A Note about the possible horror of teaching ESL at a Korean Hagwon...

 Hello all, I've been meaning to post something like this for a while but am always pressed for time. Several years ago I did some teaching at a Korean hagwon, which is a private language school, and unlike what you typically read about that it's a life changing experience, and magical and all of that claptrap, I cam to show that it isn't exactly paradise.

First thing is first, they want generally White teachers that have Bachelor's degrees in anything to come and teach generally kindergarten age kids ESL. Teaching ESL in Korea used to be a great way to make some money after college and maybe save up for a masters degree. Previously you did not need a degree at all, unfortunately things have changed since the 90s, when the market was saturated, and a bunch of people ruined it for everyone else with crime, such as pedophilia, and so forth. So now everyone has to get a criminal records check, and have a degree to get a visa. 

It used to be common for the employer to pay for your flight upfront, but now most of the employers tend to offer reimbursements when you teach for a certain number of months. It is legally required for the employers to get you a working visa FIRST, since it is illegal to work without one, but many may try to say they need you as an emergency and never get you the visa if they don't like you. 

They typically offer something like $2000 per month, along with a free apartment, that you will have to pay maintenance, and utilities for. They will often say that usually they offer this much but because they like you they gave you more, which is a common East Asian sales pitch. 

You usually have to go through a recruiter to find one of these positions and the recruiter is a liaison between the school and you. They get paid for their work, and are like used car salesmen. They want you to kiss ass basically and tell everyone what they want to hear. 

If you don't like young kids then you really should reconsider teaching them. I think most normal men don't want to teach and be around young kids, this is more for women. There are elementary school, middle school, and high school jobs but they are rarer, and typically pay less. Typically the level of English you would have to teach is more complex also, with intermediate grammar. On the other hand the students are not babies and are more mature and understand you more. 

Your co-workers are typically people who you wouldn't want to associate with. They usually came there because they couldn't find a job in their home countries, or looking for an East Asian partner, or the rarer traveler/adventurer such as myself. It can be challenging dealing with some of them, but not all are bad. The Korean teachers can also be very difficult to deal with. 

I can really just write out pages and pages about this but this is only an introduction, let me tell you something:

To the recruiters and the people at the school you are just a walking dollar sign, a commodity. They don't care about you or your health and will exploit you if they can. Not all will do that, but there is that trend. Aside from the rambunctious kids, it is even worse dealing with parents, and the administration, they lie ALL of the time, and try to cheat you. The parents are never happy they want to blame teacher for everything, they want to accept NO responsibility for their children's failure. 

You are expected to lie about students. Everyone is special, everyone wins, everyone does well, even when clearly some children are more aggressive, less attentive, more troublesome and so forth. I can go on for hours and hours. 

A lot of the time people who post about saving money go as couples which is NOT the same as being there alone...anyway...I will continue this post at a later time there's already much to think about there...but let me say this. I dug the internet for posts from the 90s and early 2000s, and let me tell you tons of horror stories.

Remember these places are businesses first, and schools much later if at all. And if you will teach kindergarten kids it will equate to babysitting in many ways, and you may be expected to take them to the washroom, feed them, and play with them. A cold shudder runs down my back as I say that. On the other hand, the little ones can be cute every now and then, and the teaching part of it is very simple since it is only vocabulary, phonetics, basic grammar, etc.

Here's a YouTube clip mocking working at the hagwon, they try to market their product but it is a funny video nonetheless: