Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lewstherin]

It's in Gumi. My wife and I have been in discussions with the school director about working there. The place seems nice, but I was wondering if anyone on this site has/had any first-hand experience with them.

Has anyone heard anything about this place? If so, please let us know. Thanks a lot.

[thelaststraw]

lewstherin, you should go ahead and post the contract before making any decisions.......

[Pak Yu Man]

Lived in Gumi for 3 years. Never worked there but I knew a bunch of people who did.
Was back in Gumi a few weeks ago and asked my friends about the good old days.

Here's what I can tell you.

I have never heard any complaints about this school other than the standard bitching you hear from people. (this is pretty rare)

Gumi is a pretty nuce place. You get the small town place with a huge population of foreigners. There's around 300,000 people but there are so many foreigners working there. Gumi is the industrial capital of Korea. There are 100s of factories (the air does suck) so there are lots of schools for kids.

Because of the factories it's easy to make a little extra on the side. You can even beg your boss to get youu a company class (thought they don't pay as well as other cities).

Any other questions....give me a PM. I know a fair bit about the city and surrounding area.

[lewstherin]

Hey everyone. Thanks for the help you've given me so far.

Here's the contract the school sent my wife and me. I have some questions and concerns about different parts of it, but I thought I'd post it to let the collective wisdom of the Cafe do its work. Thanks again.

Here's the contract:



Article 1. Employment of Employee
The employer wants to employ the employee as an English teacher for the employer and the employee agrees to work for the employer as an English teacher in Kumi city, Kyungbuk Province, Korea.

Conditions of Employment
The employee's job description shall consist primarily of the following:
A. Curriculum design and implementation
B. Development of educational program and materials
C. Grading and evaluation of students
D. Student counseling or evaluation
E. Other related activities

Article 2. Period of Employment
The period of this contract is one year beginning from the date of the employee's first working day at the Institute, in Korea.

Article 3. Salary, Working Hours
The Employee shall work part time for the first month (Jan, 2007) of employment, and they employer will guarantee about 3 or 4 classes daily. From the month of Feb, 2007, the Employee shall teach classes for 35 hours a week. (Each class runs 50 min. and 7 50-min. classes per day)
The Employer shall pay a monthly salary of 2.350.000 Won in Korean Currency. Payment shall be made once a month. In no event shall the employee wait longer than 31 calendar days to receive his/her monthly salary.
Korean Income Tax shall be deducted from the employee's salary. No other deduction of any type whatsoever shall be deducted from the employee's salary without prior written consent from the employee. The rate will be 5% in accordance with the Korean Tax Code. The income tax shall be deducted from the salary of the employee each month.


Article 4. Policies :
The following policies have been established to assist instructors in the expected performance of their duties.
The employer will have the right to dismiss the employee for clear and frequent neglect of duties under this agreement.

a) The employer shall request the resignation of the employee if the employee is found to be guilty of gross misconduct in the execution of his teaching duties.
If this gross misconduct brings a negative effect to the classes, the employer may annul the contract and dismiss the employee and shall be free from any legal responsibility. However, prior written notice is required to ensure that the employee is given adequate opportunity to correct his/her misconduct.

b) Professional dress and grooming in the work place are essential to maintaining the desired reputation of the Institute. The employer shall establish guidelines for Professional dress.

c) All instructors must behave in a professional manner during class and when socializing with students outside of class. Instructors should be aware of the cultural background of Korean students and their expectations of teachers.

d) Instructors are required to attend staff meetings as requested by the Director.
If an instructor must be absent, he/she must inform the Director or Asst. Director prior to the meeting.
e) Instructors are required to interview new students and evaluate their placement level.

f) The employee shall not be absent or late for class without two days prior notice.

g) Instructors will be sanctioned by the director if they make sexual advances towards students or if questionable inter-personal relationships with individual students result in the loss of other students.

h) The employee shall prepare teaching materials for class beforehand and will be honest and diligent in teaching students in all classes. The employer agrees to furnish all curricula, textbooks, and other teaching materials.

i) If many of the employee's students complain about the classes, or if the students� enrollment falls below the accepted average for the third consecutive month, the employee will be required to attend teacher training or other teachers' classes as requested by the director.

j) The employee shall agree not to teach at any other Institute or privately without the permission of the Institute.

k) The employee shall teach at any place (middle or high school, company or other institutes, etc) designated by the employer. The employer is responsible for the transportation to the classes out of the institute.

l) If the instructor seeks release from his/her contract because of cultural differences, homesickness or personal problems, he/she will report to the institute and will receive 70% of the monthly salary from the time until a replacement instructor is appointed (maximum 4-6 weeks) and the instructor will be required to work until the new instructor arrives and will be required to return the airfare which he/she received. However, should the employer wish to terminate the contract for personal reasons the employer should give employee sufficient time to find another job at another institute.

Article 5. Benefits
a) Housing
The employer will arrange and pay for single furnished accommodation (Bed, TV, Washer, A/C, Table, Chair, Internet cable, Telephone�etc) for the period of the contract, and the employee shall pay living expenses including electricity, water, gas, oil, phone bills etc. The employee can stay in a furnished house alone. Meals are not provided.

b) Health Insurance
The employer shall pay one-half (1/2) of the employee's medical insurance premium which shall cover the employee for one year. Half of the health Insurance premium shall be deducted from the employee's first monthly salary.

c) Vacation:
The employee will have one week paid holidays after the employee finish the contract.

d) Flight:
The employer will reimburse economy round-trip air-fare.

e) Bonus: Upon completion of the contract, the employer will pay 2.350.000 Korean Won (taxable) for the employee�s severance and retirement on the last day of the employee�s work (right before one week vacation starts).

