Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stevensalty45]

Hello, I've gotten my first official contract offer for Readingtown in Changwon and I wondered if anyone had any insight into this school?

It sounds good but I am still trying to be practical about it all. I have about two days from now to decide and already I am leaning towards the job but I wanted to see if there was any feedback on the boards about the school. Thanks!

[enchoo]

The curriculum of Readingtown is too grammar and spelling based. Also the curriculum seems to be copied from other elementary school books in the United States. My wife and I did not like to follow the franchise books. I can not speak specifically for the Changwon Readingtown but another one in another similar small sized city in Korea had a high turnover and very low salaries.

[runthegauntlet]

The curriculum at the Readingtown I was at was, as the name implies, reading based.

Everything centered around reading books. Each semester the students would have 3-4 books they would read and we would discuss in class and do workbook activities with. Then they'd have to read additional books and do book reports (which the NETs will have to grade. That can be A LOT of reports) every week as well.

I actually liked the Reading Town system pretty well but they've changed it up a bit and now I think it's a bit more online based. Not sure how it is now.

Anyway, Changwon is a good place and if the contract sounds good it'd probably be a decent first gig. Good luck.

[hakwonner]

I work at Reading Town now (different city).

As the poster above said, it is mainly based on reading books. I mainly teach 'speaking' classes with the occasional writing class thrown in. The speaking classes are a bit of a joke imo, because there's still far too much reading and writing and not enough emphasis on conversation. The lesson plans are all written for you, which is obviously nice, but it leaves you with less flexibility in the classroom than you would perhaps like to have. I always try to do more speaking in my classes, as I think it's important for the students... but I have to work around the sometimes annoying curriculum to do this. Also, it becomes a problem with the older classes sometimes as a lot of the work you do in class is dependent on them reading the book for homework. Obviously 14-15 year olds and up generally can't be bothered to do this and as a result are clueless about the book when it comes to class time. You just have to do your best to try make them read.

Overall though, it is a decent enough place to work... especially as a first job I'd imagine (which it is for me in Korea). I'm not sure that more experienced teachers would be happy working at a RT, though.

[HagwonKanobi77]

I will chime in, as I also work at a Reading Town. I can certainly see the merit in the system they have--reading books and what not, but I sometimes feel like there's not enough room to be creative and teach them interesting things, perhaps there is a little too much structure. But I've been working here for 5 months and I guess I'm okay with it. Good luck, whatever you decide.