To start, I'm not sure how candid I can be about my workplace, given the giant clause in my contract that says, "Don't disclose shit or you're out of a job." Somehow or another, I doubt that a lowly blog such as mine will cross the bigwigs' paths, but I'm still using some discretion here.
You take the good:
Having worked for three years at a school where the possibility always existed that I might knock out (or to be more realistic, get knocked out by) a student, the classroom environment here is a Godsend. Out of my 12 classes, I can only think of two that seem remotely uncontrolled, and even in those situations, a little discipline goes a long way; for example, students who continually speak in Korean (yes, a punishable offense) are often asked to hold both hands up for an undisclosed period of time, and to my surprise, this actually works as an effective punishment technique. The worst thing I've had to do to any student yet is make him stand outside, and on coming back in, he was as close to angelic as I've seen a seven year-old.
Many teachers seem to complain about the perceivable jadedness of older students--the school day for a Korean teenager would knock an American on his/her ass, and there's a ridiculous amount of pressure to get a good score on the TOEIC exams-- but from my experience so far, as long as you are enthusiastic and go out of your way to put them into speaking situations, they're wonderful. I actually had a five minute discussion with a class today about whether or not Goofy (the Disney character) was a dog, and while in an American classroom this would have been a nice diversion, in a Korean classroom it's an incredible challenge for these kids to navigate the phraseology of such things... and no, this was not a conversation that I initiated-- the kids know their Disney here. Right now, my favorite classes, for the most part, are the ones with the older students.
The atmosphere in the office is friendly so far, although some foreign teachers have complained about the smiling underhandedness of the two head teachers. Unsurprisingly, the Korean teachers are all female, all but one still living at home, and while I have learned to effectively ignore hotness in the workplace, they're all gorgeous and fashionable. They're also overworked, especially compared to us lazy foreign teachers; one night last week I went into (hagwon's name withheld) after school at around 11:00 to check my email (I was still bound to the love motel), since most of them were still there working away. While I feel tremendous guilt knowing that they have to work what seems like double our hours, there's nothing I could do to help them, with all of the paperwork being in Korean and all. Despite the inequalities, each of them has been incredibly helpful getting me accustomed to the way things are done at (hagwon's name withheld).
There are many other things that have made me happy with the choice to work here, but I'm not going to let myself get carried away with this email... I'm waking up early tomorrow to go to Beomeosa, a temple/tourist trap, for my day off. Now the negatives...
Alright, I was virtually shoved into the six-day-a-week work week, thanks to my recruiter continually assuring me that "You're never going to find a job where you don't work on Saturdays." That's bullshit, and unfortunately I played along; even at my school, one teacher managed to negotiate a contract with a full weekend of Saturday and Sunday, and two other teachers have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. Any major travelling that I wanted to do is simply limited to the few holidays that I have off; I guess the flipside of the coin is that living in Korea is essentially a vacation in itself, and Busan is certainly capable of delivering many a Sunday's worth of entertainment and sightseeing.
Another downside to my schedule: on a daily basis, my hours are 3:00 to 8:55, making it difficult to do anything at night aside from going out to drink. I was looking at signing up for Muay Thai classes, and that essentially fell through because of these hours, unless I choose to take classes with people 15 years younger than me. The movie theaters that I've found normally have their last showings just a little bit out of my range, although a new multiplex will be going up a few blocks from my school in the next month or so. Going into this, not having to work until the mid-afternoon seemed like a pretty sweet deal, but now that I'm here, I'm seeing that it limits me in many ways. Flipside: at least I'm not working a split-shift, and now I have some really solid hangover insurance.
There are a few entirely pointless things that new teachers have to do in order to please the bureaucracy, the most annoying being lesson plans. I know you're probably thinking that lesson plans sound like a reasonable request, especially considering that most incoming foreign teachers have never actually taught a class in their lives; I would have thought this, too, but it's clearly busy work with absolutely zero functionality in the classroom. In writing a plan for a class where I had to teach fruits and vegetables, I had to list each individual word that I would be teaching the students; rather than summarizing it all as "fruit and vegetable-related vocab", I had to list all 50 words, only to see this "plan" filed away never to be seen again once I handed it in. I've yet to use any of these plans in the classroom, and you're almost discouraged to do so; I had to specially request that my plans be given back to me after the head teacher looks through them, and from his reaction, I think this was one of the first times he had heard this request. Most of the time I just copy the required information directly from whatever book I'm teaching's Teacher's Guide. These plans normally take me about an hour a day, and thankfully I only have to do them for the first three months.
Small complaint: I have to fill out a fuckin' request form to get a red pen. The first one given to me started leaking the other day, so I asked one of the head teachers whether I could have a new one; she pointed towards the blank request forms on the bulletin board. I filled it out, gave it to her, and immediately afterwards, she gave me a red pen. Understand that I've never really worked in an office in my life: things like this are new to me, although like everyone else, I've seen "Office Space" enough to know that this is not an epidemic exclusive to Korea. Still annoying.
All in all, considering the stories I've heard about hagwons, I think I lucked out; none of the veteran foreign teachers have complaints that I'd consider serious, and my hagwon is financially stable enough that I'll never have to worry about missed paychecks or anything... I think it's only logical to cross your fingers when saying the latter though.
The next update will surely include photographic evidence of my visit to Beomeosa, just so I can show you that I'm cultured and all... I swear I am.
