Korean Job Discussion Forums

[joonhashin]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to teaching English and I just started at my new job four days ago. Today will mark my first week at the job and I am miserable.

The first and probably the biggest problem was that there was a misalignment of expectations. I am a gyopo so I can also speak somewhat fluent Korean. However, my vocabulary is nowhere near a level where I can teach students in Korean. Thus, I did not expect to work part Korean teacher, and part Foreign Teacher, while everybody else in this hagwon did. Trying to teach English while speaking in broken and non-professional Korean has stressed me to no end.

The second problem was that I was given minimal training before I was told to fully take over the schedule of a Korean teacher that I replaced. This may have been fine if I was already an experienced teacher with at least 4-6 months of work experience under my belt, but I since I didn't, I was completely overwhelmed. Coupled with the fact that I was forced to teach in Korean, my first day was an absolute disaster in my opinion. I didn't know what I was doing, I had no time for preparation, I was extremely nervous and anxious the whole day. By the end of it, I felt as if I aged a year in just six hours.

The third problem is the rampant office politic that is currently going on in my school. There's been a new director in the last year or so and recently there has been some major changes to the staff. Two senior members that's been here for 5+ years are being let go and I heard another one will soon be leaving. The director has recently hired a foreign teacher (white, American), a gyopo (me), and will soon hire a Korean teacher who is currently in her fourth year in university. By the end of it all, only one teacher who's been around this school for more than a 4 months will stay as the head teacher.
There is an overall sense of insecurity in this hagwon and I do not want to be around when shit hits the fan.

The fourth problem is my overall health. I've only been working at this hagwon for four days now and both my physical and mental health has noticeably degraded. I'm not used to speaking all day, especially in a language I'm not comfortable with (Korean). I've suffered with asthma when I was young and when our family moved to Canada, they noticed it go away. I think it comes as no surprise to everyone that air pollution in Korea is quite bad, compared to a country like Canada. Due to stress, my body is always tense, thus even after sleeping for 9-10 hours every night, my body is always tired. Since I work from 3pm to 9:30pm with no breaks longer than 5 minutes, I don't get to eat dinner at a proper time so I'm always starving by the time work is finished. Finally, I'm constantly depressed and I dread getting myself prepared for work. The happiest hour of my day is at 9:30pm, when I get to pack up my stuff and go home.

The worst part is that I realize this is pretty much the norm for most people working at hagwon. I now know how foolish and naive I've been for thinking that this job was going to be fairly easy and that I would have plenty of time to do other things I want to do outside of work, such as going out for drinks with friends, taking up extra-curricular activities, or travelling. I can't do the first two because as soon as my work ends, I just want to go home and do nothing other than sleep. I guess if I stuck around long enough, I would be able to do some travelling but it won't be very long since I'll only get 6 vacation days in a year.

What I've concluded from all this is that this job isn't something I'm willing to do for a year, and just barely a month, and I should go back home and start my career as soon as possible (I'm a recent uni grad). When all is said and done, I know that I came to Korea for a good time and nothing more. I didn't really have any intentions to take this job seriously and now I'm paying the price.

Sorry for the long rant, if you've read up to here, my question is: is it a bad idea for me to tell my director now to give her my one month notice? I've read some horror stories regarding how their bosses screwed them over and that they would have been better off just doing the midnight run.

[andrewchon]

Here's what my Sargent Major used to give me when I whined: Drink this can of harden the **** up.

Seriously though, your expectations are way too high. You'll never have work satisfaction unless 1. self-employed or 2. work like you don't need the money. So, lower your expectation and avoid the status-anxiety. Do what my goshiwon neighbour does to forget his troubles (14 hour work schedule with pay on commission and his family in Daegu) and get some sleep: drink a bottle of soju. You can buy them in marts, don't have to go to a liquor store or a bar. By next week you'll wish it was like the first week again because when you have spare time, you have time to get bored! People are generally happy when they have something to do. After some time has past, you'll remember this as the happiest time of your life. Not now, but later.

[austrian123]

Wecome to the shitty world of esl teaching. You are still young. Make something of your life and dont waste it here.

[Kepler]

So you're probably teaching something like 9 forty minute classes in a row? I think a lot of experienced teachers would complain about that. I think your schedule would be much more reasonable if you were given one class off to eat dinner.

