Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

Are you doing a good job? How do you know? I'm sure most of us like to think we are above average? Do you get feedback? Do you see students progress? Perhaps one of the strange things about our line of work is the difficulty in measuring the value or quality of our work. These Korean kids (and adults) are trying to learn English, but it takes so long, and it isn't just the teacher's fault if a student doesn't improve much after a while. It's the kind of job where you can be incompetent but unnoticed. Unless you really don't care however, there's not much satisfaction in doing a poor job. But sometimes I can't tell if I'm doing OK or not. Sometimes I think part of the job teaching these Korean kids is merely to have them spend time around a foreigner, hoping it will help their English and awareness of the world outside Korea somewhat. Also I guess sometimes we are just overpaid babysitters.

I have seen students improve at English. I know I helped. I think I still am. I think I'm doing a good job. Not much feedback, but at least not hearing complaints.

[Zyzyfer]

I did a good job when my coworkers actually allowed me to, like, try to apply my ideas in class. Which was barely to never. Instead, it was always what they thought was best.

Oh yes, they've been teaching English for decades, and I'm fresh blood! That's why 9/10ths of the class can't respond to "Good morning!"

I was so fuckin' delighted when I got one student to learn how to respond to it after weeks of beating it into the class. One friggin' month of one-on-one "good mornings" with attendance, and ONE STUDENT got the idea. CHA-CHING!

[jajdude]

Yikes! Now that is a beginner class! "Good morning" ??? Wow. I see that written in hangul sometimes, like at a pharmacy near my hagwon, and used on a Korean tv commercial. I hope they were kindergarten.

But alas I guess studying the language and actually speaking it are two different things???

[OiGirl]

[rapier]

A teacher is only as good as the system he is allowed to work in. I do the best I can in a hagwon system that allows me little authority or discipline over kids who behave badly. I'm more of a performer, entertainer, friend, big brother- luring, coaxing and suckering reluctant kids into learning, than a feared/ respected teacher.

"never step on a teachers shadow"... Bollox....

[Butterfly]

I think teachers saying "I'm a good teacher" in Korea, is a little like saying "I'm innocent." in prision.

Everyone's a 'good teacher' in here my son .

I've met the crappiest, tardiest, most arrogant, scruffy-ass, wangers here who claim to be 'good teachers' doing a good job. Strangely, their bosses and students thought rather differently.

Proof is in the pudding, cash. Do they keep paying for your services?

[Alex Buffa]

I'm somewhat surprised at this topic.

If you have to ask yourself, then you probably aren't. Those who know what we are doing don't go around on msg boards asking others how they feel. It seems so unprofessional and amateurish to do so.

That idiot who thinks that students should grade their instructors has never really faced the reality of real teaching when suggesting students who cannot speak english should be grading their instructors on their performance, They should only have the right to do so unless they put 100% effort in their studies, not just showing up to class for the attendance mark. Those who honestly try do well will always succeed..the rest usually just float the average curve for their marks.

It reminds me of people second guessing people who have much more experience, intelligence and knowledge than they do on a very particular subject. It reminds me of a scene in a movie where a woman was criticizing a policeman for shooting someone while be shot at. "Didn't you realize you could have used less force?". They seem to think that it's all do with with "training" like CELTA or TESOL and they really have no clue. Unless you actually LEARN about your language instead of techniques for teaching it...you'll be in a hard place for a long time. It reminds me of that useless thread of MA vs BA. MA is better..but only those fools who have BA's only tend to try to make themselves feel better because they don't have the credentials to get better positions obtained by those who went that extra mile in educating themselves.

Hogwans are not teaching, they are babysitting. If you think you're teaching at a hogwan...you are going to be shocked when students demand results from you other than candy. Anyone who thinks otherwise has seriously convinced themselves that the hogwan industry is a good thing. Yes..I can see it now, it's crap..but it's good crap because they are immersed in it.

Yet another useless thread....

Rant off

[dominic]

feedback from a korean hogwan hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

that will be a cold day in hell. most of us only know if we are doing a good job because we arent being fired

[Zyzyfer]

[ulsanchris]

What you put into your job is what you get out of it. If you think that you are a baby sitter and don't take it seriously then thats all you will get. You won't be very effective and your students won't take you seriously.
However if you do put the time and effort into your job and do take it seriously then you will get a lot out of it. Your students will learn and will be more likely to take you seriously.

Do the bosses care if you take your job seriously or not. That depends on how the enrollment at your school is. YOu can be a slacker and goof around and still attract kids. But if you can improve the kids english and their grades in school improve, I'm sure that you will find a hogwon will attract more students. Most parents want their kids English to improve.
Also if you ask yourself if you are a good teacher or not isn't a sign of you being a bad teacher. YOur more likely to be a bad teacher if you don't bother asking yourself this question. If you are asking yourself if you are a good or bad teacher it seems that you are looking for a way to improve your teaching. That you are trying to make yourself more effective. If you don't ask yourself this it could mean that one: you don't care whether your a bad teacher or not, or two: false confidence.

[rapier]

[quote="ulsanchris"]

Do the bosses care if you take your job seriously or not. That depends on how the enrollment at your school is. YOu can be a slacker and goof around and still attract kids. But if you can improve the kids english and their grades in school improve, I'm sure that you will find a hogwon will attract more students. Most parents want their kids English to improve. quote]

The Korean definition of a good teacher is someone who the kids like, who attracts and keeps students coming to the hagwon. That is all that matters to the director. The level of the Kids English, only becomes important if the parents notice their kids are learning nothing.

I'd guess that most parents do want their Kids' English to improve. However few of them have any idea of what it takes to do this. They complain if their child is disciplined in any way, andif their precious child is not fluent in double quick time, they blame the teacher, cos their little darling cannot possibly be at fault. its ridiculous, but this is the rock/hard place scenario we teachers are in- maintaining an illusion.

[ulsanchris]

I guess a lot depends on the parents. AT the hakwon my gf worked at she got phone calls all the times from the parents. Either to praise her if their kids test scores improved. Or to complain if they didn't. Its hard for us to know what parents are saying to the directors because the directors never tell us. Unless the parents have something really bad to say.

Parents can easily see the marks their kids get at school. If those don't improve guess who gets blamed.

[Eazy_E]

It's really not right to slag the hagwons as a place for glorified babysitting... sure, the system is screwed. We all know this from the ridiculous way the parents dictate everything about the school. But there are some parents who aren't exactly well off but choose to put their hard-earned won into an English hagwon so that their kids can learn English and get an advantage later on in life.

I go in and do my best every day, and sometimes I'm dismayed when the kids can barely count to 10. Sure it's hard to drill an alien language into them when they'd rather be playing computer games. But do you give up?

If the situation was reversed and Korean was a language every bit as significant as English internationally, and everyone in Canada was trying to learn it, I think it would have been a huge advantage for me to start learning it at age 6 instead of age 23. We have to think about where the kids are going to be in 20 years, not necessarily how much they know now.

[syclick]

Am I doing a good job? I think my employer lost the right to ask this question a long time ago. You can only expect so much quality from someone who is pushed too hard. At the end of a 12-hour day I can hardly stand up, let alone teach.

[ryleeys]