As a hagwon owner, and having connections with other hagwon owners, the stories reaching your ears about teachers screwing stuff up does spark up the imaginations, and can easily create a negative attitude that remains as a cautious tale within the memory for future teachers to deal with.  ESL Teachers in Asia are their own worst nightmare, and they make it difficult for all of their colleagues to have a good career.  To be completely honest, I do feel that more than enough of expats (irregardless of their nationality and position) can make it more and more difficult for all the other expats to do business in Asia.  I am not always surprised at how some Asians do have a bad taste in their mouth when meeting Westerners, especially if they experience or hear the stories I have  heard AND experienced.

The Contract

A big problem in South Korea is the contract, or the seemingly lack of value of the contract to ensure the rights of the teachers.  A contract is an agreement between two people.  Many employees seem to forget that.  There is also an implied, unwritten, meaning to the contract.  A promise that you both will try to attain a certain goal.  A school, especially a smaller hagwon, does not have the capacity to just lose a teacher, so when a teacher chooses to exercise his right to quit his job (which I am in support of, don’t assume differently), a Korean academy owner cannot just replace the teacher on the fly, and will try to do anything in their power to try and keep the teacher there until they can find a replacement. The problem is, if you have studied a bit of Game Theory, there is always a problem with what we call the End Game.  When two individuals don’t trust each other, but they have an ongoing relationship, the chance that they betray each other is very low, due to the fact they need each other, but once one party has decided to finish the mutual beneficial relationship, the probability that either of them cheat is practically 100%.

This is why, ending the cooperative relationship, especially between two people from completely different cultures and no other connection apart from the one they are, the ESL market is in such dire straits.  Teacher should be very aware of this situation.

Singles

Single Expats who are flush in cash and young are probably the worst representation of any culture.  Alcohol, hormones and cash are probably a very good way to get the worst out of people.  Not all succumb, probably very few do, but the problem with generalizations is that they are quickly made when they put the local populace in a better light, especially on the battle field of acquiring female attention.  Most people willing to accept teaching jobs in Asia are single, young people, needing to pay off loans or comparing their potential incomes in different situation. People are not idiots, and earning more money is better than earning less money.  Teaching is not the hardest job, it doesn’t require special skills that can only be learned by a happy few.  I am not talking about being a good teacher, I am talking about the act of teaching.  They come over, earn around 2.000 dollars in cash and don’t need to pay rent.  Even if you have to pay off a loan, the fact that you have no family to maintain, no rent to pay, most of that money becomes disposable money.  Add the potential boredom of having no family and no long time friends (the fleeting expat friends …), the mind needs a distraction, since dealing with kids 6 hours a day can have a detrimental effect on mental stability, and a healthy lifestyle.    What am I trying to get to?  Recipe for trouble, is what I am getting to.  Why do Big companies only send families to expat positions, exactly for the reason that their business will suffer if their representative gets into trouble.

I am not going to tell you what you should and should not do.  I am not going to sermon about ethics and morality.  I am just telling you how I perceive the situation, the reality of what is going on.  Yes, my opinion is biased, and so is yours.  The difference is, I know your point of view, but you do not know mine.

Wow!  check it out! Banning “Advanced Learning”

I am not sure if President Park has ever read the Korean constitution.

Article31
(1)All citizens shall have an equal right to an education corresponding to their abilities.
(2)All citizens who have children to support shall be responsible at least fort heir elementary
education and other
education as provided by Act.
(3)Compulsory education shall be free of charge.
(4)Independence, professionalism and political impartiality of education and the autonomy of institutions of higher learning shall be guaranteed under the conditions as prescribed by Act.
(5)The State shall promote lifelong education.
(6)Fundamental matters pertaining to the educational system,including school and lifelong education, administration,
finance, and the status of teachers shall be determined  by Act.

