Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Wrench]

I have 4 K teachers and I can honestly say only one is a good teacher. The rest are lazy and act like their 3 year olds (not to mention they browse internet during working hours and catch frequent naps). When they want to talk to us they ask for some one to translate because gods forbid they would have to speak English. They pop in a tape and sing a long and teach phonics, to bad they don't use the phonics lessons them selves. The foreigners get stuck doing all the activities like cooking day, special day, and game day. No one helps us with games no one helps us control these little hellaliens. When we have one of these they decided it��s easier to walk around the hall ways screwing the pooch rather being in their room doing pretending to teach.

*rant*
Today I had one come up to me and tell me I should go to my room and prepare for my Open class and because some one else was doing it for me (First of all I didn't ask them and two the director decided on last minute changes). She was extremely condescending to me, and basically told me I wasn't doing my job. Unfortunately I said I have these phone calls you assigned me to do before I can finish my preparations. Also I was in process of cutting out some BS cards for the open class that I was asked to do, but I guess she was blind or just too stupid to notice that. I have done every thing they have asked me then I have this little cow start barking at me like I am some junk yard dog.
*rant*

This week has been a nightmare for me. Is it me or are the foreigners given way more work then the locals?

[guangho]

At my hakwon, only two out of the four Korean English teachers spoke English and the daily routine was:

Come to work at 1 pm. Sleep.
Teach classes 3-5.
Shop for shoes online. Sleep.

People here (not just hakwons) believe that "face time"=work.

[Ilsanman]

My hagwon is the opposite. The foreigners work hard and a lot of hours, but Korean teachers have a lot more responsibility, and they do a good job. God knows I wouldn't do their job for less than 3 mill a month.

[Dispatched]

Does indeed sound like you've had a crap week and that does suck... but in defence of K-workers I think on average they would do more work than the average foreigner. Obviously not all K teachers work harder but I (from a limited amount of experience) think if a Korean is teaching 30 hours a week and a foreigner is teaching 30 hours a week then the Korean also has extra BS they have to do which the foriegner is usually spared. Eg ringing parents, organising hogwon stuff, sorting out student problems. Pretty much the stuff that the language barrier excludes foreign teachers from doing.

There are good foreign teachers and good korean teachers, bad foreign teachers and bad korean teachers. On average I would suggest Korean teachers have a bigger work load.

Agree/Disagree?

[jajdude]

I think most Korean English teachers do more work for less money.

But damnit if the whitie isn't the real thing. And he had to cross the pond and has to live in this place with all its madness. We do deserve more money for less work. We are more in demand and harder to replace. The hell with any egalitarian ideas. We deserve more because we are this language (and its cultures). If we go the school loses hard at least for a while. If the Korean goes, well, next day or after, another one will come, and without much fanfare.

[peppermint]

It's probably just you. Even if those teachers are doing less work, rememeber, they're probably getting paid half your salary and putting up with a whole lot more crap from the boss to do it

[stumptown]

Exactly. They have to field complaints from the parents, write up lesson plans, do student evaluations (moreso than our two sentence "token" evaluations), and take the blame for "lost" students.

[Hyeon Een]

At the hagwan at which I recently finished my first contract the Korean teachers worked a lot harder than the foreigners, for slightly less money. They didn't have a bad deal really.. either 10,000 per class(40 mins) or a salary of about 1.8m with housing included. I know one of the Korean TOEIC teachers was making more than 2.3m (and he had housing) but he worked about 20-30% more hours than the foreigners. The Korean teachers did have to call the parents of every one of their students every month for a consultation or whatever, and make class schedules. That was the major workload difference the K and foreign teachers.

One of the things I couldn't figure out though was why my hagwan had such good Korean staff. They were young, enthusiastic, cared about their jobs, worked hard and spoke decent english. Despite the fact most of them hadn't left Korea and weren't english majors their English was good. The kids loved them, and I suspect they were more effective at teaching English than I or the other foreigners were. Furthermore they ALWAYS made an effort to talk to the students in English. If the kids gave them an "Annyeong asseo" in the corridors the Korean teachers would reply in English. If, when calling the students' parents the kid answered, they would talk to the kid in English for a bit before putting the parents on. It was totally the opposite of what I normally hear on this board.

OP, sucks to be at your school =( There are better ones out there. Mine wasn't all good otherwise I would have stayed. I had to work most Saturdays. So I left after my year.

I have yet to experience lazy Korean teachers.. roll on year 2 =)

-HE

[Qinella]

Wrench, that sucks man. I really enjoyed how you posted the *rant* warning one paragraph after you started ranting.

I guess I'm fortunate, in that both the K teachers I work with are great. They are fluent in English, they handle almost ALL of the "behind the scenes" work, and even though they only teach 2-3 classes a day, they spend the between time preparing, making games, or studying English. My only complaint is how over-polite one of them is. It's a little uncomfortable.

Best of luck~

[Grotto]

Most of the Korean teachers i worked with at hogwans have been excellent teachers who spoke pretty good English and worked damn hard.
As a matter of fact many of the hogwan K teachers were better than the K teachers at the public school level(as fas as English profieciency goes)

[funplanet]

I can honestly say that every one of our K teachers speak excellent English, work hard, and don't play around....it's a shame they don't get paid more

[joe_doufu]

We only have one K-teacher but she is excellent. I'm getting the impression K-teachers don't stick around the hagwon system very long, either, the job is probably just as lousy for them.

[Wrench]

As I said there is one descent teacher. The other 3 I have no respect for. I do all the same stuff they do and more. There is 4 of them and only 3 foreigners they have always one teacher srewing the pooch. On top of that my teaching material is infinetley harder. They get to teach from See Saw, they only teach nouns. I teach from Harcourt Textbooks meant for North America, they cover grammar, nouns, verbs, and pretty much the whole English language. Some of these kids have been here for 4-5 years and they still can't make a coherent sentence. You guys are lucky that you have good support but our partner teachers are not worth they money they get paid.

[sadsac]

I work with 3 K teachers, two aren't worth the money they are paid and the other is magic. The youngest of them is just a preppie girl who spends all her time on the computer sending messages to her friends or shopping and even when she is supposed to be in class, she's always out doing something else. The male teacher has excellent language skills and hates teaching with a passion. He hates having to deal with students and is quite vocal in expressing his dislike. The school is a great place to work and our boss is great. She has a very clear idea for her school and makes sure that it works. This is my second time working with K teachers and they don't impress me at all.

[stalinsdad]

Most Korean teachers i've experienced start off with enthusiasm but soon descend into "Kill THe Time" mode!

Grotto how many public school teachers have you monitored to make such a sweeping statement?