Korean Job Discussion Forums

whatthefunk · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Dont have a clue

It seems that alot of hagwans aren't doing so well lately. Mine is having a hard time paying me and I hear from friends that theirs aren't doing well either. So how's your hagwan?

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

My hagwon is going down. I'm pretty sure this started happening before i got there. One of the few things the first korean teacher, who left two days after i started, was that i shouldn't worry if students leave. And quite a few have left. When i got here, with the exception of a few classes, there were students who either found the stuff to easy or two hard. only a couple found it just right. Well all those who found it too hard or easy left. My boss doesn't offer any extras. No report cards, doesn't give the kids homework, no parent teacher nights, no little incentive that the parents might like. tells me that a parent has a complaint about my class and won't tell me which student or which class. doesn't buy me the teacher books or flash cards or story books or videos that go with the books. Says i have to learn how to be a better teacher (wouldn't the things I ask for help me be a better teacher). (granted i am not the worlds best teacher but gathering from the students english ability i am a darn sight better than some of the teachers who have been there. There has been 5 korean teachers come and go since i have started 5 months ago. We only have one korean teacher at a time. Any suggestion i make the might improve the hogwan is dismissed. My boss' one great idea is to make a two week schedule for what we teach the kids. (hmm i could see how that would turn around the hagwons fortunes.) Pay has been late the last two times. I could go on but i think you get the point. my hogwan is run by an idiot.

t bear · Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Location: south central rok

well my hogwan, in my eyes, appears to be doing quite well. Ive only been here 3 months and its seems almost everyweek a new kid arrives. Good for the Hogwan, but for me class sizes are getting rather large, 16 elementary kids is a lot. Im in a small town, and I dont think theres many Hogwans or english teachers, I know of only 4 others.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 3:54 am Post subject:

It's not a hakwon, but my middle school is stupid. Just for eamo:

-750 students(half of the entire middle school)
-35 students per class
-see each class once a week
-no book to make lesson plans from
-korean coteachers can't agree on what they expect from me
-I can't teach like the other teachers, but I'm expected to be just as effective
-I have to teach students who should be winning awards

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

the good news: it has 25-30 more students than it did when I started nearly a year ago

the bad news: it has 10-15 less than the peak in June.

Two Korean teachers left, but were quickly replaced. One was a great teacher and co-worker, sucked when he left. His replacement is sweet and nice, but not the best English teacher in the world.

No problems getting paid or anything and reasonable # of students, so things are still ok; definitly not in a dire situation.

princess · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia

Well, my advice is to NEVER work at a hagwon in a small area like Ansan, Incehon, or Suwon. My school in Ansan is not doing well and I just got booted since i teach less hours than the other teachers and they don't need 10 teachers. So, when I leave in October, I won't be replaced. My school wanted to start many new classes this month but the students just didn't come. Also, many students in the Tuesday and Thursday classes have parents who are not paying for these classes. The boss thought it would be mean to tel these kids not to come back this month so they are allowng them to come without paying. CRAZY!!! They will definitely go under doing somethng like this. My life is just great right now. I lost my job one day and the next day I found out the Korean guy I love has a wife. I don't see any new jobs i want so it is back to the USA to stay with mommy and daddy for awhile. I really like Korea and did not plan on going back to the states right now, but oh well. Life sucks huh???

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

parents not paying for long periods of time is not unusual in korea it seems. My gf said at her hogwan this one kids parents didn't pay for about 5 months. they owed over 700,000 won. i would have booted the kid after the first month. parents get away with it because the directors never want to bring it up.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

It seems to be doing all right. It has about 1000 students but has been hovering at that level for about 2 years. There is a lot of bad competition opening up around the place so it shouldn't matter too much. The director is still not too bad but is cramping down more and more gradually. No games, make sure all the books are open all the time and they are always wearing their nametags. it is gone from being an excellent plave to work to just above average. I can see it sinking even further yet.

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

1000 students? my god, that's crazy. The biggest hogwon I've worked for had around 150 students Smile

. The one i'm at now has around 100.

The ECC that my g/friend works at went from 800 students to 500 students w/in 6 months. Can you say ouch?

Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

I teach English online with webcams, headphones, and webbooks. Its SO MUCH easier than a hogwan, plus I get a computer at work, a studio apartment, and block hours all in the evenings.

Downside is that I finish at 10:40pm which makes it impossible to have much of a social life as no one else can go out that late on a weeknight. The other downside is I'm getting REALLY bored and I'm in a part of the city thats not too lively to find anything interesting to do around here.

Financially the school was suffering bigtime a couple months ago, but seems to have recovered quite nice at this time. However that means we are non-stop busy which makes the job not as much fun, and my teaching has gone downhill because of work overload.

Ah well, at least I'm working and making money. 7 more months to go.

CanKorea · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Location: Pyeongchon

From what I can see (only been there for 3 weeks) my hagwon seems to be doing fine. We're getting more kids enrolling, I've had new students appearing all week in my classes.

So far, I don't feel like picking up and running away.

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

"Poor, poor, pitiful me" (Warren Zevon) I have worked at 6 hagwons in about 4 years. Only one was good.