Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

I worked at PAGODA for awhile..

I liked it overall.. i mean, its all adults.. and they have a series of 10 levels.. and books for 9 of them.. you work 20 days each month.. meaning you will get a few extra days off each week.. the books are pretty good.. although not as great as the high levels.. but you can substitute your own materials if you don't like a lesson out of the book.. actually you don't have to use the book at all if you don't want to.. but you should pull some out of the books because the students have to buy the books..

Another positive is they help you select the right apartment.. although you do have to pay the monthly rent.. you don't have to pay the key money.. and they go around with you.. so you can choose just the place that you want for the year..

Downsides are that as with all adult hogwans.. you will unfortunately have to teach split shifts.. the only branch i know to avoid this would be the JONGNO branch.. but i've heard the politics and the immense size of employees makes for an impersonal atmosphere.. from what i heard.. but if you find a niche its great..

One of the big plusses with Pagoda is you get one month off during your year.. and you get still paid a portion.. not the full portion.. but something like 30% of what you'd have made if you had worked that month.. so thats a good deal.. however you can't choose any month as the busy months you are unable to take it off unfortunately.. mainly meaning july, august, january, and february its mandatory that you can't take one of those months off..

Hmm.. can't think of anything else.. anyhow, for teaching adults its about standard to have to teach splits shifts unfortunately.. and it does burn you out quickly.. the other things is, well 30 hours/week is the average.. but not only do you have classes in the morning and nighttime.. but there always seems to be one hour sometimes two hours breaks imbetween your classes.. (all adult hogwans are like this by the way).. so often you will be teaching for 3 hours sometime between 6:30am-11:30am and then again another 3 hours from sometime between 4pm-10pm or something like that.. generally you find yourself sleeping in the afternoon to catch up on sleep.. at least that was my case..

hope that helps.. its not ideal.. but still.. i'm more into teaching adults and seem to end up doing that.. the classes are more interesting than kids.. plus the students will take you out alot.. socially its a great atmosphere.. so that makes up for the exhaustion somewhat..

Overall, I don't like teaching in adult hogwans because you feel tired all of the time.. but sometimes at a school like Pagoda they'll give you a month where maybe you don't start work until 10am or maybe you'll finish early at 7pm or something.. so it varies each month.. stuff like that..

hope that helps!

[Homer]

Worked for ECC in Busan for a while.
They treated me fair and didn't cheat on any of their contract obligations.
It was long hours but a good first job.

[beebee]

I am CURRENTLY HAPPILY working at YBM /ELS Jong-no. I am amazed at the rumours that fly around about YBM from people that have never worked here.

I don't know about lucrative legal additional work - (refer earlier post I have never been offered that ) but I am generally happy at my school and I recommend rather than reading this site come and meet the teachers and managers and talk to them directly. Quite a few of us are in our second year of our contract.

I have also worked in the university system in Korea and have been in Korea close to 4 years now. My reasons for enjoying my job are:

- we have a professional foreign manager who is always supportive of our needs and ideas. He also has been of great support to many teacher's individual circumstances here as living in Korea can be difficult at times;

- although we work shifts in the beginning of our contracts ( this is usual in most situations with adults around the world) he takes the time to accommodate our preferences , hours of working, preferred classes etc - he doesn't have to to do this - but he does - this makes happy teachers;

- for " real teachers" this is the place. Our programs are diverse , cover all levels include Intensive, Academic English, Biz English etc;

- our students are generally MOTIVATED as they are fee paying students compared to university students sleeping, or playing with their cell phones during class, this makes teaching very enjoyable;

- the job is INTERESTING and very rewarding we have freedom to use supplementary materials with the texts and really be creative teachers we have an up to date resource collection;

-at universities you generally just teach freshman ( freshperson ?) English to lower levels - this means this job becomes somewhat monotonous, plus you usually have to do office hours and be available for student consultations;

- weird and wacky teachers don't seem to be employed here - FANTASTIC !!!!!!

- most of the teachers have CELTAS or above - so you don't get blank stares from teachers when you wish to exchange ideas. You actually have a lot in common as the other teachers can also work in their own country this makes a DIFFERENCE to the office environment.

- we enjoy our time in the teacher's room !!!! No politics - no meetings - just time to chat and exchange ideas. We are relaxed and work hard. We actually socialize together ( highly unusual environment.)

- happy teachers = happy students.

- you don't have to share accommodation with the flat mate from hell;

- you get PAID on time every month;

- you can do overtime if you want extra cash;

- you can even take a nap on a bed here between a class (now that must be internationally unique)

The bad points - as no job is perfect:

- The holidays SUCK - must be the worst in the world - but you can negotiate a month off (without pay) you get exhausted and sick if you don't take a break as the contract hours per month are higher than in other countries and the universities here.

- You pay rent from your salary , but the salaries have improved , but no they're not not the best in Korea as you buy the happy working environment above.

- the bathrooms are dirty - there is no staff toilet - There is not even liquid soap! But I guess that's just a Korean thing that i will never adjust to.

- the teacher's room is the hottest room in the building and lacks an oxygen supply- which is OK if you like Korean Summers and don't need much air to breathe.

But I do recommend just making your own decisions by speaking to people who work here now, rather than reading the crap re-generated on this board by people that have never worked here or worked here prior to 2001.

Our school is no longer the "wild west" where you are hired for having a white face and an American accent. There are many exciting opportuinities for serious TESL teachers and at the end of the day we are the largest school so we have a pretty good reputation amongst Korean students.

By the way, our teachers come from diverse cultural backgrounds and different English speaking countries. Our students also really enjoy this cultural diversity and international English environment. They are adults and many have travelled so they realise that blue eyes, white skin and blond hair are recessive genes back home.

Hopefully I get a pay rise, an extra day off, an oxygen mask or some lucrative legal work for writing this post- maybe even liquid soap !!! ( I doubt it). I just want to set the record straight as I am proud to work here and respect the other teachers here and have read too much crap for too many years on this board and it insults the hard work we all do here creating a very unique professional island environment in a sea of unprofessionalism.

[SanatKumara]

If you get a job offer at ECC Sungdong, think again as you can do much better than this place. First of all you work 6 days a week, split shifts with little regard to how many hours you work without a break. The director manages by fear and runs around beating a ruler in his hand and very seldom smiles or speaks to you. There aren't enough teacher's manuals and often times you have to share wth other teachers which means you have to run around the office who has the book you need. They also have a habit of firing people for no other reason than enrollement is down and they want to save money by combining classes and loading up a teacher's schedule to work overtime. None of the teachers are happy and most graon on a daily basis of the harsh working conditions and over populated classrooms which makes teaching a real joke. It didn't take me long after being there to figure out that no one was happy and that most of the teachers did a mininal job of teaching because the bottom line is the owner is only concerned about profit and not the quality of teaching. Also, be warned if you get fired, you will not get paid and I have witnessed teachers getting booted out the door with ECC owing them at least 2 million in Won. If you get a job offer at this school, my advice is run as far away as you can as you will end up spending one year in Korea (that is if you don't get fired) very unhappy.