Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pateach]

My school is pretty good, relatively. Good teachers, good director, good money.
Just sometimes it feels like we cover so much, so quickly, and we rush through things to make time to test, test, test. I hate to whine, but is anyone else ever just exhausted by the manic pace of their academy/hagwon? Rushing from one "drill and kill" class to another? Then I think how rushed my students must feel...Maybe I'm just getting a cold.

[rhinocharge64]

I think it's a 'common' problem in 'most' Hogwons. The objective being is to move the kids on to the next book which coincidentally costs money. Therefore, along with tution fees, and the extra profit gained from selling books on a frequent basis the 'fat cat' gets even fatter!! The outcome is this: You have kids who are studying a 'syallabus' that is beyond them, and understanbly as a result of their negative experience they become to dislike English immensley. If they were to master the basics first then they would find the next level far easier. This is just one of the many problems with the ESL industry here in Korea, there are many other ingredients that also cause the 'cake not to rise.'

Just my two pence!!

The Charge

[Lizara]

Two of the three hagwons I've worked at were the exact opposite. My current syllabus, for some classes, covers less than one page a day, so I end up just wasting a lot of class time because I can't possibly fill fifty minutes with one grammar point and six examples.

I hate that there's a required pace at all, though. My second hagwon didn't have one, so we could go back and review if the kids needed it, or go faster if the material was really easy for them, and it was so much easier to teach there.

[some waygug-in]

It sucks, but if that's the school's policy, you have to try and do your best.

I hate working in places like that. It's all superficial crap, just to impress parents.

"Look how much we covered this month!"


Meanwhile, the kids can't even remember what we did last lesson, let alone the start of the book.

If you have picture cards, it's a good, quick way of reviewing things from past lessons....but from the sound of the place...you probably don't have them.

Anyway, hang in there....

I've been through this several times and in each case, the school director never listened to anything I would say. It's just rush, rush, rush.

After about 6 months and several staff changes a K-teacher came in and told the boss what she thought.. He listened to her....but to a waygooookkkk? Never.

I'm glad I'm not in hagwans anymore.

[oneofthesarahs]

My hagwon is a strange combination of too fast and just right. In my classes, I can set the pace however I want. Some of the parents were complaining about the amount of books, so I am encouraged to take my time (which is okay with me). In the classes that the Korean teachers primarily teach, which I only have once a week, there seems to be this frantic need to teach as much material as humanly possible. I'm amazed the kids can keep up at all. Obviously some of them fall behind, but most of them manage to keep up reasonably well.