The working conditions at most English-language institutes for children in Korea are generally quite similar; the only major difference among schools are the quality of management and teaching schedules.

Required Teaching and Preparation Time

Most hakwons require between twenty-five and thirty hours of contact teaching per week. This is most often in the form of thirty-something lessons of forty or fifty minutes each  This may seem like a lot of lessons to prepare for; however, it's likely that, during any given week, several lessons will repeat, or be the same and thus only need to be prepared for once. At all of the schools we deal with, you are paid your full monthly salary even if there are not enough classes to assign you a full teaching load. You'll be asked to make up the difference by spending time working on materials for general use.

As there are not extra foreign teachers waiting at home to be called in for substitution, you will be required to substitute for teachers who are sick or who run off unexpectedly. In a well-managed school, overtime teaching is usually less common than at badly-managed schools. Teachers who want overtime should make this clear to the Academic Supervisor. August and January are months when you can be almost certain of some overtime teaching. During these two months, the public schools are closed and, rather than taking a break, children attend the private language institutes more frequently.

As a rule of thumb, I calculate the time needed for preparation and administrative duties at about half of the classroom teaching time. So, a 25-hour teaching week becomes at 37.5 hour working week. You may find yourself spending considerably more time preparing for lessons during the first few months of your contract. As you become more familiar with the system used by the school and develop a larger bank of pre-prepared materials, necessary preparation time will decrease significantly.

Some contracts explicitly state an amount of time teachers are required to spend at work preparing for lessons. My experience has been that these stipulations are only enforced when there is a problem with an individual teacher who does not prepare adequately for class.

Teaching Schedules

In Korea, most people work six days a week (Monday - Saturday). The schools we hire for hold classes and expect teachers to be at work five days a week. We only hire for six-day per week schools if there is something outstanding in the contract that makes up for the six-day week. Normally, you teach between five and eight classes per day (depending on how long each class is). You may have more classes on some days and fewer classes on others. Often Monday, Wednesday and Friday are longer teaching days than Tuesday and Thursday. In general, kindergarten programs run from around 10am to 1pm, Elementary programs are from around 3:00pm to 6:00pm and middle school/high school from around 6:00pm to 9:30pm.. Here are some examples of typical schedules:

Kindergarten / Elementary Clientele

(MWF = Monday, Wednesday and Friday / TTh = Tuesday and Thursday)

Elementary / Middle School / Adult Clientele

(MWF = Monday, Wednesday and Friday / TTh = Tuesday and Thursday)

For Korea, the above examples are neither great nor terrible schedules. At most schools there is an informal seniority system in place whereby teachers who have been there the longest get the "tightest" schedules (spare classes at the beginning and end of the day, thereby shortening the time spent at work). It doesn't take long to gain seniority when most people are on one-year contracts!

Most schools run on monthly sessions, though some run on sessions as long as three months. Your schedule can and will change each session. In the case of monthly sessions, the changes are usually minor and involve one or two classes; with longer sessions, the changes can be significant. For this reason, it is not a good idea to make commitments to any kind of regular activities during the times you could be scheduled to teach.

If you've been looking into teaching in Korea, you've probably heard a lot of complaining about "split shifts." A lot of these complaints come from people who have never taught anywhere but Korea and are unaware of what a typical teaching load in most countries involves. The public systems in Canada and the U.S. require around 25 hours per week of classroom teaching, but the marking can be very onerous, especially for subjects like English. When I was teaching English in the public system in Canada, I had about 160 different students, each of whom handed in one or two pieces of writing every week. I spent two or three hours a day marking. In Korea, small class sizes and the nature of the learning materials result in almost no marking at all. I consider a "split shift" any schedule whereby the start of the first class and the end of the last class spans more than ten hours. Having to teach in both the morning and the afternoon is NOT a split shift.

Non-Teaching Duties

Most schools hold weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly meetings. These meetings are scheduled at a time when there are no classes and usually last less than an hour. Attendance is always mandatory and unpaid. You can also expect three or four activities on weekends that you'll be expected to participate in over the course of a year. These may be pedagogical development days or pre-scheduled activities with students. These are also normally unpaid. Once again, those who have taught in other countries will not find this unusual.

Other non-teaching duties include filling out report cards for students either once a month or once every two months. These might take anywhere from two to six hours to complete. Some schools ask teachers to telephone students at home once a month or once every two months. You schedule a two - five minute call with students in advance and then call them at home in the evening. Usually, the student knows what kind of questions you'll be asking and has practiced beforehand. This is a very clever marketing strategy as parents and family can see the student speaking English with a native speaker without traveling to the school. When I had to do this, I scheduled my calls between 7 and 8 on Wednesday evenings so that they didn't take up a lot of my time. This kind of duty shouldn't require more than 1-2 hours per week. If this seems like a lot, remember that you are not likely to have to do much marking.

You may also be asked to do things like go hiking with school staff and the director on a Sunday. Although this is voluntary, it is in your interests to go, at least sometimes. In Northeast Asia, non-workplace activities with co-workers are seen as part of working life. It is during these activities that the people who have the power to make your life easy or difficult get to know you. In addition, you'll get to see parts of the country and do things you might otherwise not do or see.

Dress Code

Though contracts may state otherwise, wearing a tie for men and a skirt for women is not usually required. For men, cotton pants, a shirt with a collar and leather shoes is usually sufficient. For women, cotton slacks or a skirt (to the knees or lower) along with a blouse is fine. Though no school will require women to wear make-up, tasteful use of cosmetics is looked upon favorably. Check with current teachers at the school about dress code to be sure.

First impressions are very important in Korea. You will be judged by your appearance and being sloppy about it, especially at the beginning of a contract, can have surprisingly negative consequences. I always advise people to overdress for the first few weeks. After that, make sure that you're one step ahead of your worst-dressed co-worker and you'll probably be fine.

None of the above should be taken as certain at any school. Rather, it is presented to give you a better idea of what's expected and to help you think of things to ask about when considering a job offer.