Korean Job Discussion Forums

beckett · Joined: 22 Jul 2009 Location: Ireland

I work at a public school and have just been informed that tomorrow my co-teacher and I will be interviewing three people for the conversation teachers position next semester. I have never interviewed anyone for a teaching position before so I am sort of stumped on what to ask , bar a few generic questions I can think off. I imagine it will be a pretty informal interview. I want to make sure the best person gets the position so I would like to have some good questions prepared(But I don't want to fluster them too much by asking them really difficult questions, they will not be native speakers). Anyone with any experiance in this area got any tips/good questions to ask?

Failing that I'll just go for the hottest one ! Laughing

(joking)

dmbjt · Joined: 05 Dec 2011

I have hired hundreds of people over the last 15 years, and I can tell you this that nearly ever single one of them is a different person when being interviewed (full of bullshit). You can't go by likability because you will be wrong 7/10 times. Go with work history (length of employment) and honesty (ask them if they were ever fired or ever stole anything). People with a bunch of excuses will never change and you will feel responsible when they call out every 2 weeks cause their grandma died. If all else fails then like you said ... hire the hot chick ^^

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

Ask them how they manage a classroom. How will they motivate students. If they are flexible because many times things change last minute in the public schools. (these are the 3 most important for a public job)

Ask them to give examples from their previous job when they answer it. That will help you know if they are BSing. You should have a somewhat decent idea by their body language and the way they are speaking if they are making it up or not.

Do a search for google interview questions and throw them a curve ball. Like how many ping pong balls would it take to fill the English Channel or something.

edwardcatflap · Joined: 22 Mar 2009

andrewchon · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:59 pm Post subject:

Ask for 10 minute demo-lessons.

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

Ask if they are married and what is their religion.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:19 am Post subject:

If they're not a native English speaker, you're likely only expected to determine their English ability. It doesn't really matter what you ask in that case, just get them talking and recommend the one with the best English.

ayahyaha · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Location: Seoul, South Korea

In addition to lots of practical questions re: classroom management and flexibility that are mentioned above, I would second asking for a demo lesson on the spot.

You should also ask specifically how they would handle shy/quiet students.

My biggest problem with conversation teachers has historically been that they don't actually teach enough. A convo class is not freewheeling convo unless your students are more advanced and/or a topic takes off. It's still necessary to have a discussion point, some target language/vocab, and some structure to learn, practice, and finally implement the new language.

So, ask em' how they would run their classes, to walk you through a sample lesson, and talk about their approach.

nathanrutledge · Joined: 01 May 2008 Location: Marakesh

Weigookin74 · Joined: 26 Oct 2009

Just remember that conversation teachers are used differently than us. They teach a class on theri own. In my experience, they sometimes escort us to class because the Korean teacher doesn't feel like coming. Sometimes, they split the classes up. The Korean teacher takes the high level students and the conversation teacher takes the low level students. So much for being our replacements. Ha ha.