Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Okay, what we're going to be doing right now is talking to you about our teaching English
in Korea experiences. I worked at a public school, an elementary school which is called
a Cho Dung Hakyo, which literally translates to Elementary school and Audrey worked at
a Hagwon, which is a private after-school academy. We worked in totally different working
environments and we're going to talk to you a bit about the different experiences we had.
Teaching hours! The first thing we're going to talk about is the teaching hours. What
was your schedule like? Well, at my school I would start teaching at 1:30 in the afternoon
and I would be finished by 9:30 in the evening. This is done because that is when the kids
finish public school and they are free in the afternoons. When you work in a private
school in Korea your hours are scheduled around the children's schedule or the adult's schedule
if you're teaching in an adult school. Audrey worked in a school for children. All of her
hours were after her public school hours. If you're an early bird this wouldn't be the
schedule for you. If you're someone who likes to sleep in or stay out really late, drink
a little makju or soju, her schedule is way better. Wait, if you're an early bird. How
does that make sense. No, I said if you're an early bird it doesn't make sense. Jeez.
My schedule at a public school is what would be your standard government office hours.
I worked from 8:40 until 4:40. Basically 9-5, your 9-5 job. Meaning I had to get up fairly
early but I finished work early. I finished work around dinner time. Different hours between
the two different jobs.
Next we will be talking about holidays because there is a big difference - a massive difference
- between the amount of holidays you get between a Hagwon and a Public school. Someone kicked
butt over the other person. Can you guess who won? Who won? Do I look happy? No. At
a public school you get way more vacation time. I got four weeks - 4 scheduled weeks
of vacation - so what I mean by that (I'm not talking weekends): sometimes weekends
are a bit iffy. Is that a vacation? No, it is not. I got actual Monday through Friday
days off. I received four weeks. How about you? Well, I was only allowed 10 days off
during the year. Of those 10 days, five of them were selected by my director, that only
left me with 5 days I could pick and I wasn't allowed to take any of those five days together.
They had to be spread out through the year and they always had to be pre-approved, so
I was never guaranteed my vacation. I always had to fill-out lots of paperwork and weight
and see what happened. Technically, I never had more than three days off including the
weekends. Okay. That was my vacation. That doesn't sound very good, does it? The other
thing too is that in addition to the extra holidays that I had over Audrey's schedule,
I was also given days off. For example, there was a Korean election day. There was a school
holiday. A holiday that was specific to our school. There was all kinds of additional
holidays that I received in excess of what Audrey had. Every time he had this special
day off I was at work. Yep. I didn't feel guilty about it, so. What?
Next we're going to talk about working conditions and teaching hours. Let's hear the perspective
from the Hagwon. Well, at the Hagwon, I'm the only teacher in the classroom. I don't
have a Korean co-teacher to keep the students in order and have them behave or to explain
anything they may not understand. You do have smaller classes and that is a plus. My classes
vary in size. Sometimes I only have two students and sometimes I have twelve. It is a more
manageable number. It is more manageable in that sense. On the other hand, for the most
part I was teaching regular classes. By regular classes, I mean, I was teaching a homeroom
class from my school for example a grade 3 class, a grade 6 class. I would have the Korean
co-teacher come into the class but I would also have a much larger class probably 30
plus students on average. There were some benefits to teaching with the Korean co-teacher.
Generally speaking, not in all cases, but generally speaking the Korean co-teacher does
a really quite an excellent job of settling down the students. Even though I'm teaching
a large class a lot of times the school discipline (the classroom discipline) is taken care of
by the Korean co-teacher, which is really nice obviously. You still need to have class.
Basically, whether you're teaching in a public school or in Hagwon - you still have to have
good classroom management skills or the kids will walk all over you. Which they have to
me in the past and also in Audrey's classes too.
Next, we will talk a bit about lesson planning. At my Hagwon I wasn't really responsible for
planning any of the lessons. I was just given the textbooks that I was needed to follow,
so there was very little preparation time. Every once in a while, I would bring in a
game or something to change things up a bit. For the most part you just follow what is
in the book, so it is really straight forward. On the other hand, I did have to do more lesson
planning. I was involved in fact in creating and planning all of the lessons for all of
my regular classes and then for some of my after-school programs, I was also the coordinator.
I definitely did more lesson planning than Audrey this year.
Next we will be talking about pay. It is relatively similar between the Hagwon and the public
school but it also depends on your experience - how many years have you been teaching and
also do you hold a TESOL diploma or certificate. Exactly, so generally for your first year
teacher coming to Korea you're going to be look at a salary of roughly 2,000,000 Won
per month. That is roughly 2000 USD - sometimes you get a little bit higher at 2.1 or 2.2
million and sometimes a little bit less 1.9 but roughly it is around 2.0 million Korean
Won. As you get more experience, as you have more experience in Korea and several more
years of teaching if you also go ahead and get your TESOL or if you have a Masters Degree
or something very specific to teaching English. For example, an Education Degree or an English
Literature Degree you can expect your pay to go up several hundred dollars a month.
For example, at my latest Korean job at a public school I was earning 2.4 million a
month. A bit higher than Audrey's pay. 2.1 million baby. There you go. I earned 300,000
Korean Won more per month but I've also taught in Korea longer and I have a little bit more
credentials behind my belt.
Anyways, there are, I mean the benefits of working in a Hagwon or working in a public
school. Overall, we tend to favor public schools though. I'll give you some advantages of the
Hagwons. The Hagwons are great for if it is your first teaching assignment because you
don't have to do as much lesson planning. There are more jobs available in Korea for
those willing to work in Hagwons. Also, it is easier to find work in select locations.
If you want to be in Seoul or if you want to be in a specific city for example the Hagwon
is a job for you because they have a lot more opportunities. Another good opportunity about
Hagwons is that you will be working with other foreign teachers. If it is your first time
in the country you'll be able to meet people and make some friends. That is a good point.
At a public school it if often just one foreign teacher teaching all of the classes.
In the rare case there is two. In my school there is two but that was it. I taught in
a huge school with a student base of over a thousand. The advantages of the public school
though are numerous. First off, more professional working conditions. It is not a business.
It is a school first and foremost. The next benefit is obviously the vacation time. You
get a lot more vacation time. Another benefit too is that I didn't have to teach regular
classes in between semesters, so I put in quite a few office hours. I was using that
to plan but I also had a lot of free time as well. Movie time as we call it or desk
warming time.
Overall, if you're thinking of coming to teach English in Korea what do you think? Do we
recommend it? Yes, for sure. It is a great way to save money over the year. They will
take care of your apartment so you're just paying for your food and a few utilities.
If you live like a local you eat mostly local food, you go out drinking every once in a
while (not too often) and you do a little bit of domestic travel you can expect to save
well over half of your paycheck for the year if not more. That will allow you to pay off
students loans, it will allow you to save for travel and it will allow you to basically
do whatever you want with that money. It is an excellent way to experience culture half
way around the world.