Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dysupes]

Hi!

My wife is opening a hagwon with a friend of hers and I was wondering if anyone knew any good books to use as the hagwon textbooks. Obviously we'd like something that is genuine and not just a money making scheme kind of book. What elementary school level books are your favourites?

Thanks!

[anyangoldboy]

I always thought GOGO series were pretty good. A lot of people don't like them but it really depends on how you teach it and what other stuff you can come up with to make it more interesting.

Super kids were pretty good books. The teachers Manual was really helpful and a whole load of activities/games for the kids to do in class.

[kat2]

English Time is a great sereis for basic conversationals.
Mr. Bug's Phonics is a pretty good phonics book (although I haven't used it in a couple of years)
Smart Reading is good for reading comp.

GOGO is horrible. Please don't use that book.

[oneofthesarahs]

I think Gogo is good for the really little kids, because they really like the songs and they think the character of Gogo is funny. If there are students who are young (a little older than kindergarten) but beyond the basic phonics stage, it's a good series. I had a class of 6-7 year olds who were just miserable. It was impossible getting them to settle down and focus on anything. The Gogo books helped a lot. There's a lot of variety and room for activities that is good for their crazy little brains.

The TIME for Kids series is good, but the workbooks are riddled with English mistakes. But for reading/conversation classes, the magazines alone are useful and usually quasi-interesting.

[SHANE02]

[just because]

I too agree with the English time series....well structured.
Just make sure you have some supplementary material for worksheets and homework...


Just on another note:
I hope you and your wife make it as hagwon owners, especially in Changwon the market is already saturated. I know of 2 schools that closed down this week....

If you want some advice on where to open a school in Changwon, Anmin dong is good...there is one big elementary and middle school there with about 1300 students between them but only two mid sized english hagwons in the dong and one is for sale as he has gotten lazy.

Sangnam-dong, Daebang-dong and the ones near where Tribiang and Nobel Park apartments are going up, new traditional schools are making no money unless you are filling a niche market, like high end cram school or homeschool.

When i say you will make no money, you will after a while but it will take a very long time to make the amount of money that you and your wife could make just freelancing. Hagwons are tough work and are just not making the money they did in the days they started to open 5-10 years ago.

My friend and his wife own a school and they are just starting to pull about 4 million profit(inc. privates) after 5 years. The stress that they have had to go through and the amount of bullcrap and weekends they have have to attend meaningless functions to save face and gain customers to get it to this point has been tough for them and the potential to grow at where they are now seems limited. If your wife has a partner then this will be even harder.

No, I am not opening a hagwon here, my wife has a very good non-teaching job which and her salary will continue to increase in the future as she works for the city. It is always good to know the situation of schools in the city that you live though...
Just thought i would give some friendly advice as i have seen how tough it has been...

[MarionG]

IMI is riddled with errors
EPS is pretty boring
Mentor is boring and teaches few skills except reading

The best I've seen so far are the JET-S series 5/6, 3/4, 1/2. Few errors, practical English, kids enjoy the books.

[anyangoldboy]

[hari seldon]

It won't work for preschoolers, but I like the newest edition of Let's Go for Kindergarten and up.

[Flash Ipanema]

I've used the Listening Juice books and liked them. Good for listening practice.

[Cliffhanger]

I have a similar question. Our hagwon has been thinking about adding speaking based textbooks to our curriculum. We were looking between Let's go, Fun Fun English and the Backpack series. What do you guys think about these series. We were looking through them and I was quite impressed with Backpack. Anybody use Backpack and do you like them?

[anyangoldboy]

A lot of my friends have used Backpack and they've said the books have been good.

I've used it a while ago and thought it was pretty good.