Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kennyftw]

I come into work everyday and it seems as if I sleep walk through the whole day, no, whole week. I have enough energy for 2 or 3 classes and then I go cu-put.

I don't know what it is. The kids constantly, everyday not wanting to learn and shifting their attention to either playing or talking have taken it's toll on me. I feel I teach in vain most of the time and my time put in is not appreciated even in the slightest by the kids; I am mostly talking about the younger kids up to grade 3 or 4.

I walk in Monday and just go in to zombie mode until Friday. I just go to work and the only thing keeping my sanity is knowing the weekend is 5 days away.

I've said in my mind that I hate my life right now. The money is ok, but my job just plain out sucks. And all of this in the span of 1 year and 9 months. I am officially burnt out.

Do you ever feel like this? How long until you were burnt out?

I think this job slowly makes you go crazy, because I just start to act goofy in class singing songs with the CD out of shear I-hate-my-job boredom.

Every Friday at 9pm I can't wait to go to Family Mart, buy a 40oz of Cass Red and Soju for some so-mek--its the only thing that keeps my sanity and frankly the one thing that I look forward to to. I never drank in the states but here it seems to be the medicine that takes me away from this place and week of torture for a few hours.

I know what I wrote might sound a little wacky, but I'm a normal man, just one who hates his job and is going to be tied down to it for years to come having a wife here soon, and living here for the next 10 years.

[fortysixyou]

You'll have a Korean wife soon? If so, you'll be getting a sweet visa, then you can quit that shitty job and get something better. You could work in a university and have 4 months of vacation, and only teach 15 hours a week. Better jobs are out there, but I still hear you about being burned out. It's a tough thing to shake. I worked a hakwon I hated for a full year, so I can sympathize. The things that got me through it were my friends, my girlfriend, alcohol, music, and knowing that at the end of the contract I'd be getting a great deal of money and would be going to Thailand to deflate for a few months.

[s.tickbeat]

I was close to burning out a little while ago, then I switched up my classes a bit. It seemed to help - now I'm off for some well-earned R&R in Canada & Thailand to get my soul back. I'm super looking forward to another year here.

[isisaredead]

we all feel like this sometimes, particularly if it's an unrewarding job. is there anything you can do to make your job more interesting? you mentioned that your kids weren't into the lessons - is there anything that can be done about that?

if not, ride out your contract, and try to take weekend trips as often as you can. beer can help, but be careful - that stuff can be a slippery slope to serious issues in this country. trust me on that one.

i've been in your situation, and what got me through was good friends and doing things in the evenings throughout the week that i'd look forward to. i also took more control of my lessons, and taught what -I- wanted to teach. i think you'll find the kids are only as interested in what happens in the class as you are.

don't despair - even if it means hanging on until the end of the contract, it'll end eventually.

[alfr]

i feel "burnt out" too, i guess it's the food or the light in the workplace. i have to force myself to go out after work.

[Kennyftw]

[UlsanBoy]

been here 4 months now and it's starting to get boring and exhausting, but that said I have never had an interesting job so it no real change for me. The thing I don't like is speaking for 6 hours everyday, i'm getting a very sore throat.

[Utopian]

I'm really glad to have read this post and the replies because, frankly, I feel the same way sometimes.

[Weigookin74]

[Weigookin74]

[death.by.soju]

Yeah I was like that too, but after only 5 months. So I hoped over to J-pan basically after my last class in which one of my J-pan-hating kids tried to lecture me about Dokdo ("uri ddang") and I just replied to him "ilbon manse". Came back on a tourist visa, but am gonna change to student visa and maybe even do postgrad here when I eventually get the topik standard.

I don't know what ur thinking is but yeah if you get the marriage visa you are free to do just about anything, even open a shop. That's probably what I'd do. I have quite some admiration for those who teach here for year upon year. That's dedication, after enduring so much lack of respect (banmal) from the kids, hagwon bosses and especially nasty ajummas (the ones near idae 6 exit come to mind) to keep toughing it out in a country where the odds are against you..

[fezmond]

[Vix]

The lack of sunlight is killing me during the week too. The months of rain didn't help much either. Ah well bring on the cold dry winter, at least it's sunny

[Jotun_Symph]

I felt the same way at my job. Even if I caught a second wind and my energy level increased by say 50%, it would only produce around a 3% increase in the students' learning. In fact that was a general formula for my job: My very large efforts got very small results, and of course medium or small efforts got absoluely no results. That's because my school had no real grading system whatsoever and the students were automatically leveled-up every 3 months to placate their parents' need for progress (or the appearance therof).

Nobody likes to work a job that they feel is meaningless. So I said to hell with those kiddie hagwons, I don't want to waste my time if nobody's learning anything. I made the switch to adult teaching. I know the hours are brutal, but at least you have students who give a shit about the lessons (if they don't then they're morons, because they paid for it). And I'll never have to do another ridiculous song again!

[pegasus64128]