Korean Job Discussion Forums

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

English immersion?

peppermint · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:41 am Post subject:

To these people talking about how fabulous their public school gig is, I'm endlessly jealous.

I teach an average of 43 kids in a class (that's been about the norm over the last 2 years, and instead of reducing class sizes when there weren't enough kids to make 6 classes that size with one grade, they just shifted a teacher out to another school.

Do I get paid on time, yeah. I've spent the last few days fighting to get the airfare home I've earned though, cause the school doesn't want to shell out nearly 6 mil for my last months pay, severance and the airfare.

People are going into these public school gigs thinking they're all sunshine and roses because of some of you. REality- they're nearly as much of a crapshoot as a hagwon.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

I guess hogwans have to be the most dodgy places for a few reasons. They are businesses exisiting to make a profit. There are A LOT of them. It's a competitive market. Many bosses are clueless.

Well, maybe the dodgiest for a lot of reasons.

out of context · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Location: Daejeon

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

VanIslander · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject:

Darl, I too have been confused by the attitude of some waygooks toward hagwons.

A good hagwon is gold.

You have it, I've had it for over three years.

Why anyone would think less of it than public school positions is beyond me.

The Real Teacher Test:

Does a real teacher want...

(1) 10 students per class or 30?
(2) a hundred students each known by name or a thousand in a sea of faces?
(3) one's own choice of textbooks and extra supplimentals or else a set government-dictated textbook with no side lessons?
(4) one's own complete control of the classroom or a co-teacher of uncertain helpfulness?

If you've got great co-workers, a reliable director and a decent schedule, and you enjoy and can handle kids, then Darl, like me, a hagwon is more like fun than work, though we get a deep sense of satisfaction at seeing progress as our students, whom we have a one-on-one relationship with, indeed learn alot.

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Thunndarr · Joined: 30 Sep 2003

While hagwons and public schools may both be crapshoots, I would hazard a guess hagwons are a bit more so.

One problem with (most) hagwons is that the curriculum varies as the wind (and parental opinion) blows. As such, there is very little logical progression from one term to another, which basically ends up confusing the students. While they are still learning, I don't think it's a very effective way of educating. Also, the students will often study 5 subjects throughout the week, using books with wildly differing content and difficulty.

Another problem that I ran into is that the length of term is seldom matched appropriately to the books that are chosen. You either have wildly too much material to cover, or far too little content to stretch out over the requisite time period. Either one presents problems.

Too much material (which, btw, you absolutely MUST finish) means that you don't really spend any time teaching. You basically go over everything once and turn the page. You assign a lot of homework that you really can't check thoroughly and the kids are swamped. (They will often have 4 other subjects the same day, just like this.) On the plus side, parents really LOVE this kind of thing, so there seems to be some competition among hagwons to overload the kids the most.

The problem with too little material, is fairly obvious. There's nothing to teach! Of course, the obvious rebuttal is that a good teacher will use this extra time to provide meaningful content to the students. Wow! I wish I would have thought of that. Why wouldn't I want to spend a lot of my own personal time, unpaid, to provide curriculum that should have been provided by the hagwon.

Of course, not all hagwons are bad. Some hagwons, I'm sure, are very good, well-organized, and great places to work for. If you are at one, good for you. However, my own personal opinion is that the bad ones outnumber the good by a hefty margin.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

PRagic · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

Ok, so it's not about the money...fine. Work at a hakwon.
Ok, so it's not about the time off...fine. Work at a hakwon.

Ok, so basically you are working packed weeks for less money than you could be making elsewhere. Your priorities are odd, but, then again, you wouldn't be the first person to fear change and settle for less than average employment.

Working in Korea is a great thing to do, and you can bank away some great coin. Working for instiututes is for the newbie, I hate to tell you, though. If you are teaching 25-30 hours a WEEK with terrible vacation time for under 3.0 million, and you've been doing it for years, then you need to consider your options better. I'm sure your boss loves you. Hell, he's making a mint off of you and your complacency. Good luck. If you don't aspire to retire early, do any traveling, or furthur your education, then you are in the right place.