Hagwon

Hagwon
Hangul	학원
Hanja	學院
Revised Romanization	Hagwon
McCune–Reischauer	Hagwŏn

A hagwon is a for-profit private cram school prevalent in South Korea. For families that can afford it, hagwon education usually starts at or before elementary level. It is common for Korean school children to attend one or more hagwons after their school.

It is not uncommon for students to be enrolled in several hagwons of different subject areas at once (in addition to their normal school attendance). Hagwons may specialize in subjects like math, foreign language, science, art, or English. Hagwons offering integrated instruction in several subject areas are also common. These are known as soksem hagwon at the elementary level, and ipsi hagwon at the secondary-school level. College and adult students attend gosi hagwon, which are typically focused on preparation for specific civil service examinations.

One example of a well-known hagwon is the Seoul Language Institute. The competition for college admissions in South Korea is usually fierce, and as a result, hagwons can sometimes assign large amounts of homework to students.

Like in many Korean public schools, discipline is sometimes administered with extra amounts of work assigned, as well as corporal punishment, if students fail a test or do not complete their homework.

Hagwon is sometimes used to describe similar institutions operated by Korean Americans in the United States.

Native-speaker instructors

Many native English-speakers are hired to teach at English-language institutes in Korea, referred to as 'English hagwons'. The requirements for such teaching positions typically include a 4-year university degree, citizenship in an English-speaking country, and the ability to sign a contract for one year. In return, the institute often provides an instructor with a monthly salary, round-trip airfare from his or her country of origin, a rent-free apartment for the duration of the instructor's contract, and an additional one month "severance pay" at the completion of the contract.

Many recruiting companies exist to hire native English speakers for Korean hagwons. Some are based in the US and Canada, while others are Korean-owned. While some of these recruiting companies provide decent services, many of them have earned a reputation of being shady and willing to lie and even fabricate diplomas to get teachers to go work in Korea.

English hagwons frequently experience staff problems and conflicts between the Korean staff/management and the foreign teachers. While many Korean managers are unable to manage non-Korean teachers appropriately, there are conversely just as many foreigners who are unable to adapt to the new work and cultural environment or are simply inexperienced teachers. Although no statistics exist as to how many schools experience such problems, there are many blacklists advocating one of the opposing points of view. Many problems also occur between the visiting teachers themselves, many of whom often come from radically different backgrounds. Clashes due to these personal differences occasionally arise, sometimes exacerbated by culture shock from living in a foreign country.

There are also teaching opportunities in neighboring countries such as China, Japan and Taiwan. Apart from Japan, the average salary in these countries, however, tends to be lower than in South Korea.

Salaries are typically higher in larger cities, but so too is the cost of living.

See also

• Education in South Korea
• Teaching English as a foreign language
• List of Korea-related topics
• Juku

External links

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