H: Today on twoplustwo
B: The 5 worst things about teaching in Korea
H: We've both been teachers in Korea
H: So I guess you can trust us on our anecdotal experiences
B: Here are the 5 worst things about teaching in Korea
B: from our points of view.
B: You're contracted for 22 hours of class time a week
B: for the rest of that time,
B: you're going to be, Desk Warming.
H: In theory, you're supposed to be lesson planning
H: and also preparing materials for the rest of the week.
B: In reality, you're probably not doing anything
B: especially if you've done all the planning
B: and material preparation, hence the name
B: Desk Warming.
H: This is a complete waste of time!
H: and I really don't understand why they don't let teachers just leave early.
B: Most of the desk warming will happen in the afternoons
B: and during your holiday period
H: but "yay!" for bureaucracy and keeping up appearances, right?
B: Speaking of bureaucracy
B: you're going to need to ask permission to do absolutely anything.
B: this is especially frustrating if you can't speak any Korean
B: and you have to rely on your co-teacher's help.
B: As an example, if you plan to travel during your holiday period
B: you'll need to notify your co-teacher
B: who will then notify the principal
B: to make sure everything is okay.
H: What?!
H: Why?!
H: If I was really planning to skip town
H: I would do it without telling you!
H: Absolutely nothing is stopping me from running away from my contract
H: if I really wanted to.
B: get used to decisions being made very slowly
B: and with outcomes you might not be hoping for.
H: things may change
H: and you're expected to go with the flow
H: we've heard many stories
H: and have been victims ourselves
H: of last minute cancelled classes
H: last minute classes when there weren't supposed to be any
H: last minute meetings, etc.
B: It will happen, but you won't know
B: until the last minute.
H: No! We're not talking about man problems.
H: So keep it in your pants, boys!
H: We're talking about the feeling of powerlessness you get as a prop teacher.
H: If you really care about being a teacher
H: and you actually have experience in education
H: this is going to be a frustrating point for you
B: you'll be teaching with a co-teacher
B: and it's their job to be the real teacher at the front of the classroom.
B: Your job is to be the pronunciation example
B: and the fact checker in most cases.
B: You're only really there to be an example of a foreigner to your students
B: and to kindle the interest in learning English.
H: This is, admittedly, pretty frustating
H: when you actually have good ideas on how to improve the class
H: and make the experience of learning English for fun for your students.
H: This is especially frustrating
H: when you actually may have good ideas on how to improve English classes at your school
H: but you've been unfortunate enough to be assigned to a Korean co-teacher that might not want your help.
H: This is a staged class
H: where you're expected to have a perfect lesson plan
H: and teach a perfect lesson
H: on your own.
H: This class is bullsh*t!
H: Why? Because you never teach on your own on a day-to-day basis.
H: You will also never actually teach the way you would in your open class.
B: This is all just for appearances so expect the theatrics to come out
B: you'll be playing games pretty much the whole lesson
B: because it's more fun for people to see
B: the people who would see this would be your students' parents
B: other teachers, vice principal and principal.
B: you may also be on camera
B: for the entirety of your open class for evaluation purposes
H: there's also a district evaluation version of this open class
H: where someone from the district school board
H: comes and inspects you while you teach.
H: Which is also bullsh*t!
H: Because what are they expecting from you?
H: That you can act like a real teacher?
B: Bloody awful!
Bonus! The little things.
B: Little things like, no air-conditioning in the summer
B: no heater on in the winter
H: because of South Korea's initiative to save energy
B: Picky eater?
B: Well, you're going to have to bring your own lunch
B: or go without, because the Korean lunches are not going to change for you.
H: You'll get the best, and the worst, of Korean cuisine.
H: But personally, I actually liked 95% of my lunches.
B: Can't speak Korean?
B: Tough luck! Because chances are,
B: outside of your classroom there'll be zero English used in your school.
H: Also, since you're the foreign English teacher
H: You're expected to speak only English to your students
H: which is very frustrating
H: if you want to build a bond with them
H: because most of them can't speak English properly.
B: We've both broken that rule on several occasions
B: because building rapport with your students
B: is so helpful in getting them to respect you
B: and to help the knowledge get into their heads
H: it's still frustrating, though, when they tell you not to do it.
B: With anything there will be varied experiences
B: these are our experiences
B: people will have great co-teachers
B: who will be amazing
B: but then we've heard stories
B: and have personal friends who've had really bad co-teachers
B: and their experience of teaching in Korea is really really bad.
H: And these are just the 5 worst things for us
H: there might be worse things for other people
H: admittedly, we've both been pretty lucky in our placements
B: definitely H: and we both had a very good time teaching in Korea
B: I had a great school
B: I didn't have to do any lesson planning
H: Really?! B: and stuff like that, no paper work.
H: I had to do so much lesson planning...
B: I had a really small school, so my biggest class was like 24
B: and my smallest class was 8.
B: A lot of other schools have set sizes
B: like 30 kids, 30 kids, 30 kids, 30 kids all the time.
B: So if you are thinking about teaching English in Korea
B: just make sure that you come with the mindset
B: that it might not be exactly how one of your friends had it
B: or what you read online in someone's blog
B: it can vary completely from school to school.
H: Just understand that they're not out to get you...
H: in most cases, unless you're really unlucky
H: they're just trying to do their jobs as well.
B: If you were a teacher in Korea or anywhere else
B: please let us know what the worst things were about your experience
B: plus a lot of these points you could probably really apply to other countries as well
B: apart from the "Korean" thing, but you could swap Korean out for any other language.
H: This will help future teachers come in with previous knowledge
H: so they're not shocked by any negatives that might befall them.
Thank you very much for joining us on this episode of twoplustwo.
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