Korean Job Discussion Forums

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

I was just wondering the other day about the story behind our profession here in the ROK and I would like to know the answer to these questions. When did the whole hagwon thing first kick off? What was the story with English teaching before that? How long has the E2 visa system been in place? Anyone with some knowledge of the industry say back to the 80s please share, it would be interesting to know.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

MMT is correct about institute teaching in Korea back in the 80s--pretty much illegal. It was because of the "haves" and "have nots". Those with money were racing ahead of those without.

When I first taught in Korea (back in 84), it was difficult to get any type of teaching job, but possible (legally).

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

It very well could have been. Since I was the only one at my location (a Korean boys' high school), it was never an issue.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

I must add, I slipped the word 'modern' into the title because I have found a bit of stuff relating to the older roots of whitey-taught education here. Korea biggies like Cummings make mention of the role of (mainly) American missionaries here in the 19th century. I'm really interested in knowing how this all came to be. The final bits, public and private schools seem to be a recent thing born of the ESL industry here, an attempt to de-emphasize the hagwons. Thanks to the posters above and keep the memories coming in!

HapKi · Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL

I imagine missionaries brought the first waves of English education to Korea, as has been mentioned. Several universities in Korea also began from missionary work. I believe Ehwa and Yonsei, for example.

And does anyone know if this book is available in Korea?

seoulsucker · Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 8:09 pm Post subject:

nautilus · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

Len8 · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Location: Kyungju

I thought the hogwons were deregulated in 1995 or something. Only a few select franchises were around at the time, and they pretty much had a monopoly on things. After 1995 the regulations were relaxed a bit, and now the country is over run with hogwans.

Interesting that the new regulations require university wannabes to be good at essay writing. Apparently there are new institutes springing up all over the place to help students to improve in this area.

PRagic · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

I worked at an institute back in 93, and there weren't too many native speakers here compared to now. I believe that there were regulations regarding a minimum size requirement for startups, so new institutes had to be big. Those regs were lifted in the mid-late 90s, which is when a load of the smaller places started popping up (and going belly up). Some of the larger chains have been in business since the 80s.

PRagic · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

For Len8: The new emphasis on writing is a result of the new IBT TOEFL format that requires on the spot essay writing based on a reading passage and corresponding talk (e.g. a professor discussing the topic and giving an opinion). Interestingly, the format was changed because universities in the West have long been complaining that their Asian students have high test scores, but that their actaul English ability, both in speaking and in writing, is comparatively challenged. Soon enough, test takers here will figure out how to write for the exam score, much like they learned to listen and read for it.

StephannieK · Joined: 22 Jan 2006 Location: Gyeongbuk-do

Way back in 1986-87, I wanted to come to Korea to teach. That was the year I was a senior in High School. Prior to 1987, you didn't have to have a BA/BS to teach here... any ole native speaker would do.

Being an adventerous HighSchooler, I sent off for an information packet from the "foreigner immigration service" (wish I still had it... man wouldn't that be cool now) and was pretty much informed about the stuff mentioned before... size of school, # of teachers, types of classes offered, all had an impact on my legality of employment.

BUT since I didn't graduate from HS until May '87 I missed the deadline (and probably would have sunk into the Korean ESL underground & turned into a cowgirl) Beginning in 1987, one had to have a BA/BS to teach (any subject).

Finally made it to Korea in 2004 with a MA in my pocket Smile

One of the Korean Profs (Sunmee Chang) here did some field research and found that current parents who had attended hogwons as children were more critical of the teachers their children had than parents who didn't attend as children. This despite the fact that now, the teachers all have (in theory) BA's. Could this be a throw back from being taught by a highschool graduate who probably wasn't too qualified. (In all honesty, I dont know if I could have done this straight out of HS... I probably would have sucked as a teacher back then)

Also, interestingly if the female parent attended a hakwon, then she preferred plain looking, slightly overweight female teachers (25-30) with nurturing personalities. The men preferred pale beautiful 20-25 teachers.
Dont know if her paper was ever published... but I bet there's plenty of historical research & publications out there in Korean.

Sunny Days