Ive been reading the discussion forums on some of the ESL websites, and I see a lot of teachers complaining about their jobs and about Koreans in general. Do they have valid gripes?
Sure, sometimes. Hagwons are a business, and just like any other country, Korea has business owners who will take advantage of you. Some teachers end up in situations varying from unpleasant to ugly. It’s hard to tell just how widespread this is. If you make the (fairly safe) assumption that satisfied teachers aren’t as motivated as dissatisfied ones to speak out, and count the thousands of foreign teachers in Korea (some estimates put the number at about 20,000), you might conclude that the troubled teachers are a minority. It’s also possible that at least some cases result from simple communication problems. Honor and dignity are important to Koreans, and hagwon directors sometimes try to hide the fact that their English isn’t as good as it should be. The result is that Western teachers sometimes think they are understood when they’re not. And, to be blunt, sometimes it’s the foreigner. Quite a few people come to Korea to teach right after graduation. They haven’t had many (if any) “
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