Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BigBuds]

My wife and I own a recruiting company here and I have two ladies aged 59 and 61 each with over 30 years of teaching experience on our books (for nearly 6 months now). No matter how many times I show their resumes' to hagwon directors they don't want to hire them because of their age, they just don't care about experience (which ceases to mystify me), and I even get this with people who are experienced and are of middle age (35-50). They say they want some young, energetic and foreign looking teacher.

I've explained to these applicants that their age is a big hinderance to securing them a position (due to Korean culture) but I'll try my best. Unfortunatley, the directors won't listen and this is, in a big way, the fault of the Korean Parents here. Experienced teachers generally means a better quality of education for their children but trying explain this to Korean Parents is like talking to a brick wall.

[hack]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Another factor might be must the plain lack of pride so many people take in their work. In Canada, the closet thing to a hogwan would be one of the many music academies where children go once or twice a week. Now, how many skilled musicians who love music would stoop so low as to put up with the kind of shit that happens at so many hogwans? Not many who are in it for a love of music. Yet, why do so many directors and teachers put up with the nonsense they do? I can only see it as a lack of pride in what one does.

But, before we accuse Koreans of being money-grubbing low-lifes who don't care about their students, we should stop to think of what keeps most foreigners at crap hogwans ... $$$$$$

[hojucandy]

in my case, what keeps me at a crap hagweon is simply that i am leaving soon and it is simply not worth getting another job at this late stage. prior to teaching at a crap hagweon i taught at a few good ones...

yu are right Paji eh Wong, koreans are a dysfunctional tribe.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[hojucandy]

i think yu have a good point there bum-sucker

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[some waygug-in]

I pretty much agree with what's been said so far, but I think there are some things that need to be added.

Many hagwan owners are newbies and have no clue what they are doing.

They get into the business thinking that they will get rich overnight, kind of like dot com people did back home. Once they discover the realities of the situation, they either sell the place..........and run off in horror, or they become a career hagwan owner.

If they stay in the industry, they have 2 choices:

1) Work extremely hard to make their school work, fighting against all the odds, bad teachers, angry parents, downturns in the economy etc. Hopefully, they can some day make their school into a decent one, where
education can be a priority.

2) Become a dishonest scam artist who will say and do anything to get people in the door. For these people, option 1 is just too hard. They can't imagine going to all that effort when they can just scam people and get away with it.

Sometimes an owner/manager may start off trying the hard way, but as soon as the first financial crisis hits...........then high ideals and morals go out the window. Where can we get money............. the foreign teacher is the easiest target, especially if that teacher is new to the country, has no clue about the language and has even less of a clue what to do about the situation.

Why do you think there are so many ads that say "no experience necessary"? This industry preys on the inexperienced because they are an easy mark. Is it better or worse than other industries?
I can't say. I would guess it's par for the course. Just look at Walmart for example. Walmart is infamous for using sweat shop labour to undercut its competitors and all manner of underhanded techniques to keep workers from gaining any kind of rights. Yet people support Walmart, continue to shop there, buy Walmart stocks...........yada yada

I have had corrupt bosses back home in Canada as well.
The biggest difference was that in Canada I could just walk away, I didn't have a stupid contract binding me for a year of torture.

Like someone said in another thread, all it would take to clean up this industry is to change the visas to the Japanese system. There the teacher owns the visa and can walk away whenever they like.

[JongnoGuru]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[some waygug-in]

Korea won't clean up its act with regard to the hagwan system, because it provides employment to so many. If the government were to crackdown on hagwans, unemployment would sharply increase.........followed by complaints and protests......... followed by the government giving up and allowing things to go back to the way they were before.

The government knows it can't clean things up without forcing a lot of people out of work.

[some waygug-in]

What kind of background checks does the Japanese government do?

I am just curious.

[JongnoGuru]

[Pyongshin Sangja]