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wandrousmuse
Joined: 27 Feb 2012
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 Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| NohopeSeriously wrote: |
| wandrousmuse wrote: |
I'll be heading to Korea for the first time February - March 2013, and would prefer to start with a hagwon for most of the above-listed reasons. Even working eight exhausting hours appeals to me, since this is generally how I prefer to work (constantly busy with a few breaks rather than bored with many breaks). I also prefer working in the afternoon and evening, and I hear many hagwons offer split shifts, which appeals to me, too.
What hagwons have/do you work for, lemak, and did you use a recruiter to get these positions? |
Working at a hagweon is the best way to accumulate better teaching experiences within a limited time period. And I love being busy too.  |
Thanks, NohopeSeriously! Accumulating the most teaching experience is, perhaps, my number one reason for wanting to work in a hagwon. The horror stories (including the plea for assistance from someone whose hagwon will be declaring bankruptcy this week: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=223605) frightened me into thinking that I might want to start with a cushy p.s. job, but I realize I'd rather get more experience (and money) sooner.
@edwardcatflap: I obviously have a misunderstanding of what is meant by split shifts, but I'll be sure to clarify what hours I'll be working each day before I sign any contract. [/url] |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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| xihtug wrote: |
| Squire wrote: |
| I expect it is more like real teaching (in fact I'm sure it must be for most) and the lack of co-teacher can be a great thing (mine is nice, but awful at her job and really ruins classes I could be doing myself) but I don't think I could be tempted myself... |
Just a question so far -- do Hagwons not typically have co-teachers? How would you teach English if you do not speak Korean? |
typically yes you are in the classroom by yourself...although to be fair this is often the case with public schools too.
As far as teaching English goes...most kids will understand you to a certain degree. The average level of English in a hakwon class tends to be quite a bit higher than the average level in a PS class. And the smaller class sizes help to a certain degree as well as you can spend more time with the students that require help.
Most hakwons (although not all) actually prefer that you do not speak Korean (or as little as possible). The reasoning here tends to be that the mothers have paid good money to have their kid speaking/hearing English from a native speaker and not Korean. Time spent speaking Korean is time taken away from speaking English. At least that seems to be the view of the hakwon owner/mothers. |
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xihtug
Joined: 14 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I see, thank you for the response! So far this topic has made me much much less terrified of hagwons. While I think I'd still prefer a public school as a newbie, there are some definite pros to hagwons that really do interest me. I'm a teacher here in the United States, so the concept of having much more control of the room highly interests me. Additionally, I'm definitely less of a morning person. The second shift I can see being pretty cool in a non-rural area. |
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mcloo7
Joined: 20 Aug 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Do most of you go through recruiters to get hagwon jobs? |
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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| I got my job through a friend. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Gorf wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Gorf wrote: |
I worked at a hagwon for four months before giving up. Not sure why people actually take those jobs at all.
Vampiric hours, bosses and Korean moms that constantly second guess you and think you're the problem if little Kim doesn't do his homework, the lack of breaks and proper legal accountability and benefits and so many other things just make it a shill. Maybe you'll be able to push 5% more English into a few kids' heads than you would at a public school, but in the end, you're doing it at the cost of your own sanity and time.
I work for an after school program now. I teach for 4 hours a day, with hagwon-sized classes and I actually teach the kids, and they give me lots of energy and enthusiasm because they're not the kids that are ground down to a zombie thanks to the hagwon system lots of kids are put through. Sorry, but I feel like everyone who works a "regular" hagwon or public school job for 8 hours a day is a sucker. |
Public schools in the provinces can accumulate raises. 3 Mil a month. What's an after school in Seoul? 2.2 a month? Couldn't afford that with this bad exchange rate. |
Yeah but that's after 7-9 years of employment there. I live in the heart of Seoul and make 2.7 per month and I work less than 25 hours a week. That's not even close. |
Hogwon? Something else with connections? I'm a little more than that but in a regular city in the middle of the country but have deskwarming time. |
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creeper1
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:56 pm Post subject: simple |
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It is quite simple really.
PS jobs are on track to dissapear.
Universities are quite competitive.
We are left with hagwons.  |
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lemak
Joined: 02 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:26 am Post subject: |
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| mcloo7 wrote: |
| Do most of you go through recruiters to get hagwon jobs? |
The only time I used a recruiter was the first time I went to Korea and didn't know any better. Following that I was always handed decent jobs by departing friends or by putting my resume on various websites and only replying to actual schools. Sure more time consuming, but allowed you to talk directly to the person with the power to more tailor make conditions in your contract....if the boss baulked at a bigger salary in some cases they were willing to provide a bigger apartment or a couple of extra vacation days instead....lots of little things.
