Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BadPegge]

There is no limit to the amount of bad things that can be said about this "school." I was a typical newbie, and managed to suffer through my year there, but no one else should have to suffer like I or others did.
1) Employees were "fired" (i.e., asked to leave) with little or no cause, and had deposits, airfare, etc. withheld from their pay before being forced to exit. One teacher, a Chinese-Canadian, received a paycheque for something like 300,000 Won before wisely doing a runner.
2) Schedules are absolutley horrendous. They recently upped it to 125 hours a week for 2,000,000 a month. At 1,900,000, I regularly worked 0900-1230, and then 1400-1730/2000.
3) Holidays are not paid, they will simply overschedule you to make sure you do your 120/125 hours a month. No overtime is allowed - they will simply make other teachers cover your classes at the end of a pay period - but never actually give you a full day off. For example, you will have most of your classes covered but then have to teach 1800-2000.
4) The Western staff are absolutely the most back-stabbing, two-faced MFs I have ever come across. Tracey is a lying, two-faced piece-of-* who will never get a real job in NZ. Mark, who apparently just departed, is one of the most miserable, pathetic pieces-of-* I have ever encountered. Amanda is quite possibly half-Mongoloid; in some ways to be pitied, but she got her own when Anwar dumped her. Betty is a fat cow who needs to be more careful in Itaweon. They cannot and will not stand up to the evil Mr Jong, the school director. They are supposed to serve as go-betweens, but end up doing nothing but eating sh*t and perpetuating the Evil that is this school.
5) Housing is grotesque. Plus, they take out 600,000 Won from your first 3 paycheques...
Any "experienced" ESL teacher would know to avoid this school, but I am hoping to discourage any newbies from getting into the same horrific situation in which I found myself. This school seems to be getting desparate for teachers, with good reason. Hopefully, they will go bankrupt soon.
Mr Jong, your mother and grandmother fornicate with swine in Hell.
I encourage others to add to this post so that any unsuspecting, naive noobs do not even consider signing a contract with this hellhole.
Thank you for your time and attention.

[travelx]

I'm embarrased to say it - but I WAS a teacher at this hell hole.

The *beep* *beeps* forced me out after 8 months - and deducted everything they could. At the end they told me I owed them W80,000 - but because they are so kind and care about their staff and students they told me I didn't have to pay it. Bless them.

They prey on the newbies - I too was one! I am now working in Seoul and love my school, apartment and being treated like a human.

Thanks for naming names, these people should not get away with this sort of stuff.

[BadPegge]

The previous poster was a conscientious, devoted teacher whose Kindy class got so much out of her... it was an absolute travesity that she got "fired." This "school" won't last much longer - they can't recognize talent and a good work ethic when they see it. They want drones who will keep the kids "sitting nicely" whether they learn any useful English or not.
I feel sorry for the parents who spend vast sums of money to send their kids to this piece-of-crap "school." They deserve better, and so do their kids.

[786]

I had the misfortune of teaching at LCI/ASTA Kids Club in Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon, and I lasted a grand total of 3 months before getting so fed up with their crap that I had to pull a runner. I've never looked back since, and never once regretted it or thought that it was the wrong decision. In fact, I look back on it as the best decision I've ever made, despite leaving behind some very good friends and honest people.

If you are a newbie considering teaching in Korea, and for some reason are offered a contract by this school, please, please, please, I would beg you to take it under very careful consideration. The people at ASTA Kids Club are racist, spineless bigots who care nothing for the health or wellbeing of their staff (teachers specifically). They completely ignore any form of conscionable action, they are completely without morals, and their decision making is completely unscrupulous, with the only consideration being for the almighty dollar. And I could have perhaps stomached the mistreatment of the staff if their was some sort of benefit (either educational or character based) to the students, but whatever remarks I've made about the treatment of staff goes double for them.

As for the names that were mentioned in earlier posts, Marc has the intestinal fortitude of a roachs (I think he suffers from ***** envy, too), and should no longer hold the privilege of calling himself a Canadian. He's not even a man. Betti, while of moderate intelligence, is a backstabbing cow who turns a blind eye to any wrongdoing, and Amanda is a passive lump of poo, floating in the proverbial toilet bowl of life, waiting to be flushed. The three of them answer to the evil "Mr." Jung, who is, in my opinion, as close to a Nazi as you can get these days and get away with it. He calls himself a "Christian", and attends church every Sunday, but his uncompromising, single-minded pursuit of the almighty dollar would make Jennifer Lopez writhe with envy. As far the way he values human rights and human life, I would easily put him in the same category with such people as Mussolini, Hitler, and Mao Tse Tung.

