Korean Job Discussion Forums

[skconqueror]

Anyone hear or work at this school in Bundang? Is it good?

[schwa]

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[peppermint]

I've heard of schools by that name in other cities, and I believe they're run by the Seventh day adventists. From what I heard, if you can get past the religious requirements, they treat their teachers fairly well.

[gypsyfish]

A former student of mine went there(SDA, but not in Bundang) for a while. They seemed to do a pretty good job and they were cheap. One thing I didn't like was the fact that they made every student start in level one, even ones who had higher ability. It seemed to me a way to squeeze more money from students. Religion was part of their course, too. It didn't bother my student because she is religious, but I would not recommend it based on the lack of level testing and the proselytizing.


Edited once because I was in a hurry.

[CrazyMonkey]

I have had several friends work for various SDA language institutes. They are actually one of the largest networks of language institutes in Korea. While on the whole they seem to treat their teachers well, with moderately light class loads, there are some problems. First, there is the religion issue, which may or may not be a big deal to you (Seventh Day Adventists are a fairly conservative Evangelical Protestant Christian denomination that observe Saturday instead of Sunday as the day of worship. They are usually vegetarian, health conscious, and morally conservative). Second, they do not pay well at all (1.6 to 1.7mil last I heard). Third, they often treat their teachers more like missionaries than teachers, sometimes asking them to attend and help lead out in the church services.

On the positive side they let you go early on Fridays since they observe Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, which means that under no circumstances will there be classes during that time.

One of my friends worked at the Bundang branch and it was a nightmare. The living quarters they provide are dismal, as they are down the hall from both the classrooms and the church. If you want to leave your room during saturday morning you better plan to go to church since you have to walk through the church lobby to get to the elevators. The laundry facilities are in someone's personal room, so if it is yours then you will have people coming into your room to do laundry and if it is not your room you will have to walk through someone else's personal living space to do your laundry. The rooms are also terrible, small, lit with rows of florescent lights that are too high to change, and feel like large office cubicle (I know I have just described half of the flats in Seoul, but these ones are worse than others that I have seen). The other bad thing about the Bundang branch is that my friend had a difficult time working with a lot of them. I'll admit that my friend has a difficult time getting along with most people, but there did seem to be some pretty bad behavior and poor treatment that were not caused by her abrasive personality.

My advice, stay away from SDA language institutes and especially the one in Bundang. If you want to work for a slightly more reliable language institute run by SDAs but not affiliated with the church try Kang's Language institutes. I'm not bashing SDAs since I did grow up as one, but I'd never work at one of the SDA language institutes.