Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zantetsuken]

The word around the Dave's campfire (especially among noobs) is that Public school jobs are a much better gig than being a hagwon monkey. After slogging it out in hagwons/kindergardens/companies and other odds and ends for over 3 years...I decided to give this PS thing a try for a year. Judging from what a lot of waygooks have said and from my own experiences of working a a public HS for a year,.,...they suck. Now the Z-man is gonna tell you why this is so.

Nationalistic 우리나라ism- This might be the worst part of working at a public school. The chest beating/flag waving never ceases to amaze me here. The hakwons and company gigs I worked at never had this whole 우리나라 thing going on. Coworkers/bosses at hagwons generally never hit you over the head as much with this crap.

회식/meetings-At hakwons..I never really had to attend any meetings or bullcrap dinners with coworkers who don't really like you in the first place. The dinners are the worst...

공무원/KTU pride- The people at hagwons generally don't have this "공무원 pride" thing going on. At the hagwons, they don't have this feeling that they are the cat's pajamas. Public Officers in Korea are notorious for thinking that they are above everyone else. When you combine this with a waygook hating organization like the KTU...well you got a recipe for disaster.

Huge classes of students who could give a rat's something something - In hakwons if you have a class of 12 students..you will have 6-8 who could'nt give a hoot about what your white butt is saying. But in your PS school classes of 40 students..you now have 30-35 who couldn't give a hoot. You also get the added bonus of mentally retarded kids too (not that I have a problem with them or anything). Most of your students are only interested in studying their 모의고사 or 수능 bullcrap instead of learning something that might actually be useful in the real world.

Power Struggles - Generally in hagwons you don't have to worry about this ...there's the 원장님 and everyone else. No real struggle here...just the boss...and everyone else. However at the public school.....everyone is vying for position. You got the VP giving you static....your fellow co-teachers giving you static (who aren't even more qualified than you..but they are 우리나라 and you're not) and other administrative types as well. Being the waygook 쌤 relegates you to the same status as the janitor, bathroom cleaning lady or food ladies. You have zero authority or influence in anything that goes on there and you better not create waves.

Eating in the Cafeteria- At all the hagwons I worked at....I never had to eat with the coworkers and they never gave a damn about my eating habits. At public schools they really want you to eat the industrial waste they pass off as food with them. The KTU lemmings will actually feel butthurt if you don't join them in the cafeteria. Because I never eat in the cafeteria...I have lost some valuable Waygook Appreciation Points (hereforth referred to as WAP's)

Working with the "Real" teachers- Because you are a "보조교사" (translation: piece of spam) you are not a real teacher and you have to be accompanied by a real 우리나라 born and bred Korean Co-teacher. Some of them don't come to your classes..and this is cool. But the ones that do come..more often than not...are more useless than a 된장녀. They're just dead weight and often make your job unnecessarily harder. At a hakwon at least you control what goes on in a class.

Popularity - Being a popular EBS look alike douchebag is more important in keeping your job at a public school than actually teaching English. If you ruffle any feathers or question anything..then you'll be written up as a "bad teacher." This is true in my experience and other waygooks I've talked to. Your WAP's are what plays a crucial part. Let's examine this phenomenon.

Looking like an EBS clown and playing the dancing monkey = +100 WAP's
Eating Lunch with your KTU overlords and saying the food is delish everyday = +100 WAP's
Attend all events and be a doormat = +100 WAP's
Kiss the butt of all your KTU overlords = +250 WAP's
Do your job/show up on time/be respectful/help the students communicate in English =+5 WAP's

Now for negative WAP's ...simply subtract the same amounts for those things that you don't do. If you have a negative score...well you won't get renewed and you'll be labeled as a "bad teacher" If you're score is positive...then you'll be allowed to continue the charade for another year.

The only positives I see about working in a Public School are getting paid on time and teaching less classes. Working at hakwons..(especially you E-2 guys) can be risky in the money dept. Teaching less classes is cool..but only so many movies I can watch on my crappy school monitor. When I was freelancing at hakwons...I'd be outta there in 2-4 hours. I have to stay in this dump for 8 freakin' hours.

(Jesus Christ....this must be the longest thing I've ever written on here..I hope someone reads it thoroughly and makes me feel all special inside)

[TheUrbanMyth]

[AussieGav]

I don't know if I'm going to make you feel all special inside, but I did read it. I too did the Hakwon thing for two and half years and thought it was the worst thing in the world at the time. I am now doing the MS act and more frustrated than ever. I have no teaching autonomy and act simply as human tape recorder.

On the positive side though, i do get paid on time and get more holidays, while delivering less classes. But, as you say a lot of doing nothing.

I'm thinking of moving back into the hakwon circus with multiple part time gigs.

Good post and I hope things turn around for you.

[asylum seeker]

한국어 잘 하네.

[Zantetsuken]

[Zantetsuken]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

That was very interesting to read. Thankfully I've been able to avoid most of that at my school. I do shamelessly scoop up WAPs where they can be easily gathered, but don't have to do any 'clown' acts. I also walk into and then out from the cafeteria if I don't like what I see; some of my co-workers and students think this is quite funny. At least three of my co-workers never eat in the cafeteria themselves so it's not as though I'm the most absent from the communal trough.

I can see how what you post could happen to a well meaning person, but I can also think of a lot of ways to avoid ending up feeling as you do. There are, however, some PSs where just about any FT is bound to end up feeling as you do, at best.

[Swampthing500]

Damn, is every teacher on ESL cafe a bitter misanthrope?

[Zantetsuken]

[Zantetsuken]

[Swampthing500]

[Zantetsuken]

[Goku]

I'll admit one thing,

Teaching PS has to be one of the least instrinsically rewarding teaching experiences

Any self respecting man can recognize we're being treated like zoo animals (for some schools at least, A lot kids are great, but at my school they're freaking monsters).

I know of a guy who quit his high school because the kids would ignore him altogether. Poor guy moved to a UNI and is much happier, (although still ignored).

I thought taking this PS job that Korean students respected teachers. WoW ILLUSION to the max. I would garner better respect working behind a Burger King counter.

The kids keep testing me, they are SO lucky I'm a teacher. Under almost any other circumstance (not joking) other foreigners would probably at minium at least jumped on a few of these kids for their annoying behavior. In America, these kids would seriously be very very bruised. I hope they get a chance to experience what their disrespectful behavior is capable of.

Good post Zank

[Zantetsuken]

[nobbyken]

There does appear to be many misanthropic people here, but I imagine for for every one of them, there are 10-15 less cynical folk who never bother to comment.

Thanks for the new word- misanthrope