Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hermit]

I worked at POLY Mokdong 1 from February 2005 to February 2006. I have very strong and ambivalent feelings about the overall experience, as I do about Korea and Koreans in general. I have thought for a long time about what, if anything, is worth saying about POLY, and what is not. North American teachers who are unable to separate personal feelings from professional misgivings, and who pollute the collective consciousness with a lot of unnecessary complaining, whining, and griping, are a dime a dozen, and in no way do I wish to contribute gratuitously to this phenomenon.

The first thing I can say about POLY Mokdong 1 is that the vast majority of its students were absolutely wonderful. The younger students were bright and adorable. The older kids were thoughtful, hard-working, genuine, good-natured, and impossible to forget. I consider myself blessed to have taught such a fantastic bunch of kids. If my own children are even half as incredible as any of my returnee grade sevens, I will be a happy man.

Similar praise is due for Mokdong 1�s teaching staff (between Feb. �05 and Feb. �06) , many of whom have gone off to their respective home countries, or on to different schools. Working in a hakwan is not easy, but getting out of bed in the morning is much more pleasant when you love the people you work with. I have had my differences at times with several of my coworkers, but now that it is all over, I can say with confidence that I would give any of them the shirt off my back. I learned a great deal from them about teaching and about life, and any of them would be welcome in my home at any time.

I will begin my comments about POLY�s management by saying that I was paid everything I was owed, and that I was treated a lot better than many foreign teachers in Korea were and are. Horror stories about legal problems, teachers being cheated and abused, six day work weeks, etc. are common in Korea because they happen all the time. POLY Mokdong 1 has a reputation as a working environment of above-average quality (by hakwan standards), and it deserves it.

That being said, I have several problems, ranging from minor to serious, with the time I spent at POLY Mokdong 1. When I got to Korea, it was the lunar new year, and I spent four days sitting in my apartment twiddling my thumbs (to their credit, two of the POLY teachers dropped by to greet me and ask if I needed anything). I was not paid for this time, and at the end of my contract I was sent home four days short of a full paycheque. This was not serious, but I consider it to have been unprofessional and discourteous. Other teachers have had similar experiences, having been told they would be met by people who didn�t show up, or made to sit through a whole day�s worth of observation a few hours after de-boarding their aircraft. One�s first few days in a new place tend to set the tone for the rest of one�s experience there. Mokdong POLY is notorious for starting off on the wrong foot.

Many of POLY�s problems can be explained by, and blamed on, their managerial practices. To call their management (from the suits at KPS down to the then-director of the school) ham-fisted, insensitive, and perversely negative in their dealings with their teachers and each other would be overly generous, but to characterize them as disorganized, bungling and incompetent would perhaps be too strong. At POLY, and, unfortunately, in many other places in Korea, the emperor truly has no clothes. Teachers were (and probably still are) treated rudely, subjected to overwhelmingly negative and arbitrary criticism (especially damaging when paired with a no-news-is-good-news attitude towards positive feedback), ignored when they had questions, concerns or problems, and routinely given extra last minute work that was often menial in nature, such as stuffing hundreds of envelopes, filling out stacks of computer punch-cards, etc. Teachers have to be good at multitasking, and ready to get their hands dirty, but POLY teachers were shown the least possible amount of respect or appreciation. The year I was there, everyone�s vacations were changed from nine days to seven so that KPS would be able to charge the parents for an extra week. This would have been understandable if the management had at least attempted to explain it, which they didn�t, or if they said �sorry,� which they never do. �Sorry,� and �thank you,� do not exist in POLY�s managerial vocabulary. They are all �stick� and no �carrot,� and teachers really have very little incentive to do anything better than an adequate job. People occasionally brought this up at staff meetings, etc., where our director was of the opinion that because she bought us meals on some days and gave us ten minutes to eat once a day instead of the five that teachers get at every other POLY school, we should have been grateful rather than critical. Right.

