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wes1989
Joined: 07 Jun 2012
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 Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:37 pm Post subject: Crappy and long hagwon hours, do you burn out? |
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| So my recruiter has been talking about working 10-7 and 10-8, there are 5 min breaks between classes and about 1.5 hour lunch but I think I will just burn out so fast. Do people actually work these long hours? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:39 pm Post subject: Re: Crappy and long hagwon hours, do you burn out? |
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| wes1989 wrote: |
| So my recruiter has been talking about working 10-7 and 10-8, there are 5 min breaks between classes and about 1.5 hour lunch but I think I will just burn out so fast. Do people actually work these long hours? |
8 hour day.
1.5 hour lunch break (so 6 classes).
Ya, pretty normal to do a 40 hour week.
What makes you think a 40 hour week is long?
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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Public school teachers teach a 7.5-8 hour day as some might not know.
Up sides of PS position are the vacations, not as many classes (22 40 min. or 45min. classes = 17/18 hours per week) on top of an hour lunch.
One down side of the PS system is that your the only foreigner in the school which might not be so glamorous when teaching in the countrysides.
Try looking next time for hagwons that only teach afternoon and evening classes, beginning at 1 or 2pm and ending at 8:30-10pm depending on the day. |
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soomin
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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| It sounds like a kindergarten... I worked 9-5:30 (only 40-50 minutes for lunch, which involved me shoveling the food into the kid's mouths, so, not really a break...) and it's definitely not for everyone. If you make friends here, most of them will probably be on a night schedule, so that is annoying. If you have lots of energy and love kids, then it's not too bad. But, a lot of your time in the afternoon will probably be with older kids and/or paperwork. As the only foreigner at my job (who didn't have seniority/pretend they were as stupid as a log), they gave me an endless supply of random paperwork to do with no direction and expected me to overhaul and reinvent their school's curriculum... So, get ready for that as well... Some people love it, others hate it. If you're looking for a job that is more education-based and less mind-numbing, I wouldn't choose kindie... |
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zombiedog
Joined: 03 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:18 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, working in Korea WILL burn you out. For hagwons, remember, it's business before educations, always. |
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transmogrifier
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:24 am Post subject: |
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| If you are teaching (that is, actually taking a class) less than 20 hours a week you are lucky, and if you burn out on that, then being a teacher is not really for you (20 hours is the figure for a full-time high school teacher in NZ). Anything over that will start to take a toll IF you are teaching completely different lessons each time. If you can reuse lessons, then you should survive past 20 hours....within reason. |
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Seon-bee
Joined: 24 Jan 2003
Location: ROK
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:42 am Post subject: |
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Are you kidding? Back in the day, I had 30 classes a week, each 45 minutes. That's 22.5 hours a week. No prep. Just come in and go. Once a month an hour or two to write evaluations. That's actually a part-time job if you ask me.
Burn out comes from prostituting yourself, if you happen to be a babysitter instead of instructor you originally signed on for. Think about a class of rude 6th graders swearing at you, kids who refuse to bring books and then just chat in Korean, play cellphone games, only want to play Hangman, etc. Then you watch the same class with their Korean teacher and it's a model class of civility and respect. That leads to burn out and long days. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:58 am Post subject: |
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| Seon-bee wrote: |
Are you kidding? Back in the day, I had 30 classes a week, each 45 minutes. That's 22.5 hours a week. No prep. Just come in and go. Once a month an hour or two to write evaluations. That's actually a part-time job if you ask me.
Burn out comes from prostituting yourself, if you happen to be a babysitter instead of instructor you originally signed on for. Think about a class of rude 6th graders swearing at you, kids who refuse to bring books and then just chat in Korean, play cellphone games, only want to play Hangman, etc. Then you watch the same class with their Korean teacher and it's a model class of civility and respect. That leads to burn out and long days. |
That can lead some to burn out...that sight leads me to nausea. Can't stand them acting the "angel" part for the Korean teacher and then acting like "Satan" in my class bit. |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:50 am Post subject: Re: Crappy and long hagwon hours, do you burn out? |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| wes1989 wrote: |
| So my recruiter has been talking about working 10-7 and 10-8, there are 5 min breaks between classes and about 1.5 hour lunch but I think I will just burn out so fast. Do people actually work these long hours? |
8 hour day.
1.5 hour lunch break (so 6 classes).
Ya, pretty normal to do a 40 hour week.
What makes you think a 40 hour week is long?
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If there are only 6 classes in a day then each would be 1hr 10min or 1hr 20min each. Those are some pretty long classes. It's going to be hard to hold the attention of a class full of kids for that long. I thin its more likely that classes are less than 1 hour.
