Korean Job Discussion Forums

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Isn't that a bad sign? Not always of course. And sometimes the boss may speak English well and still be a nightmare. But what other business allows the boss to be utterly incompetent regarding the very product he/she sells? It is clearly a sign that it is strictly business, make a profit, oh, and maybe the students might learn a little English, but that's up to the teachers, not the boss whose only English is "Hello" and "Thank You For your money." Wink

Crazy Oz · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Ilsan, Korea

You can have a boss who speaks English, but decides not to understand every now and then....now thats infuriating. At least if they have no English you know what your up against.
Seriously though, your boss may not be able to speak much english, but may understand english very well indeed (as do a lot of Koreans). Get them to write a response to your questions, or if no skills at all and no one to interpret use Babelfish, at least that way you have a chance of getting some idea of whats going on.
Surprise, surprise if they are only in it for the money. If there is a won to be made people try it here, and for that matter anywhere else, so don't be too shocked to find that education is financially driven, at least the supply of the facilities for such anyway.

Still crazy, still here.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

I am in a similar situation. The boss speaks some broken English, and it took me quite a while before I could understand what she was trying to say to me. She does use the "I not understand" as a shield against any and all complaints or problems. If it is something serious, I can always get one of the Korean teachers to translate, and usually we can work things out. The biggest problem, though is not language but attitude. She is not a teacher, has no knowledge of teaching, speaks relatively little English and has no idea of the problems faced by a teacher in the classroom. Yet, she constantly makes decisions that effect the classroom, usually negatively. As an example, she recently decided that we as teachers didn't need to have a copy of the student textbook, as she is too cheap to let us have even one between 6 of us. I had bought my own copies of the workbook so that I would at least have one, and yesterday I discovered that she had sold my copy to a new student.
We can only have one copy of the class tape, and if there are 2 or more classes using the same level, too bad. It's way beyond ridiculous.
She seems intent upon making this place worse rather than better and I have learned from experience that it doesn't pay to try and reason with her. She will see any suggestions for improvement as some sort of affront to her position and so she will never do anything that a teacher suggests.
Thank God I only have a few months of this place left.
All I can say is, be sure you check a place out WELL before you agree to work for them!
Mad

The Bobster · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

william beckerson · Guest

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

At the moment I work with a wonjang with deeply flawed English and a head teacher with almost none. Honestly, I like it. It's like, if I don't want to do something I can be all like "you don't remember? You told me on Tuesday not to do it anymore."

When I really need to communicate, or get frustrated, I speak Korean, but that makes them feel uncomfortable.

gajackson1 · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2003 1:23 am Post subject:

hmmmm . . .

At my last job, my owners spoke a little English, but understood a fair bit. They were good about balancing things out, and after the first year gave me control of ALMOST everything in the classes. It was a good situation for everyone!

This job now? Hmmm . . . my co-workers are all pretty great, and of various English abilities. But staff turnover has been high, because our new owner is a freakin idiot. Really. Knows nothing about education OR business, so it is a problem for all of the rest of us here . . . counting the days, lotto style, for most of us. *SIGH!*

This could easily digress into a rant about how I would run a school, but let's not even go there! MML!

Regards,

G.

iammac2002 · Joined: 12 Jun 2009 Location: 'n Beter plek.

I worked in a hagwon once where the director didn't speak much English. A Korean co teacher had to translate and she got the transations wrong! She'd say one thing, then later I'd find out she meant the opposite!

I hated it how they loved to say "you don't have to..." and in the meantime she meant to say "you MUSTN'T"!!! There's a BIG difference between don't have to and must not!

Carla · Joined: 21 Nov 2008