Being a Hagwon Teacher - First Impressions

Where has this job been all my life? Seriously - at AOE, I constantly felt like I spent so much time chasing after students for makeup work or calling parents because the kids weren't doing their work to actually grade their homework and assess their skills in a timely manner. Likewise, I was too busy rewriting IEP goals and scheduling progress meetings to actually make the accommodations for the students in my class. In short, planning was getting in the way of teaching. Here, that's all I'm responsible for: to teach. It's kind of nice.

I remember before I came, I read all of the online reviews of CDI and saw lots of negatives. People complained about the teaching hours, of the rules, and how mindless the structure is. I've decided that these people never had a teaching job in America. The structure is the same everyday, but it seriously beats staring at a class and realizing the lesson you planned will not work and you have five seconds to pull something out of your ass before the kids figure out you have no clue what you're doing. The rules are nothing uncommon compared to what was required of teachers in America - one person I think complained about having to cover her tattoo......ummm....yeah.... When you're part of one of the most respected professions, it is kind of expected that you at least act like an adult. The hours do kind of suck, but they are probably the least surprising aspect of it all. If you show up in this country as a hagwon teacher and aren't aware that you'll be working evenings...well...just go back to America - if you seriously were unaware, you don't have enough common sense to be here anyway.

I do have to say that I feel more like a daycare counselor than a teacher, though. Because hagwons are businesses, the idea is to attract and keep students. You can have as awesome as a curriculum as you want - if you can't keep the kids, you aren't surviving. This was something that bothered me about AOE - we made a lot of degrading decisions (such as accepting makeup work 3 months later) for the sake of keeping our numbers - but somehow, I kind of understand the concept with CDI. Probably because I have yet to be asked to do something that compromises my teaching morals. I'm getting off subject. The comment about the daycamp counselor comes from the delivery. We are teaching, we do have a curriculum with goals, but the way we're supposed to teach it is to sell it - is to keep the kids almost entertained. I think I'm wary because this isn't hard work at all. AOE was - AOE kicked my ass and completely turned me into a monster. When I go back to America, I'll list CDI on my resume as teaching experience, with all the BS verbal jargon, and when asked, I will talk about how it's one of the highest rated private academies in South Korea, but I'll know. I don't feel like AOE was real teaching experience either because it was a whole lot of babysitting and absolutely no follow through with expectations. Maybe there is no such thing as real teaching experience - or maybe AOE and CDI have been more than I am giving them credit for.

Teaching here definitely kills a lot of Asian stereotypes, too. These kids are just as lazy and prone to mischief as American students. The only difference is that they back down sooner (well, most). The girls are in no way as boy crazy as my middle schoolers in America, which makes teaching *really* nice. It's funny - they don't even talk to each other. The boys are just like American boys, though - they either are your favorite or your least favorite students. I told one of my classes that they would have no problem fitting into an American classroom.

Some stereotypes are true - like the math thing. It's not because they're Asian, though - it's simply because they don't repeat the same math curriculum for grades 1-5 and then start learning new things in 6 like we do in America. Some of the kids are bad at math, though - I asked one of my students to answer 50 thousand plus 50 thousand and he just looked at me blankly (he did, however, know 50 plus 50). The politeness thing I think is more true because they don't really understand, and therefore don't use, sarcasm. A few of my kids get it, but those are ones who have lived in America for a number of years. When teaching sarcastic tone in reading class, I really had to exaggerate the author's words to get them to see it. Most students are polite, but there are definitely a few who are downright rude. One in particular comes to mind - and if you're one of my coworkers in Suji (and still reading this =p), you know exactly who I'm talking about. However, teaching my American misfits for so long has made me kind of like the rude ones, so I'm not gaining any gray hairs over this kid.

I've heard getting into high school compared to college entrance in America, but I don't think that's an accurate comparison. These students put a lot of stress on which high school they attend, whereas I think there's a pretty big "It doesn't matter" attitude with college...maybe the Ivy League schools. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that more kids in Korea care about their high school than kids in America do about college.

Pause: I think Coffee Bake bought a new CD. Fantastic :)

Next week will be the last week of the term. I've fallen in love with one of my afternoon classes and will be so sad when they transfer to evenings. Evening students are so blah, whereas the afternoon students are so enthusiastic. I've said a few times that I want to continue to teach them, but I think the transformation will break my heart.