Pros and cons of teaching in a hagwon

In Korea, it is common for parents to send their children to hagwons (or private schools). As well as hagwons which specialise in teaching English (like the one I work in), there are also hagwons specialising in math, science and art amongst others. It is not uncommon for students to attend several hagwons as well as their normal school and I've heard of hagwons running classes until midnight! As an English teacher in Korea, you are likely to work for either a public school or a hagwon.
The benefits of working for a hagwon are that you will be working with other foreign teachers, so you will get to meet and work with other people who speak English (or at least American English!) which can make it easier to settle in. If you work for a public school, you are likely to be the only English teacher on the staff. There are many horror stories on the web about unscrupulous hagwon owners, so it is important to do your research before signing anything (do a google search for "hagwon blacklist")!

You may end up doing more teaching hours in a hagwon than you would in a public school, but on the plus side, you are teaching from a set curriculum and there is much less prep work and lesson planning to do. Public school teachers theoretically get more holiday time, but they may have to teach English camp during the summer holidays. Teachers at hagwons may have to work more unusual work hours (eg after school classes). Luckily for me, I teach 9.50 to 6.50 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but finish teaching at 2.20 on Tuesdays and 1.20 on Thursdays.

The main downside to working for a hagwon from my point of view is the parents! Korean education is very competive and the parents (or at least the mothers) take a very keen interest in how their children are doing at school. Fair enough, I hear you say, after all they are paying for their children to attend the hagwon. But some of them do take it too far.

I teach art to my preschool students in a 35 minute lesson on Mondays and Tuesdays. Last week, one of the mothers rang to say she was extremely disappointed because her daughter wasn't showing enough development in art and that she thought the teacher (ie me) wasn't paying her enough attention as her daughter did not know what to draw in art class. Also her daughter was far too advanced for her preschool class and should be moved up a level and how could teacher not see this as she can speak and write in English fluently at home! The main problem for the daughter regarding art is that she has absolutely no imagination when it comes to drawing as I think her competitive parents have drummed all imagination out of her in order for her to concentrate fully on her education.

I was able to show the preschool manager the drawings done by the other students in the same class which were imaginative and full of colour - just like a normal 6 year olds drawings should be. Although said daughter is one of my brightest students, she is by no means fluent in English and is not ready to be moved up a level, not by a long way.

Having spoken to some of the other teachers, this sort of thing is by no means uncommon as some parents are just so pushy and competitive, they will try anything to get their child ahead of the game and you just have to laugh it off really as it happens countless times. It seems a bit sad to me though that young children can't just enjoy themselves (as well as learning, of course!)

Rant over....

My day was brightened up though when I got into class this morning. One of the students handed me a letter he had written for me over the weekend which said 'Hello teacher. Are you happy today? I am happy and surprised"! Not sure what he was surprised by, but it was really sweet and reminds me that nearly all my preschoolers are happy, bright young children!