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joshuahirtle27
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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 Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:42 am Post subject: Wonderland(ugh) |
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I know that most of the people here are very weary of the whole Wonderland franchise. There are Wonderlands which have some serious problems and thankfully the problems at MINE aren't severe enough to worry about... They mostly have to do with the kids not listening to the NE teacher which a little KE teacher discipline fixes promptly.
Anyway are there any other Wonderlanders here? I'm curious to see what people are saying about it. |
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merkurix
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Location: Not far from the deep end.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| ex-Wonderlander checking in. I worked in the Ilsan branch 5 years ago (when I didn't know any better). It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. There were a lot of extremely pointless tasks we had to do, the entire Korean teaching faculty turned over almost three times, and employee morale was not very high when I was there. Maybe now they've mended their practices, but when I was there, I had bit of a storm cloud looming over my head daily. The students, however, were lovely. It was rewarding to see a bunch of pre-schoolers who spoke only Korean at the beginning talking in nearly good English-only by the end of the year. |
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Creeface
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:22 am Post subject: |
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I am about to sign a contract for the wonderland in Mokdong, Seoul.
I have spoken with a couple of people that work there and they seem to be fine with the place. One even renewed and signed up for a second year after his first.
This post scares the hell out of me! should I not sign up, do wonderlands have seriously bad reps? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:28 am Post subject: |
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| Creeface wrote: |
| ... do wonderlands have seriously bad reps? |
LOL.....  |
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Creeface
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:31 am Post subject: |
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| really, keep looking? goddamnit |
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joshuahirtle27
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| Creeface wrote: |
I am about to sign a contract for the wonderland in Mokdong, Seoul.
I have spoken with a couple of people that work there and they seem to be fine with the place. One even renewed and signed up for a second year after his first.
This post scares the hell out of me! should I not sign up, do wonderlands have seriously bad reps? |
I wouldn't be scared. The ones I saw were on a blacklist from like '05 so most of them should have changed by now. My Wonderland in Guro is really nice. It's clean... most of the time. The kids know their stuff... and the ones that don't are for the most eager to learn. The FRANCHISE has gotten some bad raps over the years but it's like judging all McDonalds on finding 1 hair at one location.
Your best bet is to keep in touch with people who worked at yours and ask them questions. They offered the teacher I replaced a new contract and he said no because they didn't offer him a raise. One of my Foreign Co-teachers signed a 6 month extension and he had to convince MS to do it. MS would have to find 2 teachers (cause I leave march '09) so it took some negotiating but Mark is staying until March '09.
I wouldn't blacklist Guro Wonderland... and I've even tried to put it on a greenlist. Like all schools there are little things that will annoy you or small problems will arise... most of them aren't anything your Korean co-teachers can't handle for you. Don't worry, of the current teachers are saying yes... then do it. |
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Creeface
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:37 am Post subject: |
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im friends with 2 foreing teachers that work there on facebook, i looked at hundreds of pictures of them, the school, the korean teachers, the director (very hot korean woman) their apts etc... it looks awesome.
this thread just scared the crap out of me.
O YEA! the foreign teachers said that they dont pay pension... whats that all about? |
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joshuahirtle27
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:40 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah I noticed that about my pay-stubs... I never get the chance to ask MS about it. I should get to that eh :? Thanks for reminding me. |
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crusher_of_heads
Joined: 23 Feb 2007
Location: kimbop and kimchi for kimberly!!!!
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:46 am Post subject: |
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If you have no problem playing Russian Roulette, go ahead and sign with Wonderland-5 of 6 have got to be good.
google PRISONERS OF WONDERLAND
You are welcome. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:47 am Post subject: |
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Small annoyances... like no pension, no medical (no NHIC booket), overtaxed (3.3 or 5%? instead of 1.7%), you have to work 120 hours even if there is a national holiday during the month, ... and those are the good Wonderland franchises.
How many classes do you really work? Start at 10, finish at 6-7, 140-160 classes per month? - I personally know some that were as high as 180.
