Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

I have a friend who went and applied to a hagwon in Korea without really consulting me or anyone else here. I tried to warn him, but he already has most of the stuff done. I wanted to make sure he got in a good hagwon in a good place.

That being said, he's applied to the "Little America Daejon" in Daejon, in the province below Ggeongyi-do. Has anyone heard of it? What reputation do hagwons in this area have?

Thanks.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Sounds crappy.

[Masta_Don]

[hubba bubba]

[IncognitoHFX]

[yingwenlaoshi]

It's all pretty crappy. Hagwons, public schools, univeristy. All a joke. As long as your friend collects a paycheck on time, he's one step ahead.

[Snowkr]

yingwenlaoshi...

why don't you just go home...?
Or back to China..

[garykasparov]

Here's my two cents on the matter. Pass this on if you want to or show your friend this thread. In my humble opinion, it's important to ask the right questions.

Questions to ask foreign teachers


Teachers & Students

1. Is there a high turnover rate at your school?

2. How many teachers, foreign and Korean, work at the school?

3. What are the English speaking abilities of the director and Korean Teachers like?

4. How many students attend the school?

5. How many students do you teach per class?

Location

1. Is there a bank, bus terminal, subway station or train station near the school?

Working Hours

1. What are your working hours?

2. When and how long do you prepare for class?

3. How long is long is your break and when do you take it?

4. How many classes do you work per day?

5. How long are the classes?

Job Duties

1. Does your employer assign you job duties not written in your contract?

Wages

1. Does your employer pay you on time?

2. Does your employer pay you in cash or deposit your wages into your Korean bank account?

3. Does your employer provide a "pay receipt" that clearyly defines taxes, deductions and salary?

Overtime

1. Does your employer pay overtime wages or avoid paying them?

Tax

1. Does your employer deduct the correct amount for income taxes?

Severance Pay

1. Does your employer pay severance pay or withhold it?

National Health Insurance Plan

1. Did your employer enroll you into the National Health Insurance Plan and provide you with a "health insurance card?"

2. Does your employer respect your medical privacy?

National Pension Plan

1. Does your employer make contributions to the pension office?

Vacation

1. How many days of paid annual leave are you entitled to?

2. When and how do you take your paid annual leave?

Paid Sick Leave

1. Have you ever used a paid sick leave day?

2. (If yes to 1) How did your employer react?

3. (If yes to 1) Did your employer deduct from your monthly salary because you didn't work due to illness?

Housing

1. Were you satisfied with your housing conditions?

Dismissal

1. Has your employer ever dismissed any employee for the sole purpose of not providing wages, severance or a plane ticket home?

[biggpoppa]

i play hockey with a guy who works there right now and another guy who used to work there...i can find out more details for ya if you want...i see them twice a week...

pm if you want some help

[yingwenlaoshi]

[air76]

I disagree....curriculum and books are important. Of course getting paid is the number 1 concern, but working at a school without books, without access to a computer/printer/copy machine and other basic supplies that help you to plan for classes would make your job far more stressful.

It doesn't matter if the Koreans don't do their homework...if they don't do it then don't give it to them....the bottom line is that most of the teachers that struggle in Korea struggle because they don't know how to properly teach in the ESL environment (and I'm saying this because when I was in Korea I really didn't know what I was doing, but now that I understand how to set up a student-centered lesson I am confident that my classes will run much more smoothly when we return to Korea)....my guess is that 90% of all teachers who hate teaching in Korea try to TEACH far too much, instead of giving projects to the kids to work on in class and then report to other students.

Try this with a class and see how it goes:

Draw a picture of a city inside of a giant bubble under the sea, explain to the class that the year is 2050 and the entire planet is under the ocean....then, divide the class into groups of 3, and give each group a section of the newspaper that they are going to report on....for example, one group does Sports, another Business, another Health/Science, etc....then...you give them 20 minutes to prepare their report while you simply walk around monitoring the groups and helping when they seem stuck....at the end of the class each group presents to the class and the other students ask questions.

You'll be surprised at how much more interested they become in a class like this as opposed to Read This Paragraph, Answer These Questions, and then I'll let you play Hangman for 5 minutes.

Make the class fun (without games per se) and the kids will surprise you....Korean kids really are the same as kids anywhere, at least up to the age of 15-16 (Korean adults, different story)

Another great class is the green spaghetti incident:

Explain that your brother back home owns a spaghetti factory and that there has been a huge accident at the plant...1000000 cans of spaghetti have been stained green...it tastes the same, but it's just green....he can't afford to just throw it all away so he needs your students' help to create a marketing/advertising plan to sell green spaghetti....put them in groups, give them a piece of A4 paper to make a poster (specifying a minimum of 50 words or something to go with their picture) and then they present/ask questions......same thing, the kids have fun, you hardly have to talk all class, and the kids will probably be using more English than they have in any of the "Classroom" type classes you've been trying to teach.

The list goes on and on:

create a tourism brochure for their country/city
menus/design for a new restaurant
invent a new type of transport, and give a detailed explanation of it

for younger kids, have them make flashcards and then they go in front of the class and play teacher

I guess my point is....don't just resign yourself to saying "Koreans suck at English, this job sucks, this place sucks, etc etc"...the truth is that you probably don't know HOW to teach ESL, I sure didn't at first, but now that I do I find the job is quite easy, and easy to do well. I think as well that a lot of B.Ed. folk get frustrated as well because they feel like they are trained after 4 years of Uni, but the reality is that teaching at a hagwan is an entirely different animal with an entirely different skill set.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[lookingforworkinasia]

For the OP:

I'm still in the process of looking at schools myself, but a friend of mine who is over there specifically suggested I stay away from Little America's.