If you would like to know a little about the previous two posters, they were good people; educated people; one of which attended Duke University, could speak fluently in 3 languages, had a clear grasp of linguistics and literacy, and was never once consulted about programming, curriculum, or language development or acquisition. The other was one of the most kind, caring, honest kindy teachers I've ever known, who was absolutely crapped on after I left. "Fired" about a week after I left, just to set an example to the rest of the staff.

So, in conclusion, **** ASTA Kids Club, **** Marc, and **** that Nazi Jung and his evil empire. They're all the biggest group of tossers I've ever met.

The end.

Mod Edit:Edited for language.

[simpleminds]

I think I know this school and two of the teachers mentioned. It was a decent place to work at first...until three months before I left, when they started pulling this crap. Looks like the Canadian drone (not this Marc), who helped implement this crap, had left. Since him (and another pathetic porn-addicted Canadian pig who used to threaten to throw kids out the window), your Mr Jong had decided to hire dung instead of real teachers, except he hired you. Because you obviously cared about the kids and made some noise, you got crapped on. That's what happened to me, and that was before the Asta thing cropped up. What the hell is that, anyway?

Yeah, Mr Jong and his ilk are the sort of "Christians' who make me want to puke.

It's odd, the Canadians there were the first Canadians I'd ever met...For a while, before I met some decent ones, I wondered if all Canadians were losers. No offence to those decent ones!

What comes around goes around. If Jong has teachers who spend their time scraping the toilet bowl, good for him. Crappy bosses deserve crappy teachers. Too bad the kids will get crapped on, too.

[Corporal]

[The Chewbacca Defense]

Yeah I worked there in 1999-2001....thank God i got out when i did. Sounds like things have really gone down hill.

[periwinkle]

I worked there from 2001-2002. I've written numerous bad things about that school on this site. Simpleminds will also back up my horror stories- she was there when I was there. I contemplated doing a runner from that school, but I was worried it would've damaged my ability to get another job in Korea. The people that run that school are downright evil.

I had such a hard time going to work each day I a) tried to get meds from my doctor because I felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown (I'm a very stable person, but the mind control at that school was unbelievable) b) I started going to church with my friend, because I felt like God was the only way I could make it through my time there (I'm also not religious, but I really had to draw on my Catholic upbringing to get me through that time). I'm not being a drama queen, either- that place was horrid. I could write a blog filled with stories about that place, but y'all will feel very negative after I tell some of them.. The director Jung and his cronie Park are truly evil people. I hope they receive justice through karma.

[periwinkle]

Here's an example of how evil that school is:

There was a female teacher who was there in the late 1990's. She met a Korean guy and married him. Jung was FURIOUS with her for getting married. She got pregnant, and unfortunately miscarried (she has at least 2 kids that I know of now). Jung called the hospital, found out what happened (so much for the so-called privacy laws here), and told everyone she had an abortion. This teacher was also very religious, and his lie could have very easily damaged her reputation at her church.

That school uses recruiters, so I'm not sure how likely it is that newbies will read this, unfortunately... Anyway, there was a thread on this forum a couple of months ago by someone who was screwed over (I think it was a Chinese Canadian??). They pop up every now and then.

Huh- funny about Marc. He was hired when I was there. I was impressed at first because he said he was going to a famous graduate school in the states for forensic science. This was in 2001. And he only just left? Guess he gave up that dream to waste 5 years in that shithole hakwon.

I felt so badly about myself after I left that school. I wondered if all the schools were as bad as that one, and now I know it's one of the worst. I felt like I was the only one getting the short end of the stick. Obviously I wasn't, and there are a lot of us who were treated similarly. Basically anyone who stands up for themsleves will suffer there. They try to hire people they think are weak and can easily be pushed around, and are outraged when they find that some of us have spines.

[BadPegge]

Let's start a blog about this school, so we can make sure that anyone clever enough to do a simple search on Google will find it... I really want these b*stards to go bankrupt... and it seems I am not alone.

[periwinkle]

For awhile I thought I about passing flyers (in Korean) around Yeonsu-gu. To have 1000 flyers printed up, its maybe 30,000 won or something (I think it's even lower). Anyway, the flyers would be a big warning to the parents about that school. ^~