Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner1]

Many people cite that there is a great deal of negativity on Daves, but the fact is, there are real problems with shady hagwon directors causing foreigners to give Korea a bad rap. I am not giving Korea a bad rap, but large chain hagwon franchises simply are not good for parents, students, and teachers due to dishonest financial management practices. Most all of them try to get over on you when it comes to many small amounts of money and then will not tell you what you need to know in paying your bills while they say they are taking bills out of your pay. They will fool a newbie into thinking it's a good school and they will do the right thing, because this simply is not the case even with a pretty kindy school that costs 1 million won a month per student.

It was very hard for me to complete a contract to the end as the director was slimy, trying, and hoping I would go away so she wouldn't have to pay me while she had to keep me to keep her business model going. I seen where she was hiring for my position 2 and 3 months before my completion date to start ASAP as I created an email account to investigate and was talking with her and my head teacher via internet about my own job! They were trying to do an 11th hour firing, but didn't have anyone to replace me!

I had many last minute changes sprung on me as if things were emergency issue and I was being irresponsible, but the fact was, I had no way of knowing all these sorts of specifics. I had utility services shut off several times and the director acted like it was my fault when it was hers and would not tell me what I needed know. They failed to plan and communicate anything and then acted like it was my fault. This puts you in an embarrassing situation and the director makes you out to be irresponsible. Large chain hagwon directors do know what they are doing, especially those who are fluent with speaking, reading, and writing English like mine is. She was intentionally late on paying the last 2 months of my pension and when I asked her about it last week, she says she paid, but NPS says not and then she comes up with all this that I caused her bad credit. She says she wants me to visit her school again. I will to let her know what I really think and know now that I don't work for her.

I finished my hagwon contract 3.5 months ago and heard from my director 2 days ago on email who said she has bad credit from me not paying my phone bill of 20,000 won! Since that phone was in her name and if she was paying her bill for all her #'s, then she must had knew about. Also, I told her about the last phone call on my last day and she agreed to take it out of my tax return as for my final exorbitantly high handwritten utility bill sprung on me at 8PM of my last night. Surprise! Suprise! She also agreed to take out the 170K final utility bill for the last 2 weeks of my stay and says my 500K won tax return won't cover it. Fact is, I almost know I will discover that she pocketed my taxes instead of doing the right thing; paying to the national tax service. Normally my utilities totaled 70K to 100K, but she told me in January it was 170K for the last 2 weeks and now says 500,000 won't cover a total of 190K now that I got NPS on her for failure to turn in my pension money. It's only right I get my last 300K of pension and 300K of tax return after the final bill deduction.

I reminded her 2 days ago how we agreed that my final unpaid bills were going to come out of my tax return. She acted like she forgot about my phone number on her account at the bank as well as our agreed upon arrangements! She can't manage for nothing; just a crook who puts on a good face. Last Friday, I told her she is wrong and why it is so. She is a lying and irresponsible sack of shit is what she is with her excuses and corrupt games with utility services and small amounts of money as well as operating illegally and unethically. What a lying and using deceitful bitch!


* If you are going to Korea, help the Korean government bring English teachers to public schools and decrease the size of the corrupt hagwon industry as it's no good for parents, teachers, and students by joining the public school system. Don't work for English Friends, Kids Club, etc. Do understand that the Korean government wants foreign teachers in the public school system; not hagwons for these and many more reasons.

[PGF]

What you get at a large chain:

THE GOOD

1) pay on time (usually)
2) pension paid-usually
3) taxes paid-usually
4) NHI paid-usually

The Medium

1) other foreigners to talk to (complain with)
2) lots of resources-but not your choice of resources (maybe good/ maybe bad depending on where you are in the ESL world)

The Ugly

1) bad hours (the worse in the business- ranging from ridiculous splits with saturdays to M-F 8 hours/day, teaching 30 hours/week)
2) you are easily replacable
3) your voice does not count
4) LOW PAY
______ALL LARGE CHAINS PAY GARBAGE BECAUSE THEY RECRUIT FROM OVERSEAS AND ONLY HIRE NEWBIES

no one re-signs with the majors (unless they are 'tards)

good luck

[joeyinasia]

I've worked at SLP. There was no medical or pension, other than that, it was ok.
I've worked at Ewha, it was ok.
I spent two years down south at a private academy that was a little boring, but ok. However after I agreed to stay an extra two weeks past my visa the boss expected way too much on top of that.
The best chain I've worked for has been CDI. Yes, I know, it has a bad reputation but, I haven't had a probem there and I can honestly say I've benn around Korea in the past six years. Sometimes what you're hearing from others is all just hype. Do your job. Nobody gets hurt. The experience here is what you make it.

[bejarano-korea]

Lvisa or whatever your name is, who are you? Are you a teacher? Why are you asking these dumb stupid questions?

You are just a puppet with nothing to say. Whats your business with Korea and ESL or is your identity 'twop swecwet'

Go and play in the traffic you sock troll!

[lvasia]

gonna forget the rudeness and write you like i would anybody. i am a foreign teacher with no korean in me. the work i plan to do is completely on my own, my idea. i don't think my questions are stupid, but you are free to think so. if they were i don't think i'd get some of the good responses which i've gotten. the way i look at it now: since so many teachers have been mistreated, lied to, etc. for so many years and since one can guess it's going to keep going for many more years unless koreans decide to ban foreign teachers, don't you agree that something should be done about it?

i hope doing ok and being treated well at your job.

take care

[lvasia]

last line: i hope you're doing ok and being treated well at your job.