To help put that in perspective, consider that the average office job is from 9 to 5. If you get 1 hour for lunch, then that's a 7 hour work day. BUT when you're in a classroom then you usually have to keep concentrating on the job. You can't wander off to the water cooler to gossip or visit your friend in the next cubicle for a chat or take a few minutes to check your mail or call someone on the phone. No. You'll be focusing on the job non-stop. Even in those 5 minutes between classes, you'll have to get something set up. PLUS you'll probably need to prepare for class. Even if you're re-using the same lesson plan for every class of the day, you still need to prepare. You need to read the text book, make photocopies, cue the cassettes or make sure that the mp3s are ok. The school may also want you to mark homework.
I wouldn't even consider a job that was regularly going to give me 40 hours in the classroom. I might consider doing it for a couple months if the money was right, but not permanently. It won't take long for you to burn out.
I would be reluctant to take more than 5 classes per day. Maybe 6 if some of them would be repeating the same material and there wasn't a large gap between the classes. If there are gaps between classes, then you need to establish whether you can leave the school during that time. You also want to keep the gap time to a minimum because that's your free time it's eating into. You do want to have a social life, right? |
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wes1989
Joined: 07 Jun 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:01 am Post subject: Re: Crappy and long hagwon hours, do you burn out? |
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Sorry I was mistaken on some of the details but he gave me a sample schedule this is what it looks like:
Start at 9:50
40m Class
10m Break
40m Class
5m Break
40m Class
40m LUNCH
40m Class
5m Break
35m Class
---------------------End of Kindergarten
70m Break/Prep
1h 45m Elementary class!??? why so long?
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
About 9-10 classes a day (Depends on day)
End at 8:00pm M W F,
End at 7:15pm Tu, Thu (1 less class on these days)
35hr teaching a week
12hr 20m beak & prep time a week
Option of 2.9 or 3.1 Mill KW/month, depending if I take breaks or I do more back to back teaching. |
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wes1989
Joined: 07 Jun 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:10 am Post subject: |
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| soomin wrote: |
| It sounds like a kindergarten... I worked 9-5:30 (only 40-50 minutes for lunch, which involved me shoveling the food into the kid's mouths, so, not really a break...) and it's definitely not for everyone. If you make friends here, most of them will probably be on a night schedule, so that is annoying. If you have lots of energy and love kids, then it's not too bad. But, a lot of your time in the afternoon will probably be with older kids and/or paperwork. As the only foreigner at my job (who didn't have seniority/pretend they were as stupid as a log), they gave me an endless supply of random paperwork to do with no direction and expected me to overhaul and reinvent their school's curriculum... So, get ready for that as well... Some people love it, others hate it. If you're looking for a job that is more education-based and less mind-numbing, I wouldn't choose kindie... |
Crap eh, It's not like the lunches here in Canada where teachers get a staff room and some quiet time? |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:24 am Post subject: |
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I wouldn't touch that schedule with a ten foot laser pointer.
If you are into the higher salary, and you have the energy go for it.
As for me, no chancie Mr. Whelan. |
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wes1989
Joined: 07 Jun 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:34 am Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
I wouldn't touch that schedule with a ten foot laser pointer.
If you are into the higher salary, and you have the energy go for it.
As for me, no chancie Mr. Whelan. |
Higher salary does not interest me that much. Keeping stress levels down and being able to have time for myself and hobbies is much more important. I bet if I did the math it is not really a higher wage per/h to most, it's just that I am working more hours so I make more. |
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expattarheel
Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Location: Louisville, KY
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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in my experience, quality of life is never considered in your first contract. i reached a point where i didn't *care* i was making more than my bf (who taught in a PS), bc his schedule was so much better. After that, i figured work/life balance into the job hunt and wound up at a hagwon that had a much saner expectation level + more generous compensation package. you'll grow to hate those afternoon classes with a passion, no matter how awesome the students are.
my opinion: the extra won a month is not worth it. keep shopping around for a more reasonable schedule, even if the pay is lower. |
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transmogrifier
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:37 pm Post subject: Re: Crappy and long hagwon hours, do you burn out? |
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| wes1989 wrote: |
Sorry I was mistaken on some of the details but he gave me a sample schedule this is what it looks like:
Start at 9:50
40m Class
10m Break
40m Class
5m Break
40m Class
40m LUNCH
40m Class
5m Break
35m Class
---------------------End of Kindergarten
70m Break/Prep
1h 45m Elementary class!??? why so long?
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
5m Break
40m class
About 9-10 classes a day (Depends on day)
End at 8:00pm M W F,
End at 7:15pm Tu, Thu (1 less class on these days)
35hr teaching a week
12hr 20m beak & prep time a week
Option of 2.9 or 3.1 Mill KW/month, depending if I take breaks or I do more back to back teaching. |
Yuck. I wouldn't go near a job like that. Horrible. |
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