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Rebound
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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 Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject: EG Language School? |
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Hi, Im asking for a friend. She is supposed to be having an interview with EG language school in Seoul. Has anyone here had any experience with this school? Tried the search function, nothing popped up....
Thanks, 'bound |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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There have been numerous posts about that school over the years, but they are generally deleted because (rumor I read here) he is a paid advertiser, and complains about negative feedback.
See some of it here:
http://www.geocities.com/hagwonblacklist/list.html
EG Language School, Kangnam & Bundang
Director: Mr. Jung
Contact Details: (web) www.egschool.co.kr
Several teachers here have been summarily dismissed for no apparent reason. Living and working conditions are poor. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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Here's another I managed to dig up via google. I'm sure it will be deleted now, as have others which were easier to find in the past:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=165331&highlight=#165331
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If the school is still run by a Jeong Rang Ho (a.k.a. Christopher Jeong), keep lookin'. The man is paranoid and has been known to be a tad irrational at times. I've had friends that worked there, and they all have horror stories, either regarding themselves, or the teachers they worked with.
Your friend can find a better place to work.
Confused Canadian |
PM the user Confused Canadian if he's still around. |
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reimund
Joined: 01 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| I heard bad things as well. Mostly that they treat their employees brutally, especially the Korean staff. |
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Rebound
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Great, thanks for those replies. Is there anyone here reading this who has actually worked there and knows what the conditions are like or has anything to share? Agreed with bassx that its pretty hard to get use out of a forum like this when they go around deleting all the useful posts... at least they missed that one.... but its a good thing we can keep those, "which place has hotter girls, korea or japan" posts, thats useful and logical for sure... |
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Return Jones
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Location: I will see you in far-off places
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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I worked there (for a few months) several years ago. As I had posted a while back in another thread, I would strongly avoid working there. I was not mistreated, but I was worked to the bone. You'll have countless essays, tests, worksheets to grade and prepare for each class, each and every single day. The amount of prep outside of class hours is absolutely ridiculous.
If you want no life and plan to just chug along and follow their system, then go ahead. You'll have no problems. There is some favoritism from management toward certain teachers which resulted in better schedules and in-house privates, but I wasn't treated particularly poorly - more like indifferently. If you like to teach well, you'll have problems. It was about quantity, not the quality of the lessons. Stuff like "Make sure you do pages 45-67 today!" "Don't forget the homework sheets!" "Make sure they finish the essay by tomorrow" "Remind them there's a test on Friday and a speech on Monday" Way too much work was crammed down their throats. The kids were actually quite good, but they weren't able to absorb most of what we covered because as soon as it was done, we were on to the next page. That how the Daechi/Gangnam parents like it.
It was a system that simply wasn't for me. Way too much paper pushing. Way too much. |
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Rebound
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, that sounds harsh. So, about how many hours per week were you at work and how many were you paper-pushing vs actually teaching? I think her contract calls for five or six 50-minute classes per day -- so thats like 6 hours right there... how many hours did you spend marking and preparing?
Yes, I have heard that those kids in Gangnam, despite being rich, have the curse of death by studying placed on their heads... shame.
| Return Jones wrote: |
I worked there (for a few months) several years ago. As I had posted a while back in another thread, I would strongly avoid working there. I was not mistreated, but I was worked to the bone. You'll have countless essays, tests, worksheets to grade and prepare for each class, each and every single day. The amount of prep outside of class hours is absolutely ridiculous.
If you want no life and plan to just chug along and follow their system, then go ahead. You'll have no problems. There is some favoritism from management toward certain teachers which resulted in better schedules and in-house privates, but I wasn't treated particularly poorly - more like indifferently. If you like to teach well, you'll have problems. It was about quantity, not the quality of the lessons. Stuff like "Make sure you do pages 45-67 today!" "Don't forget the homework sheets!" "Make sure they finish the essay by tomorrow" "Remind them there's a test on Friday and a speech on Monday" Way too much work was crammed down their throats. The kids were actually quite good, but they weren't able to absorb most of what we covered because as soon as it was done, we were on to the next page. That how the Daechi/Gangnam parents like it.
