Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ninja Bees]

I am leaving for Korea in one week and just found out (and I quote) "come March, you will be the only male working at *school*, I hope you will be okay with this." Last time I taught in Korea (it is at the same school, I guess I did something right the first time) it was all male FT and all female NT. We all got along swimmingly.

I am on the fence with how this could go.

First, it goes great. Whenever they need a male to step in (some kids behave better with a male presence), I can help out.

Second, it could be "expunge the foreign element". This one is highly unlikely, to a point that should be non-existent, but there is always that shadow of doubt.

If the school had not mentioned anything, I would of just walked in and did my thing. The fact that they mentioned something got me thinking. Was this just a courtesy? a warning? Should I be going above and beyond expectations to hopefully keep a job in the kindy hagwon business that wants more and more "female only"?

If anything, tell your story about being the only male/female in the workplace. Some people troll, others actually give good advice - which is something I need right now.

[jrwhite82]

This thread could get interesting....

I prefer working with a diverse staff. There seem to be less ways to have diversity in Korea, so any chance to have more of it the better I always say.

[Missihippi]

I'm the only male "teacher" at my public elementary, although there are some admistration staff and janitors that are male. Seems pretty normal to me.

[jvalmer]

Worked in a private boys' middle school with a boys' high school on the same campus. There were maybe 70 teachers between the two schools and only 4 were female. Although half the secretaries were female, and the nurse was pretty popular too.

Being an all boys' school I think it did wonders with student behaviour having most teachers being male. I've taught in public boys' schools where maybe close 70% of the teachers were female, and it was just awful trying to control the kids.

[Leon]

My first Hagwon I was the only male there other than the bus driver/handy man. It really didn't make any sort of differnce, except that some of the young kindy girls were more scared of me than other teachers. It was alright because I only had one or two kindy classes a day as I was mostly there for elementary and middle school.

[supernaut]

well at a hagwon it aint so bad, usually they are young and fun girls.. my first hagwon was small and it was all young ladies that couldnt speak English....at the bigger one's they will speak and it should be fun

At public school u could be working with ajummas and its not as much fun...the youngest one in my office is 32, but she looks and behaves much older... I dated a 31 year old and it looks like their is 10 years difference between the 2. All in all,I don't really like this current situation.