Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pacotaco]

Every thread about TPR that I've read has negative posts or ends all cryptic with people asking others to "pm them for more info."

If you worked here previously and had a negative experience, could you please comment publicly? If it has the potential to negatively impact you, obviously you shouldn't - but if there's been enough time in between - please! Any info super appreciated.

[thekorean]

I had the displeasure of "working" for TPR for all of two days. Contract was signed, I began to attend training (paid at 5,000 won/hour), and then after day 2 of training I got a phone call from HR stating that they didn't need me after all because of student cancellations.

I had declined several job interviews during the 10 days or so that I believed I was to be employed by TPR and, in the end, it turned out they were too incompetent to know what their staffing needs truly were. Or maybe they knew there was a chance they would have to cut me loose, but they hired me anyway because of the extremely low financial investment in hiring someone who already lives in Seoul. After all, it doesn't matter to them what opportunities I might miss out on (this occurred during the late-February hiring rush). All that matters to them is that they've got their bases covered.

Anyway, I will not be considering TPR again in the future. There are too many worthwhile employment opportunities in Korea to be dealing with this kind of incompetence.

[pacotaco]

That's really messed up. With that sort of morality what's to stop them from letting a contracted employee from another country let go "because of student cancellations." I can't afford to just throw away weeks of my time + $1200 for the CHANCE at a job. Worst of all, it starts out with a $5/hr training? And ofcourse from the other forums I've gleaned that that's the proctoring rate (apparently required to do that as apart of the allotted 40horus/week). Sheesh.

Thanks for sharing. Definitely not doing this.

[swashbuckler]

pacotaco,

I also had a bad experience with the Princeton Review Korea a while back with their summer intensive course. I won't go into too much detail here less I risk outing myself, but let's just say there are some more major money-grubbing brainwashed a-holes working there in the upper echelons of managment, including the senior teachers. Their summer program in particular is brutal and almost abusive considering what they expect from you. You have been warned..

[pacotaco]

Just thought I'd report back from some PM's I received.

A number of people have told me TPRK has no problem firing you within a few days of your arrival. Their contracts make it permissible for them to dropkick you within days/weeks of your arrival if you don't meet up to their arbitrary standards.

I'm looking for (ethical/fair) summer employment in Korea, so if anyone has suggestions please share!

[ehmhunt]

This will probably be longer and more detailed than you want, but here is a full disclosure about my experience at TPR. But it can mostly be summed up like this: read the contract.

I took a couple position here that was advertised as having hours 9-6, and was told that I could work the same schedule as my husband. We were told this repeatedly, but in the end they could not deliver this schedule. However, it wasn't in the contract, so that's a lesson in being careful about what jobs you accept.

When I was there they first made us do "training" for two weeks at 5,000 won per hour. 50% or more of this training was upper management sitting with us and just chatting about nothing. Not too bad, but a waste of time and money. On our third day, we met with the higher ups and received our signed contract a few days later. So basically, we signed our contract and flew all the way to Korea, but our employer had NOT signed our contract. I think they do this with all employees, that way they can easily dismiss them if they do not like them. During this training, another new teacher was brought in and replaced within two days. His replacement was not fluent and taught a mock class in which we learned the past tense "Did you wanted that?"

We were then sent on a visa run to Japan and later told that this counted towards our allotment of vacation days.

When we moved to the location we were teaching at, the apartment had a bed and some appliances, but was otherwise unfurnished. Not a huge deal, but below standard for Korea. We were also not offered any help in setting up internet or getting phones.

The first few weeks we were given next to no teaching hours (I would have made more working at minimum wage full time). This is a big problem because TPR does not guarantee hours. When I notified them that I would have to resign, they offered to change my salary, make my schedule the same as my husband's, and offered guaranteed hours. So, you can negotiate with them. However, the week after that they gave me a schedule with 13 hour teaching days. When I told them I wanted to quit, they told me they would not give me a letter of release unless I stayed with them until they found a replacement (which, given the numerous times they told me they were going to "fix" something, I figured probably meant indefinitely).

