Korean Job Discussion Forums

[runthegauntlet]

[runthegauntlet]

[Looney]

I take it the Uijeongbu ECC is a franchise and not a company owned one? Franchises are usually the ones you have to watch out for

[runthegauntlet]

[toonchoon]

i worked for Seongbuk ECC, and had nothing but good things to say about this company owned ECC. you do your job, you don't whack off at work, you respect the bosses, and you'll get respect back. and on top of that, all the foreign teachers were cool. don't know about any other ECC's though.

[phillyb]

[runthegauntlet]

[ControllerSoul]

Phillyb, I felt the exact same way you do when I first started working there, but that feeling of joy and equity quickly dissolved.
I worked at the Howon ECC for pretty much the entire year of 2007, and for the first four months everything was fine. Then things started to go downhill in every respect, from books not being ordered to teachers being penalized for doing things that they were REQUIRED to do (recording the results of the sentence tests). Eventually I fell prey to the "ten-month rule", which was great because they fired me under false pretenses at the beginning of December. But nothing big happens in December, right?
At least that's what Charlie said; that guy is such a friggin' moron that I'm still not sure whether he was being intentionally ignorant or if he'd truly forgotten about Christmas/New Year.
Long story short, I ended up having to leave half my stuff in a friend's apartment and to the best of my knowledge it's still sitting there gathering dust.
However, I will say that I was never paid late, except for the time when they forgot to pay me before summer break. Also, Mrs. Yoo's wild mood swings are hilarious to watch. Have fun, but don't put too much personal stock in the school.
Also, if you know anyone living in the 3rd floor Dongmakgol apartment, ask them to hold onto all the books and clothes that are (hopefully) still there somewhere. I'm coming to get them in August. If you want to get in touch with me I'm [email protected].

[thomas pars]

I really never understand these posts. You worked for THIRTEEN months at this shady hagwon. Even after finding out the tax was double and the pension was being pocketed. You worked 10 hours a day and were expected to do phone interviews after that?! When will ESL teachers realize that when you put up with shitty working conditions you hamstring other ESL teachers. If you don't like something at your work you say" I don't this I am not going to do this." If it gets really ugly leave. There are literally 1000's of jobs in Korea. Sticking around for the sake of your students in one of the stupidest things you can do. You're a teacher not a martyr. Grow a set dude.

[ControllerSoul]

I'm trying to figure out how all those complaints are applicable. My tax was never double; we were told from the outset that Korean taxes were 3.5-5%. Of course, they were ALWAYS 5%, but we were made aware of that. Also, my working conditions were actually pretty good. I worked no more than seven hours a day, and sometimes as few as five, and I knew about the phone teaching from day one. Overall, my experience was fairly positive until about halfway through my stay. It was honestly like a bait-and-switch scam.
And yeah, there are literally 1000's of jobs in Korea, and about 800 of them feature similar working conditions to the job you just left. About 150 of them are actually worse places to work. It's not always as simple as just leaving for greener pastures.
Also, every time a foreigner pulls a runner the rest of us are stuck covering for that person, and the working conditions become that much more deplorable for future employees. I'd say that the best way to approach it is to bear the job until you can't, at which point bail since they're probably planning on firing you anyway. But constantly complaining and refusing to help out just makes things harder on everyone else.

[Mr. BlackCat]

I worked at a company owned ECC for a year. It was a hell of a lot of work for very little pay. They like to hire newbies and spineless people because they don't know any better (It was my first year and they really sold the 'other hogwans are scary places' thing).

Bascially, you're fresh off the plane and ready to immerse yourself into the culture. You're told again and again that the way they do things is simply the KOREAN way and it's you who needs to adjust. Most of the other FTs who were there longer had already drank the koolaid and you don't want to rock the boat, so you comply. I worked 10-11 hrs a day, took reports home one weekend a month, came in for unpaid Saturdays, proofread students' school assignements on my 'breaks', worked 40 classes a week with no OT, took the constant criticism, taught the KTs for no OT, only had one vacation day at a time and worked summer/winter intensives with no OT. And did it all with a smile while being told that I was lazy and didn't care about the students. When students did quit we were humiliated in front of other FTs. There was absolutely no back-up on discipline, in fact usually the students were told that we, the FTs, were to blame. However, we were paid on time, pension deposited, housing acceptable and there were frequent dinners and school-sponsored events.

Then you meet other people who work at other hogwans and especially public schools. And you sit and listen. The light gets brighter.

I don't really know the exact circumstances at people's ECCs but I don't think you can really understand how you're being screwed while you're still in the storm. As I said, I was paid on time, got my pension and flight home, and the other FTs were great (along with some KTs). It's not that I'm lazy, but I was making 700,000 less a month for double the hours and triple work I'm doing now and was constantly criticized and manipulated. I feel like I paid my dues, and I'm glad I worked there because almost everyone I know now stems from that group of FTs. I'm just saying that if you're only 3,4,5 months in, you probably don't know what's what yet.

But if you're happy then that's all that matters, I'm not trying to change your mind. I just want newbies reading this to have the whole picture.

[runthegauntlet]

[Clusks]

I have an interview coming up for this school and they've given me the hours:

Office Hour : 9:30 am ~5:00pm, 9:30am~3:00pm, 9:30am ~ 6:00pm

I've been looking at a lot of the things people have been telling me about ECC schools, so I'm pretty sure these hours may change in an instance.

Does anyone have any recent info about this place? It's the one in Howon.

[Modernist]

ANOTHER zombie thread! 2 and 1/2 years old this time! For God's sake people, just MAKE A NEW THREAD already. It's really not that hard.

And OP, really? Do you REALLY imagine that anything substantive has changed in terms of the operations of huge chain hagwons? These places are creations of their environment, and the only thing that has changed since April of 2009 is the number of fresh graduates with no experience teaching or in Korea available to be hired by places like ECC. A change in their favor, which means that they likely treat people WORSE now than before--someone says screw it and quits, there's plenty more lined up, now.

If you want to ignore everything said here and sign on for hellish hours and ridiculous workloads and absurd changes in your day-to-day, that's your choice. I'll say it anyway--don't. Find something better, it's not impossible. You'll regret working here.

[Kim Jong Jordan]

*bump*