Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tallgesse]

For those of us who are newbies...There seems to be a lot of us, I theorize all our accounts were in waiting and activated at about the same time. I wondered if some of you who are in Korea might indulge us at your discretion.

From reading posts and blogs we can get a rough idea of what you do. But of course, the experience is different for everyone. Its increasingly different with the different roles you fill. A Public School teacher leads a very different day than a hogwan teacher and one at an adult institute has a very different experience from a kindy school or general minor students.

It was mentioned recently as well, that a schedule in contract looks very different on paper than it does in real life.

To give everyone a better picture, I was wondering if any of you would care to share your last Wednesday with us. Tell us what you did, how you did it, and share your thoughts about it. Be as detailed as you would be so kind as to be, and include times if you could.

I just think it would be nice for those on the fence - either about what kind of school to go to or if they should go at all - to get a glimpse on the inside. Be negative or positive, it doesn't matter, and please tell us about your off time that day too. The way the various schedules work, it can be hard to gauge just how much free time you really have on a given work day. Letting us know how you spent it would give us a better idea.

The amount of detail you divulge is of course completely up to you and the restraints on your time. And it goes without saying, that we can not necessarily expect a similar experience.

[kardisa]

Here's what last Wednesday was like for me at a kindy hagwon.

07:30: Woke up early in order to caught up on sports and news. Had some breakfast and got ready for work. Spent a few minutes on Skype with my mom.

08:45: Walked to school along the river, since the weather is currently fantastic.

~09:15:Did some last minute prep for classes, e.g. made copies, wrote the date on the board, etc.

09:30-12:30: Taught 6 25-min kindy classes with a 5 min break between each.

12:30-13:20: Ate lunch in the school cafeteria. I have nothing to do with kids during this time and usually just chat with the other teachers in broken Korean.

13:20-14:20: 2 more 30 min kindy classes. Usually these are kids I've already seen once during the day, so we generally play a game or do a fun activity in their afternoon class. On this day, we played bingo in one class (they made their own cards from the unit vocab) and I did a coloring sheet with my 5 year olds.

14:20-17:00: Freedom! I'm done with class after 2:20pm so I spent half an hour prepping for Thursday and listening to music on my laptop. My classroom is my office, so I can pretty much hang out in there without being bothered. After prep, I sat back and enjoyed some old Doctor Who episodes until it was time to go home.

17:00 - 18:30: Walked home and then went on a nice bike ride out in the country. I live on the very edge of a small city, so there are a ton of nearly empty farm roads near my apartment. Great for exploring with a bike.

18:30 - 20:30: Watched the GSL code S stream with my boyfriend and had dinner.

20:30 - 23:00 Studied some Korean and then read my Kindle till I passed out.

[sadguy]

[Modernist]

Ah, Wednesday. My worst day. FYI, if you teach in public schools as I do, you will most likely have 1 day that basically sucks because they tend to group the 'better' and 'worse' students together. So my Mondays are best, Fridays are in the middle, and Wednesdays...I just grit my teeth. [T & Th I'm at my secondary school].

7 AM: Wake up. My pre-work routine is shower, shave, dress, pack my stuff, eat breakfast, check the news. If I want to Skype I have to get up earlier than 7.

755 AM: Leave the apt, head for my bus. It's super close to my building.

815 AM: Get to my local myeon, swing by the local mart and grab my morning apple juice. Another ~7 minutes and I'm at my desk in the big room. Say hello to my Veep [every day! Never forget that!]

830 AM: Do what prep I need for my 9 AM class. Check my PPTs, print worksheets if they're doing them, talk with my CT to confirm what we're doing today and make sure I'm not duplicating anything.

855 AM: Head up to the English room and let the students inside; get them seated and quiet [ish] and start up the computer and write some review stuff on the board.

9 AM: Teach my second grade 'special class' [additional material not IN the textbook but based on similar themes].

955 - 1145: Free blocks. If I have more prep I do it now but I usually don't. This is usually mindless Internet browsing time. I read the Times, write emails, browse Amazon and eBay, and work on some list-making. As long as I sit at my computer no one cares what I'm doing.

1145: My 1-A class; the smarter first graders. They're not so bad but they are hungry before lunch so there's trouble concentrating. It's a bit too large too. Mostly we work from the textbook [the co-teachers get stressed if they don't, so...] but I'll have PPT pictures, videos and SOMETIMES games to help motivate them.

