Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tjh4444]

GELC - ESL school review
Gangwon English Learning Center � GELC

I write this post to provide a fair and honest evaluation of this school as considered from a foreign teacher�s perspective. Many of the problems associated with teaching abroad is lack of information regarding the work environment your new school will present. I offer this as a fair and honest evaluation of GELC.

As for the job, it�s good when the students are there (limited office work and interaction with the supervisors) and uncomfortable when there are no students - one week you teach students and the next week you are stuck in the office for 40 hours with only so much to do (might sound good, but gets pretty boring and frustrating). The work is extremely simple and unchallenging, which may be good or bad depending on your perspective.

At this point in the evolution of the school (coming up to its third year), I would have to recommend against teaching at the school. The foreign and Korean teachers are fine for the most part, the program is OK (program decisions are based on student popularity rather than educational benefit), the facilities are great, the benefits are good, but the current supervisor�s have turned what could be a good work environment into a completely negative experience. They have continually preached about workplace harmony, yet almost every decision they make does nothing but promote conflict between the staff, be it Korean vs. foreign or teachers vs. administrators. The supervisor�s ego seems to be more important than anything at GELC � more important than the staff, the teachers, and even more important than the students. I could go on for pages describing examples, but I think four examples sum up the current atmosphere most appropriately:

� Upon the beginning of the new school year, after a few teachers had disagreed with some aspect of the program, Mr. Hong was heard saying, �I hope some of our teachers fail their health checks so that I can fire them�. (not too nice to wish that some people are sick so that you can get your way)

� Within the past month, the head supervisor told one of the foreign teachers, �I don�t like you and I don�t have to treat you fairly�. (see, harmony really is important here!)

� In a teacher�s meeting, Mr. Hong said, �I am the supervisor, you must obey my orders�. (umm, I signed on to be a teacher, not a soldier...this is an English school, not the army)

� Recently a foreign teacher, in their 8.5 month, (no, not me!) was fired after only one official warning � the teacher was given a list of �suggestions� to agree to and decided not to agree with them because the suggestions were completely vague and not explained. Mr. Hong was later overheard talking about the money the school could save by not paying her salary and severance�turns out that a previous foreign teacher was �cheated� out of the final severance pay as well. (a school with a history of not honoring the contract details is a bit sketchy � you know about the magic of the 9th month in Korean contracts, right?)

Does this sound like an environment you want to work in or a supervisor you want to have to deal with on a daily basis?

The basics are if you want to just make money and don't really care about teaching or improving as a teacher then this may be just the job for you. However, if you consider yourself a 'real' teacher (I mean, aspirations of a job that is more than merely money) or think teaching could be your career, avoid this school at all costs.

[milkweedma]

Ive just noticed that www.netkorea.kr are advertising for FTs to apply through them to work for this outfit.