Korean Job Discussion Forums

[exteacher]

This hagwon, a branch of GnB English in Ansan, closest to the Gojan subway station, was quite screwy. They're looking for a foreign teacher at the moment. I'm not saying "don't take the job", but if you do, you should be ready to fight to get what you're entitled to. I don't know the branch name, but the boss's name is Mr Gang (or Kang) and his wife is Mrs Park. Neither of them speak English, but they communicated to me through the two Korean English teachers there. Anyway, this is how they mucked me round, and the sort of thing you need to be aware of:


The first thing they did when I arrived was to give me a different contract to the one I had signed before I left home. The new contract said I would teacher their daughter every Saturday for 2 hours, for no extra pay, and that this would usually be in the afternoon, but that the time could change. My original contract prided itself on the fact that there were "no weekend classes". I was naive and a bit bewildered, having only just arrived, and I couldn't ask the boss about the contract (cos he doesn't speak English and the English teachers weren't there at the time). He kept telling me to sign it, so I just did. Then I spent the rest of my year wasting my entire Saturdays hanging around waiting to be called on the phone by his daughter, so she would tell me what time I had to teach her. This made me pretty resentful since one big reason for me choosing the job was so I could have Sats free to go away and explore other parts of Korea.

The contract said the classes would have a maximum of 10 students. I was given several classes of 12 or 13 students; one of 15; and one of 18.

Although the boss began by paying me on payday, he laxed off towards the end and started paying me up to a week late.

I gave the boss over 6 weeks' notice that I was going to leave (after 10 months instead of completing the 12) and he did his best to make me stay. He made me feel it was my obligation to stay. He also took my passport (at the beginning of the year, when he needed it to get my alien registration card for me) and didn't give it back. In order to get it back I had to say I needed it to transfer money at the bank. When he asked for it back again I refused, and he threatened that I had to by saying that it was in the contract. I told him it wasn't in my contract, and that there was no way he was getting it back again, and then he didn't argue.

When I got my final pay, just before I left the country, my boss had deducted the sum of two months' apartment rent (over 600,000W) from it. He said this was because he had to pay for the apartment for the full year, but since I wasn't staying the full year, this was my expense. This wasn't written in the contract either; rather, that the academy would pay for all my accommodation expenses.

Other than that, the boss was just anal and power-hungry. I was made to write detailed lesson plans that the boss couldn't even read. Active games were banned because they made "too much noise".

However, the other teachers were really kind and the children were great to teach. Once I learnt to ignore the boss, I enjoyed the teaching day.

[Cheonmunka]

You are right to post, it's a screwy place. Good on you for getting ahead. Good luck.

[Pak Yu Man]

Yep...report him.

Now some other newb will be in the same situation as you in a year or so.
At least if you put a little fear into him the next 'sucker' won't have to put up with half the crap you did.

[jajdude]

There's one called "SuRim" near myeong-il station on line 5 in Seoul, Gangdong gu. Posting for part-time work. Maybe they will pay as they offer. No housing. A month at a time. They go through a recruiter

(posted on englishspectrum and another site as something like "blue1234.whatevercom").

One CDN guy works there happily I think. But I think others have been screwed. Just a hunch.

Stupidly I expected housing money while staying at a motel. Nope. Ended up with a raw deal.

[pet lover]

When it comes to immigration issues, I've always been more than happy to hand my passport over to my boss or anyone he/she tells me to in order to avoid actually going to the immigration office. In 7+ years, I've never had any boss try to keep it except one. And that one was quick to give ALL the passports back after a single threat of a phonecall to the American Embassy to report passport theft. Wasn't me that threatened, but I filed that away for possible future use.

[chest rockwell]

grrrr, go get em Mo.