1230: Lunchtime. You should see a Korean middle school at the lunch bell. Those kids could trample someone and not even notice. As we all know my position on Korean food, I have declined to eat in the cafeteria. I would if it was free, but for us NETs, it ain't. I bring normal food and eat in the office.

120: Another free block. Sometimes I do a little research on good simple activities for low-level students; then there's always tech blogs and Apartment Therapy.

215: This is the hell class. A HUGE group of 1st graders, and a CT who doesn't want to be there and can't speak any English either. A mess. Another 'special class' so we can't even work with a book. I've learned a solid, detailed lesson plan can SORT OF calm things, a little. Usually a zoo no matter what I do.

3 PM: Class is 'over' but I almost always make many of them wait after due to misbehavior. So tack on ~10 minutes of silence and/or lecturing.

320: My 2nd grade low-level class. This CT is highly-structured and things are always smooth. Recover from the prior class.

415: My 'after-school' class. Today I work with the lowest-level kids and give them extra help. These kids have been studying English, supposedly, for 5 years in school but they don't even know phonics. Sad, really, but they want to do better so they're not so bad.

5 PM: Done, and done! Head out to catch my bus at 515, back at the apt by around 530.

530: I usually am worn out when I get home, so I take a nap for ~45 minutes or so.

615: Depending on the day, I'll do the Korean national pastime of shopping, or a decent walk for about an hour.

730: Reading time; on Wednesday I was finishing some old New Yorkers and Mark Kurlansky's book about salt.

9 PM: Video games, Lego-building, Skype or cleaning.

10 PM: Listen to music until I fall asleep. Used to be a night-owl but this job will kill that tendency quickly.

[politica]

I work at a uni, so my schedule is a little different to the above, but I will go ahead and post a typical weekday:

9- Wake up, lay in bed and watch news, eat breakfast
10- Shower and get dressed, then head to work
10:40- Last minute prep, getting my stuff organized for class
11-12:50- 2 junior classes (50 min. each, 10 min. break in between)
1-2- Lunch either at my desk or just off campus
2-2:50- 1 freshman class
3-4:50- 2 junior classes
5- Emailing then heading to the gym or cafe to study
7- Dinner with a friend
9- Heading home, tidying the house, watching TV
12- bedtime

Not terribly exciting :/

[whatisinmyhead]

[jlb]

I work at a uni, and Wednesdays this semester are kind of average in terms of "busy-ness."

7:00: Wake up, eat breakfast, cruise the internet, clean up the house a bit, play with my cat.

8:30: take a shower and get organized to go to work.

10:00: 5 minute walk to my office, last minute prep.

10:30-12:00: class #1

12:00-1:30: class #2.

1:30: go home and eat some lunch

2:55: Overtime Class #1

3:40: Overtime Class #2

4:30: Go home, cook dinner, eat, relax.

5:30: exercise of some sort.

7:00: general night-time fun. Playing some board games, going out on the town, drinking some beer, watching a movie, whatever.

10 or 11: in bed.

[DaHu]

I can't believe how many people are posting about breakfast and showering.

The OP is interested in SCHOOL, not your private life (which is boring and the same as everyone else's.)

[northway]

[Modernist]

[Tallgesse]

Yes, I wanted to know about both off time and at work time. These schedules are great, thank you everyone whose participating. I know its not like living in a monastery. This is more about understanding the life of the EFL teacher not the life of a foreigner in Korea. I just noticed a lot of people were asking questions about how much goes into lesson planning, how much off time you have, how many classes are taught, what extra work needs to be done, so I figured it would be useful for people to actually see what you guys are doing on an average day, might clear up some confusion about what the job entails. Hence asking for last Wednesday. Middle of the week, probably an average day.

[Patrick Bateman]

I work at a public high-school. It's close to my apartment, so I leave at 8:25. First period starts at 8:40.

Classes are 50 minutes long and there's a 10 minute break between each.

I have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period all in a row on Wednesday.

4th period is free. I run a book club with other teachers at my school (held on Friday) so in my free period I'll usually reread the allotted pages again before lunch.

Lunch is after 4th, 12:30-1:30. I could eat during 4th, but I prefer to eat with the students as their noise and craziness makes me happy.

