An Observational Look at Hagwons in Korea

Before the winter break began, I had two days of observation time at my Korean school. A “hagwon” is primarily a privately owned teaching institute, so it’s going to be a different experience than what I’m used to. Aside from being run over by the sheer amount of cute during the day, I noticed some things I’ll be dealing with once I begin teaching.

• My class sizes will be small, exceptionally small when compared to American public schools. My largest class will be 10 students, and the smallest will be 4. I’m extremely excited about this because it enables the me to build better relationships with the kids, and I will be able better focus on their individual needs.
• All teachers share an office space. Rather than a teacher’s lounge where they gather during breaks, it is a workable office where the teachers can freely communicate with each other. We sit next to the other foreign teachers as well as the Korean co-teachers.
• Classes start promptly at 10:00 AM every day. I am not a morning person, so this is definitely going to spoil me for the year I’m teaching EFL. Several of my days will be ending late, specifically the MWF work schedule releasing at 7:00-7:30 PM. The nice thing is the classes seem to go by fairly quickly because of their size.
• In the morning until around 2:00 PM, we have the younger kids who would be considered pre-K and Kindergarten in America. Several of them have already had one or two years of English. After the younger students leave, the older ones filter in from their normal school schedule. To clarify, the older students will have already attended their public school and after-school curriculars before coming to their English classes. It’s extra school, but not remedial. These students are roughly 10-13 years old and are in the equivalent of American middle school.
• Bell chimes are cheerful. The bell rings every 40 minutes, and no one is ever scared to death or caught by some terrible surprise. I have worked in schools where I have dreaded the sound of the bell because it is either obnoxiously loud, long or insanely grating on the ears. The chimes at my school are a mini musical every period. They literally put a smile on my face every time I hear them. What better way to change classes?
• Teachers do not have a home room. We go to where the kids are. The classes are labeled as animals in alphabetical order: Alligator, Bear, Cat, etc. We go to whichever class we have next with the materials we need specifically for that class.
• Parents have a viewing room. I noticed that there is a room in the lobby that is completely filled with mini television screens. I had no idea what these were for until I found a camera in every room. At first, this was an intimidating factor, but I can see the perks of using these methods. Classes are not interrupted or distracted by visitors, the environmental integrity is kept intact, and issues that may have gone unnoticed by the teacher may be brought to light. We know and understand that we are being monitored, but it’s not in any way like “Big Brother is always watching!” We are informed if a parent wants to watch a class or if there are further actions that must be taken or corrected.
• The material is locked in and ready to use. This means writing lesson plans will be far easier than what I have come to expect. We write down which pages from which books we will be reading or working on and then turn it in. I kind of balked at that prospect, but the teaching material is all provided for us. The teacher’s handbook for every learning resource tells the teacher exactly what must be done and when.  The teacher is left with the task of providing engaging instruction, or not.  I have to remember that the majority of people who come teach EFL classes in Korea do not have an educational background. Of course they aren’t all going to have previous experience writing detailed lesson plans that address the specific needs of the students and expected educational standards. This does mean I’m going to be out of practice by the time I finish teaching here, so I will be needing some refreshment at some point.

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