Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cbbjork]

Hey everyone, just curious as to how many of Dave�s members were teachers beofore they came to South Korea. I hear a lot of bad class stories, and how bad it is, but I�m curious how much worse it is for those who�ve taught before in their own country. I�ve personally taught a few classes while in the states, and loved it, so I�m just wondering if it�ll be that much worse in Seoul.
thanks.

[Horangi Munshin]

I taught day relief in New Zealand before coming to Korea. The children here are a lot better behaved.

If you love teaching you should be fine.

BUT some schools do not want you to teach in a way that you might think is right.

[Homer]

Was a HS teacher back in Canada for a couple of years.

[Hater Depot]

I taught kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. For me it was a very, very rough adjustment to a Korean middle school.

[stakay]

Have only had hogwan experience here (elementary kids - Seoul), and it's been a COMPLETE DREAM compared to HS teaching back home. DO IT!!!

[Aussiekimchi]

I taught Kindy, primary and then in a university for 7 years before Korea. Lucked out in a decent hagwan but found the content and process a joke. Good change though with class sizes. 30 down to 6 was great.
Didn't really liked to be told how to teach by people who had no quals and less experience than me though. Bit my lip nonetheless.
Kids were a dream though compared to the places I had taught, any child would have been a dream.
Was a bit of a shock simply being a pleb classroom teacher in a big and often older staff, to suddenly being someone others were needing advice from.
And it really sucked that people were continually checking what I was teaching i.e. checking my lesson plans.
But the biggest thing to learn, is that teaching English in Korea is completely different to teaching whatever you teach back home. You almost have to learn how to teach again. The worst thing you can ever think is that you have nothing to learn.
I learned more from people here who had been teaching less and had never been to teacher's college than I could have ever imagined.
Your worst kind of teacher here is the one who thinks his B.Ed magically takes the odour from his poo.

[cbbjork]

Great, thanks for all the replies...

[ilovebdt]

I have taught at some ESL summer camps in the UK, at a private English school in London and on the Galapagos Islands.

Ilovebdt

[crazylemongirl]

I did an education degree, but jetted off after graduation. So just bits and pieces.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Four years as a uni TA - not the most applicable, but useful for building confidence and stage presence, I suppose. There I also saw classes of 15-33 once a week.

[sonshine20]

[Aussiekimchi]

It can be whatever you make it to be.
Don't do the rote stuff.
Language learning has progressed so far since that technique was popular.
Just make sure you are teaching Reading, writing, speaking and listening as much as you can.
Study up or just learn from the other good teachers around you.
If you can't be bothered with all that, there are plenty of schools offering up crapola for curriculums and preferred teaching styles.

[sonshine20]

I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't clear. I'm an experienced teacher in the States who is definitely willing to learn anything necessary to teach effectively in Korea. So since you stated that teaching in Korea is totally different from teaching here, I'm interested in your (or others) perspective on the differences.

What specifically is so different?

Thanks!

[jacl]