Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

Looked on the web. some of the schools in other towns don't have a good reputation. I am looking for information specifically on the Jungchul English school in Gwangju metropolitan City.

Have you worked there? Have you known someone who has worked there? Are there any red flags thrown up about the school? etc.

Thank you for any information that you can provide.

[dam_on]

Hi summer, sorry I can't comment on that branch specifically, but I currently work at a Jung Chul branch so I can give insights into the teaching methods/materials. Keep in mind that this is a franchised school so each one will have its own unique "flavor".

One thing I would check first is a.) How many native speakers work there? b.) How many Korean teachers work there? c.) How well to the Korean staff speak English? The reason I recommend these questions is because I'm on the brink of throwing my own rant about the lack of/mis- communication at my school between the K-teachers and myself. I'm at a small branch (I'm the only native speaker) of about 100 or so students so the communication factor is big for me. The fact that I'm also the first native speaker here and that the children's level is pretty low considering their age doesn't help.

The Jung Chul teaching method includes computer programs that go along with Reading and Conversation books for the native teachers, and a few other books for the K-teachers. I think the idea is a great one as the lessons are very easy to prep for and the computer applications are pretty neat, but it can also get a bit tedious and repetitive as well. Classes are 50 minutes in length and I believe the system covers ages from kindy to high school, though I don't have any kindy classes. If you're able to actually go and watch a lesson (if you're in-country), I would highly recommend it as I'm sure it's not for everyone.

If you have any specific questions about the curriculum, please feel free to ask. Hope this was somewhat helpul.

[Summer Wine]

Yes, it was. Thanks for that.

I will have to think about this.

[oneofthesarahs]

On the flip side, I work at a JungChul, and the communication between the Korean teachers and the native teachers is great. That definitely depends on the school.

At my school, we are using the standard "JungChul method," but we also have many classes using non-JungChul issued books, and those are the best classes in my opinion. The JungChul books are nice in that they require basically no prep time, leaving me with lots of time to prepare my other classes. The program also seems to work: my students, even the little ones, have a decent level of English. All the repetition does get a little tedious sometimes though, especially if you have multiple classes learning out of the same book.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

[VanIslander]

[craigwalsh]

Im also JC teacher, resource wise you cant beat them from what i can gather from my friends here in Bucheon a lot of the guys have to make do with a tape recorder between them! Where as we have PC's and big TV's in every room, which if you are a bit handy with a computer you can put some audio/visual stuff together, show movies etc as when you need to.
But like everyone will tell you a chains name will never help as they can really be chalk and cheese


A small aside to other JC teachers, who teaches the Zenith books and what do you do for the end zenith presentations? and also what do you do for your speaking tests? Plus if anyone is intrested i have a excel marking sheet for junior, wewhiz, zenith and superkids books so please get in touch so we can exchange ideas

[angigo]

Like Summer Wine 2 years ago, I have scoured Dave's, Google and a billion other sites for information on THIS SPECIFIC Jungchul.

Summer Wine - did you go there?

Tomorrow (Fri 2-3) K-time I will talk with the female director and the one other NET there, Matthew. I will DEF ask Matthew for his email just in case he cannot speak freely.

I'm confident about the city, just not sure about this school.

If anyone has ANY info PLEASE respond (of course, I'm hoping any relevant person actually SEES this post!).

[Rory_Calhoun27]

I worked at a jungchul and liked it for the most part. the owners I thought were blaming me initially when the Scottish bird who who was the other native speaker did the midnight run after a month, but after that storm, it really went well.

the key seems to be to treat the Korean teachers there nicely. They'll look after you at that point. sometimes in more ways than one...

[angigo]

Thanks for your response.

I probably should have been a bit clearer - this isn't my first rodeo, lol. And I'm looking for any information specifically about the GWANGJU location. And by Gwangju I mean the large southern city, not the suburb outside of Seoul. It seems to be the SOLE location not mentioned on the internet. That's prolly a good sign!

[moosehead]

well you need to ask a LOT of questions and investigate it clearly - I was sent on an interview w/one that was about to open in Daejeon - this was over a year ago - the fellow who sent me there was running one here in Seoul. it went down something like this:

me: how long has this school been open?

him: it's brand new.

me: ok, well, how much experience has the owner had in E edu?

him: her and her husband owned another hakwon before but moved to Daejeon to open this one.

me: ok, well, does she speak E.

him: oh yes, pretty good.

so I agreed to go on the interview, took the train (at my expense of course). turned out the school was a good 1/2 from the train station - at the end of the line in Daejeon, actually. not an easy distance from Seoul by any means.

what happened?

the director-to-be spoke not a word of E; had to have an interpreter on hand to translate everything.

her and her husband were both profs in clinical research before they decided they wanted to invest in an E hakwon - he was going to continue teaching while she ran it - mind you she doesn't speak a word of E and has never taught E before a day in her life.

yes, there was a preset curriculum which I was going to be expected to follow word-for-word and since the director knew nothing about E education except perhaps it might be profitable, any input I wanted to give was not going to be welcome - that was clear.

I told them what I'd been told about them owning a hakwon before and they said I must have misunderstood something - yeah right - the fellow in Seoul had excellent E and knew exactly what he was saying - he just didn't count on me asking the right qs.

I thanked them for their time and left.

so whatever you do - find out all you can about this school from the people there - how long has it been open, the background of those running it, etc. ask about teaching philosophy, especially. franchise ops can vary from good to terrible.

good luck!

[angigo]

Thanks, Moosehead

Yea the contract has all the right things in it, but we all know how discretionary a contract is at the end of the day!

Many Jungchul hagwons have been blacklisted, and then others have had good experiences at different ones. Like all hagwons and public schools - it all depends on the director/co-teacher as to how it's run and things go. That's why I am hoping like hel* that someone has had direct experience with this exact Jungchul.

I'll be talking with the female director and the one NET who works there today. I'd just like to have other voices aside from that lone one, lol.

Thanks for all the well wishes and personal experiences given so far.

ANYONE know ANYTHING about the Gwangju Jungchul??

[frankly speaking]

I must agree that the JungChul curriculum is easy to follow and for someone who doesn't want to do a lot of prep it is good.

However, I think it is one of the worst curriculums that I have ever had the mispleasure of teaching. Not only are all of the dialogs written by Koreans, with little understanding of cultural and situational context, there are more mistakes in the book series than any other that I have seen.

If you believe that students should translate the language, then it is a good book. However this curriculum goes against everything that I was taught in linguistics and teaching methodology.

I have been to few of the Jung Chuls competitions and the majority of the students were pretty sub par compared to other schools that I have worked for.

Personally, I prefer to work in an all English environment.

I think that the Gwang Ju franchise is relatively new. When Iworked for Jungchul, down near there 4 years ago, they weren't at the English speech competition or the english quiz like all the other franchises. So I don't think that they were around 4 years ago. I could be wrong.

Gwang Ju isn't a bad town and you might like it. Personally, I would stay away from all Jung Chul schools. You won't progress much as a teacher, you will probably feel stifled and constrained.

Good luck though.

[angigo]

Hey thanks, Frankly Speaking.

Yea, I think I would not completely hate living in Gwangju, lol. My biggest things atm are getting a good job that's not gonna be hell on earth, and this time I want to be outside of Seoul.

I'm gonna start looking in Busan.

These times of job searching are pretty funny and like a rollercoaster! I started looking ONLY in Jeju, which lead to Geoje, which led to Gwangju...and now I'm headed to Busan in my searches -