Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cobbles]

Hi guys,

i new to this forum, i have read so many great posts here to find information on teaching but now need some advice. I have completed a tefl and have no experience yet.

I applied for many hagwon positions (knowing to well about the horror stories of many of them), and was set up with an interview with a school in Suwon by the recruiters Top Placement Inc.

Anyway after a short 10 minute interview they got back to say i have been offered a job. After reading all the hagwon horror stories i am so spectacle of this. Why were they so quick to get back to me?

What questions should i ask before signing anything? do you think they will let me talk to a foreign teacher there before i sign the contract? Where is the best place to find out information on a school and its treatment of teachers?

Thanks very so much for your help and advice!!

[earthquakez]

Cobbles - the fact that you have a tefl qualification is a plus. Obviously you take teaching English seriously although you have no experience yet and this will be your first job.

While it's true that there are many mediocre to bad hagwons, you might be at one that is fine. Personally I don't expect too much when I go for new hagwon jobs but I do have standards and limits to what I'll put up with. If your hagwon is only giving you 5 days' vacation, 2 or 1 or no sick days, taking a deposit, making you pay for utilities at the place they provide for you, giving no pension payments and paying you 2.1 million won or less then that's not what I consider acceptable even for somebody who has never taught in Korea or taught at all.

It's exploitative in a basic sense though it might turn out to be a good job with a decent employer, Korean staff and fairly good kids. I do think the reason you were offered the job quickly is that recruiters are blockading applicants with experience and mostly only passing on the information of inexperienced applicants.

Of course there are hagwons that are asking for little or no experience because they have an aversion to foreign teachers that know their rights and will not put up with nonsense as easily as a newcomer to the teaching game.

What's the contract like? Is it what I outlined above?

[tanklor1]

[sulperman]

Don't be too, um, "spectacle"(?????) of it. Almost everybody in Korea except fat, black, 75 year old Irish men with thick accents and a police check with a statutory rape on it get offered jobs in this way. Do your due diligence on the school, but don't worry about the quick offer.

[brickabrack]

[tanklor1]

[Morticae]

Heaven forbid a few words were not capitalized.

As you are new to this forum, this should serve as a warm welcome! Many people here are not nice. I would use some other descriptive words, but I'm sure that they are against the TOS. Alas, if you do not have 'thick skin' then you should avoid this place. It is almost a guarantee that every thread will degenerate into some sort of bickering or insults.

Is it strange you got a job offer so quickly after the interview? No.

I believe it to be a fairly common practice for hagwons to dish out their offers shortly after the interview. To be honest, if you get an interview at all then you've probably got the job-- they just want to listen to your accent and get an overall impression of you.

As you can imagine, like a first impression, the decision is made quickly. They will either want to hire you, or they will not. I do not think this is indicative of whether they are a "bad" or "good" hagwon. The contract will likely be a lot more revealing in that regard.

As a side note, while it is true that there are some terrible hagwon employers out there, it is also true that a lot of people just love to complain on the internet, and particularly on this forum. It would be inaccurate to take the overall hagwon experiences on this forum and call it an average.

[wishfullthinkng]

To be fair to Tanklor, Cobbles' original post was littered with grammatical and spelling errors, not just capitalization issues.

For serious english teachers and institutions I could see this as something very worrisome. I know if I were a hiring manager at a hagwon that post would have been an immediate disqualification and I'm not even picky.

[3DR]

Gotta love the grammar nazis.

[Kurtz]

[sulperman]

[wishfullthinkng]

I wasn't trying to be a grammar nazi. I don't type perfectly either and never said I did, as pointed out by Kurtz, although I never capitalize "english" and probably won't be starting to anytime soon. I'm also not a hiring manager at a hagwon and I could really care less if Cobbles made mistakes, I was just merely point out that Tanklor was being chided for a fair statement.

It's akin to someone doing the roofing on your house who has never done it before and keeps flipping random shingles upside down. No skin off my back and I'm glad 3DR, Kurtz and Morticae would be okay with it although I wouldn't be if it were my house. Anyways, I digress. Ultimately I was just making a point.

[sulperman]

I agree 100 percent with you wishfullthinking. Strangely enough, my family had our roof redone by a family friend and he put every god damned shingle upside down. ALL of them!

[itistime]

hmmm. I also rarely ever capitalize 'english'.
I don't think I should be giving importance to it. I'm not going to explain why.

You can tell much about a person from the way
they type. How old are they? Experienced?
Educated? Considerate? Origination.
Some people anyways, no? It may not seem that big of an issue
to some people. In the grand scheme of things, it really
is not. If I can communicate with you....good.

If I'm a recruiter, employer, interviewer and that mess
comes across my desk....
your resume, CV, cover letter and the like, are going straight to the shredder on some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle type styles!!!!!

It's not just the grammar. I can talk all the slang and lingo that I want. If you see that someone is careless in their type, you may get the impression that they are careless or dimwitted in their work.

Are we still just making points?

[Morticae]

Do you correct grammar in the text messages you are sent, too?

I think it is important to note that most of us are here to teach conversational English, not grammar. Why would they bring in a native to teach grammar? They have loads of Korean teachers for that.

Furthermore, this wasn't his job application. So whether or not you would hire him is pretty irrelevant.

Tanklor entered a thread and took his time to criticize, but that's all he bothered to do. The post was completely off topic and thus uncalled for. Now, as you can see, it has spun several more completely OT posts, including mine here!

I feel it would be better if somebody read it, commented in their own mind about the grammar or what-have-you, and moved on. But that's just not enough for some people, they insist their 'voice' be heard. What a joke!