If the teachers come last on POLY�s list of priorities (feces rolls downhill, to be sure), it is fair to say that the students come second-last. One time KPS got the students to write formative assessments to provide data for their R&D department, but this had be kept secret because the kids were writing them on POLY time, paid for by the parents. So the teachers were told to tell the children that they were �writing a test to see if they are capable of doing the work at their current level.� Surprise, kids! You were having an average-to-good day, for a Korean student who is worked nearly to death each day for twelve to seventeen hours, but now you have to contend with a surprise test to see if you are �capable of doing the work at your current level.� Perhaps this is sentimental or even a bit �new age,� but it is my opinion that the student teacher relationship is sacred, and based on trust. I have a very difficult time looking my students in the eye and lying to them, especially about unnecessarily terrifying chimeras dreamed up by a callous KPS staff who are too lazy to even think of a good lie to tell the kids about how their time and their parents� money is being wasted.

While I am on the subject of POLY R&D, I would like to add that the POLY curriculum is, for the most part, light-years ahead of the curricula of their competitors. They take most of their cues from the California language arts curriculum, and it works well, despite slight problems with scheduling and a predominantly �coverage�-based approach to teaching. I say �for the most part,� because the work done by the part of POLY�s R&D department that is physically based in Korea tends to be of much lower quality than the California materials. Kids get books full of boring, mindless filler questions (Daily HW, Reading Coach, Writing Channel), amateurish spelling, grammatical and formatting errors (every book made by POLY that I have ever used) , activities that confuse phrasal verbs with prepositional phrases (Speak-a-way 2), and factually incorrect claims such as that �People in Shakespeare�s time spoke Old English� (Winter Special Returnee 5)--they in fact spoke Modern English, albeit an earlier form of it than we use today, as anyone with the internet, google and 5 free minutes can discover for his or herself. I am not sure what R&D does in terms of �development,� but it must keep them extremely busy, because evidence abounds that they do very little research. One gets the odd book of outstanding quality, but this is usually a credit to the individual employee and not to the department as a whole, whose work is often embarrassment to themselves and their company, and to the teachers who have to answer to the students for books full of errors that seven year olds can (and do) identify. Part of the problem may be that the department is largely staffed by individuals who demonstrate a background in education that is deficient in quality and/or quantity, as well as kyopos who fail even to demonstrate a mastery of written English. This is not to say that they are unintelligent or bad people, or that there are not exceptions to these generalizations. Perhaps things have changed a lot in the seven or eight months since I left POLY. However, it is my opinion that English is a beautiful and venerable language, and POLY-produced textbooks frequently treat it exactly how POLY tends to treat its teachers--with ignorance and disrespect.

Last on the list are the problems I had getting paid when my contract was up. We had been working 12 hour days for winter special classes, and the management was being characteristically evasive about how much we were to be paid for these classes. I tried to discuss this and the details of closing my bank account, transferring money, etc. with my director, who brushed me off upwards of five times in the course of two weeks. On my last night at POLY, she left early and said nothing to me about it (nor did she say �thanks for giving us a year of your life,� or even �have a safe trip�). This was a Friday, and my plane was leaving Sunday night. I was unable to reach her on her cell phone, although I tried about forty times. The transaction eventually had to be handled by my fiancee (who was still living in Seoul) the following week. Not a big deal, except that no one asked either of us if it was OK to do things this way, or, indeed, said anything to us at all. I have heard from friends of mine that they have had problems getting their pensions, but I want to stress that this is secondhand news, and I can only speak firsthand about my own experience. I think the recurring theme here is a grave lack of communication between teachers and a management that doesn�t care about anything except money.

The bottom line, for me, is that my position at POLY Mokdong 1 was one of the worst jobs I have ever had. I loved my students, I loved my coworkers, and I hated every minute I spent at that place. I have never felt so unappreciated and used in my entire life, and I have spent years doing things like washing dishes, bagging groceries, mopping floors, packing lettuce at the peat bog, etc. A little bit of goodwill goes a long way towards making a dreary or difficult task bearable, or even pleasant. I have heard that current research suggests that happy workers are more productive, and that a company stands to profit in the long run by making its employees feel respected, and like they are members of a team (At POLY, this team is more like a chain-gang). I can�t even say that I hope POLY figures this out, because I would be just as happy if the whole operation went belly-up tomorrow. I will conclude this by saying that KPS and Mokdong POLY�s management, as of February 2006, had a lot to learn about how to treat teachers and students like human beings. I must stress again that I can only comment on POLY up to February of this year, and there is a chance, however dubious, that things have improved. I welcome feedback (an attitude that POLY�s management, in my experience, does not share), and anyone with comments about this post or questions about my time there can also feel free to contact me at [email protected].

