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Captain Courageous
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: Bundang and loving it
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 Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject: Hyeonjae English school |
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| Anyone hear of these cats? Searched with no luck. |
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Captain Courageous
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: Bundang and loving it
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| Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| No one? I have a phone interview tomorrow morning with them. At least I can't find them on any blacklists. |
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JAZZYJJJ
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:07 am Post subject: |
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They offered me a job (Mokdong branch) last week but I knocked it back.
The 2 guys I dealt with (Mark and Charlie) were both really nice. The school itself seemed extremely professional and organised,and looked to be doing very well (several hundred kids I was told). The FTs I spoke too seemed pretty cool and they had good things to say about the school (paid on time, good kids, etc).
On the flipside, a lot did seem to be expected out of teaching time (amount of prep and meetings) for a pretty average salary. And there is CCTV in each classroom with 2 HUGE monitors in reception.
Overall, my opinion was a professional school expecting their teachers to put in the effort. You could do a lot worse.
And don't be afraid to negotiate salary with them. Worked for me.  |
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formerflautist
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:44 am Post subject: |
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| I know Kermo has an opinion about the school. I do too. But I just sent the OP a PM. You might want to try KNC Hyun Jae in the search function. And the pay day isn't until the tenth of the month. That's a big red flag to any contract reviewer. It says they've had a lot of problems with teachers running. |
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Captain Courageous
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: Bundang and loving it
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:30 am Post subject: |
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| I'm incredibly anal about contract language (liability, pension amounts, work hours, etc), and I'm 6'3", 245 lbs with a deep voice, and I'm intimidating when I need to. If they don't offer me a contract I edit to make perfectly clear everything, I have every intention of rejecting it. |
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formerflautist
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:43 am Post subject: |
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| Then you should take the job. Not because I think they'll make the changes, they won't, but because I have a pen I want you to throw at someone. |
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Captain Courageous
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: Bundang and loving it
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:48 am Post subject: |
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| Hah. I won't take the job, but while in Korea, I assure you I will take a pen and enthusiastically fling it at the building, as a symbol of solidarity between all the been-hads and almost-been-hads. |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Captain Courageous wrote: |
| I'm incredibly anal about contract language (liability, pension amounts, work hours, etc), and I'm 6'3", 245 lbs with a deep voice, and I'm intimidating when I need to. If they don't offer me a contract I edit to make perfectly clear everything, I have every intention of rejecting it. |
Yep, I do have an opinion.
If you expect to be offered all the benefits that are legally due, don't take this job. I worked at the Banpo branch and when I asked where my health coverage was (I cut off the end of my finger and fell down the stairs, and paid out of pocket for treatment) they offered me a second contract in which I'd have to agree to a decreased salary.
Other naughtiness:
-expecting teachers to do far too much work than is physically possible in a normal work-week (exam marking, schedule making, telephone teaching, journal marking-- it adds up to a ridiculous number of hours), but refusing to pay overtime
-confiscating teachers' passports (no reason given other than "school policy")
-arbitrarily removing incentives and bonuses to the detriment of morale
-trying to fool teachers into paying the school's share of the pension contribution
That's just the normal stuff. Don't even get me started about the fire that destroyed my co-workers apartment (they extracted thousands of dollars from the poor girl to rebuild the apartment though it was an electrical fire and not her fault at all.)
It's also a very frustrating place to work if you are hoping for a curriculum that is helpful to the students (the textbooks were written in the Philippines, are occasionally very inappropriate, and have countless errors, e.g., "That sweater makes you look as the gay!" or "I was raped and now I think I should have an abortion."
If you're a creative teacher who would like to get around the lame curriculum by playing games or having any kind of fun with the students, think again. If your students are smiling or laughing, the manager is likely to walk into your classroom yelling. The school wants to maintain a "serious" image and will use those in-classroom cameras to police it. |
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JAZZYJJJ
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
If you expect to be offered all the benefits that are legally due, don't take this job. I worked at the Banpo branch and when I asked where my health coverage was (I cut off the end of my finger and fell down the stairs, and paid out of pocket for treatment) they offered me a second contract in which I'd have to agree to a decreased salary.
Other naughtiness:
-expecting teachers to do far too much work than is physically possible in a normal work-week (exam marking, schedule making, telephone teaching, journal marking-- it adds up to a ridiculous number of hours), but refusing to pay overtime
-confiscating teachers' passports (no reason given other than "school policy")
-arbitrarily removing incentives and bonuses to the detriment of morale
-trying to fool teachers into paying the school's share of the pension contribution
That's just the normal stuff. Don't even get me started about the fire that destroyed my co-workers apartment (they extracted thousands of dollars from the poor girl to rebuild the apartment though it was an electrical fire and not her fault at all.)
It's also a very frustrating place to work if you are hoping for a curriculum that is helpful to the students (the textbooks were written in the Philippines, are occasionally very inappropriate, and have countless errors, e.g., "That sweater makes you look as the gay!" or "I was raped and now I think I should have an abortion."
If you're a creative teacher who would like to get around the lame curriculum by playing games or having any kind of fun with the students, think again. If your students are smiling or laughing, the manager is likely to walk into your classroom yelling. The school wants to maintain a "serious" image and will use those in-classroom cameras to police it. |
This makes me even happier I knocked the job back.  |
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paquebot
Joined: 20 Jun 2007
Location: Northern Gyeonggi-do
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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Figured I'd add a little to this thread, and get it bumped up in case anyone else is considering KnC schools.
My recruiter keeps throwing KnC schools at me (particularly the ones in Mokdong and Seocho), and out of curiosity I agreed to an interview with the KnC branch in Mokdong.
The sample contract states that the school can ask you to come in and work Saturdays to make up for national holidays. Payment is on the 10th of each month. Return airfare cannot be exchanged for cash. Vacation days are listed as five in summer + five in winter "but the schedule can be changed and followed by school's schedule". The contract states that the school will provide accident insurance -- but who is to say they won't try to take it out of the teacher's salary?
The real kicker? During the phone interview I asked for the email address of at least one current teacher. The answer I was given was that they couldn't give out an email address but would set up a phone appointment -- limited to one or two questions, and while the teacher was at the school.
This makes me doubt the school(s) has (have) changed considerably since the incident at Kermo's location. |
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