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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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 Posted: Thu May 01, 2014 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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I should have piped in sooner that I didnt have any problems with nichgq's first postings. Schools certainly change & 6 years can be an eon in terms of a Korean school's evolution. I'd feel prompted to join & comment too if the school I worked at was decent now & unfairly tarnished by outdated remarks.
Maybe not everyone's choice as a work situation, but the links suggest its a pleasant enough job now.
I never took the writing for that of a Korean fake. A bit stilted, at worst. Lots of NETs are much worse writers than that.
No need to go deeper on the defensive, OP. I think you've made your case well enough for current searchers to get a balancing view. |
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DaeguNL
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think the negative post was the main reason for difficulty in hiring new employees. I'd say a majority of people coming here don't even know about this site.
I would guess some other reasons are:
1) It is an English camp/village
2) The working hours are about 40/week, and the pay is likely 2.1-2.2
3) The job is in Changnyeong |
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grizzly101101
Joined: 29 May 2015
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:25 am Post subject: 404 |
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404
Last edited by grizzly101101 on Sun Nov 29, 2015 1:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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| grizzly101101 wrote: |
I do not work here presently. I have stayed in touch with my friends/coteachers at the school. First time poster.
I wanted to blacklist this school because of the working conditions. I feel a certain amount of responsibility for making sure potential teachers know what this working situation is going to be like. This is for the public good. There have been other posts, good and bad, about this school and the Korean staff there. Though the other posts were a bit dated, the negative content and overall description is...for the most part, true. The boss has been referred to as a "madman" by previous teachers, current staff, and current Korean teachers in the surrounding areas and schools. There have been finicial irregularities with the principal and director, such as paying teachers less than what they were contractually obligated to pay. Additionally there was an instance with two teacher who had their income underreported as to avoid full payment into your pension. I will provide my experiences and those of current teachers, as well as teachers who have recently completed their contracts.
*First I will outline the contract, the facilities, and where it is located. *Next, the working conditions.
1-First thing, contract is standard- 2.1-2.3, pension, health insurance, flight re-imbursment, etc. 12:30pm-9pm. 2 weeks of vacation in winter and 2 weeks in summer.
(Problems-
No problems here. Standard for Korea.)
2-The school is an English Camp. It is not a hagwon or private school, it is funded by the Korean Gov. and functions as a specialized public school, not dependent on payment from students to attend. You teach students from a school for a week at a time, then new students for the next week from a different school, and so on. You get to know many students from the surrounding areas. The school is average, recently renovated. The apartments are couple housing. They are bigger than single housing. It was built within the last 8 years. The apartment complex is located next to the school on the campus.
(Problems-
There is an exhaustive list of rules that are not included in your contract that you learn upon arrival. I will list several but not all. - You can't have guests over without getting permission first from your principal. No Koreans are allowed in your apartment or the campus, but family and some* friends from home are allowed only after they are cleared to come. You can't exercise in your apartment due to noise. You can't drink or smoke in your apartment, on the roof, or on the campus. You are forbidden from bringing alcohol or tobacco into your apartment. This problem is intensive since the principal takes you shopping on Mondays in the school van, watching what you buy. You can't buy a car or your contract is terminated. The only personal transportation allowed is a scooter. The principal reasons that a scooter is safer than a car.
*There has been evidence of the Korean staff entering the foreign teacher's apartments while teachers were away. On a few occasions there have been items in the apartment that have been re-arranged or lights left on. There have been far more instances of questionable tampering. The principal claims there is not a copy or spare key to any apartment and the teachers have the only one.
3-Finally, the apartment complex, that house 8 foreign teachers as well as 3 Korean staff, is located on the school campus. This is rare. The school campus is located within the village of Gyesong. There is one GS25 and one 7-11 convenience store. Gyesong village is located within Changnyeong County. The city of Changnyeong is located nearby, 10-15 minutes by scooter and 5-10 min taxi, a drive that will cost you about 11,500 won, depending. You are quite literally in a farming village in the middle of nowhere. While this might seem charming, romantic even, the taxi drive and difficulty of travel will become a burden. Changnyeong is about 45 min from Daegu and 1hr and 20 min from Busan, the closest major cities.
(Problems-
You are in the middle nowhere. It takes you about 2-3 hours, when its all said and done, to get anywhere you want to go considering travel from Gyesong village to Changnyeong bus station, bus from Changnyeong to major city, subway from bus station to destination. The only transportation that is allowed is a scooter and, again, buying a car is forbidden on grounds of termination. Transportation has been a point of much contention with teachers. The school campus has an impressive arsenal of CCTV cameras. If you stay out too late, the principal will watch the CCTV video and you will be informed or questioned. If you don't lock the entrance gate to the campus, he will watch the CCTV video and you will be informed and questioned. If you leave a bottle outside by your scooter, he will watch the CCTV video and you will be informed or questioned.
