Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zackback]

You're just asking for trouble. Yeah I know there are some that can be cool and/or hot but man having someone scrutinize how I teach all the time and nitpicking about everything? There is no way I would ever work at a public school (again).

[Ramen]

[Fishead soup]

The secrete is to just ignore them. I've got one real nitwit who thinks my class is too difficult and boring. Despite the fact I use Baam, Mario, Robots and Aliens. plus pop songs.
She complains when I use the Andrew Finch PHD Tell Me More worksheets. She's really got it in for me. The worksheets are awesome it really gets the students speaking. I personally can't stand her.She also hates it when I use Interchange too. In short she complains a lot when I actually teach. She only likes it when I'm playing games. She belittles and downplays the students abilities. I'm seriously thinking of reporting to the POE her advice is really deliberately bad.

[RMNC]

Agreed with the OP. And public schools place you randomly, risk you being stuck with a nutty co-teacher or administration, expect you to know how to deal with 35 insane Korean children, make you go to two or more schools every day, pay you peanuts, make you deskwarm 20 hours a week, and then cut you at the end of the year?

I'll do my research, find a decent hagwon, be at work fewer hours, and roll in the dough.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

A great public school is usually still light years ahead of a good hagwon. A bad public school is still light years ahead of a bad hagwon. The odds are that you'll be happier in a public school.

I like everything about my school and my job... my co-teachers, the staff, the principal, the vice principal, the students, the work, the freedom, the extra classes-- everything. The only thing that I don't like is the idea that I might lose it due to budget cuts before I want to leave...

Also, I actively seek out my co-teacher's opinions on my lessons... but they always tell me they're good or at least fine... they're too busy to really dedicate massive amounts of time to nitpicking-- I suspect that if this is happening to you, you've done something to make them angry, or they're racist.

[sadguy]

[Fishead soup]

[jrwhite82]

[Fishead soup]

[chrisinkorea2011]

i must be lucky then, i have a great school. everyone there save for 1 teacher is awesome (he is a complete douche). And i teach 22 hours, 18 hours i am doing various things that keep me busy but i also get to teach extra hours and get paid for it. EVERYone that i know who works in a hagwon dislike the job and out of 7 days complain 6 of them. i feel for hagwons that also try to rip their employees off and fire them giving bad excuses etc

[sirius black]

[SeoulNate]

just my 20 won:

Personally, I would never go back to working at a Korean public school because I cant stand to have someone looking over my shoulder all the time who knows much less about the subject matter and education in general then I do. In addition, I make way more $$ at hogwons, work less hours, as well as have more lesson freedom and respect.

However, even with that said, I would still recommended that newbies take public school over hogwons any day of the week. There are tons of excellent hogowns out there, but I would say that 99% of the time, that is not the job a newbie is going to get. Those jobs are obtained by making personal contacts and hitting the streets with your resume and knowledge, not by contacting a recruiter from overseas. On the other hand, I would say that probably 50% of public schools suck a fat one and 50% are decent or better.

With that said, as a newbie, you should probably go for the 50/50 instead of the one in a hundred odds.

[RMNC]

[Zackback]

So true. Just follow the book and that's it. Not much (oftentimes none) prep is needed. In terms of hours I average aout 25 a week.
.....and the thought of not having that co-teacher around is really nice.

[jrwhite82]

Haha.

I know that pension and insurance are mandatory....except at your shadiest of hagwons who break the rules.

I was just trying to draw a parellel between bad hagwons and bad public schools. You cherry picked the worst qualities of public schools and combined them into the Voltron of bad public school jobs. I was trying to do the same with hagwons.

I'm of the mind that the top 5%-10% of hagwon jobs beats out the top 5-10% of public jobs. But for the rest of us who are either new, restrained by time or by geography, your average public school job beats out the standard hagwon.

Most (not all) hagwons require you to be there a full 8 hours (or more!) a day. They want you there for doing some kind of basic prep, level testing new students, parading your face around to parents during interviews, calling students, writing BS evaluations, etc...

I taught the 30 hour a week thing at a hagwon before. And like most other hagwons it was a full on 30 hours. When I do my 22 "hours" now. It's 22 40 minute classes. This means I do have a lot of free time at work. But that free time is spent doing lesson planning, studying Korean, playing fantasy sports, trolling Daves and Waygook. So I keep myself pretty busy because most of the time I am doing actual work and I don't feel bored. And I like to do it here instead of at home where I'm busy with a million other things.

Some people hate it, others like it. I'm in the like it crowd.

Again it comes down to your personal preferance. Comparing your standard hagwon to standard public school job:

Do you like to work mornings or evenings? Teach more hours or "work" more hours but have more vacation? Roll the dice on a CT or a Wonjongnim?

So yeah, if you are in the position to wait it out, are in country to network, don't have other mouths to feed and can live anywhere in Korea you want or got incredibly lucky through a recruiter....then sure stick it out until you get that top 5%-10% of hagwon jobs. However, if you're new to the game in Korea, need to work ASAP and/or can't live with only 10 days of vacation that you get no say in when you can take, you're better off going public.