Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Lekker]

I know a really nice woman here who sends her son to a POLY school in Mokdong. She is really concerned about things in general with the way things are run at her son's hagwon. Whatever.

She pays a lot of hard earned money per month to send her son there, five days a week, two hours each day. He is using a book 300 pages long, which they expect to complete in 6 months. Come on, 6 months? Thats going at a rate of what, 2 hours a day? Every day, do the math, per week, the kid is putting in 10 hours, per month, he is putting in an estimated of 40 hours. Multiply that by 6 and you get 240 hours. That's an awful long time to be putting into just one book.

I don't know anything about POLY, so I don't know what to tell her. She is complaining to me about how they don't do any vocabulary, or writing. Just reading.

I want to tell her "Hey, I don't work there, so I don't give a FFFF," but I really care about her kid. He's really smart. I mean smart. Today he asked me why some countries in Africa have straight borders while other countries in Africa don't have straight borders. Questions like this tell me that he has a lot of potential and he is absorbing everything at a tremendous rate, again, whatever. I do care about him though.

He tells me that his teacher doesn't really care about his job, that he flips out on him and other kids in his class over stupid sh*t like gum chewing or what not. I think if his teacher is taking frustration out on his students, there must be something going on at the school that would lead the teacher to act like this. Maybe the school is run by scumbags who only care about the money in their pockets. All I can say is that I have a few friends who used to work for POLY school and they hated it. They hated it with a passion and I have also read some negative things about POLY school on the Hagwon Blacklist.

This kid is too smart to be in a money hungry hagwon that doesn't really aim to encourage learning, as a lot of schools do, since they are out for the money.

I told his mother that I would look into other schools in Mokdong. My question is does anyone here know of any other schools in Mokdong where this kid could go to? Schools that aim to push kids to learn, that aim to push kids to succeed by learning through their mistakes, schools that don't treat their foreign staff as second class? Schools that don't play mind games?

Anyone?

[DrunkenMaster]

[caniff]

"I don't want to offend any POLY teachers."

Why? Are they especially touchy?

[polonius]

I work for an Academy called TOPIA. Our main branch is in Junggye dong. We have over 2000 students here. We opened a campus in Mokdong recently. We implement a contents based training program, where the students will learn Math, Science, Social studies and of course reading, writing and Grammar. The facilities a simply fantastic. We have a curriculum development department, who continually work on our curriculum. From my 6 years working for the company, I can assure you that the main goal is to give the students the proper tools to achieve success.

I taught a student 3 or 4 years ago. She was learning phonics at the time, i.e. vowel sounds, phonetic blends and simple vocabulary. After 4 years in our program, she has advanced incredibly. Not long ago, I taught or rather guided her and her classmates through the novel "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe." I was so surprised and proud of her progress. We have many stories of students like her.

If you want more details, I would be more then happy to facilitate your request. I hope this helps.

[endo]

[Kimchi Cowboy]

Another former POLY peeps here.

Endo - there is a POLY spin-off franchise in Mokdong that has students attending 5 days a week.

And, POLY does assign far too much homework and have unrealistic expectations regarding how much content can be crammed into six months.

Still, for all its problems (and there are many!), it's far better than most other kiddie hagwons out there; the students get a real content-based curriculum and learn a lot more than just phonics and spelling. Schools like Topia and CDI have grasped POLY's original plan/idea and run with it; heck, they may even be better at it.

[PGF]

[Lekker]

I never worked for POLY. I worked for a Hagwon which completely sucked ass though, where the books were falling apart and the boss was pocketing half of my pension, leading me to look elsewhere for a job.

Again, I didn't want to offend you there.

The information I am getting is from the student himself.

So thanks for your reply. I was also thinking of suggesting CDI.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

[cedarseoul]

Personally, I really appreciate the POLY curriculum. Certainly, it is work-intensive, and certainly, there are teachers who take advantage of that (and spend entire classes reading pages out of books instead of engaging in more dynamic learning activities), but overall I think it effectively integrates key concepts across the various subject areas - reading, writing, vocab, grammar, and science/social studies.
It seems to me that integration is essential for ESL students, because it reinforces ideas and ensures comprehension. Seems much more valuable than, for example, memorizing lists of vocab or practicing recitation.

[PGF]

[itaewonguy]

poly, avalon, blar blar blar.. welcome to the world of BRAND POWER!
where they promise but NEVER deliver!

[endo]

[itaewonguy]

[KumaraKitty]

The best students I teach are POLY students.
The Bucheon POLY has gone downhill a bit since the new manager, but students who have been going there long term are the highest level English speakers I have met. They also study a variety of topics including Science.
Like any franchise, each school is different. But I will take on a POLY student over any other elementary hagwon anyday!

[endo]