*The boss often reminds the staff not to go out for drinks in the local city of Changnyeong, even encourages them not to go out in the city at all if it can be helped. He demands that you not drink alcohol at all, end especially while you are out, no matter where you are in Korea. He will watch the CCTV video from the weekend and see if anyone is not "walking the line" perfectly, and it will be brought up a later time. He notes every coming and going of each person or couple and their friends, their habits, their time spent out, exercise regimen, how long they spend out and often remarks on it.
The working conditions-
1-The principal often explains his “way” of communication involves raising his voice aggressively yelling at you, 2-disrespects you, devalues you, 3-consistently lies to you about things you can easily verify, 4- spies on you, 5- exerts heavy control over your personal life and freedom 6- there is some degree emotional and psychological hardship you will endure 7- Financial irregularities
#1- The boss will yell at you. On your first day he will tell you he has a hot temper and for you to expect "loud talking". This essentially gives him the freedom to yell at you and display unbridled rage. By yelling I mean- screaming at you where spit is coming out of his mouth coating his chin and lips. Reasons for yelling can range from staying out too late on a Thursday night (Late-1am) to not locking the classroom window.
#2- Disrespect. This point may be a little redundant. Many times he will tell you that you are a child, since you do not speak the language or know the customs- this might be true to varying degrees. He will often have emotional outbursts at school towards you. After the outburst, you will be subjected to awkward, passive aggressive behavior and cutting remarks. (See more on Psychological stress)
#3- The principal will lie to you. He has told numerous staff members that he tells "white lies" because he is a businessman. This bold admission of shameless lying is spectacular in itself. For example: One teacher wanted to buy a car, but the principal claimed that there were laws in place only at his school through the Korean government that did not allow for teachers to buy cars. While on vacation government workers will check your computers, going through all documents, reading all messages or information to “investigate” illegal tutoring. This investigation of going through all electronic data was said to be a new national law happening all over Korea. (See more on Spying) Lies had become so common that is was quite easy to disregard most of what the principal said. Your first couple of months is when they invest heavily in you. They will cite laws, traditions, cultural norms, and procedural programs to encourage or discourage certain behavior or fear. As a new resident of Korea you are not suspicious, since there is no immediate reason to distrust those who seem to be helping you.
#4- The principal will spy on you. I have cited a few examples, such as watching the CCTV footage obsessively and checking your computer data. Another instance, more recently, include monitoring Facebook profiles. The principal claims that he "gets calls" from Koreans around the area that see the foreign teachers out in the city, who you are with, and for how long. There is a general distrust of sharing personal information with the Korean staff. You will also have the director (not the principal) in the teachers’ office during your entire contract.
#5- Your apartment is not your apartment. You come and go as per the rules. You are not allowed to exercise in the apartment. You are not allowed to have guests over from the local area. Any family or friends from out of the country have to be approved in order to stay at your apartment. He will not allow you to go out to eat with the Korean co-workers. You cannot move the furniture in your apartment. He demands all destinations, hotel locations, and numbers of where you will be, how long you will be there, and why you will be there during your vacation. Following your vacation you will be made to write a vacation report on where you went, what you did, etc. In one instance, while significant unrest was mounting against him because of the above listed behavior, he told the foreign teachers that personal information- what you did on the weekends was forbidden from being shared with one another. Talking between the teachers was prohibited. There is very little freedom in the teachers’ room, followed closely by the ever-watchful director whose desk is located in the teacher’s room.
#6- You will endure stress at any job. Psychological stress and emotional turmoil is another thing all together. Constant distrust of information, the gatekeeping and withholding of information, and the uncertainty of financial matters makes this school very unpleasant. At any point the principal feels as though he is threatened or his dictatorial authority is being undermined there will be an outburst of endless rage. You eventually learn to work in a hostile environment always prepared for an argument for your privacy rights, to hold the principal to fulfill financial agreements based on your contract, and keeping your self-respect.
#7- Financial matters were quite complex for 2 sets of teachers. For one set of teachers he didn’t pay the amount on the contract for 2-3(?) months. For another set of teachers, just recently, he under reported the income to the pension office. For those unfamiliar, when the employer underreports income he pays a lower amount into the pension account. This is illegal under the law.
