Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

I've been here years, about seven, all working in haggies. So I was around when the English Spectrum website was acting the fool being very disrespectful considering the modest public decorum in Korea. And then there were the national television programs generalizing how dastardly all hagwon teachers are.

So I've noticed the difference in pre-SBS documentary Korea, and after. It used to be that hagwon teachers were given the benefit of the doubt. A hagwon teacher was, though foreign, seen as a teacher to a degree which offset their foreigness, gave them a kind of Confucian quasi-respectibility. The benefit of the doubt.

Well, now, since Korea has been given the inside story it feels, to me, like being a hagwon teacher is the biggest joke, or crime, or what have you. Like a hagwon teacher is a criminal, sexual pervert, loser, laughingstock, and so on.

Yeah, maybe I should chill out. But it's been brewing for some time. I notice the difference post-SBS, and it bugs me. So I'm wondering, now that the days are gone when a hagwon teacher in Korea has respect, what the situation is in China.

Yes, the only way to make money in China is to leave and go to Korea, or Japan.

How do Chinese people regard white foreigners who come to their country to teach kids English?

[schwa]

With all your experience, why not look into other better options here?

[captain kirk]

Well, yeah, I realize this is a poignant original post a bit overboard and everybody has their bad korea days or weeks and I may be having mine at the moment. And I certainly don't want to bring down the vibe of the place. It's just a question.

What do Chinese people think about white foreigners who come to their country to teach kids English? Here it's someone who
-can't get a job back home, a burger flipper
-has no ambition
-is dissolute, a drinker or addict of some kind
-is likely a criminal
-is a loser
-is laughable and simple minded
-possibly a pervert who preys on children


So I'm just wondering if anyone who's been to China, or whatever, could comment on how hagwon teachers there are regarded?

[tzechuk]

None of those, Captain Kirk.

I am Chinese and I can tell you that they will not think you are a loser. Instead, they will treat you with respect.

Chinese people have experienced foreigners for a long time - way back to Marco Polo and before - much earlier than Korea.

They will see you as a teacher, and no more or less. Well, may be a friend.. but they won't defame you unnecessarily.

[Corporal]

CK,

Why don't you look at the job forum? I spent two minutes over there and found this thread:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=29583

(including the following quote)

[captain kirk]

Thanks, I'll check that out.

[joe_doufu]

tzechuk, I love Letty's new avatar!

[lastat06513]

I finished doing a 3-week summer camp in Shandong province.
Although I mainly taught Koreans living in China (not Jeoson-jokk), there were alot Chinese staff. the staff was generally nice and helpful.

Also, since I've had some experience teaching in Korea, I was seen as having more experience than any teacher who had ever taught there before, which seems sad to me...

The one person I won't forget is this one guy who worked at a college in Qingdao, which I had the unpleasant pleasure of working with. I consider him the worst teacher I have ever met. I mean, he never planned for classes, never attended teacher meetings, never really taught anything and always talked too much in class, always fought and argued with the staff and once caught sleeping in class. All that was in the professional setting. One time, after calling me callous and stupid because I countered something he said in the teacher's office, he had the freaking nerve to ask me for 10 quai for coffee. When asked how he prepares for his classes, he responded with the classic term "I wing it"....... ok?

I asked the Chinese working there if teachers in China act that way and sadly, they said yes and all gave me horror stories about teachers they had in class (one even told me that one teacher took a ruler and did breast measurements of all the female students as part of a lesson)
And no one complained because, like the way Korea was before, Chinese have great respect for teachers.
I guess it is like the way it is here, you have good teachers and bad teachers. It is all in the way you see them. If you go to China with some kind of experience or even some kind of qualification, you can get alot of respect and many chances to get a good job.
But I do see Chinese as being more outwardly tolerant toward foreign teachers than Koreans are.

[tzechuk]

[lastat06513]

yeah...cute baby

[keithinkorea]

letty is a great little cute kid there is no doubt about that.

Where I find doubt is about the lack of class and professionalism of some idiots in Korea. Me I bad spell on 'ere alright! But, seriously people should behave in a more pro manner.

It is the weak and pathetic people who have never travelled abroad and have no respect for their own, never mind other peoples cultures that make us ELS types look like a bunch of barbarians.

Sorry I'm such a grumpy git today, but due to internet issues I find myself in PC bang. I hate PC bang