Why do I even worry about the antics of President Park.  If she wants that bill to come into law, it will be immediately annulled by simply invoking the constitution.  You cannot fight the private education industry with the LAW, it is not possible unless you change the constitution.  Who are her advisers.  If she would give me half their salary, I could come up with a far more effective deterrent to excessive spending in private education,without having to resort to bullying tactics.  I really wonder what the hell is going on in their minds.

I wrote about this in the past.

The government’s actions are simply said, not incentive compatible.  If they truly want to liberate the parents from exhaustive expenses on education, you don’t resolve it by putting a lot of energy in closing down businesses, you provide an alternative.  In this case, quality public education.  But Korea doesn’t have the budget for that, that is why individual parents are paying for it.  Ergo sum, it’s cheaper to try and break the hagwon industry.

If President Park would be successful in closing down my business, due to all those extreme measures, what will happen?  The same that happened with Prohibition and the War on Drugs.  It will go underground and it will become a crime. Not only will it become a crime, the costs will go up even more dramatically due to higher risk for the entrepreneurial spirit.  I have no problems with regulations that are sensible, it just forces the business to respect basic rights of the individuals and reduces potential abuse.  But pushing the law a bit too far will only create more criminals and no real solution to the problem.

What could kill my business outside of this obnoxious attempt?  The solutions are obvious, but they require huge amount of willpower from the people and the government on changing the way society in Korea is stuck together.

Cheers

I have a whole list of resources for you to read through at the bottom of this post, but they are all saying the same thing.  They are not really discussing the real problem of the LOR.

Let us get down to some basics:

1. No institution is LEGALLY required to write a LOR.

2. Immigration REQUIRES a LOR for visa transfer to a different sponsor.  You obviously don’t need one to get a NEW E-2 (E-1) visa.

I just called Immigration on 1345 (3 * 0) and asked an officer there, under the pretense that I am hiring an E-2 visa holder, but that the other hagwon is not willing to write a LOR unless we “compensate” that school.  The answer was, “It is Immigration Law”.  I requested from her to tell me which law exactly, which book, which chapter, etc …  The officer in question could not answer, even after consulting her colleagues, and requested if she could call me in 30 mins.  I always love it when people say it’s the law, but when you ask which one, where is it written down, when was it ratified, a lot of people realize they have no basis for the information they spread.

My contention is that it violates The Korean Constitution, Chapter 2 Article 12 (1), which states:

Article 12  [Personal Liberty, Personal Integrity]
(1) All citizens enjoy personal liberty.  No person may be arrested, detained, searched, seized, or interrogated except as provided by law.  No person may be punished, placed under preventive restrictions, or subject to involuntary labor except as provided by law and through lawful procedures.

I believe that the LOR is a direct violation of this specific part of the Korean constitution.

Let me explain.  When you sign a contract, you fall under civil law, which, in case of trouble, needs to be fought in civil court.  Civil court is expensive.  When you start working for someone, you fall under Labor Law, now labor law falls under criminal court.  To start a criminal investigation is for FREE.  The visa restrictions fall under Immigration Law, and are at the discretionary power of the Immigration officers.

Immigration referred me then to the following site: http://www.law.go.kr/main.html, too bad it is in Korean.  They told me to look at Immigration restrictions, Article 26/2.  Isn’t it strange that a law concerning immigration cannot be found in another language.

I called immigration again, and the only answer I get is: “If the person did not finish the contract, he or she needs a LOR to be able to change visa sponsor.”  In effect, the teacher, under the discretion of his hagwon owner, cannot just terminate his contract and find new employment, which in effect, is in direct conflict with the Korean Constitution, since you are either forced to finish your contract or have to pay off your hagwon boss to get the LOR.  Indentured servitude is still being practiced in South Korea, and supported by Immigration, it seems.  I kept asking for anyone to send me an English version of the Immigration restriction article 26/2.  After 2 hours of searching, I still don’t have it.

