Teaching Englishee In a Hagwon

DISCLAIMER: This is only the ramblings of one worn out, starting to get homesick, tired non-teacher.

A hagwon is a private academy in Korea, and theres heaps of them. In my area, I actually work on a street called Hagwonga, because of the amount of academies on them. And allllll of these kids go to at least one. Regardless of their behavior, I always feel bad for how hard they work.

But the first day I showed up, they straight out told me that I was not an educator, that I worked for a business. I work for a corporation, like Starbucks, but am supposed to teach english at the same time. Its rough. We have a schedule of stuff that HAS to get done that day, and I try my best, I do. But WHY do they need me to do it. I feel like I am a native speaker, have a bs, and am an all around bright kid, and yet ANYBODY in the world can tell a kid to open their book, explain the main idea of the lesson in less then 5 minutes, and have them start doing pages.

I knew going in that the lesson plans where going to be pretty much done out for me. But I guess I didn't realize how much it would bother me. These kids are SO Unworldly, and they just don't get it. But I have to review the difference between weather and climate constantly? This week we had a review so I taught them about hte Middle East and had them do a project since its part of Asia, and they told me that theres no war anywhere in the world. Its a little dark for second graders, but I wanted them to know about whats going on. I think we're going to do that with other continents, but when I pointed out saudia arabia on a map and asked who knew what it was, some kid yelled Texas. To I expect a lot of them? Probably. But I know they are smart enough to at least get it.
Plus, I really think the ME is cool.

but I feel like any activity I do to make the kids interested and engaged takes time, and then we don't get through the book so I either have to cover it in the next class, assign it for hw or hope for the best. Nobdoy cares about understanding English or the world, they care about high test scores and leveling up. I'm sure I was like that when I was their age, but I dont know. I guess I was disillusioned into thinking it was possible for me to help them, but the ROK is a lost cause.