Izzy, who blogs at The Next Somewhere, spent a year teaching in South Korea before her current adventure; teaching in Vietnam. She classes herself as “Bostonian by way of the Philippines”. Izzy decided to embark on a TEFL career in order to take herself overseas.
In the latest instalment of the Teaching to Travel series, we hear about being one of two Native English Teachers in a hagwon (public school) in Daejeon. To catch up with Parts 1 – 5 in the series, click here.
“When teaching in South Korea, you can either work at a public school or a hagwon. Hagwons are akin to Japanese cram schools and are a huge industry in Korea. (a cram school is a place where students pay for supplementary academic instruction).
I didn’t know how much Koreans valued education until I immersed myself in the culture. In Korea, teachers are very well respected. It’s an occupation to be proud of! I was one of two Native English Teachers (NETs) before my colleague left suddenly so then I ended up being the only Native Teacher at my school!
Izzy’s city, Daejeon
There were about 400 students attending our school although numbers at hagwons are always in flux because it’s a business venture more than anything. That was a constant source of stress.
The hagwon I worked for was an academy for gifted learners. Because of our location, in Daejeon’s premiere academic area, our students were mostly the children of professors, researchers, and scientists. They were the finest minds in academia so there was a lot of pressure to perform well! All our classes were accelerated learning classes and were geared towards eventual success on standardized tests.
What does a typical week while teaching in South Korea at a hagwon look like?
In Korea, an average elementary student goes to school from 7 am until 8 pm. Most students attend hagwons after regular school hours are over. As a hagwon teacher, I taught eight hours a day, usually from 2-10 pm or 1-9 pm. I was contracted to teach six classes back-to-back every day in the areas of speaking, essay writing, and standardized test prep like TOEIC and TOEFL. My classes were capped at 13 students and sometimes I could even have as little as one student in a class. Those one-on-ones were great as I got to really know the student on a personal level. However, the workload was almost always more than I could handle and I would have to come in early/stay in late to keep up.
The First Day!
Working Hard
I was shocked at how rigorous the work ethic is in Korea, both for students and average citizens. Koreans have the longest work hours in the world!
We had about two hours to attend to administrative obligations, as well as complete grading assignments, doing student evaluations, and prep all the materials we needed for class. However, sharing an office space with eleven other teachers with the same responsibilities meant things got hectic. During months with intensive classes, where I was asked to do “official” overtime, I’d be clocking in 12-hour days! So depending on the workload, my work hours per week ranged from 40 to 60 hours.
Outside of the classroom
While I was teaching in South Korea, my coworkers made up the entirety of my Korean friend group. We bonded together in solidarity and in sympathy of one another. Most of the time, I would hang out with other expat teachers because as westernized as Korea is, its still very much isolated from the rest of the world. Many Koreans are still not as open-minded to cultural exchange as you think they would be. It’s understandable though, seeing as English competency is generally very low, so I can empathize why Koreans wouldn’t be more open to socializing in a language they are afraid of. My Korean was deplorable as well, so I would struggle to do even the most basic tasks like riding in a taxi.
In terms of free time, I had next-to-none save for my weekends. About two months into my teaching year, I met a Korean-American guy and fellow teacher who I became involved in a serious relationship with. I would spend most of my weekends with him just because that was the only time we could see one another seeing as we had opposite work schedules (he was a public school teacher, I was an afterschool teacher). We did some exploring but it tended to be minimal since I was saving for a backpacking trip… one that he ended up joining me on!
Friends Time
Traditional Korean BBQ
Travel Opportunities
My favorite things to do in my spare time were getting together with my friends and taking trips to Seoul. I loved exploring Seoul with my girlfriends. It was only 45 minutes away by fast train so it never felt like a trek to get up there. We would eat, shop, and party all night long. Yes, the stereotypes of teaching in South Korea are true: I loved to noreabang (go karaoke-ing), relax at jimjilbangs (Korean spas), drink lots of soju while eating barbeque, and have wild nights out where I would see the sun rise almost every time.”
Seoul
Follow Izzy
Thanks Izzy for sharing your experiences of teaching in South Korea with us, as well as for such great photographs!
You can follow Izzy and her current adventures on her blog, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
Has Izzy’s experience made you want to jump on a plane and head to South Korea? Or to run in the other direction, away from teaching and to the nearest bar (to work in, of course)? Let me know in the comments about your experiences teaching overseas…or if it’s something you’re thinking about 🙂
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Very interesting! I never heard of hagwons. And those are very long days for students and teachers.
Yeah I hadn’t heard of Hagwons either. That’s very interesting! They’re all so disciplined over there. It was great to read Izzy’s story. Tell her thanks for sharing!
I know, so much discipline! I definitely couldn’t teach there! I will pass on your thanks 🙂
Thanks for reading Susanna 🙂
What an amazing experience. I used to be a teacher and found normal hours testing enough, it’s incredible how dedicated they are to their learning.
These are some long hours indeed!
Holy crap, I had no idea about the long hours working in the korean schools. I know it was an amazing life changing experience but 40-60 hours a week is a lot! I am an international teacher right now too, so it’s interesting to hear your experiences. Those small class sizes sound nice though…but sharing your work space with other teachers must be distracting! Hope to visit South Korea one day soon. Great post.
Hagwons are notorious for long hours. It was such shit (felt like a second-class citizen). But I did love my colleagues who worked equally as hard as I and even though we shared the same admin space, we were autonomous in our own classrooms 😉
This sounds like such an incredible experience, but wow – those hours are ridiculous! I worked so hard at school but couldn’t imagine finishing the day and then needing to go to another school until practically bed time!
Yeah I can’t imagine it as a child or working those hours as a teacher!
I went to school in Japan and everyone in my class went to a cram school after school. I didn’t realize it was a thing in Korea too!
It’s good to hear from someone who experienced it from the other side!
It sounds incredibly intense! Izzy’s experience sounds very similar to some of my friends who tutor in Taiwan – it’s so competitive and students go from school to tutoring centre on weekdays, tutors on the weekend and also tutors during summer vacation to prep for the upcoming school year. Insanity!
You’re right, it’s insane! It’s so much pressure to place on children!
We had a roommate from South Korea move in with us several months ago here in Germany. He doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Korean, but via Google Translate (yeah for technology!), he’s shared similar stories about long hours studying and how competitive it is there to get a good education. As an American, I can definitely tell you it makes us look like total slackers!
Wow. this is actually my dream to travel and teach. I hope I could do the same as you do. Interesting post.
Love this. I can totally back up Izzy’s sentiments as I taught there for two years. It’s tragic and pretty depressing to see children under so much stress. It always confused me how the English competency could be so low in a country that funnels so much money into ESL efforts. Korea in a nutshell! Thanks for sharing your story, Izzy!
Oh wow! That’s a lot of hours to be working! The timing itself is already a pickle (at least for me) and on top of that, to be asked to work for 12 hours? I’ve never thought how very tough this job could be. Good for you Izzy!
I love that you found love on your assignment – I thinking not finding a suitable partner is a big concern for those thinking about becoming teachers abroad. There’s hope for the rest of us!
Many friends of mine decided to teach abroad after graduating and spent their times off travelling and discovering nearby countries – great way to grow as a person and contribute to another countries’ youth!
I lived in Asia when I was younger and I know exactly what you’re talking about. So much pressure.
Wow those are some long hours! Such dedication. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Lottie for inviting me to the series. I honestly love how you presented the content, it was actually a really easy read (and I’m not just saying that cause I wrote it :P) I just hit my one-year mark of having left Korea and its extraordinary how much has changed. I’m actually not teaching anymore! I left the world of teaching for professional writing…. 😀