Yes Youngdo vs. My Previous Hagwon

The biggest problem I had working day-to-day at my first hagwon in Korea was that the working days were way too long!! We had kindergarten in the morning and early afternoon, elementary school after that and even middle school classes. Last classes finished around 7:30. First ones began around 9:30. That made for a long day!

When I was doing the job search which led to finding employment with Yes Youngdo, the very first thing I looked for in a job was shorter working hours. After that I considered the pay and location. When I found the job at Yes Youngdo I was tired of the job search and wanted to get something ASAP. The fairly short ad on Dave's Esl Cafe which led to my apply stated the working hours were 2-10pm M-F. It may have also said the teaching hours were 4-10. I was satisfied with that. It seemed much better than the hours I had though I would've prefered a little less. When I started working I did feel a difference working shorter days.

However, If I were to make a list of all the pros and cons of the two hagwons, I think I would find that Yes Youngdo fell short in every single area except the working hours.

• Apartment - previous hagwon gave us singles while at Yes Youngdo we shared.
• distance to hagwon - previous hagwon was 2 minute walk from apartment; at Yes Youngdo it was 10 minutes.
• class size - previous hagwon - up to 10, often less; Yes Youngdo - 14, sometimes less
• classroom size - previous hagwon - big enough for teacher to move around room comfortably, space between teacher and students, students sat in tables aranged in U-shape, teacher could easily attend to each student; at Yes Youngdo - this was really bad! 14 desks in 3 rows with absolutely no space between them, teacher had small space at front of room, when standing in front I was looking at the 2nd row, not the first, no way to reach students in 2nd or 3rd row to offer help except for maybe moving desks around.
• curriculum - big difference - previous hagwon we taught many subjects, sometimes did art projects or sang songs, other interesting projects, teacher was free to teach as they wanted as long as they covered the material for each month; at Yes Youngdo every single class was planned! There was so much to do, no time for extra activities. And every class was to be conducted with exactly the same activities in the same order everyday.
• Tests/Quizzes - at my previous hagwon we could give quizzes when we wanted, a test was required once a month. we were free to use the hagwon's test, make our own or combine them. At Yes Youngdo we had to give a quiz in every class, same vocabulary quiz each time. I was never told that I could make my own.
• Homework: at my previous hagwon we were expected to give homework sometimes, however it was up to us how often we gave it. Also we could give any type we wanted. We could even assign artwork as homework or writing a poem. At Yes Youngdo we had to assign homework everyday, and the homework assignments as I remember were all the same! Answering questions in a workbook over the reading done in class was the only type of homework I remember. And the beginning of each class had to be spent going over it!
• American textbooks: Yes Youngdo was proud to have these as part of their curriculum. Only problem was that the students in my class didn't seem to understand. They had to read texts full of short stories designed for US high and middle school students. I remember on the first day reading one sentence from a short story they had read and thinking there's no way they can understand that! At my first hagwon the manager stressed to me once that it was important for the students to understand. I never used such difficult material there as I recall.
• Apartment furnishings - At both hagwons we had tables, beds, chairs. At my former hagwon I had a TV and VCR though it took some time to get them from the school. At Yes Youngdo in my apartment there was only one TV which didn't work very well and it was kept in the room of the person I shared the apartment with. Also at my former hagwon I had a phone while at Yes Youngdo there was none. I had to make some trips to the pay phones because I hadn't yet bought a cell phone. I didn't know what steps foreigners had to take to acquire a cell phone and no one at Yes Youngdo offered any help! Eventually I got one but not after going through some phone cards and borrowing friends' cell phones a few times. I heard some complaints of showers not working well from Yes Youngdo teachers.
• Coming to Korea: at my previous hagwon someone was sent to pick up each teacher from the airport. At Yes Youngdo it wasn't this way.
• Trip to Immigration Office: The owner of my first hagwon took me and another teacher by car one Saturday morning and then to lunch afterwards. At Yes Youngdo the manager gave me the necessary information and told me to take the subway some morning.
• Birthdays/Going-Aways: At my first hagwon every single time a teacher had a birthday or finished their stay the boss arranged for a cake, drinks, or pizza and bought a card which was signed by everyone. Candles were lit. Little fireworks. Whole nine yards. During one of the breaktimes we had a mini party. At Yes Youngdo there was none of it - nothing. Not a word was said by the management about teachers who were leaving. I couldn't help but notice this. Several teachers had birthdays or finished their contracts while I was there.
• Special Activities: Again, my first hagwon won here. Since we were in control of the classes as long as we covered the material there was time for an occasion class trip to McDonald's, a soccer game, singing Christmas carols, coloring a large Christmas tree and other decorations, spending a class playing games in honor of a student's birthday, going away or another special time. There was also an all day festival at Halloween with the teachers in costume and part of the hagwon converted into a haunted house. I'm sure there was more but this is all I can think of at this time. Once I got into teaching at Yes Youngdo, not only was it disappointing to realize that my new hagwon fell short in so many areas, but also looking ahead I guessed that we would never have any of these special activities at Halloween, Christmas or another time. I do remember that there was a little class time for games on some occasions at Yes Youngdo if the material was covered, but there was so much to do in every class there wasn't much time like this.
