Kwak's Language Institute - What it's like to work there

Kwak's Language Institute - What it's like to work there

3rd June 2007

Got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
Don't know what work even means

Bob Dylan - Working Man Blues #2

So, here I am. A working class man again. Putting in the hard hards at Kwak's Language Institute and getting paid for it.

The Kids
Before I came to Korea, I had a stereotype of a typical Korean kid. This kid would be hard-working, polite to the point of shy and desperate to get good grades to avoid a beating from their parents.

Like most stereotypes, it is at best only partially true. There are the hard-working polite kids, but there are other types as well:

The Demon Child
Every teacher has to face kids like this. It is part of the deal. I have kids who go out of their way to misbehave. They back chat me, shrug their shoulders in mock-misunderstanding when I try to discipline them and back chat me. I had one child say "Fuck you" to me when I refused to give him points for his work.
The point system is used to bribe the kids. Once they have accumulated enough points, the can buy stuff from Kwak's. Good stuff too like digital cameras and cell-phones.

I have kicked (or is that exorcised?) Demon Children from my classroom. This is a great source of shame for them. I did this early on to try and set a precedent with them. It only kinda worked.

Why the misbehaving though?

I think some of it comes from boredom. I teach a group of ten year olds about phonics.

C. At. Cat.

B. At. Bat.

And so on. It is mind-numbingly easy for them. If they sat down and concentrated, they could complete the whole course in about an hour.

It is no wonder the misbehave.

I try to prepare worksheets for them to do every class to give them a chance to push their minds. This seems to be helping.
The Quiet Kid
There are two types of quiet kid. The first is the one who gets drowned out by the Demon Child.
The second type exists in a classroom of other Quiet Kids.

It is very hard to get a peep out of a classroom full of Quiet Kids. Some will try to answer the question. Some will not even try and will mumble "I don't know".
It can be a little frustrating at times, but I am making progress. Little jokes here and there can bring them out of their shells.

What type of person would you like to go on holiday with Florence? I can't hear you. Did you say rich and handsome? I'm shocked Florence! Shocked!
The Tired Kid
You could just about put all the kids in this category. They come to Kwak's at three p.m. after attending their normal school during the day. Some of them stay until nine o'clock in the evening and just end up shattered. Some also go to science and music classes on other days of the week.

If they are lucky and work hard at school, then they'll get into a good university. If they are lucky and work hard at university, then they'll get a good job. If they are lucky and work hard at their job, then they'll get a promotion. If they are lucky and... Well. You get the idea.

It must get depressing for these kids. They have a long arduous path in front of them.

Hard work. Meh. I for one could do without it.
Good Kids
There is this one kid called Jake. He started out being one of the Demon Children.

I handed out assignments to his class in a desperate ploy to get them motivated. Jake took to the assignment like a fish to water. He worked hard on the assignment and seemed to be enjoying himself. He approached me excitedly whenever he thought he got the answer right. He even took the assignment home and finished it on his own time. He was very proud to show it to me the next day.

A good kid.

Split Classes

Each one hour class is split into two. A Korean teacher takes one half. A foreign teacher takes the other.

I don't like this.

Maybe I'm just a control freak. I do like to be in sole charge of a class.

Here it is all very formulaic: "Study from this book. Learn your perfect-past-continuous tenses. You will be tested".

I like to be able to try new things and be creative. I could do that in the Philippines. I can't do that here.

Not earning the big bucks

My remuneration^* package here includes:

Two million won a month salary
Flights reimbursed
One month bonus salary on completion of contract
Accommodation (about one million per month)

If we crunch all those numbers up, we get to a total package of about thirty-nine million won (~ $NZ 56,000).

Now $NZ 56,000 is good, but not great. I was earning much more than this in my previous life as an IT manager. The reason I am here is to earn money so that I can volunteer in the Philippines for a long time. The more money I earn, the longer I can stay.

So why the hell am I here and not back in New Zealand earning the big bucks? Wouldn't it make more sense to go back to New Zealand, earn more money faster, and return to Philippines sooner with more money?

I have two reasons for being here and not in New Zealand: Fear and bad memories.

Fear because it was the stress associated with working an IT job that was a catalyst to my mental health problems. I don't want to go back into that dark, dark hole.

Bad memories because that dark, dark hole is not a fun place to be. The word "hell" seems to be apt.

Settling in for the long haul

Working at Kwak's is merely okay. I don't especially hate it, I don't especially like it. I would much prefer to be in Africa or the Philippines, but that is just not possible at the moment because of the almighty dollar.

The sad fact of the matter is that I need to be earning money now. I need to pay off some sizable debts, save some money and then head off again to the place where my heart truly is.

^* On a complete aside, in my previous life as an IT package I once wrote a remuneration package for one of the leading banks in New Zealand. The policy that my system implemented led to their staff going on strike. Cool!

Do you like the work that I am doing?

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(c) 2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
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