These days my advice for anyone job hunting in Korea is to use facebook. Hunt down the city pages where you are interested in living and ask about available jobs. Even after operating for decades some hagwon bosses are absolutely clueless about how to find replacement teachers, usually where the job had been decent the foreign workers will help hunt down a new person to take over their gig when they leave. Facebook seems tailor made for this kind of crap. |
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Ranman
Joined: 18 Aug 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:32 pm Post subject: Re: simple |
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| creeper1 wrote: |
It is quite simple really.
PS jobs are on track to dissapear.
Universities are quite competitive.
We are left with hagwons. |
There will always be public school jobs. You may not like the areas they're in, and they may not be in Seoul, but they will still be there.
Call me crazy, but being paid on time and having a secure job beats the risk-taking that comes with Hagwons. |
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Skippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:44 pm Post subject: Re: simple |
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| Ranman wrote: |
Call me crazy, but being paid on time and having a secure job beats the risk-taking that comes with Hagwons. |
With the added bonus of crazy ass politics and back stabbing. Co-teacher horror stories. Yes, hagwons get some of it, but public schools tend to be worse. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:15 pm Post subject: Re: simple |
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| Skippy wrote: |
| Ranman wrote: |
Call me crazy, but being paid on time and having a secure job beats the risk-taking that comes with Hagwons. |
With the added bonus of crazy ass politics and back stabbing. Co-teacher horror stories. Yes, hagwons get some of it, but public schools tend to be worse. |
Although being a foreigner tends to isolate you from the majority of the politics most of the time. Unless of course one speaks fairly good Korean or has a co-teacher out to get you.
I'd say it's better than an average hakwon though where the Korean workers know that you get paid more than they do and therefore have another reason to get jealous. Whereas this is typically not the case at a P.S. once they have a few years under their belts. |
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fustiancorduroy
Joined: 12 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| I work at a hagwon because hagwons pay the highest salaries, much higher than any public school and virtually any university. The only non-hagwon teachers who are paid better than me are the teachers at Daewon's GLP, who make around 5.5 million a month for 12 hours a teaching a week. My salary is a bit higher than theirs but I have to teach about twice as many hours as they do. There may also be some university lecturers with PhDs who make a similar amount of money for fewer teaching hours, but such positions are extremely rare and require qualifications that I never see myself getting. Overall, I can't complain about my hagwon job. |
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alwaysbeclosing100
Joined: 07 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:47 am Post subject: re |
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no desk warming
no insane politics
no coteaching with psycho coteachers
better money
no teaching from the worst english books ever written
no random city placement
no psycho coteachers teaching 99% of the class in Korean
no teaching ABCs to grade 6 elementary and middle school |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:23 am Post subject: |
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Hogwon classes are not always small, this is a fallacy that should be debunked. Some are small, some hogwan classrooms are tiny. Try fitting in 16 energetic 6 year olds into a room big enough for 6, comfortably.
Do PS rooms have this problem? It's an honest question, no snark intended.
Also hogwons are private, so the boss cares more about the parents than the teachers. You don't get that at a PS.
PSs are full of career teachers, are hagwons the same?
Also PS is a lot easier to spell than heockghen. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:34 pm Post subject: Re: re |
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| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no desk warming |
Who cares about that?
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no insane politics |
Really? What about the hogwans that decide they would have more students with someone else and decide to fire you? You might be a totally good teacher. Also the 11th month firings?
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no coteaching with psycho coteachers |
Maybe just Psycho bosses and parents (even students).
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| better money |
Certainly not if you're getting messed with and ripped off by the owner. I never got the impression that they payed more anyway.
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no random city placement |
That seems to mostly fit EPIK or GEPIK. I would avoid those if I could anyway.
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no psycho coteachers teaching 99% of the class in Korean |
Sort of true, but there are usually afterschool classes too that NET's tend to teach 99% of the class. And also if the co-teacher does English - Korean translation for the leaners during the class, it's a major plus. I think English spoken here only educators are stubborn and mislead.
| alwaysbeclosing100 wrote: |
| no teaching ABCs to grade 6 elementary and middle school |
Do those schools exist? |
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