Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Peter Jackson]

I had a conversation about a year ago with a friend who believed that hagwons would eventually die out. Her reasoning was that with every public school aiming to employ a native speaker in the next few years, hagwons would have difficulty recruiting teachers. I do see her point and it seems possible that a lot of the weaker hagwons might go under but the established franchises will most likely survive for a long time yet.

I for one would never work in a Korean hagwon again. I know several others who feel this way too. However, I also know others who have worked in public schools and/or universites and have chosen to return to teach in hagwons. Hagwons do have some perks, such as smaller classes, etc.

Any thoughts on the future of hagwons?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

What's really, really going to screw the hogwans are the after-school programmes at elementary schools, but you can be sure that the private education industry is going to try to get a big piece of this pie, too.

[Kimchieluver]

IMHO
Most hogwans will survive even after every school has a foriegner and an after school progrqam. Korean parents will still enroll their kids for that extra English lesson to get into that extra good university. And I actually beleive many people from North America will still want to come here no matter how good the economies are in their respective countries.

I left a long houred, underpaid corporate job for a year of adventure and travelling Asia. I would not have come if I had known how little travel time there was. I encourage my friends that are sick and tired of being in front a computer/in a cubicle to come over. So far two have, one hated Korea/kimchi and the other loves it and is in his second contract.

[ChopChaeJoe]

Korean parents love to dih their kids in a multitude of extra schools. i think the hogwans will keep on trucking. There may be ome consolidation and elimintion of some of the lower rungs on the ladder. Parents may become more interested in quality teachers from decent universities.

[jlb]

I think hagwons will keep going strong. There are always the parents who want a little something extra (in Canada, as well as Korea) no matter how good the public education system is. Also, I don't really see any drastic reforms in sight for the Korean public education system. Sure, a foreign teacher at every school is a start but how often do the kids see the wayguk...once a week for an hour or even less? How big is the class? 40 kids...hard to learn a language with that many people.

[Juregen]

[Junior]

hopefully they will die a slow painful death with the wonjangnims teaching 10 hours of konglish a day to keep above water.

Some will be impaled on kiddies penknives, others will die honorably after being sued by angry mothers. The rest will be buried under a heavy bookcase stacked with Side by side.

[jajdude]

There will be "hagwons" throughout Asia, and for Asians overseas, beyond our lifetimes.

If parents can afford it, they will want them. If they don't care so much that their kids improve in a given subject, they will still want them. They will still pay to make their kids do better at a subject. They will still pay the overpriced babysitters who give them a break and make it look like education matters.

[SuperHero]

[bosintang]

I think it's going to be awhile yet. Until the demand for learning English ceases, which will only happen if top Universities and Employers do not require high English scores, it's a pipe-dream.

Even if every school eventually meets their requirement of having a foreign teacher (which in itself might be a pipe-dream), having a foreign teacher who may or may not know what they're doing for only an hour a week with 40 other students in the class, is not exactly ideal.

[crazylemongirl]

Just because we're in every school, doesn't mean we're as effective. 1 teacher to 40 kids verus 1 teacher to 12. Hogwons are here to stay.

[wire]

edited

[ChopChaeJoe]

I've never had more than 10 in a class. I have a class with one student right now. I have another class with 2.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Hakwons exist for at least two reasons: parents want their kid to have an advantage compared to other kids and parents complain that the public schools do an inadequate job all-round. Even if the schools were to improve, many parents would still send their kid to a hakwon.

I see no signs of improvement yet in how English is taught in the public schools. Having a way-gookin in every school is just window-dressing. The schools are using us as advertising ploys to attract students. "Hey! Come to X Middle School. We have a way-gookin and the other schools around don't." It's just another example of appearance over substance.

I have a good example of 'appearance over substance'. Last summer at my last school I was assigned 2 summer camp classes for the high school. Only 4 students showed up for one of the classes but they came every day. By the middle of the second week, the school decided it would be better to cancel the high school summer camp and start a middle school summer camp as a way of attracting students. See what I mean? "Come to our high school where we have a way-gookin teacher--but after you get here, we'll cancel your class with him to advertise for more students."

I for one can see the attraction of a hakwon job. I'm on my second high school/middle school job. A minority of my classes are awful, but so awful that I spend a few minutes after each one questioning my preference for reliable paydays over better teaching conditions. Even after my good classes (the majority of my classes) I have to question the effectiveness of the set-up that I feel severely limits what I can do for/with my students.

[babtangee]