[haleynicole14]

I've never been to Korea or taught at a hagwon, so I won't try to give advice on those things. But one thought that I would like to add is that, since you already know Korean fairly well, there's a good chance your Korean will improve at a quicker pace than others and you might find communication problems less stressful in a little while. I have lived in other countries, and I know that the more confident I feel about the language, the more worthwhile I feel my time is there. But if you just keep on hating it, my opinion is, there's no point of wasting a year of your life being miserable. I do hope you start to have a better time though.

I've also heard from others and noticed from myself that it is pretty common to get sick when first starting out in another country. New germs in the air, the stress of the time change, food and water changes... hopefully that at least will be short term.

[viciousdinosaur]

Well you don't need to run if you have an F4. You can just straight up quit. I wouldn't stay another day at that school. Not worth it. You see a lot of guys here for years and years, but not many of them work at hagwons. They own hagwons, or teach at university, or do corporate work.

[Keeper]

[YTMND]

You need to decide what to do, improve your Korean or settle for less for the time being (that doesn't mean you can't do better as you go).

Stop speaking in Korean so much if this is negatively affecting you. Focus more on English teaching. I follow a schedule of 3-4 classes with one break if the school wants to spread out my time. After 4 take your break, relax, do something which releases stress.

Don't worry about satisfying your manager, focus on English teaching and getting your first month's pay. One day at a time. Going down a notch doesn't mean you can't go back up later. You are trying to jump too far, too early on.

If your pay is about 2.2~2.3 or more then accept a cut in pay for less Korean expectations until you learn Korean. If you are making less, then you are being taken advantage of.

Finish the month out, figure what you need in order to successfully do this, and then do it. If they want to fire you next month, fine, they still have to pay you for your first month, and there is a debate on here whether or not they can fire you immediately. They should give you a notice of termination in writing, if not then you are still employed and should still show up for work. You should be able to get 4-5 million won before leaving, if not more if you hang in there.

Showing up is the main goal here, successfully teaching secondary.

[rockstarowen]

I also am a gyopo, and have almost completed my first two months. I am also considering my options. But the great thing about not having an E-2 is that you CAN quit and find a different job. You don't have to worry about your school doing anything related to your visa.

My plan is to line up some private tutoring jobs. (Still researching that) and then quit. According to my contract, if I quit before the first six months then I have to pay back my plane ticket, but if I quit after my first six months, then they just don't pay for your way back home. I would look over your contact very carefully to see what kind of leeway you have. Although here in Korea, contracts don't really mean to much in helping the teacher it mainly benefits your boss.

I would definitely not do anything until you have something else lined up. Stay in Korea, my family here is the reason why I am. I love spending time with them, and I love the Korean culture, the food and everything else. If you can....stay, don't go back home. Spend a year or two here and then go back. I'm sure that if you talked with your family they would be able to give you some advice, maybe even house you and help you find a better job.

Hope it helps. I am still trying to figure things out too!!

[half-blood]

Hello there my brother. I too, am I mutt like yourself. A hybrid if you will. Take your F-4 visa and use it. I came to this country with the same expectations as you did. And I'm guessing about the same time. But I am taking a different path.

Right now I live with my aunt and just worked my first day at my only part time job. And guess what. It was great. I get payed more per hour, the school appreciates me and so do the kids. Its a small academy and I have to travel to it, but its worth it. I will look for more jobs that will suite my own mentality. And I will tutor my friends and acquaintances. I will have an impact and influence, I won't be some schools pet or tool.

Anyway the advice that I got after a heavy night of drinking and debate was this. It is okay to think the way you do, matter in fact it is great and will have influence and value to your students. But you must think of "how to succeed in Korea." It is unique to just you. And who you are. And what you want and hope to teach while you are here. And more importantly what you want to learn. So think deeply about what you wish to do. Idealistic? Sure. Everything original is.

But yeah, if you are just here for fun. Then you failed your students. You are not a teacher. You could not have pride in working hard and having them progress. So go, start your "career". I could sympathize with you. Except you are not here for the right reasons. And if that is truly why you came. Then go. It does not matter when you leave. The outcome is the same. Shame.

