Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sergeant schultz]

Hi, I'm not in Korea but will be soon and I was tinking of supplementing my income by signing up to teach the students through the internet, with a headset and all that paraphernalia.

Has anyone had any experiences good or bad about it?

[Zed]

I'm doing it right now but it's a full time job that I do from an office in Seoul. Definitely not the best way for students to learn in my opinion.

[kangnamdragon]

Which schools in Seoul have online teaching?

[Zed]

I don't really work at a school but at an educational company. (they make educational materials).

[sergeant schultz]

"Definitely not the best way for students to learn in my opinion."

I'm interested in this, how's it different from face to face teaching?

[Zed]

The number of tools that are at your disposal is severely diminished. Actions, props, facial expressions, flash cards that you can change to quickly (well the substandard materials aren't necessarily a fault of the process itself). The students can be very easily distracted and detached from you on the net. There are constant audio problems which often take 10 minutes or more to straighten out.

On the plus side the teaching is almost always one on one which does enhance the attentiveness of most students. Also, discipline tends to be a rather insignificant problem. (I have yet to get ddong-chimmed here) . It's much less stressful than teaching in a hagwon.

[bithy75]

I work for a company that offers online and phone lessons, and I don't think it's very effective either. True, the students do receive more focused attention from the teacher, but the technical problems can really ruin what started out to be a productive lesson. There's always someone in the class who can't hear, or I can't hear the student...etc. It's also true that students have a lot of distractions that they wouldn't have in a face to face class. Sometimes their kids are screaming in the background or the cell phone rings and they pick it up and start talking right in the middle of the class...annoying stuff. I guess online teaching is only in the beginning stages, and we have a long way to go to make it really effective. Personally, I would only do it as a part-time job for extra money. I can't wait to finish my contract with this company...wasn't expecting to spend most of my days talking on the phone.....

[Tiger Beer]

I'm on a 1-year contract teaching through webcam, headset, and webbooks. This particular place is very small, and just full-time contracts with the apartment and everything else.

I prefer it to the classroom, and this particular place its 1-on-1.. so not bad. Each company is different.. the only things I see wrong is the audio isn't great (a lot of 'what did you say?' happening which tends to make the students clam up quickly), and specific to my workplace, a lot of the programming isn't too perfection by any means. Missing pages never uploaded correctly, quirks in the software that should be corrected but aren't, and just goofy little things. Not critical but can be a minor annoyance at times.

For the most part, I prefer it to being in a classroom with 15 or so students. At least online I can sit down and relax and focus on one student at a time.

[ejw]

I have a computer whiz contact who is developing his own virtual classroom in the US. None of this MSN stuff, but a reliable site with virtual audio classrooms. It would be nice to know how much I can realistically charge once the system is running smoothly. I know of schools taking $40 or so for "private" one-on-one sessions. Sounds a bit steep. Does anyone know what they are willing to pay in Korea? There are lots of Koreans and Japanese taking private lessons at one school I know.

[Zed]

I think I've heard 20,000 for 20 minutes.