Korean Job Discussion Forums

[freethought]

I'm thinking of heading back to Korea in a few weeks if I get the public job I'm looking at. I was wondering if anyone on here currently teaches at a public high school and could tell me what it;s like? What do they do in a typical class? How many days of the year do you sit on your ass because the kids are studying for their important tests?

That's the kind of info I'm looking for, but feel free to contribute any thoughts you feel are relevant.

thanks

[Ya-ta Boy]

I think the average class size is around 30. With those 30 students, a fair proportion are completely uninterested in English. Some of them may well have not learned the alphabet. The other students will range from mildly interested to very interested.

What goes on in a typical lesson will depend on your school. In some schools, the foreign teacher 'assists' the Korean co-teacher: I call it the pronunciation monkey approach. In other schools, the system is reversed: the Korean is there largely for class control purposes. Some schools allow the foreigner to run the class alone. It all varies.

I think it's fair to say that in all of the schools, there is pressure to deliver edutainment classes, with the emphasis on 'tainment', not 'edu'.

At mid-terms and finals time I had 4 straight days with no classes, but the requirement to be at school. There are other times when classes are cancelled for whatever reason...Science Day, Sports Day, Membership Training Days...Onion Day and Onion Harvest Day at my school. To balance that, I am also required to teach 3 weeks of 'camp' during winter and summer vacation.

All in all, I was disappointed in the educational environment at my school.

[I_Am_Wrong]

It would depend on the high school really. In Korea not all high schools are the same. It could be a techinical high school in which the students ability and interest levels are extremely low. It could be a low ranked academic high school and the students would have mixed interest and ability. It could be a good academic high school, whereby, the kids would generally excel in English.

Remember, there are different ranks, levels, and types of high schools in Korea.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

As the person above mentioned, it all depends on what type of school it is.

A typical lesson for me involves 10-15 minutes of phonics / pronunciation, and then various activities such as dialogues, listening excercises, role-play, discussion questions, pair / group work, or quizes. I usually finish with something fun like a pop song or a game.

I miss about 15-20% of my lessons because of exams and other activities.

[ilovebdt]

I teach at a public high school where the children are supposed to be the brightest students from all the middle schools in the area. I do agree that some of them are exceptionally bright.

The majority of them are interested in English and I am lucky to have access to a multimedia lab which I use to make activities to keep the students interested in English.

All my coworkers are helpful and want the students to do well. They also all help out in my classes.

As YBS said, during exams there is a lot of sitting around doing nothing. For the end of term exams, which have just finished, I had nearly two weeks of doing nothing as my classes the week before the exams were cancelled so the students could do extra study for them and then there was the week of the exams themselves. I am required to do two weeks of camp during the summer and winter holidays.

My smallest class is 29 students and my largest is 41. The students are streamed into A and B groups. A's being brighter than the B's

ilovebdt