Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Lost Seoul]

I received this report from a former teacher of E-ton Language School (aka Jung IL Future Academy) in Mokpo. The person in question does not have a username for Dave's so is not able to post here. As said person wishes to remain anonymous I have had to delete her name.
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http://www.hagwonreport.com/page7.html

Date: 3/6/2004 00:40:21 -0800

To: [email protected]

Subject: A Hagwon That Definitely Needs To Be On Your List - Continued

Dear Administrator,



I began writing you yesterday about a shady hagwon (E-ton Language School aka Jung IL Future Academy, in Mokpo) and would like to finish what I started.



I would like to warn prospective teachers away from this school and I wish that someone had warned me. They are not on any blacklist I have checked and they should be. I am sending copies of this warning to every blacklist site I can find.



I began working for this outfit last July. I was provided with a tiny "officetel" basically in the middle of a construction site. Every morning I am awakened by jackhammers and bulldozers. This construction is still in progress. The construction of the officetel itself is questionable; fixtures tend to fell apart when touched, the loose windows ensure a plentiful supply of insect visitors in the warmer months, the toilet backs up on a regular basis and there appears to be a brisk trade in prostitution going on, judging from the number of prostitutes I encounter in the halls and elevator. But this is all relatively minor and I was willing to overlook it.



Just as for eight months I overlooked the rampant disorganization and chaos of the place; the canceled classes and textbook switches that I was never informed of in advance, the fact that the students were not grouped according to ability so that there were beginner level students in advanced classes and vice versa, and so much more. It was annoying but I could live with it.



I was even able to put behind me the fact that they tried to get out of paying the 50% of the medical insurance stipulated in the contract and the fact that a member of management screamed at me when I insisted that they honour the terms of the contract.



What I was not able to overlook however, is the fact that one day, eight months into the contract, I was summoned to the director's lair and informed that my full time hours were being reduced to 13.5 hours per week and that my salary would be reduced accordingly. Well, this "conversation" (director's word for it) disintegrated rapidly into verbal abuse from them. I was deeply shaken and had to keep taking deep breaths to remain calm, knowing that a display of anger on my part would only worsen the situation. I was getting the strong impression that they wanted me gone, but had no basis to fire me. I had after all, done an exemplary job for them, which they had told me several times in the past, and had gone the extra mile, taking on additional tasks without being asked. I told them that my letter of resignation would be on their desk the following day.



I have had a chance to check around and I spoke to another hagwon owner in town (a friend's boss) and he told me that E-ton Language School is notorious among the local hagwon owners for mistreating and cheating its teachers, both foreign AND Korean. With foreign teachers, it is apparently a pattern for them to oust a teacher, either by firing them or by forcing them to quit as they did with me before the end of the contract in order to avoid paying the end of contract severance. With the Korean teachers, they get rid of them by one means or another after the first year to avoid giving them pay rises. In my eight months there, I have seen five Korean teachers quit. Two more of them confided to me that they are about to give notice. I am the only foreign teacher there and have learned that my predecessors lasted eleven and four months respectively.



The guy behind all the skulduggery is an unsavory looking guy, who looks as if he should be wearing a sharkskin suit and living in the penthouse of a Las Vegas casino hotel. He has a pockmarked face, a hooked nose, permed gelled hair, a prominent and flashy diamond ring and he speaks in this whispery voice. He has an air of menace to him. His hired goon (and I use the term advisedly, as you will see) does his dirty work for him. He calls himself - and I am NOT making this up - Goonie. This clown is a pathological and serial liar.Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth, both large matters and small, turns out to be a lie. He seems to lie the way other people breathe. He made it clear early on that he hates foreigners - we are a necessary evil as far as he is concerned, and he hasn't the time of day for us. Unfortunately though, he is the only one at the school who can speak English well enough to communicate and so we are forced to deal with him, which is like

dealing with a slippery eel; a lying slippery eel to lies. He is an oily little weasel who will make your life there hell.



Let me sum this up by issuing a strong warning against working at this hagwon. They will cheat you, rip you off, treat you like dirt, break their contractual obligations and generally make you life hell. They presently have a notice on Dave's ESL Cafe for a teacher (to replace me) and I wince when I think of a new and fresh unsuspecting victim going through what I and others have endured. I wish someone had blacklisted them before so that I could have been warned off. But they aren't blacklisted - YET - so I am taking it upon myself to do it. Trust me on this: avoid E-ton Language School in Mokpo like the plague - It IS the plague.

[freesolo]

is this the same eton language institute in gimpo advertising for teachers??