They told me I was worthless and it didn't matter if I quit because they could easily replace me (despite the fact that they had been searching for a long time for someone to fill the position). They also lied about the nature of the release letter, saying it was a special form from immigration, and they would be liable for our future actions. The letter of release is a simple document saying "I allow this person to seek work elsewhere" in Korean. I printed one out for them and they laughed and said it wasn't a "real" one. I found out later that they're actually legally obligated to provide one.

I quit immediately and they shouted a lot of things about my husband and I being worthless, unprofessional, and returning to our country. They also tried to break into our apartment. But I'm unsure if they thought we had already left or not, so I'm reserving judgement.

They are also massively disorganized. No one knows anything about what will happen until the night before or day of.

I think it's possible to work for this company happily, but you need to be extremely clear about what you want and have them put it in the contract. Then make sure that they themselves actually sign it.

[watergirl]

Hi'
..Just for future reference to people who find this thread from google.. I have been working in Korea for the last few years. EVERY time I look for work, the Princeton Review is hiring.. EVerytime!! This is a very bad signs.
Most foreigners don't want to change jobs in Korea (as your apt. is connected to your job and you have to move esp.), and so the fact that so many people do not stay at a job is a real strong sign that it is a bad working environment..
Also, I met some Canadian summer teachers who were only working there for the summer, and what they described there to me was horrible.

They, I think, did get paid, but, they were constantly observed, or after class, even as often as once a week, had a 'talking to' about their teaching performance with a manager and things like forced to watch themselves on the CCTV camera.
This was not one, but all the teachers that had similar experiences, so it is company policy and a high pressured environment.
And, new people reading these boards, watch out bc there are employers, recruiters, or company-institute people (often other foreigner head teachers ) who are on this board and will post things to counter negative feedback about the company.
So, 'captain America' who actually wants to go for a beer with the person who posted some negative feedback about the company does not seem to be an uninterested,
(re; unbiased) or unconnected teacher.


Actually, long hours are not so bad to teachers here, but not being paid or an extremely bad working environment (and this can happen in Korea, especially from directors who will blame teachers for losing students. Actually, the hakwon can be stressful to run as students voluntarily pay money to attend these classes, and the student enrolment can change so quickly, and thus, the co profit or income, are red flags..

[Chaparrastique]

[Micromanagement]

Sorry if this really long-winded, but hopefully it is a useful account of TPR in detail.

I have been in Korea for 6 years working for many different companies. I very stupidly worked for this company despite having full knowledge of their poor reputation. Unsurprisingly, this is by far the most awful company I have ever worked for. TPR is incredibly rude, dishonest, disorganized, and the materials are absolute shit. It’s just a directionless, mismanaged hagwon-like experience for adults.

TPR, always desperate for teachers, found my resume online and offered me a job right on my doorstep. Ironically, up until this point, I had purposely worked for dodgy companies for the reason that they were much less horrible than how they were slated online (actually not bad if communication is good). Also, with companies with bad reputations, there’s usually a lot of wiggle-room for negotiation. For 5 years I was able to work minimal hours for great pay, which gave me plenty of time to double my income with privates. No problems.

After reading their terrible contract, I initially laughed it off. They continued to offer me better deals and were desperate to negotiate. This went on and on until I finally (reluctantly) agreed to sign on the condition of fixed pay and fixed hours. These conditions were so short-lived. Shortly after beginning, they demanded I work an extra 1.5 hours a day for LESS pay! They seemed to punish me for reminding them of the hours we had both agreed to. I got asked, “Well, what do you do in the mornings that you can’t come to work early?” In the end my hours extended by an hour a day and for a minimal base pay with no chance of earning what they had initially promised (you essentially get paid for teaching hours, of which they knowingly exaggerate).

TPR can change your hours, pay, place of work or fire you in a heartbeat. I remember meeting a new, young teacher who proudly told me he had just just broken the three million won mark, but working 7am-8pm (yes, really). Hence, the company seems to survive on green teachers that are blissfully unaware of how much they are being screwed over.

Training: Sitting Around…..

