Public or Private School in Korea?
This is a debate that has been raging for some time, and it seems that Public Schools are fallen. Foreign/er Joy has recently given some advice on the matter and, following some I figured it would be fun for me to tell MY story… but before I do that… I thought I would throw up a video that was passed along by Rob, the guy who does the awesome Korean classes I am taking.
That’s a great fucking job, right? 6 weeks vacation? Just 6 hours a day? 2.5m? Seriously… if I was a single bloke, I would! I would much rather live there than Seoul (but I digress). The ad is for the school that Rob is part-owner of, and if you think it’s a job for you, click here.
I have worked both public and private schools, making the switch at around the 15 month mark. Here is a quick rundown of my experience…
Public School
My first 6 months at my public school in Uijeongbu went pretty smoothly. The Principal was a nice enough guy, and I had an awesome co-teacher who (unknown to me at the time) was planning to go and study for 2 years in the USA. She had asked to be my assistant, and she fought tooth and nail for me. I didn’t really appreciate how much she did behind the scenes until after she left.
My only ‘incident’ in the first few months was a corrupt Vice-Principal who decided to try and steal from me. She drove myself and a Korean teacher to an open day in Paju. The next day, she demanded 100,000 won from the teacher and I for her fuel expenses. I told her to get fucked, and all hell broke loose. The other teacher handed over her white envelope, so I was considered unreasonable. My awesome co-teacher took the matter to the Principal who apologised to me, and made the issue go away. Still… I pissed off the VP, so things were pretty tense for the rest of the year.
As a teacher, I sucked. Seriously. I had to meet with classes of 40 students, and I saw grades 1 and 2 once a fortnight, with occasional grade 3 classes. There were English teachers at the school I never met in the first 11 months, because I never had classes with them. My classes were simply “read from the book” classes, and whenever I tried to add anything to them I was told “No… just read from the book”. Boring!
Just before summer camp, I was informed that I had to submit 20 lesson plans. It was a Thursday. The plans were needed for that afternoon. When I pointed out (to the awesome co-teacher) that this was impossible, she agreed. She told me because the VP had told her to, and once I laughed it off she went to bat on my behalf. Still… I had to do them for Monday. Guess how good those 20 classes were?
I worked a few additional classes that first half a year. As is customary in the Public Schools, you work a session of 10 weeks, then you get paid. The VP had decided to set the fee as (Mikes hourly salary) / 16 students per class, and then signed up the students. A few of the students dropped out, and a lot more simply didn’t pay. Apparently, I was supposed to say goodbye to that money (it totalled around 30% of what I should have had). I went apeshit and demanded the names of the parents who didn’t pay, saying I would go collect the money myself. The school refused to give me the names and addresses as it would embarrass them Eventually, my awesome co-teacher did the collections work herself, against the wishes of the VP. I didn’t get it all, but I did get most of it, and made it clear I would not be working additional classes for them again.
After the awesome co-teacher left, I got lumbered with a young, fresh graduate. Things went downhill pretty fast. Last minute cancellations became the norm. My summertime experience (summer camp in the morning then go home) changed for the worse (winter camp then sit in cold school for 4 more hours).
The principal expressed an interest in renewing my contract. Out of sheer laziness (I was planning a wedding at the time), I agreed. The VP then called for an assessment. The same VP who hated me. The Korean teachers assessed me, (this included the ones I had never met) and had to explain themselves to the VP. Needless to say, I got a bad assessment. I was pissed (it was them who told me to just read from the book), and I knew I had improved as a teacher. I had the co-teachers I was close to apologise afterwards. The VP had let it be known beforehand that she thought I was a bad teacher and my evaluations had to reflect that.
When I put in a request for my contract-mandated honeymoon vacation, I was told no. I had to be married. Of course, I was going to get married. I wanted to have the week after my wedding as honeymoon. Nope. Get married, submit your wedding certificate, and it will be approved in 2 weeks.
After my wedding it got worse. I had signed a new contract. The school then informed me that they would not be providing us with married persons accomodation. We had agreed to wait until the end of the year before they had to find us a place, but now they said they were putting us in a 1 room. With a baby on the way. We put down our own key money and found a place. Although I had signed a new contract at this stage, it was the beginning of the end for me. All of the shit I had put up with before was just that… shit… but now they were pissing me off!
