Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

So, this post is for telling all about your deal in your hagwon. I'm interested in your general story, what kinda gig you've got, and whether you can recommend your hagwon or not. Is it good, bad, ugly? Would you work there again? Why or why not? I guess I will start with my hagwon...

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Ding Ding Dang: A Daegu-based chain, headquarters building.

Hours / Duties /Deals:
I've worked at Ding Ding Dang (Daegu) for a year and three months, and they've always paid me on time, and I earn the average salary of 2.0 (up from 1.9 for extending 6 months). They do not appear to give you your pension money doubled according to previous employees I've known but I am at least getting my money back. They pay for the usual things, like airplane ticket, one month bonus, 50 percent health insurance...

We work split shifts everyday (preschool 11:00am-12:00am and then regular classes 3:30-8:05 two days and 2:50-8:05 three days of the week). It takes us roughly 40 mins every day to do lesson planning every day, and we teach about 40 minutes of telephone teaching per week as well. On average, I teach one 50 minute class per day and seven 40 minute classes per day. (I think the actual classroom teaching hours work out to around 27 hours per week. You can add the telephone teaching and office hour stuff on top of that)..

The staff / boss / housing situation is very good. The staff is very friendly and helpful. There are adequate teaching materials, like lots of flashcards and stuff. The boss is nice enough. Housing is very good, a huge place very close to the school in a great area of town... The age range of children is somewhere like between 6-12 years old.

Overall, I'd recommend this hagwon to a first-time English teacher in Korea since they seem to promise everything and deliver it in the contract. Maybe it isn't the best deal out there, but it was good enough for my first year (and a bit). I wouldn't work here again, as I think it is not enough pay for hours worked. But overall, I'd rate it as good since I've never been treated unfairly.

Note: With chains like Ding Ding Dang, the deals, work conditions, etc., may vary widely. However, at the 4 or so different locations I've worked at, they seem similar enough.

edit: They actually do give you your full amount of pension, and comply with Korean law. Just visited the pension office, and apparently, they've changed for the better.

[kangnam mafioso]

split shifts at a kiddie hogwan? that blows.

i know at a lot of adult institutes it's unavoidable, but am i wrong in thinking most people who teach kids work block shifts?

also, on average, one 50 minute class and 7 forty minute ones per day?

don't most hogwans count 40 minutes as one hour of teaching? it seems a bit much to me.

when i worked at a hogwan i taught six 50 min classes with ten minute breaks between and not always straight through -- sometimes like an hour or 2 break between each 3.

prep time took about 45 minutes also.

kudos on getting paid on time and nice housing.

[VanIslander]

Mondays to Thursdays with three-day weekends every week;

Teaching 20 classes a week, five a day, one of which is adults and the other four classes mostly elementary school aged kids with two middle school kid classes a week; only 6-8 students per class;

3-8:30 pm schedule with a 40-minute dinner break;

2.2 mill;

new 2 bedroom apartment (actually more like in a triplex, with a garden);

I recommend the position for those comfortable teaching kids (no set curriculum: teach what you want), enjoy small town living during the work week (on major bus and train route for weekend travels - been to Jeonju, Ulleungdo and Tongyeong islands the last three weekends) and appreciate great nature (river, parks, Jiri mountain nearby, hiking the hills behind one's place).

[TheUrbanMyth]

[kangnam mafioso]

yeah ...
to the original OP, why again aren't you getting pension?

how about health insurance and severance?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TOGirl]

Note: With chains like Ding Ding Dang, the deals, work conditions, etc., may vary widely. However, at the 4 or so different locations I've worked at, they seem similar enough.[/quote]

I worked at Ding Ding Dang in Daegu (though not the head office location) and it was the worst school ever. The owner didn't care about the teachers at all and the schedule was constantly changing. They gave me a similar split shift but often i ended up teaching 10 classes a day and my housing was pretty bad.

On a positive note I have a great job this time in Seoul. I teach kindy from 10 - 2:40 with 1 hour for lunch Mon - Fri for 2.0 with a really nice officetel in a great area. My boss is really nice and takes great care of me.

I can really see the difference that a good job can make to living in Korea.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[seoulsista]

I work at Moon Kang in Daegu. I work M-F 4pm- 10pm (except W - 10:30) for 2.3. My apartments nice, I get two weeks vacation, no sick days, pension, health all that. Always paid early and appropriately (no weird deductions).

My boss is really good to me and for the most part to the Korean teachers as well. However, she treats the front desk staff pretty poorly and there is high turnover there - which doesn't effect my job tremendously but most things in that area aren't done correctly.

The cirriculum is garbage (IMHO) for the most part but I try hard to make it work. It's sloppy, has tons of grammatical and spelling errors in it, not to mention some bizarre and useless vocabulary. Half the cirriculum is entirely focused on rote memorization. Which is causing some of our better students to leave.

I don't get any "talkings to" when a kid gets a bad grade and I can dicipline them as I see fit for the most part.

I don't mind my workplace. It's not terrible. It's not perfect but compared to my first contract (this phrase should have it's own imoticon at Dave's) it's fantastic.

[stumptown]

VanIslander--you really lucked out with your gig. I did a home stay in Namhae one summer during vacation and fell in love with the place. How did you hook up with that gig?

[VanIslander]

[stumptown]

Good advice by all means. I happen to have a great apartment with a great view in Bucheon right now and I have a fantastic job with great students. If something should come along and mess that up, then I'll hit up your ideas. Have fun and go fishing for me when you can.
Cheers

[brento1138]

In response to kangnam mafioso: Yep, you're right. Block shifts seem to be the norm for most kiddy haggies. Things have changed (my outlook and knowledge of jobs in Korea) since I came to Korea. Before I came here, I didn't really compare the different job opportunities. I do live only a 3 minutes walk from work, however, still, the split shift is not enjoyable in any way... my hagwon doesn't seem to count 40 mins as one hour of teaching. Do I ever wish... I'd be making tons of over-time. That is, if they actually pay this mystical thing called 'over-time'...

In response to VanIslander: Sweet deal...

In response to TOGirl: Sorry your experience didn't work out for you. I'd say you worked at a worse one. They are a huge chain (over 40 schools I think), however, only 5 are controlled by the same owner. But yeah. Perhaps I was too positive in my first post? Your new gig is amazingly good... wanna trade??

In response to Yu_Bum_suk: I agree on the textbooks, and yeah... I've never been given a cent of overtime. I've heard of these bad Ding Ding Dang schools. I feel lucky.. I seem to be at a 'classier one ' as far as classy goes for DDD where at least the teachers do care about the kids.

Anyhow...

Well, for all the comments regarding Ding Ding Dang, it's great to read these and see that there is much better out there, as I plan to come back and get a much better deal. Funny that I never mentioned the text books. Yes, I agree. They have many problems... they are currently being fixed. I haven't worked at another hagwon other than this school, so I don't know better. However, I am sure that these books rate lower on the scale (an aspect I didn't think about my first post, was just thinking about myself, not my students)...

As a side note in response to TheUrbanMyth:
As for them not giving me the full pension money (they are supposed to double what I put in) what can I do about this? Anyone have experience with that? I'm not sure how I can go about proving this to the pension office, other than that they've gotten complaints from other English teachers from this chain.

[kangnam mafioso]