Korean Job Discussion Forums

phaedrus · Joined: 13 Nov 2003 Location: I'm comin' to get ya.

Many hagwons have 30 hour teaching weeks. Possibly this is too much if you add on preparation, paper work, and other random teaching associated tasks. Perhaps if the usual pay was higher it would be okay.

I did it before, much to my disgust, hence I left. I was foolish before I came to Korea and expected my employer to be reasonable about work. However I soon learned being in the classroom six hours per day (actual time, breaks not included- elapsed time 7:30) wasn't so cool.

I do much less teaching per day now, about 160 minutes compared to 360 minutes before. I am a better teacher and have more energy for teaching. Why? Because I'm not being drained every day by a bad schedule.

In the end, who pays for these demanding schedules? I think the teacher and the parents. As long as the hagwon owner can convince parents they need a tired person to try to teach their kids the hagwon boss gets money. As long as the bosses can continue to get teachers to do this they get a discount on teaching.

I know some hagwons offer really decent schedules, and most newcomers to Korea are inexperienced and don't necessarily deserve better schedules for equivalent pay. Issues such as these aside, I still think it is not useful to have teachers teach so much. Most people are not supermen, and the paying customers eventually suffer from the teacher's burnout, regardless of other factors.

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

The students pay...and I guess the parents pay.

When I worked the hakwon scene and did 8 classes in a row, by class 7 I was dying. Usually class 7-8 were 50% or less the quality of lesson I would do for class 1-3.

Honestly when I had 9 in a day, 8 in a row, I would just play games at the last class. I was TOO exhausted to do much else. Geez that is a terrible memory to bring back.

Hakwon's don't care about quality IMO, they care of quantity and how much CASH they can get from the parents.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I teach 45 minute classes. At the moment I have 22 of these a week as my school wants me to get used to the school and teaching larger students but I will be going up to 25 in the next week or so which is my contracted max.

It's actually great to have some breathing space between classes, however I and I put a lot more energy into the classes as a result.

I hated working so many classes at the hogwon after kindy I was usually so wiped out that the elementary classes suffered.

prairieboy · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Location: The batcave.

I hear ya. At the moment I'm doing over 35 a week...that's 50 minute classes. I'm really starting to feel it now that it's the second month in a row of hours like this. The only upside is the overtime. It's the only thing that keeps me going right now and the hope that sometime soon the school will bring in another teacher to take the pressure off.

Cheers

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

prairieboy · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Location: The batcave.

I am exhausted. The only thing that keeps me going is that light (hopefully) at the end of the tunnel, knowing that I'll have paid a nice chunk of my student loan off come the summer.

Cheers

Badmojo · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:39 pm Post subject:

Phaedrus, all what you say is obvious. You're not the same teacher at 30 hours per week, as you are at 20, as you are at 10. For me, four hours a day is it. Anything more and by the time the last classes come, I don't have the energy or concentration. All of this is, of course, irrelevant in Korea, where the appearance of doing something properly is far more important than actually doing it properly.

inexhile · Joined: 18 Feb 2003

I agreee about quality of teaching Vs hours. I had an eratic schedule at my last job, but I experienced the opposite to CLG and Mr P, in the sense that I started slow from boredom and fatigue but during my last classes I was literally teacher of the year, action man, etc.
I don't know if it was the thought of going home or just finding the groove at the end of the day, but my last classes from a 7 class day definately got my best.
What sucked was they were usually the worst students!!

wylde · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

have you guys had a job back home?

this is soft work to the stuff i did back home.

Crying or Very sad

35 classes Crying or Very sad

it is a lot compared to some others but geez... its still a walk in the park over some of my jobs in australia.

inexhile · Joined: 18 Feb 2003

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

prairieboy · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Location: The batcave.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

Not to mention the loss of self respect factor. Had I known that I was going to be "expected" to be a dancing monkey boy, willing to put up with whatever BS they throw my way, I would never have come.

I'm not saying every job is like this, but a good number are.

Try as I may to get some "real teaching" happening, I realize that they don't want a "real teacher", just a foreigner pet for their kids to poke and prod and make fun of.

If this is the kind of job you dream of, by all means, come, enjoy! Laughing

cheers

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I was fresh out of university, but still had my share of bad jobs.

12 hours working in fish shop anyone?

I think that the good things about these jobs is that you can do them on autopilot. Here you tend to be more mentally drained.

tokki · Joined: 26 Jul 2003

27 classes, 45 minutes each. comes out to 20 hours a week. Im not complaining.