You desire to travel and live abroad but not contribute to their society? To not share your unique experiences and perspectives? No, I don't think you should travel. Go home. And stay there.

[joonhashin]

Hello, OP here.

I finished my day at around 9:45pm, went for dinner, arrived home and spoke on the phone with my recruiter for half an hour. If there's anything that I'm truly thankful for right now, it is my recruiter; her name is Yune and she works at ESL partner. I whined to her for solid 15 minutes like a little bitch and she listened to all of the problems I ran into this week and sympathized with me even though it was close to 11pm and way past her work hours. She insisted that it was too early for me to decide that this job isn't for me and kept repeating that the Director wishes to work with me for the long term. I guess if there is one thing I did right this week, it was not acting like a total ass to my Director because somehow I seem to have impressed her enough for her to call me "honest and hardworking".

A little backstory: I arrived at work today at around 1:35pm (I started work 2:00pm just for this week because there are special lessons for summer vacation time) to speak with the Director about leaving. I had planned on telling her that I would work with her for up to one month until she's found my replacement.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, I'm not really sure) I wasn't able to talk to her since she was in a meeting with someone as soon as I arrived and then stepped out of the building shortly after. However, while I was looking for the Director, I had to speak with the 실장님 (Director's right-handed woman) because I was looking for the Director. She asked me what I needed to speak with the Director about and I ended up spilling the beans about my plan.

She sounded quite shock to hear about this and immediately asked me for my reasons for wanting to quit. I told her the condensed version of what I told everyone on this forum in my most polite Korean possible. It was kind of like a game of tennis, I told her one of my reasons for wanting to quit and she would retort by saying things like "It's too early to decide, we'll soon put you on a new schedule as a Foreign English Teacher, please reconsider". Then I would say something else and she would again say something back in counter argument.

This stalemate was only broken when the head teacher walked in and joined the game. She too, was saying how it was too early to decide and that "it is difficult for everyone when teaching English for the first time". Since it was 2 vs 1, I had temporarily lost the argument. Perhaps I didn't really want to win the argument anyway.

By that point, I was about to start my classes, which meant I would no longer have any opportunities to speak with the Director until the end of the day at 9:30pm. Today's classes weren't as bad as my first day, but it came pretty damn close. Somehow, I managed to not break down. There were several times when I just wanted to grab my stuff and just leave. But I couldn't stand the thought of abandoning my duties, as a teacher to my students and as an employee to my employer. 'What a coward thing to do' I thought, and I gritted my teeth and made it out through the day.

Around 6-7pm, I received my first email from my recruiter, Yune, on my iPhone. I brought my phone from Canada and although I haven't been able to activate it yet, there are several wifi hotspots in my hagwon. She wrote to me that she just got a call from 실장님 and urged me not to speak with the Director until I've spoken with her first. I've had nothing but pleasant experiences with her thus far, so I decided to do as she asked. But I couldn't call her right away since I needed to grab dinner first before heading home (I had left my temporary cellphone at home). By the time I got home it was around 10:30pm and since I have wifi at home, I was able to see that I've gotten two more emails from her saying that I can contact her any time before midnight and gave me her Skype ID in case I didn't have any means to call anyone yet.

I've already talked about what happened next. We ended the conversation with the conclusion that right now is not the best time for me to make any kind of final decisions given the fact that I just got off work, very tired, and incapable of making an objective judgement.

I felt I had to get this story off my chest. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet but I'll have an answer by the end of this weekend. Mostly likely, I will stay for one month and then think about this again after.

[viciousdinosaur]

My man, be careful. Each of the people you spoke to today has a motive to keep you working. The recruiter won't get her cut unless you finish so many months. The head teacher will have to cover your classes if you leave, and the office supervisor will have to scramble to find a replacement for you and explain to students and parents why you left.

It is entirely possible that they are trying very hard right now to find someone to replace you while stringing you along, and as soon as they got someone they'll just fire you.

There's no such thing as loyalty or honestly in this country. Don't be lulled into a sense of security. Always expect the worst of people here. That's lesson number 1 of Korea.

[ajosshi]

^ jincha

-or-

You could be working with the nicest people in the world.

[YTMND]

[viciousdinosaur]