How to avoid a hagwon horror story teaching English in Korea
Here are a 4 from Reddit.
- “I’ve had two years with hagwons and I’m on my second with Epik. No problems but I’ve had friends at other places have general hagwon problems (illegal contracts, no pension, terrrrrible working hours, ect).”
2. “Probably the certified teachers who were working at a BC offshore school with the wrong visas who got deported and have a 1 year (or was it 2 year?) ban from visiting Korea again. Anyone have any updates on them? I remember one guy was engaged to a Korean woman, so that was especially sad.”
3. “The Incheon Epik fiasco from awhile back was pretty bad too. All the new teachers arrived and found out that budgets had changed and they didn’t have jobs.”
4. “When I first moved here, two friends I knew had been here a month max. Their hagwon closed completely. He wanted to leave, she wanted to stay and go to another job. Ultimately they left. Truly the worst kind of timing considering they were enjoying themselves.”
Is it all in hagwons?
No, it isn’t.
Many people will say that hagwons (private institutes) are the worst, but you can see that it depends as above you will see some comments about horror stories with EPIK (public school) and international schools.
I personally taught in both and had a worse experience teaching in a public school with a horrible co-teacher and a dodgy recruiter.
I got fired because I didn’t follow my dogmatic Christian co-teacher’s orders (who I couldn’t stand) and the recruiter tried to withhold a full month’s pay.
A hagwon horror story
This hagwon horror story is part fiction and part based on true stories.
Can you avoid these horror stories?
Yes, you can.
The best tip that I can give you for that is to talk to the foreign teachers there. But do you know want to know what questions you should ask them? Which teacher you should talk to? And when?
For more tips on finding a good job teaching in a Korean hagwon check out:
Teaching English in Korea doesn’t have to be a horror story.
Buy How To Kill It Teaching In A Hagwon In Korea
Or…
Consider taking this course. As a bonus you’ll get this ebook and some other ebooks.
Why take a course to teach in a hagwon?
Right, you don’t need to. You can get by without one, but if you want to do more than get by… And if you are not confident in your teaching skills I can tell you that you are unlikely to enjoy teaching in Korea.
Teaching is not easy.
The ebook will help you avoid that horror story and help you get started teaching, but I would make a bigger effort or investment early on if you really want to have a better year in Korea.
Most of your day is going to be centered around teaching and if you don’t like it then your students won’t either and then you’ll dread going to work.
Chances are you are not a naturally gifted teacher because most of us aren’t, but you can improve if you put the effort in and/or take a course that matches the job.
98% of the videos used in this course were filmed in hagwons and public schools in Korea.