Even 1345 could not give me the clear information, the agent on the phone even had the gall to say “whatever.”, after I thanked her for effort.  Which ended in; go to Immigration office (where no one speaks English) and get your information there, which will be exactly the same:  ”It’s the Law.” Funk that!  What about your constitution!  I am not sure what 1345 is supposed to achieve, window dressing?

So people, if ANYONE that reads this can find the English version of Article 26/2 under Immigration restrictions, PLEASE send it to me so we can open up this can of worms.

EDIT:

I spend some time looking for the article and I found the Immigration control act. Now look at page 14, there you can find article 26, or can you?

Article 26 (2) A person who intends to report the change or addition of a workplace under the proviso to Article 21 (1) of the Act shall submit reports on the change of addition of a workplace, along with documents prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice, to the head of the office or branch office..

Okay.  This rule establishes the need for the Teacher to inform that he changes the workplace, but I do not see the requirements that the LOR has to be written by the workplace.  The information at this point is thus STILL not clear and confusing.  My claim that the LOR is not consistent with the Korean constitution still holds true.

LOR Example

Details on contract termination

Visa Transfer doc reqs – VISA guide

Some opinions

Runner vs LOR

SMOE playing it dirty

This week, very few things have captured my mind to be able to write about it.  February is always a slow month, due to schools still not going into full swing.  Normally March is when the big push is.

Maybe just a few ideas, very small things.

1. When people find my site through Google, they often find it with the sentence “why do we need teachers“.  This strikes me as odd.  Either it is a reader who constantly forgets my URL, and only remembers I wrote a piece on my defense of teachers vs. technology, or there is a genuine concern that teachers might become an extinct species …. I don’t really look at my stats but today I just might.  Just now, I even have a link stating that my webpage was translated into German, that is nice.  Another funny search term is “should you worry if a student complains at your hagwon and drops your class?“, I would say if it only happens once, it is not you, if it happens five times, it’s you.  Finally, we got “what is the meaning of wangjangnim”.  Well, Wang means prince, and wonjangnim, means director.  First, I made a mistake when registering the URL, but when a Korean family member asked me why I called myself the Prince man, I decided to stick with it.

2. The most popular pages are: Trust the media, Korean Mums, A rebuttal  , Probably because they are cross linked with blogs far popular then my own.  Trust the media is me complaining about the glorification of money, especially done in such a way as to give the person making the money for him to make even more money.  So the title is short for Trust the media to screw with your mind.  Korean mums was written in response to the pressure society pushed onto woman in Korea to be a “perfect” mom, a “perfect” wife, etc …  If only people realize that perfect is like the speed of light, to attain it you need infinite  time and energy.  The rebuttal was written to try and fight the skewed perceptions that ALL HAGWONS ARE BAD.  No, they are not.  If you have attended a score of bad hagwons, maybe the problem IS you.  If I have hired a score of bad teachers, are ALL teachers bad?  No.  I suck at finding good teachers.  People should stop blaming everyone else for their misfortunes, and start dealing with the source of the problem, which simply said is, themselves.

3. My average visits per day is around 20.  That isn’t much. When people write something, they write something so they can share their POV’s with the world.  The reason I write is because I want to get feedback.  I want to test my idea’s in the real world, even if it is just a sparring of words, sometimes comments do turn on a light in my brain.  I just don’t get many of them!

4. Luckily, I had someone giving me some advice on my site, too bad I don’t have the skills to implement.  He said that reading my blog chronologically makes the most sense, from first to last, so I should find a way for readers to do that with the click of a button.  I am happy I got this blog online for so long!  He also told me my search button dissipated and that makes me angry.  I have no idea how I lost it in the first place!  Talking about SEO, I still haven’t figured out what it even means.  I got enough people trying to sell it to me though, even though I don’t make a single won on this site.