I was scheduled to have 2 weeks of training for $5 an hour. However, after one week it was cut short when the “coordinator” realized she had not really planned anything. We (the new teachers, who have since all quit) sat around for a full week listening to the coordinator talk about….her dogs….her managerial prowess……..work history….upbringing…...stuff. It was mind-numbingly long and boring. On the last day of “training” I was told to attend Hyundai the following day to watch some other teachers teach. They told me to be there at 8.30am. With a 1.5 hour commute, meaning I would have to get up around 6:30am, I repeatedly asked them whether they were sure I had to be there at 8.30, to which they confirmed: yes. On the day; I arrived on time and we all waited around for ages. I asked the coordinator when it was supposed to start and she said 11.30am. When I calmly questioned why we needed to come in so early, I was advised to “go for a walk, get a coffee or something”.
A great first impression.

Materials: Terrible…..

TPR didn’t seem to care about the specific requests of the company I was sub-contracted to: to have books that actually prepare students for the SPA speaking test, which is the program they proudly sell. Instead, possibly to save money, they recycled surplus books designed for another company / another test, and had teachers crudely adapt them to suit. The books were completely dull and irrelevant. The materials were consistently riddled with errors and abnormal expressions. I was constantly embarrassed with students pointing out errors, thinking I had made the materials myself. Students would blatantly question the quality of a English language company that would fail to proof read their own material time and time again.

Regular “training” / video monitoring

You have to give up your Saturday between teaching blocks (about every 2-3 months). At these you have to sit through mock lessons from teachers new to Korea, for some reason. I watched the coordinator negatively berate and embarrass a teacher in a less than friendly and encouraging manner- and yes, all the while, you are filmed….always filmed. Ironically, I was burned by a coordinator for having no knowledge of a book I was supposed to have studied during training. If she had remembered correctly, her own training program never covered the book; we just sat around listening to her stories. If she hadn’t spent training delivering embellished anecdotes, time could have been better utilized.

Also, expect someone from the company to come in regularly to film you teaching. Teachers are granted very little initiative. You are micromanaged to the point of having to forfeit all personality, style and common sense. You are essentially a robot teaching English the Korean way.

To finish; this company does anything to lock-in contracts with teachers and companies, bending the truth to both parties in the process. They hope that the teacher will adapt (naively fall-in-line at a loss) to suit them. The company I was subcontracted to, where the management was highly organized and professional, was getting increasingly disappointed with the attitude, disorganization and blatant lies that TPR would tell. For example, saying that they had teachers ready for a specific start date, which they had not even found or trained yet, and so the program started more than 2 weeks behind schedule. They promise high pay but in reality, it works out about 2.1 after rent for high stress, a lot of monitoring and long hours. Might as well work after school / public school. TPR actively seek out teachers with accommodation of their own so that you are cheaper labour and possibly, more easily expendable. I have only heard from others that their offered accommodation is very average.

Beyond working for idiots, I would be worried that given the feedback from the company I was placed at, I would think that the corporate division of TPR will will not survive long. They have too much competent competition and seem hell-bent on failure.

Like all the posts that precede this one; there are so many great people / companies to work for. This is not one of them.

[thekorean]

[rayne]

I saw some job postings about this place. Not being a teacher. Traveling around Korea and interviewing people. The pay is kind of low but I want to do it for the experience. Anyone was ever in this position? What's the interview like?

I read that they can fire you after a month or two. If they do that can I get my CRC and diploma back from immigration to find a new job? I don't want to go through all that (costs a lot) just to have it rendered useless if I get fired.

[ps3_machine]

No, immigration keeps the documents, so dont give your original degree. Unless i am wrong, immigration makes it tough for foregners to move around unless you have the documents in your hands such as having multiple apostilled crc's.

Normally your degree should be notarised from a photocopy which lets you keep your original to make more notarised copies.

[ttompatz]

[J.Q.A.]

[rayne]

ah, that worries me. I want to try this job out but i keep reading that they can let you go if they feel that your performance is not up to par in 1~3 months. It would suck going through the trouble and expense for a CRC and then having it rendered useless if I get let go...