Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Troglodyte]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[legrande]

Games are okay for kids, but university students with no critical thinking skills can suck it when they whine for game time. Learn to write a freakin' sentence, for god's sake.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[earthquakez]

I apologise for misreading your post and having that dig at you. Thanks for the feedback.

I think we both agree that the best classroom environment is one where we can utilise creative and innovative ways of teaching but when that is not possible we just accept that and work within limits. I sound hard in my posts but while I am not a fan of some Korean ways, Koreans as customers in hagwons have every right to demand certain ways of teaching.

Having only taught in hagwons for some time now I am surprised that more foreign teachers don't make it their business to find out the kinds of expenses Korean parents have re private education. However, I wouldn't care if my hagwon were cheap (it's not) - it all depends on the goodwill of customers to trust us enough to send their kids for an English education.

Korea is usually a steep learning curve for the inexperienced. However, no matter how difficult your job is here there is nothing stopping you from developing a real rapport with most of your students (there are always a few who don't want to engage and that's not necessarily personal) and energising them through your personality and willingness to communicate with them. That's a key way to get over a bland or inadequate text/curriculum that you're forced to teach.

Much as I feel freer out of the public school system, it is the way to go for those who are frustrated by hagwon ways. You can usually teach in all sorts of ways at public schools especially when you have a co teacher who doesn't turn up. But even then I hear a lot about fresh teachers who have never taught English or worked in any related field and they arrived for their job in Korea without having picked up a book about teaching EFL/ESL or without having brought even a few worksheets or English workbooks which are easy to get in the countries where E-2 visa holders come from.

When I taught at public schools I never objected to taking such responsibilities as planning and teaching classes by myself - I only objected when the usually absent co teacher chose to stroll in at times after doing zilch re lesson planning, class discipline etc and then sat sleeping or whatever in the room. I also objected to their continual griping about how hard they worked when in fact they usually surfed the net or talked on their phone or slept in the teachers' lounge while I did their job as well as mine.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Great response earth.

It seems we have a very similar vision on teaching in Korea.

Take care out there.

[Mikejelai]

[akcrono]