• Help/Advice/Discipline/Management: This was interesting to say the least. At my first hagwon there were two manager who spoke English perfectly whom we could go to when any questions and problems came up. And they always do when you're a foreign teacher working at a Korean hagwon! Also, when a problem was really serious, we had the option of going to talk to the owner of the school. The manager and owner also took care of discipline problems. Well at Yes Youngdo it was different. When I arrived we had one manager who was a young Korean-American who didn't like his job or living in Korea according to the other teachers. I never heard of teachers going to him to ask about their classes or apartments. I didn't feel that he was really there to help us. He didn't seem to want to help us now that I recall. Later he was replaced by a manager who took his job seriously but mistreated a lot of teachers according to the links I've posted. When we had a discipline problem we were supposed to go to an office girl who was young, not long out of college, and who didn't really like her job either! She wasn't really good with discipline, not as strict as someone in that job needs to be. While I was working there it was announced that she was going to move on to another, probably better job.
• More about the managers: At my first hagwon the two managers had years of hagwon experience, took their jobs seriously, and seemed satisfied with their jobs. At Yes Youngdo the manager and the girl taking care of discipline problems when I arrived were both young, without much experience, and not satisfied with their jobs. The next manager who came was older, more experienced, and worked harder. However thinking back on him, how he treated teachers, his attitude, I don't think he was very happy all around and I don't think he really liked his job. When you are a foreign teacher at a hagwon, these people are very important! If you want to have a good hagwon you must have great people in these positions!
• Photos: At my first hagwon a professional photographer was brought in to take group and individual photos. We all received free copies. At Yes Youngdo, after arriving, the manager told me to one day walk down the street to have a photo taken for 15,000 won which would be reimbursed.
• Teacher's room: My previous hagwon had two spaces in two buildings. When I left all the teachers were working in a building which had a large, very comfortable teacher's room. Each teacher had their own space, chair and cabinet for storage. It was nice looking. At Yes Youngdo we had a smaller room with a table and chairs around it which looked more sterile. There wasn't enough room for all the teachers to sit at the table at one time. During break times some teachers went to this room while others probably stayed in their own rooms or went to a certain place to smoke. Had we had spacious and comfortable classrooms then I don't think the teachers rooom would have matter so much, but we didn't.
• Decor: As I remember the office and all the rooms at Yes Youngdo were painted white, sterile and without decor. At my previous hagwon the walls were painted colors like pink or blue and the teachers covered the walls of their classrooms with students' artwork and posters which the hagwon provided.
• Trips: At my former hagwon we were taken on several day or overnight trips to places like Kangwan-do. While employed at Yes Youngdo there was no trip like this, nor did I hear of one in the past. Later on I did read online that there was one. What's funny is that I asked about this while talking to the manager over the phone when he called to say I'd been accepted. I asked about trips, meaning for the staff and teachers, and he told me that two teachers had travelled to Cheju-do together. I didn't ask more about it.
• Taking teachers out to dinner: (This is one perk that a lot of foreign teachers enjoy. Koreans love to eat out.) Every now and then all the teachers and staff at my previous hagwon were taken out to a restaurant such as VIPs. At YY one time the owner took the teachers out in groups to a restaurant. That my was only chance to really talk to him that I remember. Also one manager and the teachers were instructed to meet someplace for lunch. Some teachers were new then and didn't know how to get to this place. The management didn't explain. I remember explaining it to them myself just a short time before we were supposed to be there. At my previous hagwon we all went together, as I recall driven by the owners or other staff members. We didn't have to pay for the taxi or subway then, but at YY we were expected to.
• Getting Sick! - every teacher coming to Korea knows about this, especially those going to Seoul. So what do you do when you first get sick? It helps a lot to have someone from your workplace guide you to a doctor's office or pharmacy and explain in Korean what is wrong. Now that I think about it...both of my hagwons did well here.
  The list goes on. (I've actually come back and added to it twice since first publishing this post.) I'm surprised at just how much I remember, and how many ways in which Yes Youngdo didn't measure up. Anyone reading this is probably dying to ask one question: Why didn't I quit? I'm asking myself that. I'm going to explain that soon in another writing.

If I had known about either of these two things I wouldn't have taken this job: class size and classroom size. After teaching up to 10 in each class at my former hagwon, I never, never would have accepted an offer from Yes Youngdo had I known there were 14 per class. Simply put, it's hard enough to manage ten extremely energetic kids after school in a hagwon class.The job ad at Dave's Esl Cafe which led me to apply didn't include that information at that time. Had the job advertisement mentioned this I would have kept looking. I'm absolutely sure of this.

As far as the classroom size goes, had I seen the hagwon particularly the classrooms before signing the contract I wouldn't have signed it. I would advise teachers coming to Korea to forget the free airfare and go ahead and buy their ticket so that they can check places out before working there. Were I looking for a new teaching job now in Korea I would definitely do this.

I'm adding here that the classroom was so small that I don't think it would be allowed in an institute in the US/CAN/AU or other countries English teachers come from. 14 kids plus 1 teacher = 15 people. I know that Western countries have laws regarding how large classrooms, meeting rooms and such places need to be.

Talk about claustrophobia! I could take the Seoul subway on a Saturday afternoon and not feel claustrophobic but I definitely felt it in this classroom. And I think the kids did too. Of course they don't realize the lack of space is getting to them, they just feel antsy.

I'll be checking this post again and may add more.