BONUS ROUND-
Recently, 2 teachers left the country after completion of their contract and made a stop in Korea before leaving for their home country. When the principal learned of a change in the submitted itinerary for flight re-imbursement after the teachers left the school he contacted the Immigration Office and called for their arrest. He claimed this was a felony, forging federal documents punishable by arrest and imprisonment along with a fee penalty. Furthermore, he told the teacher still at the school we would be arrested and “100% in chains”. As it turns out, the teachers made a visit to the Immigration Office and were told the principal was crazy and that there was no way any legal action could be taken against them.
OVERALL SUMMARY:
From my experience when I worked here- The contract is average, pay is average, vacation is average. The principal is paranoid, controlling, and manipulative, eager to demean you and submit you to his authoritarian erratic unstable personality. He will cite non-existent laws to support the given narrative he is presenting, using keywords such as ‘government’ ‘immigration’ ‘new law’. This can be quite intimidating for new teachers who do not understand working in Korea or dealing with type of personality disorder. Even by Korean standards he is not held in any respectful regard. You will be emotionally drained working here. The worst part about it is that no one leaves happy, the experience of Korea is great but the working experience at this school is another thing. There is no freedom, privacy rights violations and worker rights violations run rampant with no oversight from the Korean government who is technically your employer. With no oversight from the Korean Educational Department or Ministry of Education the principal is left unchecked in abuses and realizes every year he can take advantage of the teachers without consequence, by discouraging involvement in your area, withholding information and constant deception.
I suggest working in bigger city; it is simply not worth it. 4 weeks of total vacation is good but not at the cost of your happiness and self worth. Even if you deal with the same type of boss in a bigger city you are still in a big city with more resources for support, more foreigners, entertainment, lower cost of transportation, etc.
If you are a potential teacher and seem skeptical, ask the current teachers about the information listed above. If you are not able to contact the current teachers privately without it going through the principal or director, for whatever reason, it is best to recognize the red flag and find employment elsewhere. There are too many jobs in Korea that offer similar contracts with better reputations. |
Reminds me of an abuse supervisor I had once who was crazy. A few ajossis get power and it goes to their heads. Well, I trasnfered to another education fofice within 3 to 4 months to get away from him. I also screamed back at him a couple of times.
I'd love to go work there almost, just so I can get up in his face and scream at him,bring back a local friend and tell him to f@keff and mind his own business if he tried to say boo to me. No way, I'd put up with that. |
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Keeper
Joined: 11 Jun 2012
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know this English village so I can't specifically comment on it. I do know that there are many people who will cheerfully accept extra work not in the contract, (like working on their web site, "writing" workbooks, leading groups and programs which they thought of, leading "teacher's development" lectures, etc.), to avoid doing what they were hired on to originally do. Basically if it was a lifeboat they would be the ones who would secretly hoard the food and water. It can be very competitive as one foreigner trips over another to be the first to sign up. The dynamics of such a place are fairly bad. The end result will be a better job for a few and a worse one for everybody else who is not their friend. This of course creates a circle of butt-kissing. I have a feeling this is what may be going on here. If it is true then shame on you OP. If the OP and Grizzly care to comment then please do.
I made this comment about English villages in another thread and I will restate it here for people considering working at them. Even if you talk to a "teacher" currently at the school you need to remember they were hand-picked by the person doing the job interview. What they say will likely be extremely biased. In other words, you can't trust what you are being told by a complete stranger no matter how friendly they sound. Ask the tough questions and use your critical thinking skills. |
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wonkavite62
Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Location: Jeollanamdo, South Korea.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:19 pm Post subject: Yes |
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| This does sound like a job ad, actually. So it might have been more profitable for the OP to put his ad in the JOBS section, of Dave's ESL where it might get more attention. It sounds good. For all I know it may be a good job. But actually, I don't know! The OP hasn't given me enough information, to decide. |
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adr90
Joined: 08 Aug 2015
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adr90
Joined: 08 Aug 2015
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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Review of CEV
TL;DR: If you want time to travel, an easy job, and a reliable paycheck, come to CEV. If you want a good boss, the feeling of making a difference, and to breathe without inhaling mold, don’t come to CEV.
Work Expectations: This is a bit hard for me to score, because what I consider important others wouldn’t at all. If you’re a real, licensed teacher, CEV might drive you a little batty because we’re more like performing monkeys. If you just want an easy paycheck and a base to travel around Asia, then this could be perfect.
Staff teach (in a busy week) four 45-minute periods a day, for four and a half days. The ten-minute gaps are for writing reports and sitting at your computer. After students leave (no later than 4:30 each day), teachers have almost four more hours of desk-warming. This is where I suggest prospective teachers pick up a hobby. In my time there, one teacher finished a master’s degree, another picked up day trading crypto-currencies, one wrote rough drafts of three different novels, and another explored opening a photography business. If you prefer, you can also just watch Netflix (the supervisors have extremely poor vision, so they probably won’t be able to tell).
