What I'll Always Remember

First of all, maybe I shouldn't have used that title. There is a lot I will always remember and I can't fit it all here.

What I want to write in this post is this: I'll always remember the "bad" students, some horrible, that I had when teaching in hagwons. But on top of that I'll remember how the Korean teachers/staff dealt with those students. People think that Koreans are strict in schools, and it's true that they are - sometimes. What I remember though is that 90% of the problems were "solved" by a Korean staff member simply saying "It's okay." or something like that. Or simply listening to my story and then doing NOTHING.

This also happened when I spoke to Korean acquaintances or adult students about this. Very few, in fact I recall just three of them, were sorry about the bad behavior of students I had. The rest of them answered in one way or another "It's okay."

One time I remember being bothered that Korean teachers could do more in terms of handling these students. They could call parents. They could speak Korean of course and say things to kids that foreign teachers couldn't say and that would include threatening them with what they can do or telling them of rewards which they may be able to earn if they behave well.

There are so many problems in hagwons that most teachers don't stay working at one for a long time. I couldn't have worked at any of the hagwons I worked at indefinitely. I've heard of foreign teachers working at one hagwon for as long as five years. Those are exceptions.