Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

To my surprise and chagrin when I started this job, I was informed that the teachers must call every student in the hagwon each month. It alternates monthly, so one month I call, next month the KTs call. Honestly, I really despise this activity. It cuts out absolutely all of my grading, wrap-up, and planning time at the end of each day and causes me to stay an extra hour or more to finish, and I've had to come in two Saturdays this month to get it knocked out. In addition, it's a bit uncomfortable for me to call my students and quiz them at 9:30, 10:00 at night. It's just strange for me to call a 10-year-old and start asking them what they ate tonight for dinner and how old their sisters are.

So I'm just curious if others have to call their students, and if so, how often do you call them and for how long do you talk? Of course, even though this isn't in my contract, I'll keep doing it, but I would like to know if this is something only my school does or if it is ubiquitious within the hagwonosphere in Korea.

Cheers.

[Freezer Burn]

Yeah I have to call my students, once a month but I split it into four Fridays to save me going crazy at the end of the month.
My friend has to call them every day so he has to call all of them once a week.
I usually just get them to read the dialogue that we have been working on during the week, while it is fresh in their minds.
Its funny though if you cant speak Korean like me, you get this
'yobbosayeo' sp
'Hello, is sam there'
'yobbosayeo' and this repeats over and over, the parents all recieved a notice that I would be ringing and I cant speak Korean, and they send there children to a hagwon but still 2 and 2 make 5

edit: usually last no more than five minutes

[Grotto]

Same thing happened to me. Call yabasayo..is Sam there? Yabasayo.

Then one day I woke up, remembered that I have a contract and that isnt in it. So I stopped doing it. About 2-3 weeks later they asked me why I wasnt doing the phonecalls?

I told them that since I only get paid for time spent in class teaching the kids that all the phone call time is OVERTIME and until they paid me for the overtime I had already worked I would not be doing them anymore. I also pointed out that it is not in my contract...to which they pointed out that lovely little clause(will follow the direction of the director). I told them I would do it but I expected to be paid for an extra 10 hours a month for doing the calls.

The way I figured it out was: 5 minutes per call. Looking up the number, dialing the number, spending 3 minutes trying to speak to the student, speak to the student for 1 minute hang up and repeat. 120 students X 5 minutes=600 minutes/60=10 hours.

That pretty much put a stop to it. Of course my spineless co-worker still had to do them but I really didnt give a rats ass.

[casey's moon]

My first job had telephone English. The first few months I tried to talk to every student, even if it meant calling 10 times to get ahold of one student. After that I did a system of calling each student, but only one time. If I couldn't get through to the student, I still ticked them off the list. I was upfront with the director about why I was doing this. I found that most parents felt harassed by having a foreigner call their house over and over to speak to Minho. Also it took up a serious amount of time for almost no results.

During the last few months, we all quit doing telephone English. By that point, there were 7 foreign teachers there and there was nothing the director could do about it.

I hated telephone English. Worst part of that job.

[natemk]

I have to make about 10 45min phone call sets a week. It ranges from complete beginners of different ages to kids that are really good.

It's not fun. And very repetitive.

I don't like it one bit. I knew about it before coming to my job, I just didn't know how bad it would be.

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[natemk]

I think it is valuable to students with moderate to good conversation skills; students at the bottom struggle. It would make more sense to bring them into the office for a couple minutes a day and talk with them.

A marketing move indeed. The parents at my school all seem to like it. Sitting at home and hearing their children speak English, even if 50% of the students are only repeating what I say. They do complain when their child doesn't get a phone call too.. .

[Wrench]

I do stupid phone calls every week. I hate it. Every tuesday and friday I have to stay untill 6:15 or.

[Qinella]

So it seems that everyone is stuck with this crummy aspect of teaching ESL in Korea unless they make a stand against their employer. Unfortunately, our wongjong is extremely generous and nice to me (pays my taxes, bought me a bike, etc.) and so I could never refuse to do this or demand overtime for it.

I've decided my new tactic is to keep a 5-minute time limit and just ask whatever. Previously, I'd stress about what types of questions to ask, whether or not the student is speaking in complete sentences and displaying enough English for the parents, spill over to about 10-15 minutes, etc. Now, I don't care if I get all "yeahs" and "nos". I'm just doing my time, so to speak.

Perhaps I'm evil for doing a half-ass job at phone talking, but I'm miserable every month when it's my turn. I just finished 1.5 hours of talking and my nerves are about shot.

For my next teaching job in Korea, I will stipulate in my contract that there will be no phone-talking done by me.

[Grotto]

taxes dont amount to a hell of alot. 28,950 off of 2 mil.
Bikes are pretty cheap.

Your decision though and I can respect that.

[batman]

I had one job that required telephone english.
It was voluntarily mandatory in the ususal Korean hogwan way.
Though I was expected to phone the students I turned the tables around.
I gave my number to my students and told them to phone me as part of their home-work assignment.
Needless to say, very few students did their homework.

(of course, needless to say, the Korean-American Nazi who was the director's pet boot-licker was not happy with my solution. I, too, pointed out that phone english with a five-year-old student was a p.r.-inspired waste of time. The only student who did phone was a 12-year-old stalker-in-the-making and I screened her calls.)

[Sleepy in Seoul]

Yes, I have to do it too. It's only 40 minutes per week, but I'm the only foreigner at my hakwon doing it. It's basically just to fill up my contract to the maximum, without actually doing so much that I have to be paid overtime. I don't like doing it either - it's so impersonal, but after reading everyone else's posts, I feel lucky.

[Bunnymonster]

Surely thats the first question you ask during the interview process, "Is there any phone teaching involved" if they answer yes walk away FAST................ But then I hate telephones at the best of times...........

[jajdude]

I did it once before. Had to say "waygookin teacher" on the phone. Sometimes the students weren't home, sometimes they (usually parents who figured it was a wrong number?) hung up, sometimes they simply could not answer my questions, but sometimes it felt like a useful thing.

When I asked a high school boy to tell me about what computer game he was playing, that added a few minutes to the chat.

Sometimes I thought those 3-5 minute chats on the phone were more beneficial to the student than the 40-45 minutes in class where they can goof off with theor buddies, no parents standing nearby. They actually tried to listen and reply, and it is challenging when it is just voices, no body language or whatever. Maybe some Koreans are wise to do sign up for phone teaching with a native speaker, though 10-15 minutes a day doesn't seem like much.

[casey's moon]