This is the last (sixth) question (section heading) from the handout entitled “초등부 강사로서의 나의 역량 자가 진단” (roughly, “self-diagnostic of my abilities as an elementary teacher”) which we discussed in a meeting a few weeks back – I discussed the first, second, third, fourth and fifth questions prior.
카르마 플러스어학원 홍보는
karma plus language-hagwon promotion-TOPIC
어떻게 하고 있습니까?
be-how-ADV do-PROG-FORMAL-QUESTION
How are you promoting KarmaPlus Language Hagwon?
This question annoys me.
This question is not about me as a teacher, but rather about me as an employee of a for-profit business. Although not unimportant, I sometimes get frustrated with the failure to explicitly recognize that there is a division here. Of course it’s important (see my recent post about the business environment of hagwon, for example: “marketing is king” and all that). But if I’m bad at marketing your hagwon, that doesn’t make me a bad teacher. It just makes me a bad marketer.
In point of fact, I think that I’m a pretty atrocious front-line salesperson. I’m too frank (honest) and I have very little patience for “customers” in the broad sense. But, having said that, I’m a very strong believer in the importance of marketing. I’m very sympathetic to the impulse and business need behind asking this question. Further, I think I expressed some talent in the field of marketing analytics, when I worked in the database world – which is to say, “I coulda hadda career in marketing.” I just happen to think that asking this question in this way, in a document that’s supposed to be about evaluating us as teachers, is inappropriate.
One thing it might be advisable for hagwon to do is to recognize that there may be different types of marketing talent, and therefore not to attempt a one-size-fits-all marketing plan that requires all teachers to also be salespeople. In dwelling on this, I’m beating an already dead horse, I realize. And I’ll be beating that poor dead horse some more when I finish the next part of my IIRTHW series. For that, I can only offer apologies to my loyal reader.