5. Hagwons going under.  A recurring idea that I hear left and right is that hagwons are going under left and right.  The problem is, I don’t know.  Are they?  Where can I get that kind of info.  I wish the hagwons in my neighborhood would all go belly up …..  What I do know, or feel, is that in my direct vicinity, capacity is just too much. People are not having a disposable income to spend on education.  And many people are starting teaching from their homes to supplement their income.  I do think that people starting hagwons, or any other small time educational center, haven’t realized the market is on the down.  Adding capacity to the market might not be the best strategic choice.  I also see a lot of fellow expatriates who normally operate in the education Industry, to try and branch out into other Industries or find a way back home.  These are all signs of the time, interconnected with each other.  The Education Industry in Korea is waning.  Now is the time to expand your options, and look for greener pastures.

Cheers, enjoy your weekend.

Someone asked me a few questions in regards to my comments on technology in the classroom, the more practical side.  This is an interesting exercise, mostly because Teachers, School owners and Developers have different POVs concerning the implementation of tech in the classroom.

I am going to be lazy and put some of my answers on this blog, leaving out the bits that I don’t want you to know, but leaving in the the bits that might be of interest to you.

Here we go:

The reason a hagwon would spend 5-10M on a classroom is the same as any other investment; Competition.  I know that a cheaper solution might be possible, but I have only looked at market prices and how much it would cost me if I wanted to set it up the way I envision it.

The question we need to ask, is it possible for a school to improve the current classroom mechanics by using technology.

The first problem for schools is capacity. Technology does not solve this problem, it might even aggrevate the problem as such, unless we make the classroom itself scaleable AND flexible. I would like to possit the idea of developping the classroom around the student rather than plunking the student in the classroom. It would also allow the teacher to increase class size in Korea (which at the moment is a paltry number for hagwons like mine) without reducing the effectiveness of the teaching. The more students in a class, the more profitable the class.

The second problem is curricula. Currently the curricula in Korea are very limited and NOT ADAPTED TO THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT. There are some discrepances between the different wishes of the parents. On one hand they want some kind of “set”, so if the kids follow this set, they can succeed at the exam, while at the same time they are tugging the idea of “my kid is unique” and needs “special care”. With a fully integrated slave tablet/Smartboard/Master Tablet integration with an internal network and Student database (with website interface for parents).  All these problems could be solved in one go. By creating a standard and allowing kids to find their own way at the same time.   Without a distributed information network, all students are forced to do the same work in the same way, not maximizing their learning potential.

Control is an essential part to make it work. It is easy for kids to get side tracked if opportunity is given.  It is like a river, the water flows free within the bounds of it’s shores.

Control on curriculum. This control is more about the ability to provide engaging content/exercises for the students. Something that currently takes a lot of time from the teachers, which is counter productive. Imagine an airplane, when does it make money? When it is flying. The same with a teacher; when does a teacher make money, when he teaches. Everything else is just a waste of his productivity, unless it improves his ability to teach (fly). A plane needs fuel, and so does a teacher, but flying is still the money maker.

Control on assesment. I do believe that scores will soon dissapear as the best way to judge kids. Currently, assessment tools are expensive and too slow, requiring too much admin (aka not teaching)! With the integrated model, assesments are mostly “automated”. We can measure the speed, the vocab, the grammar and all the other things students use their tablets for, without having the teacher spending too much time on what can be simply automated.

Control on the network. It is obvious that sometimes full access is required to teach the student how to become self-sufficient learners. But it can easily lead to abuse, ergo sum, control needs to be exercised. The teacher needs to be able to see what the student is doing, from his “master” tablet. Currently the teacher has to walk around the room to check the work, which leaves all his attention to one student at a time. Imagine if he could supervise ALL of them in the blink of an eye. Teachers attention would be more focused on assisting where assistance is needed rather than monitoring.

Control on their work/checking. Students need to make mistakes, but teachers need to give feedback. What if we could cut the energy and time spent on keeping students focused and corrected in an easy, intuitive manner. It can be even done in a playfull manner.

A computer can count how fast students do their work, where they pause, what the critical points were in their work, based on the direct feedback of the interactions with the tablet. The possibilities are endless.

