English Academies in the Republic of Korea
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- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 01/08/2011 04:33 AM
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Koreans spend the most per capita on education of any people. Much of this money goes to private institutes or academies called hagweons (Korean: 학원). Parents send their children to hagweons to further their education after school hours and during vacation periods. In addition, companies and individuals will pay for adults attending hagweons Hagweons cater to all age groups. One large group of these for-profit centers focuses on English. Hagweons can be either single-purpose or cover a number of subjects. Thus, a hagweons might only teach English, or it might teach English along with other subjects, such as Korean, mathematics and geography. There are thousands of hagweons, ranging from ones with just one teacher and a score or fewer children to large chains with locations in a number of the larger cities.
Hagweons are normally not run by educators. An entrepreneur hires teachers either on an on-going full-time basis or on some other less substantial basis. Teachers may be highly qualified and well-trained professionals or they may be university students working part-time in a field related to their major (e.g., English) or even not. Hagweons are not substantially regulated by the government. Native speakers of English constitute a significant portion of the English teachers in English hagweons. While the law generally restricts foreign instructors to citizens of Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, people from the Philippines and India will sometimes manage to get positions through marriage, “flying under the wire,” or other exceptional ways. Instructors should be college graduates, but hagweons rarely consider training or field of study. Some of the large chains have specific teaching stles and train their teachers in their methods and materials. Generally, hagweons pay foreign instructors a monthly salary for teaching around twenty to thirty hours a week, with a week or two vacation per year. A thirteenth month...
Hagweons are normally not run by educators. An entrepreneur hires teachers either on an on-going full-time basis or on some other less substantial basis. Teachers may be highly qualified and well-trained professionals or they may be university students working part-time in a field related to their major (e.g., English) or even not. Hagweons are not substantially regulated by the government. Native speakers of English constitute a significant portion of the English teachers in English hagweons. While the law generally restricts foreign instructors to citizens of Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, people from the Philippines and India will sometimes manage to get positions through marriage, “flying under the wire,” or other exceptional ways. Instructors should be college graduates, but hagweons rarely consider training or field of study. Some of the large chains have specific teaching stles and train their teachers in their methods and materials. Generally, hagweons pay foreign instructors a monthly salary for teaching around twenty to thirty hours a week, with a week or two vacation per year. A thirteenth month...