Having written about kids hagwons in Korea, next up are adult only schools. I’m afraid I can’t recommend them. The biggest problem is the split shifts you have to work - as your students are only really available for study at the top and bottom end of the day, and that can often mean 630am starts! For more on split shifts, see my post entitled Day of the Dead…

Problem with adult hagwons from my own experience and also from countless tales from both inmates and escapees, is that you’re not likely to have a cool young couple (ex or current teachers themselves) running the place as is commonly the case in kids hagwons. It’s more likely to be a brutish hard-nosed business ajoshi with a touch of xenophobia and one eye always on the bottom line.

Prepare therefore for a raft of senseless initiatives that very quickly undermine any delusions of grandeur you might have as to being a serious professional training outfit. It’s a hard pose to maintain when you have Coco the clown outside your school on a platform, handing out lollipops to disinterested passersby in the hope of luring in more business.

These are shirt and tie affairs, along with student evaluations of you, teacher development sessions and DoS observations. All good professional stuff but which result in a lot of stress and combined with the split shift - a very hard life! But hey, worth it for all the prof. development and bigger salary and holidays right?

Right, wrong and wronger…

If you’re starting out in the teaching world, you’d learn more in a week here than in any kids hagwon. Particularly since you’ll probably have to learn how to deliver specially-tailored courses and exam English etc. If you have a good DoS, all that observed feedback will toughen you up and make you better. You won’t have quite the same issue with student motivation as in kids schools but whereas there, problems are laid at the door of the kid, in the big boys’ world - it tends be down to the teacher and it won’t be long before they find out your sin - reasonable or unreasonable!

You’ll be expected to prepare carefully and you’ll be fully accountable to a (usually) hard put upon DoS. You may have to deal with extra long splits in the peak months and there is no, repeat, no time off except for national holidays and several other single days tacked on to make a few long weekends.

The worst aspect for me, is that although the prof. dev. is great for young/inexperienced teachers, the amount of work you have to do is not rewarded with moolah! It’s your bog standard 2.2m won with the promise of extra for exp/quals or for OT. Truth is you’ll probably be too tired to want the OT and to be honest, it’s very hard for the DoS to get much more out of the aforementioned ajoshi than the basic. He won’t know a DELTA from a daisy…

In conclusion, message from the Mike: if you’re starting out, go for it and take the licks for the sake of your soul. If you’ve already earned your badges, steer clear!