We have a new intro! In episode #76, we fly from Vancouver to Montreal to Brussels, Belgium where my friend Steven meets us, and then he drives us to his house in Höngen, Germany.
sarah
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Episode #48 – Busan 2014
In episode #48, Sarah and I take a train to Busan to see the beach, eat some vegan food, and find classic VHS tapes.
Hagwon Pros and Cons
Hagwons/Academies are the most common job offer in Korea. We’ve now been in Korea for about a year and have worked at two hagwons and met dozens of other foreigners who work in hagwons. We thought we’d compile a list of the typical pros and cons of working at a hagwon.
We’ll start with Cons. If you can get through them to read the Pros then you’re probably gonna be fine.
Cons
1. Long hours or late hours.
The typical schedule is either 9:30-6:30 or 2:00-10:00. Now that honestly is the same as most jobs back in America that I’ve had. But keep in mind you work with children and will be talking all.day.long. It’s incredibly draining. Which leads to the next point.
2. Very little vacation time.
You will only get 2 week long vacations and you don’t get to pick the dates. Plus a few long weekends thanks to national holidays. That’s it. Better not try to use those sick days as personal days either. I didn’t think much of this til now. I’m tired a lot, all the time, and miss being able to plan my vacations. I worked at a preschool in America, very similar to a hagwon, and we had substitutes. So we could request extra days off when we needed it. Which happens when you work with kids all day. That is not gonna happen in a hagwon.
3. Stress and worry.
If you’re not stressed and worried then you work at an A plus school. But there is almost always something to stress and worry about. If it’s not those typical hagwon bosses skimping on pay and benefits then it’s overbearing parents who have incredibly high expectations. We have had a constant level of stress since beginning work in Korea. It gets old, but it never goes away.
4. Cultural differences.
The anthropologist in me doesn’t want to write this. It seems ethnocentric. But Sean said it’s important for people to know.
Management styles and employee expectations are quite different from America. Your boss is likely to be both demanding and indirect. Explaining or defending yourself is not customary. That’s been hard to adjust to. And in a hagwon you usually work closely with a boss of some sort, whether it’s the actual director or a head teacher. Be prepared for lots of critique, very little positive feedback, and a difficult time asking for things/help/etc.
Bonus:
My bonus con is that I feel like I’m contributing to a negative, counter intuitive education system. I feel very sorry for my kids. They have longer school days than I do. And their told to pass tests, not learn real skills. It’s kinda depressing to be part of that.
Pros
Okay, you made it.
1. Choices
When you decide to work at a hagwon, you will be able to pick the exact school/contract you want. With public schools and universities you can’t be as choosy. So you’ll be able to do dozens of interviews, read a million contracts, and pick the one you like the most.
2. Pay
Pay is a definite plus and you can negotiate this. The longer you’re in Korea the higher your salary.
3. Simple work
I just had this talk with a friend. I decided this phrase sums up hagwons pretty much perfectly: It isn’t easy, but it’s simple. Nothing I do taxes my intellectual abilities. The work is simple. Writing lesson plans, teaching, grading, and assessing. Same thing every day. The routine is something I can count on.
Bonus:
I genuinely enjoy being around kids. Especially my kindergarten students. They are really cute. And some students are a lot of fun to be around. They can make a shitty day feel better with their little kid witticisms. Even if their shitty attitudes are the reason you have a bad day other times.
Both lists could be expanded. But I think this is a good start.
Trust me when I say there are a variety of hagwons and experiences here in Korea. There are plenty of happy, content, angry, depressed, whatever, hagwon teachers out there. A lot of how you feel about your job is perspective. But at the same time there are forces you can’t control. I think knowing these things about hagwons and realizing you can’t change some things will help in adjusting to a new job in a new country.
And if you do find yourself in a hagwon, good luck. I hope you get to be one of those happy teachers with a good experience. Korea sure could use more of those stories.
Episode #36 – PLANT itaewon, seoul
in this episode, we show you PLANT, an all vegan cafe in Itaewon.
review by sarah:
this is one of our favorite places in seoul.