When I returned from my UK trip, I was introduced to the new VP who insisted that I work flexible hours.. starting very early some days and finishing very late on others. This is because he wanted to charge for morning and afternoon classes and avoid paying me. When I told them I would start early, or I would finish late, but I wanted the same start time every day as I wanted to maintain some stability in my working hours. They offered me more money, and I said no. Fool me once…
My airfare for the return flight to the UK (part of the contract renewal deal that is standard with Public Schools) did not arrive within 14 days. In fact, payday (25 days) came and went without me seeing the funds. The school told me that they had the money (the GEPIK funds had arrived), and they were dealing with it. I was relying on this money to buy some much needed items for the home. When the money was 1 month late, I started kicking up a stink. I was told that I “have had enough money this month” and so I would have to wait.
The school offered me a contract amendment to sign. Not only did this amendment insist that I do extra classes, but they also wanted me to work “an average of 22 classes per week throughout the semester”. This, as it was explained, was to cover things such as vacations, teachers not showing up to class, and those times when they cancelled all of my classes to prepare for exams. They wanted to increase my teaching hours to 30+, to cover these times. I called the GEPIK co-ordinator, who called my young co-teacher and made her cry. That problem went away.
I had a sick day around this time. Some pretty nasty Asthma was brought on my the cold air of Dongducheon, and I was in bed from Sunday until Monday (when the local hospitals were open). I messaged the school with an explanation (I could not speak) and then had my wife call them. A few minutes after the call, somebody else called my wife and hurled abuse at her for not making me go to school. Seriously. I mean abuse. I took the phone from her and hung up as I could hear the yelling.
I handed a nasty complaint letter to the school the next day. They countered with another contract amendment, stating that I would not be sick again. When I laughed at them, they said I need to be more Korean now that I am married. This day, 8 weeks into my second year, I resigned. When I resigned, they said they would have me deported. I was lucky. I had a nice shiny F-2 visa that I took particular glee in explaining to them. My co-teacher made an appointment for me at Immigration to cancel the F-2 visa and revert back to an E-2. I cancelled the appointment for her on two occasions before I had my wife call Immigration, and she had Immigration call the school and tell them to shut up!
The timing was awesome – my daughter was born in the last week of my notice period, so I did get to take some paternity leave.
Fuck em! I will never work in a Public School again!
Private Schools
Since I left Public School, I have completed a single full year contract, am working through another 2 year contract, and I have done freelance work for 3 other private schools.
My first boss was awesome. My salary increased by 400,000 each month, and I did not have to be at school if there were no classes. As it was a new school, there were few classes at first, so I had a lot of time at home with my new daughter. I was never paid late, and there was absolutely no bullshit for the entire year. When my wife got sick and had to go into hospital he gave me a week off with 2 hours notice, and didn’t utter a single complaint.
I saw my kids EVERY DAY. I saw progress. This encouraged me to start a M.Ed. degree, and my professional development was encouraged. The boss allowed me to experiment, and to teach however I wanted to teach. I would still be there had we not decided to move to Seoul.
After we moved, I went about securing a fantastic job. I spent weeks interviewing, and eventually got the job that I had wanted since I first saw it. It’s a strange job though – I am more like a freelancer, working at different schools (though all for the same company). It’s hard to compare it to a regular job, but I have never received late pay, and have been treated very well. I expect to stay here for a while.
Once I secured that job, I had 2 months of freedom, so I signed up for some summer camp work at different academies. I was always paid on time. I only asked for a contract from one of them, and the other I worked without a contract. I was paid in full, and on time, on the date agreed.
And now… my regular job gives me Mondays free, so I work at a small academy in Goyang (without a contract) as their only foreign teacher. Again, I have never been paid late.
By my reckoning, that is 4:1 to the evil hagwons.
Typically, a hagwon will give less vacation, and you will teach more. If these things are important, go with a PS or secure a great hagwon gig like the one in the video above. If you want high salary and less hours at work, go with a hagwon. First timers may benefit from having a chain of command to follow. This certainly helped me overcome my problems. Outside of that first year? I would say hagwon all the way!
