For those of you who are thinking of coming to Korea to teach English as a Second Language, make sure that the apartment you will be moving into will have an air-conditioner...without one, your summers spent in Korea will be really long, hot, and sticky. This summer, the nights have been long and hot, and with the weather at night, the temperature remains constant - it doesn't cool down.

So, onto something new. Lately, I've been quite busy with school work, and it got me thinking about some of the great differences between working at a private institute and a public school. One of the biggest areas is through the age old issue of money and books.

Back in my old days of working at a private institute, the bottom line was how much cash you brought in. Good teachers were treasured, because their students never left the institute for a different English institute- they stayed. Not only did those students stay, but they are also the best source of additional profit, because people love telling people about another place that they love, or in the case of English, about a teacher they love.

For teachers, this does not always show itself as a source of revenue, but rather a supervisor who's not breathing down your neck, asking you to do something differently. Now, in reality, public and private schools are not that different in results - either way, if your students don't like you, theirs going to be problems.

The problems come within teaching, and more specifically, money for teaching. Before, when I was teaching at my private institute, if i went out and did research for books that I thought would help my students learn better, they'd jump over boxes to say thanks to me. You see, most supervisors or curriculum supervisors pick out the materials for your students without barely ever talking to them. The end result is that often if you only had the time, you would, as a teacher, pick out much better books for your students, knowing which areas of English they need help with, and avoiding other areas where they are already strong. At my old workplace, all I had to do was show a receipt, and within 24 hours, I had all the cash, down to the penny I had spent, and all I needed to do was put up the cash, to be reimbursed later.

Well, with my public school, it's not like that, at least not now. Teaching middle school has its perks, such as working with kids who like to have fun. However, in Korea, the books you're given as an English teacher were written seven years ago, and they desperately need to be republished. Not only are the topics a complete waste of time, but they're boring, and not even close to "real world" English, which is something they are trying to promote. So, a few weekends ago, I went shopping for some books to use during the post-summer vacation semester. I found some, and upon discovering that they were a bit pricy, I figured that I'd be told to find something else. To my surprise, they told me that price is never the problem. The problem comes in the checks and balances. I needed to list the entire book, the MSRP of the book, and its name - for all of the books. Then, I needed to get the signatures of the school principal, vice-principal, and department head. Then, after getting the appropriate signatures, another English teacher would be given the schools credit card, in order to purchase them. Ordering through the internet would be easier, but less functional, as its hard to print a receipt, and the school needs an authentic receipt to match up with the credit card bill. Where it got interesting was when the credit card was denied because someone had forgotten to pay the bill on time, so the English teacher was able to purchase two of the four books; due to the credit limit placed on the card, the bill needs to be paid before I can have my other two. The whole process took six days to complete, and this was during summer vacation, when every teacher had time off. My cooperating teacher, whose partial job it is to help me out, volunteered to pick them up for me, because I'm not allowed to use the credit card. That's just it - I'm at the mercy of the whole checks and balances system...I miss my old days, when I could just go in, buy my book, and have my cash back in double time.

I'm sure that someone will pay the credit card bill, and then when my cooperating teacher has time, she will pick up the other two books. Both private and public places to learn English have benefits to each other; I'm still happy though that I'm with my school.
Take care all, and enjoy the nice hot sunshine.
God bless,
me