In the ESL industry, it is cutthroat. One thing that you can not escape is people copying your teaching methodology or curriculum. In private academies it is annoying. You find that teachers are printing documents that you created then telling the students they made them.
This really is easy to get around you have two choices use your own tech, or just ignore it. Really most teachers when I saw this happen only taught for one year. For them, Korea was not about a real job just some fun to fund backpacking. So it is easy to ignore them. Actually, we tend to not want to spend time with people like that.
Now when you play in the big leagues because most of the money made is ESL is in running your own private network of privates along with your regular job, or actually running your own academy. I laugh when I hear "professors" with Masters degrees brag about teaching at a Uni.
When you own your school the copycat nonsense can get very serious. People end up "stealing" students from a larger school. Starting rumors which are just mean and childish. On the other hand, it can cause a loss of money. Then people start taking people to court, it can get that serious.
I feel that there is competition, then there is surviving. Which is more important in the midst of a pandemic? So many have lost jobs. A lot of good talent left South Korea due to covid-19 fears. That means those that are left it is easy to see, which parents and students are really happy about. Which students are really learning, and are excited to come to class.
Since coming to Iksan I have been spied on. Yes, one person actually pretended to join my class and have an interview. While this was going on the mom went around watching the teachers. She decided that whatever I was doing at the time was the best. In Gunsan we were the leaders in adult ESL. So people would join our classes for a short time. The whole while asking strange questions that students do not ask. At one point on the second day, it felt like we were at an information-sharing workshop. Then I realized that it was not actually sharing. It was me lecturing on classroom management of adult classes, and how they differed from other age groups.
Once I fired a few questions at them they let slip that they have a school in a nearby neighborhood. A very strange experience. But people only do that when you have some measure of success. It is not a good feeling. If they need help just ask me. Anyways, we do not want to stay in this field for long. It is NOT sustainable how ESL is being taught now. Parents are more internet savvy. They can examine the materials their kids are studying. They are going to make a shift towards smaller schools, that have smaller classes. Parents are going to want REAL fluency, not this parroting that is still popular.
Wow...a wall of text.
Walking has been going really well. We did over 35 km last week. We will likely do a bit less this week but still in the 30km range. Yesterday we started with 6.5kms!
/tata
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