Why I like teaching in a public school.

Before coming to Korea, I struggled with whether to take a public or private school job. Ultimately, of course, I decided to go the public school route through EPIK. Every week, I listen to an excellent podcast called Seoul Survivors, by a guy named Carl and a rotating female guest, usually another English teacher. A few weeks ago, they briefly discussed teaching in public schools vs. hagwons (private schools), and they, both only having taught in hagwons, didn't have a lot to say about public schools, and what information they did have was pretty outdated. Here's an email I sent to Carl after listening regarding why I like being a public school teacher.



Hi Carl,

First off, let me say that I really enjoy your podcast. Listening to it in the weeks before I came to Korea really got me excited about living here. I just wanted to expound a little on the email you read last week concerning the EPIK program.

*We did stay at Korea University for orientation, just their branch campus in Jochiwon, which is in fact a small town of only about 30,000. We were fed for free and housed in dorms for a week while given information from veteran english teachers as well as Korean teachers on what to expect in the classroom.

*EPIK does place teachers in large cities. Before 2002, however, public schools had no mandate to place native teachers in schools, so usually public schools who did request teachers were in rural areas where there were no hagwons. Now, EPIK teachers are placed in every city in Korea besides Seoul. Seoul has its own program for placing native English teachers, SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education). Teachers I was with during orientation were placed in Incheon, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, and other places. Of course, there are still plenty of teachers who do not get placed in large cities, but you can request to be placed near or in one. Just like you said though, you don't really have a choice about which city you go to.

*The 11 month contract thing must have ended awhile back, because none of the EPIK vets mentioned it during orientation and all our contracts are definitely 12 month.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed being a public school teacher, much more than I think I would have teaching at a hagwon. It depends on what you want, though. I have a lot of friends here in Ulsan that teach at hagwons, and they seem happy with their jobs. Since that's your area of expertise, I'll let you wax poetic about them :) Here are just a few reasons why I chose to go the public school route.

1. Government job, so automatically guaranteed to get paid on time, not have insurance/pension/tax issues with shady hagwon owners.

2. Morning work hours. My hours are 9-5, in which I only teach 4 or 5 classes a day. Of course, many people would list that as a downside, but coming from teaching in the US, I'm used to working during the day and having my afternoons/evenings free. I also don't mind staying at school when I'm not teaching. I just go online and play games, read message boards, listen to podcasts, etc. :) Some hagwon teachers say they'd hate this though, so to each their own.

3. Structured curriculum. I have a little freedom to do things in class, but for the most part, each one of my classes is scripted out for me. A little dialogue, a little freeform conversation, and a little pronunciation. I teach right out of the textbook, which means no planning!

4. Co-teacher. I have a co-teacher who is in the classroom with me that helps with translation and general crowd control. This is identical to English teachers in Japan. Again, this is something that some hagwon teachers say they'd hate, but personally, coming from teaching in the states and being responsible for everything, I'm more than content to sit back and let my coo-teacher handle the discipline (usually with her big stick :) ).

Anyway, I know that this email is a bit long-winded, so feel free to use as much or as little as you'd like on your podcast. I just want to make sure no one is scared away from a public school teaching job based on outdated information.

Your podcast is awesome. Keep up the great work.

John in Ulsan