It was a system that simply wasn't for me. Way too much paper pushing. Way too much. |
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Return Jones
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Location: I will see you in far-off places
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| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Rebound wrote: |
| Wow, that sounds harsh. So, about how many hours per week were you at work and how many were you paper-pushing vs actually teaching? I think her contract calls for five or six 50-minute classes per day -- so thats like 6 hours right there... how many hours did you spend marking and preparing? |
I don't remember, but it was a lot. A whole lot. Much much more than any other job I've ever had in 7 years in Korea. Simply wasn't worth it. It'll be even worse if you get saddled with a lot of writing classes (as I was) because you'll be taking essays home almost every night to grade. You'll also have to create tests for each of the classes as the weeks go on. Several teachers often teach the same books and will rotate test making responsibilities. The problem was that sometimes your test wasn't ready when you class started because the other teacher hadn't done the test yet. Quite stressful. Lots of paper distributing, marking, grading. Not a lot in terms of quality in-class time, IMO. |
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Ruraljuror
Joined: 08 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:23 am Post subject: |
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I worked at EG and I'm embarassed to say I finished my contract. I have no idea why to be honest. It was the most miserable year of my life. It is just a bad place, period. The kids are miserable because they have so much work to do and the teachers are miserable because they have so much work to grade. Probably 2-3 hours of grading/uploading the grades into the computer every day...unpaid. You are treated like cattle. Voluntarily jumping on board that ship was the biggest mistake of my life. I wrote this on another thread about EG:
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Ruraljuror wrote:
I can tell you I was completely miserable for the year I worked at EG. Absolutely miserable. I didn't work for the Incheon branch, but I can tell you that the "EG Style" is that *everyone*, students and teachers, must work HARD. Their advertisizing promises mothers that no hagwon in Korea gives out more homework. Which means a) the kids are miserable and b) you have an unbelievable amount of homework to grade every day. There are 2 tests every class, plus essays, plus writing notebooks, etc. You will spend 2-3 hours everyday grading homework, unpaid. You will never have a day with less that 2 hours grading, and some days you will have much more. I had to take work home with me probably 2 nights a week.
And on top of that, while the teachers are all absolutely breaking under all the work, the hagwon director is constantly cracking the whip telling everyone how poor the teaching is, how the kids and the moms are complaining, and how he was constantly on the verge of firing some foreign teachers. And of course, you will get called into his office in between classes so you can spend your 5 minute break listening to that maniac complain about how you took too long taking attendance, or that there were kids who spoke Korean in your class. There are cameras and microphones in every room for a reason...you ARE being evaluated in every class, every day. And here's the funny thing: despite all of the abuse heaped on the teachers, my branch nearly DOUBLED in enrollment during the 12 months I was there. The man has become incredibly rich by riding his teachers like farm animals, but still didn't say a single pleasant word to any foreign teacher that I heard during the year I was there. Only complaints and threats.
To be honest, writing this has brought up all of these memories again and I feel pretty depressed...that may have been the most unpleasant 12 months of my life. There are good things about EG, the kids are high level and well behaved and your money is always on time, but I STRONGLY advise against teaching there unless the money is just impossible to turn down. But if it's only an industry standard wage, RUN -- don't walk -- away from the offer. Take a job with less work and less stress.
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Rebound
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:01 am Post subject: |
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OK guys, she read this and just sent an email to the school to turn down the offer. Thanks for the warnings... sometimes if its just like 1 teacher who had a problem with an othewise good school, such a single complaint is not worthy of denying a job offer... but in this case, we see many people have complained and there is a blacklist as well... We teachers have to stick together! No one else will cover our buttts...
Cheers, Rebound. |
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