Korean Job Discussion Forums

[davehere22]

I am currently looking into teaching in South Korea

I have no experience in teaching at all.

Can anyone recommend what classes i should try get.

I was thinking Kindergarten and Elemntary would prob be the easiest to start off with?

would this be true?

One school I got a response off of had a position for teaching Kindergarten, elementary and middle school.

How would that go for someone with no experience.

Was anyone in the same boat as me when they started off?

Any info appreciated

[sojourner1]

Yes, this is my first time here. I have been here 6 months and hate it. They won't train you or even tell you what they expect and then about 5 or 6 months in, they will give you subjective negative feedback with no positives. They will tell you kids hate you, that you're not doing job right, etc. after you give it your all and actually do a good job teaching. Yes, if your producing learning results, they won't like you, becuase your being too serious. There is no playtime for the kids, but yet, they expect you to sit these 5 year olds down and get them to listen to you talk all the time. No 5 year old has the attention span of a teenager. The Koreans are not being realistic one bit in administering education and what they expect of teachers. I am still unclear what it is they expect.

Nothing is objective done or communicated here, they just expect you to read minds. My director literally told me I should read the kids and Koreans minds and that I know Korean culture, albiet, I started teaching on day 1 with no training or even a meeting stating objectives, standards, procedures, expectations, cultural awareness, etc. It's plain nonsense.

Good luck.

[davehere22]

cheers man.

you sound like your having a good time!!

having a good time outside the school hours?

[SeoulShakin]

On the other hand, not every school is like the one mentioned above. That's a terrible situation to be in, but it wasn't my experience at all.

My first year here, I was a complete newbie. I'd taught children before, but I'd never taught English. At my school. I had the first week to basically shadow the other teachers and get a fee for how things were done at the school. Then I would take over while people watched for about two days, and then I was on my own. My hogwan was for elementary and middle school students, and I actually really enjoyed my time there.

My boss was great, and often went out of his way to give us positive feedback, reward us with gift certificates and gift cards for jobs well done, and he took us out to dinner on his dime on multiple occasions. I was always paid on time, had health and pension covered, and received paystubs for each paycheck without asking.

Yes, some people get stuck in bad situations, but if you do your research, you should come out alright on the other end of things. I'm on my second contract now, working in a public elementary school, and again, I love it. I haven't had anything but great working experiences here, and I am having a good time.

Unfortunately a lot of what you will read on the internet is posted by people who are in bad situations and like to complain, rather than the ones who are in good situations, and are out enjoying their time here.

Hope this helped add a different perspective on things.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I've taught kids before and it really takes a special kind of personality to do it. If you are a clown at heart, then go for it. If you are a performer (but not a trained monkey) then go for middle or high school. A hogwan would probably be your best bet in order to get experience...wouldn't wish a class of 40 on a new teacher--just be careful!

[Rteacher]

I think that most native-English teachers lacked any teaching experience before coming to Korea. Certainly, I did...

Basically, it's on-the-job learning - often under pressure from hogwan directors (who may-or-may-not be educators themselves...) and who are in turn pressured by parents - some of whom have unrealistic expectations ...

It took me several months to develop a teaching style and a few techniques that worked pretty well, but there's always more to learn...

My first hogwan job was kindergarden to grade 6. There were three levels of kindergarden, and the kids ages ranged from 4 to 6 (Korean age - about a year younger than western age calculation...)

I had a good Korean assistant for my kindergarden classes who would help with translating instructions, controlling over-playful kids, assisting toddlers who needed help getting to a toilet - and even making props, masks, and costumes for simple skits and role-plays (which we also performed for parents at open-house presentations...)

I stayed at my first job for 20 months before gradually getting worn down (mainly by the director who was a stressed-out educator himself with financial and personal problems...)

I was asked to make weekly, monthly - and sometimes 3-month lessen plans for each grade level (no big deal if you have good text books and there's not too much pressure to cover more than a page-or-two per day...)

For younger kids, especially, you need to inject some fun into classes, and schedule two or three different activities per class (drawing pictures with labels is always good...)

Some schools have good audio-visual equipment and games that can be used - I personally supplemented by buying whatever I could find to make my classes more fun and interesting (for the kids and for me...)

I bought some CD-Roms and DVDs (like "My First Picture Dictionary", "I Spy Junior", "I Spy Haunted House", "Sesame Street English", etc. ) and a few great card games like School Zone's "Go Fish" and "Crazy Eights"...

One thing I realized from experience is that you have to give individual attention to each student in the class - don't assume that they'll do as you instruct. Model every activity first and check that everyone is doing it.

After nearly two years, I was fairly competent, but I decided to take a 120 hour TEFL training course (5 weeks in Chiang Mai, Nov.-Dec...) to not only get better versed in EFL teaching theory (and some observed practice teaching...) but also to become qualified for a higher pay category in public schools...

There is no consensus on this, but I think that it's generally better to get teaching experience at a hogwan first - at least a year - before taking a public school job. Although there are usually Korean co-teachers that assist you to varying degrees, the class sizes are much larger, and most public schools only have one native-English teacher...