Korean Job Discussion Forums

[byrddogs]

As others said, there is no normal schedule. I'd venture to say that your workload is pretty typical of a kindy/afternoon elem. hagwon.

My first job was in one of that sort. I think in my peak I was teaching 25x40min classes a week kindy + 30x32min classes elem a week. That equates to 6.5 hours in class per day on average. That doesn't even take into account the extra time spent on administrative duties outside of work hours (which were plenty). It was a brutal schedule, yet I did it. I should mention as well, that it was the standard 10 day vacation at the school's discretion. Nothing was ever cancelled and you actually made up holidays on the weekends. This was all on a 2.3 salary. Qualifications meant nothing.

I moved on to ps where I taught 20-22x45 minute classes per week. That is 3.3 in class hours per day. Many of those classes would be cancelled for whatever reason. SMOE at the time was allowing 21 days vacay per year. While break camps were mandatory at my school, I was lucky enough to not be required to be on site during many days that I wasn't doing camp like others are. This was on a 2.6 salary. Qualifications were rewarded with a higher salary and opportunities to earn more.

I've since moved on from that and teach at a Korean school in another country. My workload consists of 21x40 classes per week. That is 2.8 in class hours per day. Like the aforemention ps in Seoul, things get cancelled from time to time. I do a lot more as far as teaching duties go here (ie...marking, writing tests, etc...), but I have plenty of time to do that during the normal 40ish hour work week. The kicker with this job is that it is only a 190 day school calendar year. I'm treated like all of the other teachers in school and have full paid breaks. Unlike in Korea, I pay my own rent here, but I get an allowance for that. I save more each month than I made per month at that first hagwon job. Qualifications are necessary.

So, to sum all of this up; there is no "normal" for teaching at Korean schools. They are exponentially different given the type of job. I'm lucky to be where I am now for sure. I did work hard to get to this point, however.

[Lucas]

My average for this week will be 10 miuntes a day

[fustiancorduroy]

It's intensives at my test prep academy. I'm teaching an average of seven 55-minute classes a day with 5 minutes of break between classes and at least a one hour lunch break in the middle of the day. I work Monday through Saturday. I may have to teach on a couple Sundays. I guess this is a fair number of classes, but personally I'd like more. I'm at this particular job to earn as much money as possible, and if I'm going to be at the academy from 9 am to 7 pm, give me 8 or 9 classes, especially one-on-one clinics. I can teach those all day long.

As an aside, I'm a bit envious of one of my coworkers. He works at our academy as his secondary job. His main academy is the same neighborhood but focuses more on AP and college entrance prep. I think he generally teaches nine hours a day there -- from 8 am to 6 pm -- before coming over to our academy and teaching another three classes. He's been working seven days a week for the past two months. He's making real money.

Normally, I teach around 22 classes Monday through Friday, 55 minutes per class. I also have four or five classes on Saturday, which are overtime.

[beentheredonethat777]

I saw this question being posed and couldn't resist responding.
I do declare the following statements to true(although I wish they weren't) and accurate.


19 classes per day(x5)!!! was my highest (13 different lesson plans/books)
(ages 3- 85) kindergarten-adult, University students, Business English, and Conversation)

and 0-1 per day was my lowest. (foreign face on campus)

Both schedules almost drove me crazy!!!!
(from cruelty to shear boredom)


Yes, I have experienced the good, the bad, the great and the insanely inexpressible in Korea since my arrival a few years ago.

Ask me anything. I have probably beentheredonethat777

[randall020105]

[midnightpariah]

[byrddogs]

[maximmm]

I teach 10 days a year and have the rest of the year off - all paid vacation. I usually get paid several days ahead of schedule. I'm thinking of quitting soon, and I hear that people who have left this school in the past were often given a major bonus and many recommendation letters - all that in addition to a big farewell party in the school owner's office. The name of my school is Nowgah.

[byrddogs]

[maximmm]

[byrddogs]

[randall020105]

Op. if you're ready for 3 000 000 won p/m let me know. Pm me.

[fezmond]

[randall020105]

Yeongyang, Gyeongsangbuk Province.

PM me for more details.

[kingplaya4]

Six a day is typical, although it quite often ends up being less than that. Anything more than that isn't really teaching, because you don't have adequate time to prepare.