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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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 Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:01 pm Post subject: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| Just curious about this. Seems a foriegner owned one would be better to work for than a Korean one. Most likely will be in the sticks; but that's ok. |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 4:27 am Post subject: Re: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Just curious about this. Seems a foriegner owned one would be better to work for than a Korean one. Most likely will be in the sticks; but that's ok. |
I haven't seen any hogwans owned by NET foreigners, but I've heard of them from time to time. Most (all?) are owned by foreigners married to a Korean.
In theory a foreign owned hogwan sounds good, but I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt any more than a Korean owned school. If they have been around for a few year but had no previous foreign teachers (other than the owner) I would be reluctant to work for them or any other school. If an English hogwan has been around for a few years, it's highly unlikely that they've never had a foreign teacher before. If they say that they haven't, there's a good chance that they DID have one who left on bad terms. If they do have one (or did have one) you still need to get that person's opinion. If the school is new, you need to be careful that the school doesn't go out of business. A lot of small hogwans go out of business for a variety of reasons, some completely unrelated to the managerial skills of the owner/manager (although many hogwan owners ARE unskilled at running a business). These are Koreans we're talking about. Local guys, who know the language, have "contacts" to get stuff done, who know how to get stuff done the easy way, the official way, and what they can and can't get away with. More often than not, these owners are former English teachers themselves, so they may have a good reputation and some of their loyal clients (moms) that they bring with them when they open a hogwan. I think that it would be a lot harder for a foreigner (unless they married a businessman/businesswoman) to run a small business here. I've never tried or even spoken with someone who has, so it's just my opinion.
I DID work for a language school in Japan that was owned and run by an American (married to a Japanese woman). That was the worst school that I worked for in Japan. The guy really had issues. The teachers were treated cheated, fired, not paid last salaries, threatened to be fired or have pay deducted for poor results, etc. The turnover rate for teachers was quite high. All the English teachers were foreigners. In Japan, unlike Korea, the schools don't give you airfare, so if they fire you, it doesn't cost them a cent. In short, there are plenty of jerks from every country. Your fellow expat teachers might have sympathy for you, but just because your employer used to be in the same boat as you, doesn't mean he'll treat you any better. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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What you need to do for every school is to check their credibility.
Whether they are foreign owned or not, you need to make a personal connection with the boss, and make sure his "track record" is clean. |
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air76
Joined: 13 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 7:22 pm Post subject: Re: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Just curious about this. Seems a foriegner owned one would be better to work for than a Korean one. Most likely will be in the sticks; but that's ok. |
I gave you the benefit of the doubt in the title...but if I owned a hagwon I would be leery about hiring an English teacher who misspelled foreigner twice. Especially on an internet forum that has spell check enabled.
I worked for a huge foreign owned and operated institute in Vietnam and I thought that it was MUCH better working under foreign management, but I would imagine that in Korea it would still be a crap shoot as to whether or not a foreign run school would be more stable. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 8:38 pm Post subject: Re: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Just curious about this. Seems a foriegner owned one would be better to work for than a Korean one. Most likely will be in the sticks; but that's ok. |
I haven't seen any hogwans owned by NET foreigners, but I've heard of them from time to time. Most (all?) are owned by foreigners married to a Korean.
In theory a foreign owned hogwan sounds good, but I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt any more than a Korean owned school. If they have been around for a few year but had no previous foreign teachers (other than the owner) I would be reluctant to work for them or any other school. If an English hogwan has been around for a few years, it's highly unlikely that they've never had a foreign teacher before. If they say that they haven't, there's a good chance that they DID have one who left on bad terms. . |
It also could be the case that the hakwon has been around for a few years but just recently expanded...hence the need for a foreign teacher other than the owner.
If the owner was able to expand to that point it's likely he or she is doing something right...the prior first few years were probably needed to establish a name. It takes time and a good track record to build a profitable brand nowadays. You can't just open an academy anymore and expect to rake in the cash. |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 9:22 pm Post subject: Re: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| Troglodyte wrote: |
I DID work for a language school in Japan that was owned and run by an American (married to a Japanese woman). That was the worst school that I worked for in Japan. The guy really had issues. The teachers were treated cheated, fired, not paid last salaries, threatened to be fired or have pay deducted for poor results, etc. The turnover rate for teachers was quite high. All the English teachers were foreigners. In Japan, unlike Korea, the schools don't give you airfare, so if they fire you, it doesn't cost them a cent. |
Reading that gave me a bit of a wry smile, because I've come across SO many people who had exactly that experience in Japan. The foreign owner married to a Japanese wasn't always American - the worst example I came across had a British guy running it - but it's a very common issue in EFL in Japan.
| Troglodyte wrote: |
| In short, there are plenty of jerks from every country. Your fellow expat teachers might have sympathy for you, but just because your employer used to be in the same boat as you, doesn't mean he'll treat you any better. |
Yep, nail on head. |
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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| I worked at a school in Japan owned by a Japanese man and his Puerto Rican wife. Man, let me tell ya. Great location, great students (the adults anyway, not the kids so much), above average pay, even a really nice apartment that I didn't have to search for or pay a deposit for...but, psychopathic management! Few lasted long, but I miss the job sometimes. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm surprised, "Big Buds," hasn't come on this thread. That's the user with an M&M's avatar with big green buds. He wrote he has a hagwon. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Be careful when dealing with any hagwon. |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:23 am Post subject: |
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My friend works for one....hates his boss.
Some foreigner bosses are ok, but have crazy nutjob wives who manage the joint. |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:23 am Post subject: Re: Any good foriegner owned hogwans out there? |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Just curious about this. Seems a foriegner owned one would be better to work for than a Korean one. Most likely will be in the sticks; but that's ok. |
I haven't seen any hogwans owned by NET foreigners, but I've heard of them from time to time. Most (all?) are owned by foreigners married to a Korean.
In theory a foreign owned hogwan sounds good, but I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt any more than a Korean owned school. If they have been around for a few year but had no previous foreign teachers (other than the owner) I would be reluctant to work for them or any other school. If an English hogwan has been around for a few years, it's highly unlikely that they've never had a foreign teacher before. If they say that they haven't, there's a good chance that they DID have one who left on bad terms. . |
It also could be the case that the hakwon has been around for a few years but just recently expanded...hence the need for a foreign teacher other than the owner.
If the owner was able to expand to that point it's likely he or she is doing something right...the prior first few years were probably needed to establish a name. It takes time and a good track record to build a profitable brand nowadays. You can't just open an academy anymore and expect to rake in the cash. |
True.
In reality, although I'd highly recommend treating foreigner owned and Korean owned hogwans the same, if the owner had similar training and overseas experience to mine, I would probably give them the benefit of the doubt more than another school. If the head teacher is a foreign NET and unrelated to the owner, I'd probably recommend it more than the average hogwan, but still, if it was me applying, I'd ask for references from other foreign teachers. In general though, I probably wouldn't consider a foreigner owned hogwan any better or worse than a Korean owned one. |
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Dragoon
Joined: 18 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 6:35 am Post subject: |
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| I'd never work for another waygook....they'd scrutinize you much worse than any Korean...at least when you work for Koreans (especially the ones that don't know much about waygook things) you have a lot of leeway (once you learn the rules of the game) to play around with. You wouldn't have that luxury with a waygook boss... |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:04 am Post subject: |
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| OP I wonder why you think a Foreigner-owned school would stand a chance of treating its Foreign Teachers better? |
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