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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:23 pm Post subject: Snow Day, part II! |
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I have been in Korea for 11 years total -- have been in Seoul during a blizzard, but this is the first year I have ever had a snow day in Korea -- and today makes two! My hakwon has actually cancelled classes for the day, because the roads are too dangerous for the buses to run....
Maybe I'll go sledding! |
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madtownhustl
Joined: 04 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| which city are you in? |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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Pohang, fairly south-ish, I thought...but apparently not south-ish enough to avoid the snow.
It is a glorious snow, too -- big, fat, fluffy flakes, like an early December snow in Michigan...<sigh>.
It's purty! |
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willteachforfood
Joined: 24 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:04 am Post subject: |
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| I honestly don't mean this to come off as insulting....I am genuinely curious....why, after 11 years in Korea do you choose to work at a hagwon? Or do you own the hagwon? |
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jonpurdy
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:15 am Post subject: |
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| I heard on the news that Pohang got dumped with a HUGE amount of snow! I kind of envy that but it's bad enough on the roads here in Ulsan. |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:51 am Post subject: |
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| willteachforfood wrote: |
| I honestly don't mean this to come off as insulting....I am genuinely curious....why, after 11 years in Korea do you choose to work at a hagwon? Or do you own the hagwon? |
Well, since you say you are genuinely curious, I will give an honest answer.
I take my teaching very seriously -- this was my chosen career before I came to Korea. I have taught in the US (h.s. English and science at several public schools), and I came to Korea on a fluke -- I was trying to find a job in Seattle, but all the ads were for teaching in Korea. That was in 1996. I came to Korea from 1996 to 1997, and left during the IMF crisis. (My contract ended just as the crisis started -- I have always finished my contracts wherever I have worked.)
I taught in the US for 4 years after that, but felt I had very little freedom or choice in what I taught or how I taught -- there were tests that I had to teach to, and other annoyances that had nothing to do with good teaching, but seemed to be par for the course. I also did not like the "politics" of public school teaching in the US. A final concern, though not the least, was that I saved significantly less money in the US than I had saved even in my first year in Korea. I had student loans at that time, and though not drowning in debt, I got tired of simply treading water. I returned to Korea a second time, post-IMF.
I taught for a couple of years, paid off all my debt and saved up a decent nest egg to try to return to the US. I did return, and tried yet another US school, where I found the politics, lack of freedom, lack of accountability of individual teachers, and the general attitude of people toward teaching and learning to be disheartening. I also saved much less than when I had been in Korea previously.
I returned to Korea a third time. I found a school that paid significantly more than average to start, and had a strong academic focus. In my first year, I found that my suggestions were not only listened to, but were implemented. The ones that worked became standard practice, and the ones that didn't, we changed as we went. I was asked to help write the curriculum and standards, with two other teachers. We did so, as well as standardized the testing and placement procedures for the school.
I was asked to design a new class, based on my own scope and sequence of lessons. I chose the textbooks, created the syllabus, and taught it the way I thought a class should be taught. It was successful, and I was asked to codify that class type. Currently, these classes are one of the most popular classes at the school.
Currently, I teach a full schedule of classes that have been individually designed by me, following a curriculum that I helped to design, using textbooks I have personally chosen, in a school that pays significantly more than average, and has rewarded me both professionally and financially for the additional revenue my teaching has generated. They compliment me often, and I am treated with great respect by the staff, parents, and students. I have more homemade kimchi than I can eat, and my sock drawer runneth over.
I have my own classroom, a 25-pyoung apartment in a modern building, with a view of the mountains, as much overtime as I care to accept (paid at a rate that makes illegal private lesson completely unattractive), and 6-weeks vacation a year, in addition to the "red day" holidays that everyone gets (not 6 weeks in a row -- two 3-week breaks, one in summer, one in winter).
Now, I didn't start out quite like this, but this gig DID start well ahead of the curve. I have been in the same school for 8 years now, and if I do leave, I doubt I will ever be able to find such a sweet teaching deal as this again -- there is no possible way I could have this much freedom and control over what I teach in the US, and the thought of starting over in a new hakwon is pretty funny. Also, the academically challenging hakwons seem to be few and far between, though a competitive international school might allow me to keep teaching at this pace and level.
Anywhere else I go is going to be a step down in some aspect -- either less freedom, less pay, less say, less respect, a smaller apartment, or something else.
It certainly isn't for everyone, but honestly, if you are good at what you do, I think you can parlay that skill into a better situation in a hakwon (where one's teaching ability directly relates to one's ability to earn for the school, which in turn directly relates to one's ability to negotiate a more lucrative contract). In a public school, much like at a public school in the US, one's ability to teach is much less important than one's ability to navigate the political waters.
I'm a boat-rocker -- if something doesn't seem to be working, I want to try to change it. That does not always go over well in a bureaucratic environment, but in a performance-driven environment, where improved performance means more profit for the school, then such changes are welcome, or even sought.
It got long-winded, but you DID ask....  |
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willteachforfood
Joined: 24 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:45 am Post subject: |
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| Thank you for the in depth response....that's actually quite interesting to see that such good conditions can be found at a hagwon. Personally I still have a hard time seeing why you would choose this scenario over working at a university, but I guess if you actually enjoy teaching then the 4.5 months vacation wouldn't be nearly as big of a draw. |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:58 am Post subject: |
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Actually, university teaching has other things that bother me -- I HAVE taught university students, but I have found that very few of them actually want to LEARN anything...they just want to skate by with a high enough grade that they can continue in the course of study in the "important" fields of their choice. I have also found the administrative pressure to assign certain grades, regardless of actual ability or performance, to be unacceptable (for me). More politics and less freedom, again.
More vacation would be nice, certainly, but 3 more months vacation does not make up for 8 months of more painful classroom time. Don't get me wrong -- there are some classes that I teach that are real "work" to get through, but when I taught university students, EVERY class was work to get through...and somehow, when I have 10-year olds acting like 10-year olds, it bothers me less than when I have 20-year olds acting like 10-year olds.... |
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willteachforfood
Joined: 24 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| thegadfly wrote: |
| it bothers me less than when I have 20-year olds acting like 10-year olds.... |
This is a fairly accurate description of university work....but I still found it better than teaching kids. |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:32 am Post subject: |
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| Certainly understandable -- I started in the US as a high school teacher, and never expected to enjoy working with elementary-aged students...but I think my favorite students are my 4th graders...I've taught preschool through graduate-level students, worked with folks as young as 3 years old and others in their 60s. One man's meat is another's poison, and all that.... |
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orosee
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
Location: Hannam-dong, Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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For those of us who cannot participate in the snowfest, this is how it looks from above (and clearly it's limited to the East coast):
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=49285&src=eoa-iotd
Never mind the "Sea of Japan" tag 
OP, very interesting stuff in your follow-up post, thanks for sharing that! |
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sarahsiobhan
Joined: 24 May 2009
Location: Wherever I am , I am probably drinking tea.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Hmph, I only got Monday off......lucky Pohangsters indeed who got Tuesday as well! |
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nzbradly78
Joined: 23 Mar 2009
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:45 am Post subject: |
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Lucky you, getting a day off period. We got dumped on pretty good here in Daegu but my school was open Monday. Granted we had a total of 12 (out of 80) students show up in the morning and I was the only teacher who had a class in the afternoon. My poor student has a psycho mother who walked him to school.
Actually, getting to work wasn't too bad at all. Snow's easy to walk on. The ice Monday night and yesterday though, was pretty dogdy. |
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