Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mithridates]

Can anybody name some good places? I have a friend who I've worked with before who spent the last year at Jeongcheol (sp?) and a year before that at a much worse hagwon, and her contract is up in a bit so she's looking for a new place. At the school she's at now the foreign teachers are quite happy because they have a very normal workload but her and the other Korean teachers always have to take care of interviews with the parents, extra training on Saturdays, that sort of thing. In addition to that she got her TESOL certification on the weekends while working there which was impressive because not only was the school far away but she was also busy with work at the hagwon and there's no way I'd ever give up a whole two months without a single day off but she did. This time I'd like her to find a more relaxed school but I don't know anything about hagwons so perhaps some here could give some insight into hagwons with happier Korean teachers.

[alabamaman]

[Dan The Chainsawman]

She should open her own galhbi cook up place.

[Son Deureo!]

What kinds of qualifications does she have? If she has a Masters degree, and/or has studied abroad for a long time, I'd recommend that she try teaching at one of the larger adult hogwons, such as Pagoda or YBM. That's where the money is.

As for treatment, I can't say I know of any hogwon that doesn't treat its K-teachers like serfs. At least with the larger hogwons, though, they have a chance to build a following and make some good hard cash (better than us waygook teachers, that's for sure).

[Kenny Kimchee]

OT: The owner of my old hagwon was Jekyll and Hyde when it came to the teachers - fortunately for us foreigners we got the Jekyll treatment (I guess we weren't so easily replaced as the K-teachers).

In addition to the hagwon he also owned one of those Yoon's Phonics franchises and employed about 40 Korean "teachers" (i.e. saleswomen).
Good Lord, he went off on those women! We'd hear him in their meeting yelling at them for over an hour. He'd take the poor performers into a classroom and yell at them one-on-one for an hour, too. The guy was never anything but kind to me, though; I'm glad I wasn't a K-teacher!

[mithridates]

Well, she majored in English lit., doesn't have her masters but she has TESOL and two years of experience now. She also lived in New York for a year. She's not qualified to be a public school teacher so she's basically just looking for a hagwon that treats its teachers well, both Korean and foreign. This last one wasn't bad, just tiring because the workload was so skewed.
Pagoda or YBM, okay. I'll see if she's applied there yet.

[UncleAlex]

Could be that Yoon was practising his own phonics material when yelling
behind closed doors.

[Junior]

Korean English Hogwon teachers usually have better English skills than Public school ones. Has anybody noticed?

But public school teachers are generally nicer.

[alabamaman]

[Captain Corea]

Yup, most the schools I know treat the korean teachers far worse than the foreigners.

I think the posters above are correct, larger adult chains might be the way to go.