No 5th period either, so I'll usually spend that as a kind of downtime to surf the Internet, make copies as need be, do miscellaneous tasks as need be (such as answering questions from other teachers or editing articles for the English newspaper).

6th period I have a class.

This break time is 20 minutes long. The students clean the school. I monitor the cleaning of the English Conversation Class.

7th period I have a teachers' class. We debate on Wednesdays.

School ends at 4:30 and I'm usually out the door by 4:40.

I'm an avid runner, so most likely I'd do that after work Wednesday. Afterwards, shower, cook, and probably meet my girlfriend. Chances are I'm in bed anytime between 12:30-1:30.

Other helpful information? I teach 18 student classes, and 5 teachers' classes (4 KET and 1 Non-English Teachers). A lot of time goes in to my lesson planning, but since I've been at this longer, it makes things easier.

I get absolutely 0 help from any co-teachers in every sense of the word. But, I can't really complain about that.

Hope that helps.

[Tallgesse]

One thing the responses so far to this post is showing me, and it may change after I say this, that I did not anticipate: everyone who is posting a schedule seems to be pretty much enjoying their time in Korea. Even the guy who said Wednesday's are rough, is having a rough time in the sense that any teacher would, dealing with standard issues. I'm not sure what this indicates... Maybe that the ones not enjoying themselves simply don't want to talk about their day in such detail, or they just aren't checking this post, or that perhaps some of the more avid complainers are more generally miserable and aren't going to respond in a helpful way, as was mentioned in one of the posts above. I honestly was expecting a mixed bag by now. I have to admit in my short time here on Dave's I've been surprised to find my threads almost never get the kind of negativity that other threads do and I'm not altogether sure why. Everyone who replies to me seems to be very upbeat, but realistic, and professional.

These schedules are enlightening and I've already had a couple of questions answered for me through them. I'd REALLY like to see a split shift teacher post before this one dies though. I'm very curious what that day is like. But perhaps split shift teachers don't have time to post here, they are probably using that 6 hour break to catch up on their sleep. XD

[ibeattheborg]

Yes OP you are getting very rosy responses from people with regular schedules ie, 9am to 5pm. There is also the much more common hagwon schedule of 1/2 pm to 8/9 pm. This is a different animal altogether. A lot of us are night owls and do not retire to the cot until 2/3/4am. It's a cycle you can get stuck in and feels a little vampirish(sic).

As regards a typical Wednesday:
Wake up at 12. shower, breakfast, news.
Into work at 2pm. Do some prep/printing/correct writing diaries
First class of little angels: 3:40pm - 4:25pm
Recover for 5 minutes.
Second class of more mature angels: 4.30-5:15
Rejuvenate for 5 minutes.
Third class of boisterous angels: 5.20-6:05
Meditate and look on the bright side of life for 5 minutes.
Fourth and Fifth class blitz of two 22 minute classes: 6:10-6;55
Sneak up to the roof for nicotine and enjoy the view.22 minute break!
Sixth class of angels on the edge(of hell) 7:00-7:22
Rejoice (25minute break/prep) the day is nearly over!
Seventh class(of the apocalypse) 7:50-8:35
Prep/correct/relax until 9:30 and leave the building.

On paper my hours look marvelous(4hrs 10 minutes teaching) but the reality of 7/8 classes is rather different.

I usually do some food shopping after work or go and have a meal. I like to jog so I usually do this at 10/10:30pm. After this I can watch TV or read or even PREPARE for classes! If I go to a bar I usually have difficulty getting up fot 12 the next day. Sometimes I need a few glasses of that wonderdrug SOJU to get to sleep before 3am. But that's my rut, I'm sure that you could get up earlier and go to sleep earlier but I like to be as fresh as possible before hitting the hagwon.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I'm up around 9, walk the dog, make breakfast, read for a bit, run errands, do yoga, or take a nap.
I catch the bus around 1:30, and am at work by 2 the latest. I'm usually early.
I have an hour of prep, so I go through my lessons for the day to make sure everything's ready, then usually play with the kids that are early or read until my first class at 3.
I teach 5 fifty-minute classes, with 10 minutes in between each.
At 7:50, I head home, meet up with some friends for dinner, or run errands.
I make most of my Skype calls on Sunday nights.
I have a lot of time for going out, food shopping, taking long walks with the dog, and relaxing at home with my husband. It's a very nice schedule, after the mind-numbing desk warming at PS.