Korean Job Discussion Forums

[austinwhite]

Those of us who have been living and teaching in South Korea for any length of time understand that there is no perfect hogwan. Many cultural differences and diffused expectations must be taken with an open mind and a genuine will to accept differences of opinion and culture.
Every once in a while, however, there is a school that deserves either praise or condemnation for it's repeated actions.
In my opinion, "black listing" a school should be done with an appropriate amount of forethought and consideration by any teacher. Likewise, new teachers comming to South Korea should always be careful when reading comments about the school, keeping in mind what manner the "black listing" was written, and if it is not simply a disgruntled teacher trying to exact revenge on an institution.
However, I wish to warn any teacher in or comming to South Korea against working at an institution called CIE, or Center for International Education. This school is located in Bundang, with branches in Sunae-dong and Miegum. The recruiting company, ORANGE EDUCATION (Stephen Cho) almost exclusively finds teachers for this school.
I worked for this institution last year, along with a teacher in the ESL field for 14 years, two other American friends and collegues, and another teacher with an MED in Education, who is now a good friend and who is experiencing the majority of the list below.

In an effort to shorten this posting, here is a brief list of this school's repeatedly unethical practices and general acts of bafoonery:
1. Stealing intelectual property from teachers
2. Taking pension funds out of paychecks, and using it for the school's personal use, (thousands of dollars).
3. Pension extrememly difficult to get; nothing short of consistent pressure from teachers, after the money has been taken out for months and months, with nothing put towards the teacher's pension.
4. Taking taxes out of sallary, and using it for personal school use.
5. Failure to give letters of release as required by both law and contract in order to suit their own purposes.
6. Terminating teachers in the 10th month and cuasing extreme stress and runaround concerning letters of release, pay, etc.
7. Poorly managed schools, usually in the hands of an incompetent financial director who knows little or nothing about the needs of teaching staff
8. Failure to pay overtime
9. Blatant lying about when overtime, pension, severence, and plane fair will be given to teachers.
10. General incompetence of management.

While not everything in the above list was experience by the author of this notice, the majority was, and any teacher considering a position with this school should know they are doing so at their own risk. Thank you for reading this, and I hope it is helpful to the ESL teaching community in South Korea and the Bundang area.

[thegadfly]

Um, not sure EXACTLY what the law states in Korea about intellectual property rights, but basically, anything you create for class use during your prep time (your "required" prep time "on the clock") using school resources IS considered the school's property...if you go so far as to deliver a copy to the school, you have pretty much given it away. Of course, I have "retained" my intellectual property rights at places simply by "forgetting" to make extra copies for folks at the school..."I only have the copy on my diskette, which I left at home -- sorry -- will try to remember to bring it tomorrow...."

If you want to retain intellectual property rights to things you create, you would probably need to specify that in your contract -- personally I have done it this way as well (at Wonderland, of all places), and have been reimbursed for school usage of syllabi and lesson plans I created. It won't work everywhere, but if your stuff is worth stealing, it is probably worth buying...and if you make it clear that you are aware of that fact, you may head off that problem....

[Zyzyfer]

Hahahahahaha...CIE.

[dogbert]

Hey Austin, nice seeing you on The Contenders not long ago. I hope your position this year is better.

[eamo]

I'll be posting on this thread in about two weeks.

[Gollum]

Wow, they are not far from us.

Do you want us to pickett them?

Thanks for the warning... sounds like a crap place.

[Mosley]

dogbert: I think you've confused "austinwhite" for "Austin", who has long since been banned from this site.

[dogbert]

[Mosley]

OK.

Kind of a coincidence, though, because THE Austin was also on The Contenders this year.

[dogbert]

[Mosley]

Ha, ha! No, I don't remember the swastika being on display....

[austinwhite]

Who the hell are you people, and how do you know me? Why are you even using this site? I sincerely hope you are not teachers.

[wylde]

[oneiros]

[mishlert]