Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shipley]

I have been offered an interview at their school in Seoul and before going through the process, I was hoping someone on the board had heard of/been employed by this company.

I have already worked two hagwons previously ( one of which was Wonderland which was disastrous!) and did not want to repeat that mistake.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Otherside]

There's another thread which was here a couple of days ago where people comment on their experiences at Talking Club. I would say just use the search function, but I have had no success with it myself.

EDIT: here is the link to the other thread http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=100401&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0[/url]

I'm currently employed by Talking Club, here's my (very subjective) take on the situation;
Pro's:
1. I'm paid on time (give or take a day or two...)
2. There is a set curriculum, which makes lesson prep pretty easy.
3. The Korean KT's at my school all speak good English and are very friendly. (which helps alot as I'm the only FT).

Con's:
1. The contract is very vague (my fault in hindsight for signing such a contract, but I guess they call them newbie/sucker contracts for a reason...) and this has led to a few a problems.
2. Vacation time is extremely short. It's based on the talking club calender, and while interviewing etc I was told it would be 5 days in summer and 5 days in Winter. In reality, its 2 (was 3, but because of Dec 19th the school is open an extra day) days in winter and 5 days in summer.
3. Compulsory training, I like many other teachers had to attend a 2 day training session (sat and sun) on the talking club system. The majority of teachers at my training session, myself included, had been here a while already and had learnt about the "talking club system" the hard way, so a waste of a weekend. - Unpaid. There are also other mandatory training sessions throughout the year (every 3 or so months). While it is possible to learn a bit, spending a Saturday at a teaching seminar - unpaid - is no fun for anyone. Oh and a lot of the content is designed for Korean Teachers and is in Korean. (The last training session I was at, the language split was about 70/30 English/Korean...Other teachers have told me some were worse.)
4. You will be registered as a "self-employed contract worker" or whatever the exact phrase is. This means you don't get pension, and you pay tax at 3.3% (rather than a lower rate). This higher tax rate costs the teacher about 20,000 won a month more on a 2.1mill salary.
5. I was told maximum of 15 minutes walk to school from my apartment. In reality its a 5 minute walk to the bus, 10-15minutes waiting for the bus, 15minutes on the bus and 5 minutes walk to school. That's 40min for me.
6. The curriculum at certain levels suck. Anyone who has had any experience with Talking Club will know that especially Intro C is an atrocious set of textbooks. (I've heard many complaints about Intro D, but I find a can work with them without too much hassle).
7. Dealing with the standard parent complaints, which are passed on to the FT. Classes aren't fun enough, Classes are too fun - students aren't learning, Give them homework, Don't give them homework etc.
8. Creative maths when calculating working hours. (This is due to the vague contract). I was told I'd be teaching X teaching hours and that a teaching hour is 45-50min. Well a teaching hour is 60mins so I'm teaching 25% or so more classes. Also, the contract mentions the timeperiod being a session (which is similar to a month). A session is approximatly 20 working days. And you get paid per session, and your hours are calculated per session. This results in public holidays/vacation (in my eyes) being technically unpaid. In a month like february with only 20 working days, add 3 public holidays, you are only working 17 days in feb. So the session rolls over to March. In another month where you'd be working 22-23 days and as such be due some nice overtime, the session will cut out on the 27-28th of the month and the last couple of days will be in the new session. When the school closes for your (very limited) vacation, its actually between sessions, so its 'unpaid'.

That's all I can think of now. In conclusion, I would say that it is actually quite a nice place to work at (obviously franchises can vary quite alot in a big chain), but if I could do it all again, I would clear up alot of these issues in writing prior to signing the contract. The school has been very good at sticking to the contract (to the letter in fact), but when I go back and read how one-sided and vague (in their favour, I might add!!) it is no surprise.

[shipley]

thanks for all of that!!!!

i tried using the search function but couldn't find anything pertaining directly to talking club

very much appreciate your in-depth answer!

[ModernDayDrifter]

[Otherside]

I also pay the monthly maintainance fee. After speaking to some other FT's about it, my fee is pretty much starndard. That being said, the first I heard of the fee was when I recieved my first paycheck which was obviously another unpleasant surprise.

About giving tips about actually working at Talking Club, I don't know - it's my first teaching gig, so I can't really compare it to working elsewhere.

[ModernDayDrifter]

[CentralCali]

I worked for Skyzen in Incheon. They were a "Talking Club" (it's actually EBY--that's EBY's new name for themselves) franchise. Check the "name and shame" section. That information alone should clue you in.