Hagwon Life

Last year I was in a public school. Large classes (30-40 kids), waking up early, and I had a co-teacher in the classroom.

Now I'm at a hagwon where my largest class 10 students, I have no co-teacher, and I get to sleep in (and watch the bowl games muwahahaha)

In the foreigner community here, the age old debate of which is better, hagwon or public school, rages on forever. I'm not going rehash this argument again (but probably will lol), but I'm only going to talk about it from my perspective and what I like about each.

In public school I liked having 20 days of vacation along with random classes being cancelled. Although I am still not a morning person, I liked finishing at 4:30 and being able to use the rest of the day to meet up with friends for dinner, exercise, etc.

Here at my hagwon now, I only have 10 vacation days (+ national holidays), and although I start anywhere from 2-4 pm, I finish anywhere from 8:30-10:05 pm.

There are positives and negatives to this. Like I said I am still not a morning person, so sleeping until 9,10,11 is nice. So if I want to watch some of the bowl games this year, I can do it before work. Or if I want to catch a Pistons game, I can do the same.

The only reason I don't like finishing late is because it leaves little time to hang out with people afterwards (excluding the other two foreign teachers at my hagwon).

But it's all good. I get some downtime after work, and I'm making it a point to do something every weekend (Saturday and Sunday)

Not having a coteacher is nice. And the curriculum is pretty much set. I follow the book, and then play a game the last 10-15 minutes of class. I also have freedom to deviate a bit from the book (ask questions/discuss topics further). My favorite classes are the screen classes where the kids learn by watching an English movie. They answer questions, fill in certain phrases, etc. The kids chose Dr. Dolittle the other day and were pretty entertained by Eddie Murphy.

My school also pays for my dinner. And I don't mean they provide a generic dinner. I mean we can all choose something off one of the many menus, order it, and it's paid for. This is going to save me tons of money. I can also eat in peace without fear of offending someone because I didn't eat a certain dish (seemed all to common at public school)

All in all, despite the many horror stories you hear about hagwons, there are good ones out there. It looks like I've found one and if I had to have a gripe, it would only be my apartment which is a little older (but lots of space), and the kids above my apartment me who feel the need to stomp, pound, and jump constantly on the floor in the mornings and at night before bed haha.

But it all depends on you and what you want. There are good and bad public schools. There are bad and good hagwons. There are positives and negatives with each. I like the smaller classes, but I also know I will be envious of my public school friends who have that longer vacation LOL. I think I researched my school pretty well, and so far my experience here is showing that. I'm learning the ropes of this job pretty quickly (it was a little confusing at first), and I will definitely try my best to do an excellent job here.