Korean Job Discussion Forums

[axmill]

Hey Everyone,

I'm in a situation where I'm moving to a poorer public school and was wondering what the pros and cons would be. I know the pros and cons of working at a richer school, so i was just curious, if you have worked at both types which do you prefer?

Thanks!

[bogey666]

[Xuanzang]

[bogey666]

candy's MORE EFFECTIVE with my poor kids

[nate2008]

Good points so far, but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the obvious yet: the level of English will most likely be significantly lower. On top of that, since the students know that their lives and opportunities will be significantly lower than rich students who can afford hagwons every day (although if the students are elementary they may not be old enough to have made this connection yet) they may tend to have worse behavior and attitudes towards school.

This is not always the case though. I teach at a middle level school where nearly all of the students go to hagwons every day. However, there is one student, a first grader (middle school) whose family is very poor. He cannot afford hagwons or after-school education, so his English is virtually non-existent, but he is the cutest and sweetest boy I have ever met. I saw him take a short quiz with his homeroom teacher the other day, and when he got his score back, he got a huge smile and ran out of the classroom happy as a clam. I try to talk with him as often as I can because I know that although his opportunities for education are very low, it's something that is very important to him.

[lifeinkorea]

I worked way out in the country in Yeongyang (it's east of Andong). The students' English was not really as bad as the students I taught in Seoul. I am in Pyeongtaek now, also in the country but not as bad as Yeongyang, and the students are about the same.

The main difference I see is that you have small groups of students scattered from class to class (like in 2's or 3's) who know each other and have a greater understanding of English. They seem to feed off each other and possibly are motivated through their parents to succeed.

You won't see that so much in the country. Students are more relaxed, playful with everyone, and one day you'll walk into class and it will look like a totally different classroom because everyone is sitting in different seats. In Seoul, students "claimed" their seats. This definitely effects how you will run classes and get them in groups to do role-plays.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

At every school, rich area or poor area, it's amazing what they do and don't have money for. In some parts of the country you can find schools that don't have indoor plumbing but have plasma TVs. If the right people can get the right grants, you can get beautiful new libraries at schools small enough the students could all be taught in the library alone. There might be millions of won of A/V equipment in special needs classrooms that never gets used. And yet the classroom you get to use might have an ancient computer with eight years' worth of viruses on it.

[nomad-ish]

i've worked at both (currently i'm at the rich school), and i find in my experience:

(generalized, of course)
rich area schools
-tend to have high english abilities
-give you little perks, such as presents (rice cake boxes, towels, etc.)
-have pretty good lunches
-upfront about paying salary and what you're owed
-facilities are very nice, school is well-kept
-expect you to do lots of extra classes (wage may be better than the contract), and lots of extra events and afterschool dinners and activities, some saturday work, additional work that doesn't qualify as teaching, etc.

poor area schools
-kids have lower english abilities
-more severe discipline problems (i have some bad kids at my current school, but there were a lot more, with bigger issues, last year)
-can be nasty and unsanitary
-try to skim money off your salary or extra class pay
-won't expect you to do much and will just be happy you're staying, so they won't badger you about afterschool things or interfere with your lessons

[Robot_Teacher]

I teach at 2 rural small town schools. Wouldn't consider poor, but just average. I can't really tell who's poor and who's rich if anyone, but I not sure poor actually exists in todays Korea as Korea is not a poor country. Seems to have a large middle class. I do notice the elderly are very poor.

One school is really small where grades 1,2, and 3 are one grade with 4th, and 5th grade being only 6 students each and 6th grade only 9 students. No power struggles nor competition, but they're much lower level in all academic areas than the bigger school with 20 to 30 students per grade. This tiny country school has a newer library with a huge TV and modern PC so I use it for 6th grade and after school classes. The classroom computers are super slow with only rear projection TV's difficult to see. It doesn't have a kitchen, but has it's lunch brought in from larger school in next town over.

There are no factories and industry in my local Gangwon-do area so most of the parents jobs are in civil service such as fireman, police officer, bank teller, etc. Their are only a very few wealthy people, but I would say most are middle class as parent aged people are nearly all civil service people like teachers while retirees tend to be poor and living in ramshackle old ugly houses. The students have decent clean clothing, but not fancy clothing, and they have supplies like pencils, paper, and books. They're not skinny either and some are even fat. Competition is greater in the larger school, but they all mingle, are friendly, and don't behave territorial where they switch seats and share things. The main problem is they're tired all the time.

These are all my, "hello!," kids. They're good kids with only 2 really acting up on one occassion, but are not habitual offenders. They're very friendly to me on the streets, but the adults seem to be the rotten sullen antisocial ones.

[sinsanri]

[axmill]

thanks for advice! i really like my "poor" school compared to the last "rich" school that i worked for. everyone appreciates you a lot more and the students are a lot better than the those snotty brats!

[jonbowman88]

I work for both a rich and a poor school and the poor school sucks.

At the por school the kids are terrible, and the co teacher does nothing "because they are from poor families" the lunches are crap, and I have no computer.

The exact opposite is true at the rich school.

If you have a choice it's a no brainer

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

My experience

Bundang underperforming HS (Jeonnja St.)
-school 3 years old
-snotty students (told they were getting worse)
-fluent students less than 10
-clean students (several boys had a intensive lunchtime regime)
-no classes with senior students
-constant behaviour problems (smart-arsed ness)

Seongnam MS with HS next door (Moran St.)
-School 30+ years old
-mild mannered students
-fluent students-one.The only student to have been overseas
-gag factor high-windows open in class in winter
-fairly appreciative and keen
-little or no behaviour problems
-very, very limited English overall

I enjoyed the poorer MS much more and only switched because I wanted to be able to communicate with students more at a local academic HS (though that was fairly limited).
Teachers at the MS were also a lot less pissy overall, more relaxed.
Enjoyed drinking and socialising with the MS teachers far more

[jcan]

I work at a poor school too and it sucks. My co-teachers think it's useless to have a native speaker in the classroom since they think the students will never use it in the future. There is no budget for me and obviously no English classroom, so I had to buy a USB and go from class to class.

That being said, I've got a friend who works at a poor school as well and he gets treated like gold - the school worked hard for a government grant. I guess a lot of it has to do with the school's mindset. Like a lot of stuff in Korea, working at poor schools can be hit or miss.

[KYC]

im starting to think everything in Korea is a hit or miss