Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TusiaYYZ]

Does anyone have any information about this school? (I think it also goes by UBQ).

Thanks!

[marlow]

All I know is that it's very widespread. So sorry.

[livinseoul]

[TusiaYYZ]

haha
thanks anyways!

[The Grumpy Senator]

Had some friends that worked there and did some evening stuff myself for a short time. I never had an issue, but they needed me and everything was done in cash.

My friends were there for a year contract and were not happy with their treatment. They said John, the director, would threaten to withhold pay and made them work "extra school functions" on weekends.

Both left over 1 year ago and maybe things have gotten better. I would ask to talk to current teachers. PM me and I can forward some questions to my friends that used to work there if you want.

[TusiaYYZ]

[mountainous]

[djplatinum]

TusiaYYZ,

I would stay far far away from that place if I was you. I worked there and yes the director's name was John Baek. I heard he has left as of late, but he is best friends with the owner of the school. Both of them tried screwing me over. All year they gave me pay stubs that show how they deducted income tax, pension and health insurance, but they never claimed any teacher to the government and just pocketed all that money. I found out with like 3 weeks left and then got them in shit by reporting them and got them to give back a lot of that money, not all but a lot.

Also, they teach 50 minutes classes. When you do overtime in the summer/winter vacation. They will take off 10 minutes off every hour you work because they say it is not part of the 'teaching' hour. I one time worked 80 hours of overtime, but with the 10 minutes deducted off every hour, regular and overtime, it came out to about 34 hours of overtime pay instead of 80. Total BS. I told him he couldn't do that and proved it to him that it wasn't legal. I got most of my money eventually, but they do some shady stuff. When I started at the school, John said I was his best teacher and would do a lot of stuff in my favor compared to my only other foreign coworker and best friend at the time. He would try giving me a better schedule, first choice of classes and other things and I knew it wasn't right and I wouldn't do that to my buddy so many times I opted for less favorable stuff that was offered. Later on when I complained about my overtime money, things totally changed. I went from his best teacher to his worst and most hated haha. He didn't like to be proven wrong and it made the rest of the year very uhhhhh interesting to say the least.

I could tell you many many stories about that school. As far as I know me and my buddy, both of whom were the first 2 foreigners at the school because it was new at the time, are the only two to finish our contracts at the school and that was last May for my buddy and last June for me. I honestly don't know how we even managed to finish the contract. We thought about doing runners all the time lol

Oh and get this, during my 1 year stay at that school. They went through about 25 different staff members, including teachers, secretaries, etc. It's not a big school so you can imagine how bad it is there. Some people would work for them for 2 days, see how they were, mainly John, and then quit on them.

My advice, stay far far far away from UBQ.

The kids were great, the Korean teachers were great, but not much more than that.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me.

[djplatinum]

Oh and if you could. If you do reject his proposal and John is still the one in charge there. Tell him you talked to his old employee and he told you about the school. Then say that Shawn says hi. If you do it in person, then please please tell me his reaction to that haha.

Also, they take off 200,000 each month for the first 3 months. This is for a 'housing' deposit lol. When my buddy left, John said that his apartment was a total mess. It wasn't really dirty but it did have a few things he didn't throw out. John refused to give him back his money. He said he didn't clean his place and had to pay a company to get it cleaned. So, my buddy was out of luck. I know for a fact that he didn't pay any company and he got the school handyman to do it for free. So, when I left I took pictures of my apartment. I left Korea and then came back. John was trying not to give me my money too. I was back in Canada for a month before coming back and he didn't send me my money. He just figures we will forget about the money and it won't be worth our time to fight for it once we are back in our own countries.

So, when I came back I went straight to the school and to his office. He was soooo stunned to see me and I said, I want my money NOW. He said I left my apartment in a mess and I won't get it back. I said I took pictures of my apartment before I left and to not even try it. He then told the handyman after leaving embarassed and shocked that I was standing there, that my money would be deposited within 24 hours haha.

ok, ill save more stories for another day lol

[TusiaYYZ]

djplatinum:

Thanks for that info!
Spoke to one of the foreign teachers over the phone- she said that there is no director by that name...there are 2 new ones. Any chance you could pm me - I just wanted to ask you a few more questions, but don't have the pm rights on here as of yet...Thx!

[Ruraljuror]

How can you possibly have more questions? Did you read DJP's posts? Run away! I can't imagine you still have interest in this job!

There are THOUSANDS of jobs available in this country! Why do you want to chase after one that has been pretty well proven terrible? Ask your recruiter for another job. Close the book on this one. DJP has been through enough already.

[djplatinum]

Haha it's true and that was maybe only 2% of all the problems I had or experienced at that school.

I PM'ed you. But honestly, just steer clear of that school and save yourself a lot of headaches.