Korean Job Discussion Forums

[darkcity]

Hi,

The search function is a MAJOR pain in the arse. tried a gaggle of different search terms but everything keeps coming up blank, so i apologize if this has been asked a dozen times.

I was offered a job by Direct English, which is a branch of Pagoda. I know Pagoda has a pretty good reputation, but I also know different branches/locations can vary.

Can anyone vouch for Direct English? I would be working at Jongno, although Gangnam, Yeouido, and Guro were my other options.

The contract looks really well-done, and newbie that I am with no certificate, I can't really b!tch about split shifts. My contact has also been very forthcoming with providing employees' emails.

thanks in advance...

[anyangoldboy]

The Direct English teachers are fun people...

[ED209]

You can always bitch about split shifts.

[Merlyn]

I used to work there. It could have been good. Let me explain. It was nice to go in and have one-on-one lessons with the adult students. It made for a good atmosphere provided the student was talkative and wanted to practice. What blew about it was mainly management. They wanted to give teacher reviews just about every month or was it two. And every month they would complain about this and complain about that. If a student every complained or said they wanted something different in their lesson management would say it was with all the students and they wouldn't even tell you who said it so it could be fixed in particular class.

Then the next month another student would have a different complaint, this again would lead management to say all of your students say this and many times it would be the exact opposite complaint of the previous which just keeps going in circles. Maybe, it was my Direct English but I hated these reviews all the time. It wouldn't be so bad I guess if the pay weren't among the lowest in all of Korea. You have these good students coming in and paying a lot to go there and they give the teachers 1.7 million a month, unless it has gone up from the time I was there with a petty housing allowance. I wouldn't recommend it. Then again, I think my former Direct English in Apgujoung isn't even in business anymore so that may tell you something about the one I worked at.

[darkcity]

I was "guaranteed at least" 2.4 million, could make more depending on various things. not great, not horrible, happy enough for me.

anyangoldboy, i'm not sure what you mean by that.

anyone else with input?

[anyangoldboy]

[quote="darkcity"]I was "guaranteed at least" 2.4 million, could make more depending on various things. not great, not horrible, happy enough for me.

anyangoldboy, i'm not sure what you mean by that.

anyone else with input?[/quote]

they are good people to have fun with

[darkcity]

sorry, the ellipsis made me think you were being vague or sarcastic, i didn't know you meant it literally.

[tselem]

[darkcity]

or they could just fix the search function? never had this problem with the many other forums I search on...easier said than done i suppose.

thanks for the advice though, i'll give it a shot.

[spliff]

You say that a salary of 2.4 would "depend on some things"...what like OT? What is the base salary they are offering for how many hours/classes. And, I used to work down the street at BCM and knew some of the teachers at pagoda who related that they were constantly getting their sausages slapped by the management....too much (monthly) negative feedback is no pleasant.

[darkcity]

i said the 2.4 was the guaranteed minimum, and that over 2.4 depended on overtime or whatever else, blablabla.

i'm still not clear on the Direct English/Pagoda relationship. are they in the same building? i've researched both, still not sure which research i'm supposed to consider. obviously there's a lot more written here about Pagoda.

Also was offered a job at BCM Mokdong......pretty lowball offer though, "up to 2.5 million plus overtime"

[panthermodern]

I worked for Direct English for a brief period in 2003, and it was a generally negative expereince.

Here are my reasons why:

#1: Straight commission. This can be good or could be bad, but as the "new guy" in office, I did not start with "client list" of my own, and thus I had to "teach scraps" for the first month.

Pay was basically 15 000 won per half hour ... not bad but keep reading.

You could make alot of money if you built up business, but, it was short in the beginning and management was always looking at the bottom line.

Plus, "businessman classes" were their bread and butter, and they had poor attendance.

#2: 12 hour days: This was my biggest beef, I was expect to be at the school from basically 9am to 9pm. If you were not teaching you made no money. So, you would be "booked" for maybe 6 hours out of 12, get paid "in theory" 180 000 for the day. 180 000 is not great for 12 hours of time.

#3: No shows: If your student cancelled or did not show up, you were paid 1 000 won for the class.

This was simply insulting.

I had a lot of company classes (Samsung, for example, paid and they would send their staff, who then would just not show up).

#4: Saturday Classes

So, there you go. My humble opinion.

Also, most people who worked thier, including myself, quit before end of contract. about 4 people left early in the 3 months that I was there, and I heard of no one who actually finished thier contract.

[darkcity]

here are some excerpts from the contract I was sent, don't know if it's different from 2003, but just for kicks:

C. The Employer will pay the Employee W8,500 per Regular Tutorial Class (25 minutes) taught, W20,000 per Topic Class (55 minutes) taught, W17,000 per Conversation Class (50 minutes) and W20,000 per Special class (50 minutes) taught. All Saturday classes are paid at the rate of W20,000 per hour. This rate is subject to increase when the employee�s Regular Tutorial pay rate surpasses W20,000 per hour.

D. In order to receive the full rate for a fifty (50) minute Regular Tutorial Class, the Employee must teach the student for a minimum of twenty-six (26) minutes in order to receive the full rate for the class. If the student arrives late and has class for twenty-five (25) minutes or less, the Employee will receive half the rate for the entire fifty (50) minute class.

E. In order to receive the full rate for a Topic Class, the Employee must teach the student for a minimum of fifteen (15) minutes. If the student arrives late and has class for fourteen (14) minutes or less, the Employee will receive the full rate for one twenty-five (25) minute block and fifty percent (50%) for the second block.

F. If the student is absent the Employee will receive fifty percent (50%) of the hourly pay for all classes.






5. Hourly pay ceiling: W 23,000/ hour

I. Minimum Salary

1. Only Employees who are contracted for six (6) to twelve (12) months are eligible to receive a guaranteed minimum salary.

2. The Employer will pay the Employee a minimum guaranteed salary of W2,400,000 per month only if the Employee is available to work two Saturdays, and eight hours per day on all working weekdays for the month.

3. If the Employee has not worked all working days then the minimum salary will be calculated using a daily rate or an hourly rate.

4. Subtractions to the minimum salary will be made for tardiness, vacation, absences, and retraining.

J. The Employer will compensate the Employee with a bonus of W150,000 per month when working a split-shift (07:00-11:00, 17:30-21:30). This split-shift compensation is included in the Employee�s guaranteed minimum salary. An Employee who switches from a split-shift to a block-shift (07:00-16:00 or 12:30-21:30) will no longer be eligible to receive the split-shift bonus as part of the guaranteed minimum salary.

K. The Employee has the right to refuse to teach more than eight ( 8 ) hours per day (Chapter 4 Article 49 of the Korean Labor Law). Such refusal will not be grounds for termination of the contract, but may be taken into account by the Manager when evaluating job performance and may possibly be considered grounds for non-renewal of this Employment Agreement.

[spliff]

Your pay is in the hands of the student...*beep* that. You can find work much better than that.

[Col.Brandon]

Avoid it like the plague:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=76761&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=100554&highlight=

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=76593&highlight=

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=38049&highlight=