Korean Job Discussion Forums

[denali]

I did a search and found a couple of OPs, but basically no answers.

Any general information about GnB?

I know that different schools in different cities are different,

but what about the general concept, methods, and organization of GnB schools?


Thanks.

[WadRUG'naDoo]

From my one part-time experience, I'd suggest you be prepared to not have adequate material provided. Pick a teaching concept and play a game with it. My classes were only 25-minutes long and the material was stuff the Korean teacher was already teaching them (from a book). So go in with a game to practice that material and do some other activity like role play and your class is over.

That could be different at other locations, of course.

[djz]

I work at a GnB now. Classes are 50 minutes and all the lessons and materials are prepared by the Korean teachers. The kids also do work on a PC for an hour where they review the material that we taught them. I think the methodology and curriculum is very solid.

My location is very small though and I'm the only foreign teacher so YMMV. According to the website there are about 1500 locations, though my boss said there are 2000...way more than there are McD's in Korea.

[shifty]

You can be assured of getting all your money, with a GnB Head Office as backstop.

The books were once the worst in Korea, but in a short time have become the best, in my opinion.

The classes are large, so edutain and disciplinary skills need to be up there. No prep, but if inexperienced, take it upon yourself to familiarize before class.

The K teachers' English is shocking. Their job is to drill the students into regurgitating the book verbatim and ensure that online homework gets done. Your job is to help with pronunciation. So the kids get to say and say well even if they have little clue what they're on about.

The idea is that the lines will be instilled in their heads and one day come to fruition. Once you get to see the real difficulty that Koreans have with English, it becomes a not bad idea.

[djz]

Eh, all the K-teachers at my branch are bilingual and have spent a lot of time living abroad. Also, none of my classes are bigger than 12 kids with 6 being about average. I teach a couple classes of really young kids that are 4 students.

I think the books are pretty well-thought out and I like the idea of the online HW system...it's like there's a PC bang inside the academy.

Again, I work at a small branch so I can't really say my experience is representative beyond the books/software.

[OculisOrbis]

[shifty]

The director/owners of GnB's are purely business people. They don't really need to know English since the GnB system is self-sustaining.

At my first GnB none of the teachers could speak English. And the inspectors that periodically observed their classes had good reason to be shy. This branch was demarcated in an area the GnB powers that be considered low brow. Thus we got new books only every 3 months. In that case one had to be ready with own lessons and games.

I scoured books like Let's Go 2 and 3 and English Time and made little synopsis of them. At times I felt that I was the only one making a difference.

My second branch was deemed more high stepping and the students were under incredible pressure. They had to do 2 books a month, weekly diary and role play end of each month. I had to help the K teachers to just get through the load. The Head Teacher and one other could speak fairly good English, the other four practically nothing. The one battled with 'I'm fine thanks'. Yet all those who couldn't speak were good teachers and got the job done.

I respected and liked them.

[shifty]

Hi Oculis

yes, the second GnB gig I did must have been a Main branch and the former a franchisee. The books were indeed terrible at the franchise.

The books I did at the Main Branch were mostly new and light years ahead of Let's Go/English Time etc and they came out thick and fast.

To be profitable a GnB needs a lot of students. Their fees are slightly lower, they need amortise the hefty upfront deposit for the use of the GnB name and other.

Yes, the methods seem to make no sense and little progress can be ascertained. Yet I've also taught at hagwons where the methods did make sense and progress was also non-existent.

May as well give this idea a bash.

[cricketnut]

Hi Denali,

I worked at a GnB first time in Korea..and I'm back working at this year.

I've been pretty lucky with my experiences with "them" so far..but really
it's the director's school..ot GnB's as everyone points out...so for all I know you could have a boss that pays you late..I didn't

The curriculum is substantial in terms of sheer number of books and design etc. I also do the 50 minute class style which I like to be honest.
Books are okay at younger levels...I really like the daily talk series...in fact the problem is those good books could easily last two months but they push the kids though too fast then the next month they get some
boring "inline" or storybook...(psst..I just review the daily talk stuff from the previous month LOL)....so books for younger kids ok...but anyway
I like that I usually have 20/25mins to do my own stuff and the Korean
teachers are like..yeah fine..sounds good.
However..I can't stand the curriculum as the level gets higher. apart from
say..sounds good books.....The books start to go crazy on learning difficult
vocab...a lot.

[nicolescully80]

Does anyone have any information on the GnB in Gumi?

[pyeongtaekcody2]

I'm starting my contract with a GnB school in a couple weeks. Before I signed the contract, I could not find much in the way of GnB schools. I found a few posts about it..some were negative, some were very positive. The main reason I ended up signing the contract was because the current foreign teacher (also from the states) has been extremely helpful, even before my interview. He's been with the school for some time, so hopefully I'm feeling good about my particular branch. If you look back through the archives of this board...you can find some stuff about GnB that may scare you.

[busanliving]

Every school is different, lessons times are different at every branch, books differ between branches too (there are several series so it depends which your school follows). I have been at GnB for 2 years and I love my school, no problems with pay, time off etc. Just make sure you speak to the teacher you are replacing and if there are any the other foreign teachers at the school.