as much as I could into both my lesson preperation and execution. However, the impracticalities of trying to tailor lessons for each specific class became far to demanding on my time and, as a result, this probably marks the stage where my commitment first started to wane. However, I should also note that this was coupled with a wider appreciation of how things generally work, or rather, don't work over here. When you're put into such an illogical working environment and one devoid of any feedback or peer support, I think it's only natural that ones commitment will eventually start to suffer. While I'm enjoying the experience and have a good relationship with my school, I don't think that there is any real academic regard for what I'm actually doing out here. I don't think my school actually care if the students can speak English or not. They're more concerned with trying to raise the results and academic standing of the school than improving the kids English.

Having said that, I'm not suggesting that I've 'given up'. I still make an effort and try and do my best, but I find that I've 'lost' a lot of the lower level students and if I'm honest, I'm not doing nearly enough to pull them back in. I find that I gravitate towards the higher level students and to those that at least attempt to take an interest. To this end, my biggest crime is probably in neglecting to inspire or motivate my lower end students.

I'm not in Korea for the long-term. Once my second contract is up in August, I'm off, as I always intended. Given this, teaching out here is and always has been a means to an end. It's just a personal stepping stone for enabling me to get somewhere else. I took the time and made the financial commitment by taking a TESOL part time before I arrived out here and feel that that is probably as big a personal commitment as I'm prepared to make in regards to teaching English in South Korea. If I were planning on staying here longer, then I think I'd put more in.

[Allen]

[Xuanzang]

Every Dave`s poster`s dream - "If you had small class sizes twice or thrice a week with total control over lesson and text choices in a classroom of your own then you might be able to get serious about teaching and see tangible, satisfying results.。。pays on time, gives adequate accommodation and couldn't care less what happens inside the classroom as long as the students keep coming and the parents are satisfied. �

[VanIslander]