Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylde]

i just scored myself a uni job with very few hours and near 5 months paid holidays..

great conditions but......

when i first arrived here i taught adults, it was sweet.. they wanted to learn and they behaved very well.. however, the classes weren't as much fun as a hakwon or high school...

i'm having second thoughts as to wanting a uni job or a hakwon job... i want the hours and conditions but i want to be able to be a bit silly sometimes and make the students laugh..

i have a feeling that this new job might feel too much like a job.. i dunno..

is there anybody out there that would choose a hakwon over a uni job?

[Kyrei]

It was like that at first for me several years ago, but you get used to it. University students can laugh just as well as hagwon students - and probably want to more! THe downside is that you still have to be taken seriously as a teacher if you are to give out grades and deal with "beg Week" with any sense of authority. Yes, in many ways, Uni jobs are like "real work" but that is the challenge. Welcome to the adult world

Kyrei

[hellofaniceguy]

That's a no brainer question poll!!
If you have done the hakwon gig and then the uni gig, you'd think "why did I ever even work at a hakwon in the first place!" Even EPIk is 500% better than the best hakwon!!
EPIK teachers get 2-3 months of paid vacation a year, teach normal hours, teach fewer classes a day/week/month. Pay worries are not common, etc.

[wylde]

i enjoyed the hakwon thing though.. small classes, informal, it was good.

lots of hours but thats ok.. in the hakwon i'd pick up the boys and throw them agaist the wall or wrestle with them and it was fun..

even in high school, where i am now, i still have fights with the students and play around with them.. i'm thinking it's just going to be a little boring at uni, thats all...

teaching adults in a hakwon was good value, i could go drinking with them after class and still play up... i'm thinking that i shouldn't do stuff like that at uni cuz i need to grade them and have their respect..

well, i'm certainly gunna take this job anyways.. i just wanted to see others opinions

[the_beaver]

Working at a university (a good one -- there are plenty that aren't) kicks absolute ass over other 99.9% of the other teaching jobs available.

[VanIslander]

Before coming to Korea I was entirely set on teaching university here after my first year. Entirely.

Then I began pulling teeth and dodging landmines in my adult night classes while dancing and partying all afternoon long with my hagwon kiddies.

I experience joy teaching children. Not every classs, but often one, two of three classes in a day. They have fun, I have fun.

More importantly, they learn so much, so easily. To take someone who couldn't say more than "Hi" and teach them to read and have conversations, is real progress. And that is satisfying.

I have adult students who, after a year, barely seem to have improved, still slip back into mispronounced "th" and "p/f" and yet need their egos stroked often.

Kids I can push to perform (usually metaphorically), make it competitive, have "games" which basically amounts to team work but they so much want to win, and if they lose they are down for only a minute before something else perks them up. In contrast, an adult student loses face once because they made a mistake or didn't know the answer, and suddenly he or she is very quiet for days (or just quits).

I also enjoy the small class sizes. (My largest class has 9 students.) I know my students by name. We celebrate their birthdays, I know their interests, I chat with each of them regularly. There's a real bond there that's difficult with huge numbers of students in a lecture hall.

Plus, I'm half way through my second year with the same bunch of students, a length of time unimaginable with other teaching positions.

I totally agree with all the benefits of university positions in terms of working conditions, hours and holidays but I share the op's apprehension over the work itself.

[Michelle]

I've done both and it's true at the university I did slightly miss the hagwon work. At least the university work was slightly more professional, but what I didn't expect were for them to have a lot of 'rules' (about general living, not classes) and for there to still be a lot of hassles.

The hours became more regular in the second semester, they gave us a lot of tutorials to fill up our schedules and we had to be there although students rarely showed to their tutorials.

Also a two hour class was in the evening, the students thought of it more as social hour then a class.

They were more focused on their majors then english.

There were a lot of students there I could have a laugh with, however, and I think I did get more out of it professionally. The students were also really nice (generally).

But give me me own apartment rather then living in the student dorm with set rules any day.

[oneiros]

I like the hogwans, too. I like working with the kids, especially middle-school. Their at that age when they start thinking they're grown-up, and they're trying to be bad-asses, and I love it. I also like the small class sizes. I think big classes are too impersonal.

Now, if we could do something about the holiday time, we'd have the best of both worlds.

[some waygug-in]

A good hagwan is better than a bad university. But they are not easy to find.

The holidays are great, if you can get them. Some of the people I know who work at uni's are expected to teach extra classes during their 'holidays', so it's not so black and white as you might think.

That being said, I have never met a university teacher who wanted to go back to a hagwan.

I know some people post on here might think so, but generally speaking, there is no comparison.

I am still in the hagwan world, wondering if someday I will make the move, but I am not in any rush right now. This job is much better than some of my previous gigs.

[Toby]

[Zyzyfer]

I'm currently weighing this decision. I've got a connection and could be going in for a uni interview, but I'm currently at a hakwon and feel hesitant to go dropping this job for a uni job. The major reason is due to location; the uni is located in the sticks back where I was working for the previous two years, while my current hakwon job is in Swankville. Other than actually being busy during intensives (which lasts 3 friggin' months at this school), everything's pretty sweet.

A bad job anywhere is a bad job. A good job anywhere is a good job.

[ajuma]

[TheUrbanMyth]

I don't understand people's fascination with vacation. You are here to teach, be a teacher. When you finish your contract you can take as long as a vacation as you want. As for me it's usually five days and by then I'm itching to get back to work. Of course if your kids disrepect you and you hate your director and your work then I can understand the desire for long vacations. But if that is the case, what are those kind of people (who hate teaching/kids) doing here?

[the_beaver]

[oneiros]