In short, this is probably the easiest job you’ll have in your life. A lifer in Daegu once told me that teaching English in Korea is about 30% teaching, 70% performing. At CEV, I’d say it’s more like 10%/90%. So if you want to make a difference in the world, look elsewhere because neither the CEV supervisor nor the greater education system is interested in that sort of thing.
Score: For the folks wanting to make a difference 2 / 5 stars
For the folks just wanting a paycheck 5 / 5 stars
Work Environment: Living, working, and socializing with the same 3 other couples can be pretty…weird. You better hope you like them (I liked mine, thank goodness). It’s really a psych major’s dream experiment.
The greatest issue with work would be the relationship forced upon you by the bosses, the married couple. There will be culture shock, especially in a Korean work environment, but this goes far beyond the cultural differences. Any time teachers repeated to Koreans the strange things the bosses said, their eyebrows raised and they asked if we were okay, if we needed to contact the government about our conditions. The superintendent lies habitually. I don’t know if he believes all his lies or not, but just be assured that about 95% of what comes out of his mouth is a lie. Anytime he talks about immigration, it’s definitely a lie about “new laws only I know about” and “secret rules” to intimidate new teachers into doing whatever he wants.
Anytime we went out in public in a group the superintendent prepped us one what to say, told us how to say it, and prompted us in public to smile, say hello, say thank you, etc. Like we were five years old. He also does it to teachers’ parents who visit. Independent thought is, of course, discouraged, so anytime teachers wanted something they manipulate the conversation until he comes up with the idea himself (think “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”—it works!) Two teachers worked there for seven months before the bosses learned their names.
Information is withheld from teachers as much as possible, to the point that we had to quietly go to the secretary to get paystubs. It wasn’t until my contract was halfway over that I learned my actual employer was the county government of Changnyeong-gun. The superintendent lied and told me otherwise. There are many other stories, but this review is getting long enough.
Basically, if you want to be treated like a person with a name, things are going to bug you here. Be prepared for lots and lots of mind games. And mountains out of molehills.
Score: 1.5 / 5 stars (I reserve 0 for the hagwons who shut down overnight and leave you stranded)
Benefits: Paychecks are fair and come on time (if they hadn’t, combined with the complete lack of regard/respect the director and superintendent would’ve made me do a Midnight Run). Vacation is contracted at 2 weeks in a year, plus Korean holidays, but in the past few years teachers regularly get 5. In 2018, though, it may go back down to 4. Bonuses of about 100,000 won are magnanimously bestowed upon us by our Supreme Leader And Korean Father (yes, note the sarcasm) whenever the mayor of the nearby town drops by for a visit. Not the best benefits to be found in Korea, but pretty decent. (Also, if you have a master’s degree, make sure that’s recorded in your employment documents with immigration and CEV, and make sure you’re getting paid roughly 100,000 won more a month). Don’t let the superintendent tell you “probationary six months” either, because that’s a lie designed to save him money.
Score: 4 / 5 stars
Living Conditions: The apartment building is a two-minute walk from the office/classroom building, so commute is ridiculously easy. The apartments are large by Korean standards, roughly 600 square feet with lots of storage space. The apartment building was built in 2011-ish, so appliances are new. They are also, however, the cheapest grade possible. Expect plumbing to break and other problems to occur during your stay. Mold is also a serious problem, particularly in two of the apartments. Teachers reported leaving for the weekend and suddenly being able to breathe easy again, but getting sick as soon as they returned.
The superintendent and director also live upstairs and enjoy “ambushing” you frequently with hugs and waves and over-the-top smiles. They also sometimes sneak into your apartment to check it out while you’re at work. One teacher noticed her books rearranged after work one day. Another teacher was told they left their window open and a cardboard box flew out, but they found evidence that the director (or perhaps secretary, acting under the director’s orders) had been in their apartment and had to create some believable story to get onto them about having a cardboard box in their living room. The superintendent also just bought new security cameras and watches the footage every Monday morning. It’s actually really Orwellian. Thankfully, he’s like 61, so he doesn’t understand technology and it’s not as bad as it could be.
CEV is also very remote—more remote than I thought when moving there. You’ll live in the middle of an onion field. The views are nice, but getting places is rough. As an introvert who doesn’t like to party hard every weekend, I didn’t think this would bother me at all. But it did. A lot. Pro tip: buy a scooter. Seriously. It will keep you from going mad.
Score: 2 / 5 stars. Would’ve been higher except for the isolation and lack of boundaries with bosses.
Overall score: 9.5 or 12.5 / 20 stars
This overall score pretty much tells it as it is: there are worse jobs in Korea. But there are plenty of better jobs, too. |
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