Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fetuskarate]

so, i work for avalon. as far as a regular hagwon goes, they offer a pretty standard benefits package. the fact that they're a larger franchise means that you will be paid on time and there are regulations they must follow as per your contract. however, some branches tend to get competitive, thus creating a snowball effect of stress- our hagwon director aims to be "the best avalon!" and because of this he's been a total dick as of late. it depends on who's at the school though.


1 ) What are your working hours?
3-10, or 4-11 if you work for middle school
2 ) When do you take your breaks and how long are they?
80 minutes, if you have a break.. and overtime is paid if you don't3 ) When do you prepare for classes and how long do you prepare for them?
clock in at 3, start at 4:20... so, 80 minutes
4 ) What does a working hour consist of?
40 minutes.
5 ) How many classes do you teach per week?
me personally? 4 on mwf, 3 on tr. so, 18. remember, 80 minutes each.
6 ) Are you always paid on time?
yes
7 ) Does your employer provide you with a pay receipt clearly stating wages, deductions, taxes?
yes
8 ) Has your employer provided you with a health insurance card?
yes
9 ) Does your employer pay into the Korean Pension Plan?
yes
10 ) Does your employer deduct accordingly from your monthly salary for income taxes?
yes
11 ) When and how do you take your paid annual leave?
we can only take it when our middle school is in a holding period... something i wish i'd known beforehand. so essentially that means we can't really choose our vacations. our school packs in as many students as possible without much regard for providing relief for the teachers. and what is also lame is the fact that weekends are counted in our 10 days! what!
12 ) How many students do you generally teach per class?
13 average
13 ) How many students attend the school?
around 600
14 ) Is the school in financial trouble?
not that i know of, as they are opening more branches
15 ) Does your employer pay teachers their severance pay?
yes
16 ) Does your employer pay overtimes wages or avoid paying them?
they make sure to pay us

hope that helped!

[highdials5]

[DeLaRed]

what is the typical salary for a newbie? I noticed 2.0 - 2.3 (same as YBM!) on their website but are they just trying to low ball you?

Or do they not budge on 2.0 for newbies?

[greedy_bones]

I interviewed with an Avalon today, but decided to decline for a few reasons. The first is that the Avalon system seems like a very detailed system with little room for adjustment by the teachers. This can be nice if you're a new teacher. Personally, I would have liked a detailed lesson plan when I first started instead of being given 3 pages to teach for 40 minutes and no other support. However, when you've taught for a little while and know what the students need, if your class time is filled with things like workbook pages and quizzes that must be completed, you can't teach very effectively.
The other reason was the horrible vacation offered there. 5 days vacation with 3 set days and two days you can use during specific times. So thats essentially, one five day weekend and one four day weekend if you're lucky.

I was offered decent pay though.

[DeLaRed]

out of interest what location were you offered? or locations they were looking for teachers to be in?

[greedy_bones]

[highdials5]

[sharkey]

so can you compare CDI to Avalon in most ways ?!!?!?!!?

[Poemer]

To the person who asked about "Nokjiwon": If you are going to be teaching at Avalon, then Nokjiwon is where you want to be. The Nokjiwon students have the highest level of English ability among Avalon attendees, which, obviously, makes teaching them much less of a chore. Really, the only thing that Avalon has to recommend itself above any other Hakwon is the fact that they pay on time and your housing is always top notch (at least that used to be the case).

It depends on the campus, but the work environment can be toxic. I worked at the campus in the same building with the corporate office, and I can tell you that the man in charge of making all the major decisions affecting foreign staff wishes they would all just dry up and blow away. They do not value foreign staff AT ALL (big surprise right?)

Expect no favors if you work for Avalon and know that you may be forced to fight tooth and nail to have contractual obligations met. I had a really hard time getting out of the country when I finished my contract for them because they thought it would be a good idea to wait until A DAY before I had been scheduled to finish my contract to buy my plane ticket! This was in the middle of the summer travel season, and they couldn't get a ticket to the right city at a price they liked, so they bought me a ticket that got me within a couple hundred miles and told me to rent a car or take a bus or figure something out because that was the best they could do. WTF! Totally unacceptable, especially from a company their size that deals with as many foreign staff as they do, they should have their act together, but this is one of many examples I could provide of the shoddy treatment you can expect.

[fetuskarate]

god, the corporate bosses at avalon are the worst. the days when our campus gets a visit from "the big boss" are the days we get chewed out and patrolled in class the most. they really need to work out how to deal with foreign staff effectively, rather than treat us like children.

[travelingfool]

[bobbybigfoot]

I worked for Avalon, one of the original campuses. It's a first year kind of school. Not a bad place to cut your teeth, but not the greatest either. You will be paid on time. Communication is pretty bad, as is the case with most hagwans. You may feel more like a babysitter than a teacher. Your opinions don't really matter, and what you do is largely inconsequential. It's a go-with-the-flow kind of job, more or less mindless. Most foreigners that work there do not re-sign for a 2nd year. That in itself speaks volumes. At the same time, it's rare to find a runner. The job, to use Korean speak, is so-so.