Korean Job Discussion Forums

[always learning]

Have you noticed that the teachers with hagwon "staying power" seem to be a little unwell?

While a lot of hagwon first termers get frustrated with abnormal work schedules (mornings, evenings, weekends), contract violations and problem students, there's that "special" group that takes it in stride, focuses on counting their pennies and has given up on returning home and pursuing a long-term professional career.

Hagwon owners, it appears, prefer docile, "servant types," who may not know how to teach, but do know how to "entertain" in the classroom and follow orders.

How do people get caught up in this cycle?

[chrisblank]

I guess if by "unwell" you mean "realistic work ethic", then maybe so.

If you take a job and agree to work, especially an entry level job at a hogwon, why wouldn't you just do as the boss wants? When I finished uni I did crap jobs in Canada, with late hours and low pay. When I came to Korea I did a crap job with terrible hours and double the pay. On top of that they gave me a place to live and two meals a day. After a year I negotiated a contract with no Saturdays and a morning off a week. After two years I got my hours down to 24 teaching hours a week.

If you were hired at UPS to work a night shift doing warehouse inventory, why would you complain about the hours? The nature of the entry level job in Korea is split shifts teaching kids, etc. Part and parcel of the deal is to entertain and keep the customer satisfied.

I worked a hogwon for years, at the start i just did as the boss wanted, and as time went buy and i gathered experience and know-how, I was respected more and had more influence, to the point where I planned and ran the whole Kindergarten program for school. Oddly enough most foreigners I knew didn't think I was unwell, I think the words they used were "good teacher". By the Koreans I was considered "professional".

[detonate]

TROLL VS LIFER... who will win this battle for the ages?

[tiger fancini]

Isn't it more 'unwell' to complain about things that you freely agree to do? I won't defend contract violations, although one must understand the difference between a Western interpretation of a contract and a Korean interpretation of a contract prior to signing it. However, long hours and possible problem students? Haven't people already considered how to handle these things before they sign and jump on the plane?

The teachers I've met who have staying power are generally, as chrisblank commented, what I would call professionals who are good at their job. In my own experience, hagwon owners prefer independent, low maintenance professionals. These kinds are often rewarded with more responsibility, better pay and more negotiating power for future contracts.

[Died By Bear]

Knew a guy that was kicked out of Taiwan because his degree was forged, so he went to China and he's still there afaik. Thing is though, he was never able to find any decent work above laborer back home because of mental and physical handicaps that prevent him from being able to work for any normal company, so playing conversation teacher in an elementary school in Guangzhou is just about all he's ever going to amount to. For him, this is a good thing, much better than he could do back home.

It is what it is.

[plchron]

by 'unwell' do you mean teachers that bend over and grab their ankles every time the boss creeps up behind them (figure of speech).

These people are our enemies. They make our jobs/ lives/ employment conditions so much more difficult by acting like indentured servants to their overlord bosses. They are the most pathetic group of people I have ever met.


They give foreigners a bad name. Worse than the drunks, worse than the stoners, not as bad as the pedos (won't cross that line). They don't realize that all the hagwon bosses get together and compare notes on the benefits that they have promised employees and reneged on or on he petty things they have these 'unwell' people do (cleaning the bathrooms of the hagwon, working OT and not getting paid, etc.), just to project their authority. Then the other hagwon bosses try to do the same things to normal employees and we are the ones that have to pull out our contracts and have confrontations with our superiors that wouldn't be happening if the 'unwell' people didn't act like pusses all the time.

[thunderbird]

[always learning]

[Mix1]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[pegasus64128]

[pegasus64128]

[myenglishisno]

[jinks]

If your job is so crap, just leave and get a better one.

[jinks]