* Test results
I don’t test. If children have a test (national test) and parents make a request, I will spend a week teaching them HOW to answer, but not what to answer. Parroting is a self-defeating instrument. I also find that hagwons who test inside their hagwon cannot, by any means, provide an objective measurement of their students. Their intent is to keep students in the school and will skew any test to maximize student attendance rather than student efficacy. All test should be done outside the school and by objective institutes. Korean parents don’t understand what “objective” really means.

*Communications?
I can’t give you a clear answer on that yet. I have some broad strokes in my mind how one could make it go smoother, but ultimately communications with parents need to be intesive in information and efficient in time, 2 opposites. Automating that could take a load off of teachers, admin and parents.

* Top time wasters are class prep and assesment (teacher admin). The problem is without GOOD classprep class cannot be good. Without assesment, there can be no overview/communications/follow up. The tools used should help the teacher reduce time wasted on getting it done. “Class in a can” is not a good solution. What we need to do is develop a framework for the teachers, impose an agenda on the teachers, some kind of progression, offer tools to help him prepare a class, without it costing too much search time.  Let’s say that we have a framework per “Academic year” some kind of reference point. Within that “Academic year” certain skills need to have been acquired and other skills need to be learned in prep for the next “Academic year”, Those skills could be lined up in an AGENDA, that the teacher can follow, and once the teacher notices skill A has been learned, he can go over skill B. Certain contents can be good to teach Skill A, but bad at teaching skill B, in that case, the teacher would be “advised” to use materials the school and other teachers have collected, a kind of repository of “best practices” whereby the teacher can use their own inventiveness to add to the “class”. This would reduce the teachers search time and time to think about what to teach and can focus on how to teach instead.

May you benefit from the new lunar New year.

Another fan mail!  Actually, it’s the same person who asked about how to handle the kids.  This time the problem is focused on how to get a handle on the complaints.

Let’s look at the heavily edited e-mail:

 I’d also love it if you could post about classic complaints from mothers of students and how teachers can avoid the cardinal sins that bring them about in the first place.

This is a hard one.  First I would like to take a look at the situation. The conclusion is the one I keep on bantering about.  In South Korea, the self-worth of the mother is defined by the academic success of her children.  This is the source of the huge amount of complaints.  Mothers, in the least, have to pretend they are concerned to the minute with their kids performance, or else!

80% of the complaints I have received are disguised excuses to pull the kid out of school, because they think another school can do better, but for some reason they don’t want to tell me.  These complaints are the single most random thing imaginable.  There is no guiding principle or reoccurring issue.  For instance, I prefer not to give homework to children, so that becomes a frequent complaint, even though, at the initial meeting, I make it clear to them that I don’t give homework, unless the kids don’t perform well enough in class.  My classes are rowdy, I want my kids to learn how to channel their energy and give them freedom to learn how to make mistakes and learn from them.  I focus my classes on getting these kids to talk. How do you get kids to talk when they have to be silent?  Well, that is one complaint, kids make too much noise in class…  So you see, whatever you do and how ever you do it, complaints are the best way to cut classes without “losing face” (we really need to find an alternative explanation).

The other 20%, I wouldn’t call them complaints but genuine concern about their kids improvements.  These 20% are actually very interesting and if the complaint is handled well, these parents tend to stick around for a very long time.  A few examples.  I often have kids who have trouble learning as fast as the other kid, irregardless of what you try to do.  you see them doubt, you see them squint.  The squinting is a dead give away the kid needs glasses.  Consequently, by just telling the kids to wear glasses, they pick up the pace and go as fast as the other kids.  A Lot of kids come in with lack of confidence due to the constant attack on their abilities (or perceived lack thereof).  Going over the basics again, those mothers will complain “My kid can do that already!”, until I show them clearly that they don’t. I love going back to basics, even with kids who can read and write without too much problem, I will sometimes notice a minor reoccurring problem, and spend a few classes going back over some basic rules and exercises.  It breeds confidence, confidence in themselves and the belief that they just have try one more time.