Article 6. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
Any dispute arising in connection with this contract shall be resolved in a Korean court of law according to Korean Regulations and Codes. The parties agree to comply with all applicable laws in their performance of this agreement.

In witness hereof the parties have agreed upon the stipulations above as of this date.


Employer's Signature Employee's Signature


Employer's Name Employee's Name


Date Date

[rhinocharge64]

Never heard of this place mate and after reading this contract i don't want to either. There are many points that are complete bull but the real gem is if you resign then you will only receieve 70% of your income whilst a replacement is found. Well you won't be working 70% of the contractual hrs that is for sure. Crooked to say the least.

Also i am sure that the 5% tax clause is complete baloney. You can check this out via the sticky page, i am sure there is a calculation link there. It seems way too high to me.

Being absent or late requires two days notice. Now i find this gem to be totally priceless. I thought you were here to teach English not predict the future. "Hey boss, i will be absent in two days. Yes i am going to get a bout of food poisoing". A complete joke.

The old sexual advances to me is a bit alarming. Don't get me wrong there are some fruit cakes that reside here from foreign shores but this seems way too excessive. I think this is a tool he may use against you if he wants you out. The boss " bad ploblem, u bad maan, u muste leavee".

If the roll begins to fall it's all your fault. You must attend teacher training class or observe other teachers. Another classic from Hogwon hell, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with it being a sh1te school with a sh1te curriculum. Oh, no it's your fault.

Working at other places is illegal unless it's registered with immi. From reading your contract i would say this would be unlikely. I can't predict the future (although you are supposed to) this is only my intitution, yes i smell bullllll.

One weeks holiday is way too low. The standard is 10 days which are agreed upon between YOU and your employer. Not in this contractual bullsh11t. You get your holiday once you have completed your contract. Looking at your teaching hrs (7x50mins per day) plus the additional workload i think i would need one after the first week.

Plus there is no mention of overtime rate. I can only presume that this would zero.

Students complaining about class. Most do, they generally are forced to go to several Hogwons after school and most are completely whacked in class, they don't want to be there. They will complain and you could be doing nothing wrong, but hey it's still your fault.

The public schools are recruiting for March my advice is bide your time and apply to the public system. If you are seeking an Hoggie then there are better options than this. Trust me save yourself a load of grief and give it a wide birth.

[thelaststraw]

[Spicoli]

Hey there,

Great idea posting questions about this "school" because people need to know what is on the go with this place.

I just recently finished a year contract with these people and I highly advise against going there to work. On the surface, everything seems cool but underlining all of that there's some sinister ***t going on.
I had a great relationship with the "boss" and the "director" of the school, I mean throughout the whole contract it was fine.
But, at several points throughout the year and especially when it came time to leave the place they really screwed me on many things, such as my schedule(I can't remember how many times this changed...wow), my (overtime each month(much too ambiguous-in their favour of course), my "pension/tax"(which is supposed to be redeemable by law but the school wasn't paying in--as I understand people at the school now are also having extreme difficulties getting this back), the contracts are bogus and they think they can change it and use it against you whenever they feel the need, etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc,etc..........oh, and they haven't sent me my last apartment fee that they were supposed to wire directly to my home bank account which was promised.

I am sorry that time does not permit me to write enough about this "school" because I am currently returning home from all of that. The reason I write "school" is because I never thought of the place as a school, nor was it. Sure, kids and adults come there and go to learn and all of that but the "school" didn't care about student progress at all. The ONLY thing that mattered to them was that your class numbers stayed up and that the kids stayed there hopefully long enough to buy every book possible and pay the zanny monthly tuition. And the reason I write "business" is because it is a shady one at best...(Interestingly enough, there's a banner in both the teachers rooms that reads something along the lines of "...make students never leave Yeonsei")

I will write a full description of what it is to teach there for all to see and I already told the director of the school upon leaving that I will defintitely be posting something and that she will receive the post and the link.

Basically, things need to change at that school and no one needs to go through the rigors of working there. The schedule is brutal(6-7 hours work days really means about double that------you travel to company classes from up to 3.5 hours a day---taxis, buses, other teachers driving you....!) and the pay is minimal, comparably speaking

MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER AND LOOK FOR ANOTHER PLACE.

(this coming from someone who had no real squabbles with the management and did his job as they saw "fit"---only time I questioned something or some order was when I saw that it was not right--- plain and simple.)

Hope this helps and I want to reassure you that I had a great time in Korea(even if I was in Gumi, working there, for them)----besides all of that I met so many amazing people, some of whom are still there now at the school; still trudging on with the bravery and poise of soldiers rising over the trenches....ok, I'm rambling now.

Good luck in your search for a school and, again, I wish I had the time to give more specifics but there it all is in half a nutshell.

Take it easy.

[gaspar]

Who has any recent experience at this school? I hear they do split shits now...are workers happy there...would like to hear the good and the bad.

[oldtrafford]

never ever do split shifts, you'll regret it!!