Korean Job Discussion Forums

[resa]

I've had it with my school. I'm sure I'll be quickly put in place by those of you who work at actually shady hagwons...they always pay us on time, and the housing is good. But the paperwork...and the deadlines. What kind of paperwork do you have to do for your job?

We have of course daily lesson plans, which have to be ridiculously detailed. Then there's this form we have to fill out at the end of the week, where we enter on this table all we had planned to do in our lesson plans for the week and write "same" or "different" to show if we actually taught it all. Once a month, we have to do "telephone English" with the younger grades, so we have to submit a list of questions for that in advance. At the end of every month in preparation for the next month we have to have a song workshop (the sole purpose of which is to make up actions for the songs...please) and then a teaching-the-speaking-item workshop where we're assigned to write up a list of ideas for one of our classes and then share with all the other teachers. Every two months we have to write detailed teacher's reports for all of our students (which they don't translate into Korean, so I might as well be copying and pasting from a fairy tale into these reports). THEN, one of my responsibilities to to create these monthly speaking plans from a book they give me. (There really is no creative freedom at my school at all.) They even tell me what to use from the book they give me. It usually consists of making up stupid (and useless, as I've told them time and time again) A/B dialogues that the students won't use, and that is entirely irrelevant for their life as an English speaker. But they gave me a new book last Wednesday night before I left and told me the plan was still due on the following Friday, though they didn't even tell me how to do it. After I harrassed them enough so that they gave me directions, I did it (staying late Friday night). Then today they told me that they decided the book was too hard (again, something I told them at least 6 times between Thursday and Friday) and that they were changing it. That means that I have even MORE work to do.

And so...the point of this post is really to vent. But here's the issue - the teaching is fine. Even the detailed lesson plans are fine. But there's not time in the 45 hours a week I'm there to get everything else done.

I've been at the school since January of 05, and have turned in my notice that Feb. 10 is my last day. But they've yet to start looking for a new teacher (and even though the process doesn't have to take this long, it always takes them about three months). I'm going to the States for two weeks (as it's been a year and a half since I last saw the family) and then looking to start a new job in March. But they're just horrible...and I'm sick of it. My E-2 visa expires Jan. 17, and they've yet to start the paperwork to extend it. At this point I just want out. Even though I'm staying another few weeks to help them out, the administration is angry at me and acting like I've betrayed them. The boss won't talk to me. And so, while this post started out to be a question about paperwork, now I'm wondering your opinion - stay until Feb. 10 or duck out in January? They're just dishonest, and I'm afraid they're going to try to figure a way to cheat me out of my severence pay or my return plane ticket...and leaving in January seems like it would be the perfect way for them to do that. Any thoughts? (Sorry for the length...I'm frustrated.)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

They should be very lucky you've stuck out the year. You don't owe them anything. Don't even stick around after 17 Jan or you'll be working illegally. Don't overstay your visa. Just move on and don't worry about it.

I worked at a similar place for a while - I would have stuck around for the year if teachers were treated with a little bit of respect. Now I work in a way more professional capacity and have almost no paperwork, apart from the mounds of paper that go into my lessons which I get to make myself. If your boss has any problems you should just explain that you can get another job that involves a lot less hassel.