Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Has anyone else heard about the proposal to place a 10PM closing time on hagwons starting this summer, with police ordered to conduct spot checks? I know a few people in the hagwon business who are very worried about this. For hagwons that focus on secondary school students this gives them basically four hours a day on weekdays to get their teaching done. The end result will be even more kids going to hagwons on Saturdays and Sundays.

Of course, I'm still very sceptical about just how well such a law would ever be enforced. I can imagine a few senior police officers might be getting big discounts on their own kids education as a result of this.

[T-J]

We went through the same enforcement last summer. It is usually focused on a particular area. From what I've seen on T.V. the current focus is on southern Seoul.

[Otherside]

The timing is quite good. They can enforce these laws (at 10pm) before they go and enforce the anti-prostitution laws (11pm ish when it "heats up"), oh right...they don't enforce those laws either.

My take is similar to T-J's; they gonna focus on 1 area for a couple of weeks, make some examples, pocket some cash and then quietly forget about it (Probably during the summer vacation).

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I can see how July would be a good time to appear to be doing something. Lessons are often cancelled because students are getting ready for finals. Then, in the summer, lessons can be held earlier at any rate. By mid-August they can find something else temporarily to crack down on.

[superacidjax]

The question is.. would teaching after-hours put our visas/freedom at risk? Will we be criminals if we teach after hours? More importantly, could we as teachers get in trouble?

[VanIslander]

I teach until midnight three days a week so this concerns me.

I only work Tues-Wed-Thurs but have 10 classes per day, so that I could get 2.5 and 4-day weekends every week.

I'm sure my hagwon wouldn't heed any warnings and it'd take a full-blown raid to make him think twice because - simply put - too many students study at his institute until midnight to make even a fine deter him from continuing the practice. Fortunately, my hagwon is on the south coast, far away from the big cities, so enforcement will be unlikely.

I certainly hope 10pm isn't enforced because it'd threaten the good gig I've just recently got going here.

[Robot_Teacher]

Wow, that's some late classes. Are these adult hagwon classes running that late? Please don't tell me kids are going to school this late. That's over kill. By the time they got home, they wouldn't even have a chance at 8 hours of rest, lucky if they get 6 hours. Where are kids finding all this time to play WoW and Starcraft if they're going to all these hagwon classes after PS classes?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ChinaBoy]

Seems to me that some of you hagwon teachers would want to call the cops on your hagwon and get out of work early.

Might not want to mention your name, could get in a little bit of hot water. I know I would have done it when they changed the quitting time from 10:00 to 10:15 unilaterally without an increase in pay.

[blackjack]

the first hagwon I worked at was open to 1.30 am (for HS students). I never had to work past 10.30 but the korean teachers did (I simply said no)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[wylies99]

[Robot_Teacher]

[ontheway]

The 10pm closing rule must be in limited areas - maybe only around Seoul. We have a 12 midnight closing rule.

It's funny anyway because the public High Schools around here won't let the students leave before 11pm. Many stay until midnight or later at the high school. They are open 7 days per week.The High School students then go home and have private teachers come to their homes to teach small groups.

One of my Korean friends is a private home math teacher for High School students. He finishes each night between 2am and 3am. During exam periods he teaches HS students until 4am.

[Robot_Teacher]