Even a newbie in a PS gets 2 mil or better for 92 classes of 40 minutes per month (1/2 the workload), + 3-6 weeks PAID holiday AND full benefits AND gets paid 20k won per extra class above 22 per week (so earning 2.5 mil for 28 classes per week).
Yup, Wonderlands are great places to work - NOT, but as long as there are newbies who don't know better there will always be fools to sign a crap contract and put up with the nonsense.
Wonderland has beat out some really stiff competition (like kids club and SLP) in the race to the bottom.
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
As I've said before, suppose there was an airliner taking off with 100 seats and you knew that:
10 seats were going to fall out of the plane mid-flight
10 passengers would get food poisoning
10 would be seated next to violent alcoholics
10 would get vomited on
10 would be next to screaming babies
10 would be next to Christian evangelists who couldn't shut up
10 would be seated next to morbidly obese people
10 would get mistakenly arrested by the air marshal
10 would have seatbelts that refused to release them upon arrival
and 10 would arrive safely at their destination after a mildly unpleasant ride.
Would you get on that flight? If not, you'd be an utter idiot to try your luck with a Wonderland. This chain has beat out some very, very stiff competition to earn it's place as the hagwon chain with the worst reputation in Korea. |
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Last edited by ttompatz on Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Maserial
Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Location: The Web
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:47 am Post subject: |
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| merkurix wrote: |
| ex-Wonderlander checking in. I worked in the Ilsan branch 5 years ago (when I didn't know any better). It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. There were a lot of extremely pointless tasks we had to do, the entire Korean teaching faculty turned over almost three times, and employee morale was not very high when I was there. Maybe now they've mended their practices, but when I was there, I had bit of a storm cloud looming over my head daily. The students, however, were lovely. It was rewarding to see a bunch of pre-schoolers who spoke only Korean at the beginning talking in nearly good English-only by the end of the year. |
I'll never forget the daily log of classroom 'accomplishments' that we were expected to fill out. Fun stuff. |
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kprrok
Joined: 06 Apr 2004
Location: KC
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:49 am Post subject: |
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I've worked at two Wonderlands, Jeju and North Incheon. While neither was perfect, neither screwed me over or did anything terrible. They did have their problems just like every other school in Korea would have, but they had a terrible reputation just because of the franchise they chose (which is very good to Korean parents).
The name on the front of the school means, nothing. Research the school and find out if it's good. That's good advice for any school you're looking at. If you can't talk to the current or past teachers, there's probably a reason and you want to look elsewhere.
KPRROK |
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joshuahirtle27
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:50 am Post subject: |
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I googled it. Sadly I could only find a brief excerpt from it... I'd actually like to read the book as I'm sure it is good.
The best thing to do is look at blacklists for your school and your city. There are BLACKLISTED Wonderlands... Guro isn't one of them. I know it's weird to say. You have to be careful, of course, but if the current teachers are happy then chances are you will be too. |
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joshuahirtle27
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:54 am Post subject: |
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There were a lot of extremely pointless tasks we had to do
It seems every week we're trying something new... this week they want us to do a song with the kids... cause I"m taking time out of the class schedule to frig around with a camp song. |
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merkurix
Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Location: Not far from the deep end.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| Maserial wrote: |
| merkurix wrote: |
| ex-Wonderlander checking in. I worked in the Ilsan branch 5 years ago (when I didn't know any better). It wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. There were a lot of extremely pointless tasks we had to do, the entire Korean teaching faculty turned over almost three times, and employee morale was not very high when I was there. Maybe now they've mended their practices, but when I was there, I had bit of a storm cloud looming over my head daily. The students, however, were lovely. It was rewarding to see a bunch of pre-schoolers who spoke only Korean at the beginning talking in nearly good English-only by the end of the year. |
I'll never forget the daily log of classroom 'accomplishments' that we were expected to fill out. Fun stuff. |
Hey Maserial. I almost forgot to say, I did have awesome co-workers too. Those forms . . .  |
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