PLANT is an all vegan cafe. this is incredible since if we want to have an all veg menu we usually have to go to the religion crazy loving huts.
the restaurant is run by mipa, the rather popular blogger for Alien’s Day Out.
she bakes and makes some amazing lunch type meals. the baked goods range from cake slices and cookies to scones and oreo brownies. the meals are usually some sort of sandwich, wrap, curry, or stew with a side. baked goods range from ₩2000-5500 and the meals are ₩12000.
i’m in there about 2-3 times a month. i probably should lay off going out so much but i justify it by telling myself im just supporting an all vegan establishment 😉
C.O. Episode #8 – The Walk from MyMart
In episode #8, Sarah tells us about the drinks and food we picked up from mymart, our local grocery store.
January 24th – C.O. Episode #8
C.O. series episode #8 features Sarah and will be up Friday January 24th.
Stay tuned.
Happy Holidays!
Christmas Craft Friday the 13th
That is a long title but it is all true. Today was Friday the 13th, but that doesn’t mean anything here.
But because it was Friday it did mean that we did Crafts! We hadn’t made crafts in about a month so it was long overdue. This Friday was Christmas themed because can you believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away?!
This craft was all Sarah’s doing. She came up with making Christmas trees and wreaths out of pipe cleaner. No link for this one, just take green pipe cleaner, bend it to the shape of a triangle, and wrap red, silver, blue across and down like lights until you get to the bottom. add more colors to make it festive and a star on top. Wreath is the same way, make a circle and wrap red and green or whatever color you like. This craft is great for level 1’s all the way up to adults!
As you will see below, our students loved it.
Sarah is explaining how to make the trees
the finished tree
christmas trees and wreaths
Here is a gallery of all the craft-making.
One of our students made Santa Claus glasses with Santa Claus’s wearing glasses. How cool and clever is that?
Just be prepared because you will be cleaning up a lot of glitter!
With Christmas only 2 weeks away, we will having more christmas themed posts, so stay tuned!
C.O. Episode #3: “The Apartment Walk Through”
In episode 3, the MTV Cribs edition, you get the full tour of our apartment here in Sinpyeong-Myeon, South Korea. I explain how to get into the building and Sarah shows you around our apartment with loads of details.
Also, new updated versions of episodes 1 and 2 are now in the new c.o. video series section and can be seen here:
Please let us know what you think in the comments below.
And as always, stay tuned for more.
Cravings
We are both vegan. We also live in the way out country in Korea. For the first few weeks we lived on rice, tofu, and vegetables and that was okay. In fact it was delicious and not far off from how we ate back home. But I am a picky eater and I like to maintain a certain level of not only variety but nutrition in my diet. I got bored and hungry and concerned about things like protein and whatever else.
Then along comes iherb.com
My Mom recommended this site to me. Before I left Oregon actually. I was whining to her about how I wouldn’t be able to get my brand of toothpaste or favorite essential oils while in Korea. (can you tell who is writing this yet?) She told me that she used this site regularly because she also lives in the boonies and it’s cheaper for her to order it online than to drive to the nearest health food store.
So we ordered from this site. Twice. It was like Christmas. So many goodies and things we hadn’t seen for weeks.
This was our latest haul. We keep it under 16lbs for shipping costs.
all the goods yum! yum!
this was a “trial” since it is a new item. 54oz for $15. whoa awesome!
this was free! each purchase with iherb gets to choose from a list of free items.
Sean took photos as I impatiently waited to start soaking some chickpeas. Can’t wait to mash em up into hummus. Or throw some into a soup. Variety is where it’s at. And nutrition too.
If you’re interested in iherb I highly recommend it. As I mentioned in the captions there are fantastic deals to be had. Whenever they get new products they put them “on trial” so you get things for 50% off or more. They also have weekly 20% off specials on various brands. And there are free items. It’s usually things under $3-$4, but sometimes they have books or something really great. They also sent us that tote for free and this was only our second time ordering. After visiting international groceries in Seoul, I can say for sure this site is cheaper and has way better deals.
Best part for us though, hands down, has to be the $4 shipping to Korea! What! So great.
Your first purchase at iherb is $5-$10 off, and they give fantastic discounts, including for orders over $60 and on multiple purchases. The link we shared goes to our page where there is a promo code for the discount.
iherb is steadily becoming like a grocery store to us. Are there any other great sites out there for purchasing internationally? Let us know!
conleys overseas 