Korean Job Discussion Forums

whiteshoes · Joined: 14 Apr 2009

For what it's worth I was treated about 100% better by a hagwon than I was at a public school.

At the hagwon I was paid on time, I even got OT during intensives. They paid into my pension, and my health insurance. In fact, if I needed to go to the doctor, my hagwon director would go with me to show me where it was and help translate. I taught 22 hours per week, and I didn't have to sit there and do nothing when I wasn't working. I got my full severance, with only my cable and electric bills taken out.

At the public school they took three months to pay me my 300,000 settlement money. And I was lucky enough to pay 300,000 per pay check for the first three months to stop me from pulling a runner. When I was sick, I was told that "teachers don't miss school when they are sick." When I needed to go to the doctor, my co-teacher pointed at a building and said, -"It's over there."

Also, at the hagwon I was in a much more western environment. The boss spent 4 years in the US, spoke English very well. Treated everyone respectfully. As I've said, people went out of their way to help me.

At the public school I got to work with an ajossi who told me where to stand, and often called me a pig in Korean to the students for a quick joke. After a while, I started to understand what he was saying, and told him I was going to quit. So of my friends talked me out of quitting, and I've endured this guy for the last few months. Thankfully, I'm moving on next year.

My point here isn't that hagwons are "better" just that each has it's pros and cons. The only pro the public school has over the hagwon is two more weeks vacation. Everything depends upon the Korean(s) who are in charge of you. If you get some jerk ajossi, hagwon or public school, it will suck.

jack_b57 · Joined: 02 Sep 2010

I am glad to hear you have a good hagwon going for you there. Admittedly, I have let some of the negative experiences from friends and people on these boards get to me. I now have some hope that good hagwons exist - it's finding them that seems to be the hard part.

(This is separate issue, but I wish there was a type of site that reviewed hagwons. Kind of like a restaurant review site, but for hagwons. Maybe it doesn't exist due to the anti-libel laws in Korea? I dunno.)

hkverde · Joined: 13 Sep 2010

hkverde · Joined: 13 Sep 2010

Dazed and Confused · Joined: 10 Jan 2003

[quote="hkverde"]

I don't suppose you're hiring for March, are you? Smile

[/quote]

I wish! I'm getting worn out from working 2 jobs. But, C'est la vie!

dyc · Joined: 16 Dec 2010 Location: Vancouver

Vagabundo · Joined: 26 Aug 2010

Vagabundo · Joined: 26 Aug 2010

seriously people. This "adjosshi" thing is way way overdone and very unfair.

and I'll be the first to admit that I also occassionally get a kick out of some adjosshi jokes and bashing on this forum, (as well as indulging in the popular pastime myself) but in every single instance that's talking about the idiot peasants boobs around you.

it does NOT (usually) apply to the middle aged male teachers at your school.
They're often intelligent, sensitive, courteous, indeed often shy with the foreign teacher. There are some cultural issues that sometimes stumble people on both sides, but you should not be shocked to learn that they will often be far more understanding and cognizant of this than you may be.

at least some of them are as well traveled and as intellectually curious about the world around them as their sons and daughters, or a younger generation of teachers around them.

Give them their token props, re Korean cultural norms and they can be your best friends and allies and those are the friends/allies in a PS environment that I want to have (especially if they're also higher up in the school hierarchy).

munybse · Joined: 24 Jul 2009

I enjoyed my year at an Avalon in Daegu. I know there is a lot of bashing on Avalon and I know there are worse spots than where I was, but overall it was a good gig. Nothing too bad to keep me from going back. But YMMV.

southernman · Joined: 15 Jan 2010 Location: On the mainland again

EDIT Double post, my bad...

southernman · Joined: 15 Jan 2010 Location: On the mainland again

danpaesan · Joined: 02 Feb 2010

I've worked at my hagwon for almost four years and am going back to the U.S. the end of April. Its a good place to work and the boss and staff are good people. Its located in Jung Ja, Bundang. PM me if you want more information.

Illysook · Joined: 30 Jun 2008

If you have managed to survive and thrive at a hagwon and think that you will renew, don't just renew, negotiate an extra week of vacation, some insurance, and some kind of raise for yourself. Sure, there are people in the states who may want your job, but they haven't proven themselves to be as valuable as you. Stick up for yourselves!

Bowden_PSM · Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Location: United Arab Emirates

Research, research and luck.

My first two jobs were at hagwons. The first one I stayed at for 1.5 years. Neither the director nor his wife could speak any English. I worked with one Korean English teacher. The school did poorly in the end, as it wasn't a chain and competition in my small town was tough. However, the director would always listen through translation, gave me my vacations when I requested them, paid me on time, set up my apt., and so on. I still go and visit him and his wife (now that my Korean is better) every six months or so when I go back south. That said, many of the Korean staff weren't treated the same and weren't paid on time.

The second school was a hagwon in the same small town. This was not the same good job as the previous one, but the apt. was allright. I got along with the director a little and the math teacher a great deal. The directors wife was a b____, and I couldn't stand her. Was happy to get out of there, but again, I was not mistreated, was paid on time and everything went ok.

The third job was PS with a board somewhere near Daegu. It was the single worst job I have ever had in my life, and almost got me off Korea, a country I generally really like living in. We got our base salary on time, but almost always would wait months for our overtime pay. My immediate Korean head teacher was completely incompetent. The OE supervisor was a condesending nitwit from some other planet who went out of her way to show that she regarded to NET's as little more than dirt. The NET's called her the witch because she spoke like one. Top it off with the smallest apt. I've ever lived in.

Everything is not what it seems. I had really expected the PS job to beat the hagwons, as I have heard stories from 03 to now that are mind blowing. It didn't. I would never work PS again. Ever. Period.

I work at a uni now. Uni jobs trump all regardless, IMHO. In the general sense, you're treated with a lot more respect and accountability. Like a human being.