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.