You, as a teacher though, will be the butt end of the complaint.  it is never the boss’s fault, it is never the curriculum’s fault, it is always the teachers fault, especially since you don’t speak Korean.  You are going to have to learn how to handle those complaints.  Instead of fighting the complaint, work with it, come up with a solution (imagined or otherwise) and propose it to the boss, If A is the problem, and B a possible solution, can I do B?  You show in your lesson planning you implemented the (minor) change, get the Boss to take credit for it, est voila, problem solved.  Not really, but you get the drift.

Customer complaints are incredibly important, but not all businesses are able to asses properly which complaint is valid and which is not.  It is not that easy to deal with.  A bit like The Boy who cried “Wolf!”.  But in this case, you really don’t want to loose your sheep.

There you go.  I don’t have a solution for you, and I doubt anyone does.

There is some rather long winded, but interesting read discussing why privatization is maybe not a good thing for Education (with a big E).

Part I and Part II

His basic idea is that privatization does not lead to a better education system and he uses Korea as a way to establish that idea.

The private education in Korea is, simply put, ineffective.  Given the huge expenses parents pay, the results are disappointing.

As a hagwon owner, and as someone who tries very hard to start a change, I think he is missing a piece of the puzzle.  Every time I read people lamenting about the educational system, it’s more often than not, the hagwons fault.  I am sorry, but you are wrong.

Hagwons deliver a service to the people, but it are the people that make the choices to go to a specific hagwon or not. The wallet talks.

The problem is that Koreans don’t KNOW what is good education, because the overall system does not support the education that the above mentionned blogger wants to see in existence.

Success, for the middle class, in Korea, means having a job at one of the major employers in Korea, preferably in a management position.  To get that job, you need to go to the top Universities, to get into the top Universities, you need to pass the test, to pass the test you need to go to the best high schools and the best hagwons, to get into the best high schools you need to go to the best middle schools and best hagwons, to get into the best middle schools you need to go to the best elementary schools and best hagwons, to get into the best elementary schools, you need to go to the best Kindergartens (who basically are operating as hagwons these days).  All you need for hagwons, is money.  This is the Korean model, and therefore not a good representation of the rest of the world. Privatization in Korea has failed mostly because of the system Koreans got stuck into.  Hagwons are not to blame, they just provide a service to parents who want the best for their kids.  Don’t blame the medicine, blame the disease.

In South Korea, the government is actually fighting AGAINST privatization, against the hagwons, which in turn makes it very difficult for hagwons to innovate.  They don’t innovate due to lack of incentive and profit driven demand, they don’t innovate because the government takes away the means for us to do so.

Added to that, the real discussion on education is much bigger than just bickering about WHO gets to do it.  Ultimately the difference between Public and Private is the difference between who pays for it, the taxpayer or the individual.  The real problem is that everyone feels that our current educational system does not prepare us for the future.

Diplomas?

The video above makes a good point, albeit a bit too much of an MBA course with a lot of words and he keeps running around the point he is trying to make.

Degrees no longer suffice the requirements of our needs to do well in a business environment.

Innovation in education at this point is to turn around the concept of education and built the system around the student rather than forcing the student to fit inside the system.

I have created my school to fit this new model, but people don’t get it.  A few do, a few can see that I work on skills and passions, that I try to find out what it is the students want to do and teach them the skills to go there.  But parents are still looking at test scores, because they can understand test scores.  Test scores is one number that says it all.  I just wish human beings weren’t so complex, and we could all put a simple number on our faces that would dictate our value to society …… Not.  We need to step away from ranking people, comparing people, let the HR managers do that, not the teachers.

Let’s stop making our kids feel inadequate.

Sorry People.

Will do a post soon, but life got me preoccupied.

Enjoy the festivities.