[Milwaukiedave]

As someone who worked for Poly briefly, I have some insight to what goes on at the corporate level. Be aware, Poly (like most other large chains) do comb the boards from time to time for comments about their school. While most people don't care, I like to remind people from time to time that companies can and will threaten legal action.

[hermit]

Perhaps I'm hopelessly naive, but I didn't say anything about POLY that wasn't either opinion or fact. I'll admit I may have been foaming at the mouth a bit, but I think I've been honest and fair. If someone threatens to sue me, and makes a legitimate case, I will plead ignorance and apologize. If you know more about the legalities of these sorts of situations than I do (which wouldn't take much), then please enlighten me. I mean, I don't care if I hurt anyone's feelings, but I don't want to end up in court with POLY over a little post on Dave's ESL cafe.

[Milwaukiedave]

Actually, I think you misunderstood. I am just reminding people that some of the larger chains have used intimidation tactics (in the case that happened to me it wasn't Poly, but another chain and it was because I had posted a contract on here).

I'm just saying don't be suprised what they are capable of to protect their reputation.

[hermit]

Thanks for the warning.

[midgic]

hermit, that's a great post. It sums up the Poly "experience" so accurately.

The students I taught at Poly were great, and they deserve better than the disrespectful way that Poly mistreats them. For teachers who genuinely care about their students, it's frustrating to see Poly management lie to the students, and provide them with such shoddy material. The second-rate material that Poly produces to sell to parents at high prices demonstrates their greed and lack of integrity.

[riley]

With such strong negative feelings Hermit, why didn't you post sooner?

[ChuckECheese]

I admire you for sticking out for a whole year at that rag-tag place, but am not sympathetic for your experience. And you could have warned about the school to some poor souls who are there now.

You alway had the option to say adios amigos.

[Japchae]

[hermit]

When one is relying on an employer to provide a roof over one�s head and the means to return to one�s home country, it is considerably more difficult to say, �adios amigos.� I have two young children at home. I was not in Korea to party and travel, but to make money, which I did at POLY. And to POLY�s credit, although I (perhaps unfairly) neglected to mention this before, they pay a little better than the average hakwan, although they certainly make you work for it. The reason why I waited so long to say anything was because I wanted to put some distance between myself and the experience to see if I still felt the same way. It is sometimes difficult to see the forest from the trees when one is still standing in the forest, if that makes any sense. There are few worse feelings, in my opinion, than the one that comes from shooting one�s mouth off about something prematurely, saying things that can�t be taken back, and then regretting it later.

Also, many people don�t mind working for POLY at all. I don�t consider it my responsibility to save �poor souls� from POLY, but to say what I think concerning a subject about which I feel strongly, when I feel it is appropriate. It is undeniable that there are factors in my personality that exercised a profound influence on my time at POLY. I am an English major, and a career English teacher, and English is my mother tongue. I take offense to sloppy research and factual errors. Other people might find that kind of an attitude nit-picky or geeky, and teaching from textbooks that are rife with errors might not faze them at all. Also, I have a problem with autocratic authority, particularly the POLY kind. Authority gets bloated and inefficient when it is not checked and informed by feedback, and I think that a management that does not care about its workers is not much of a management at all. A good management shows that it cares by explaining itself when it makes decisions that affect everyone, and by saying �please,� �thank you,� and �sorry� to its employees when appropriate. This is a big deal for me, but it isn�t for every teacher. I have friends teaching in far worse places who would likely respond to such complaints by saying something like, �Aww, do you need a hug, too?� So I don�t really think it�s my righteous duty to warn the world about what a bad place POLY is. I thought it was awful, and I said so and explained why. Like I said before, they were at least honest (if a little tricky) when they paid me, and in South Korea that means a lot.

[ChuckECheese]

[hermit]

[endo]

I give this thread two days at the most before it is deleated. Poly pays a lot of money to advertise here and they have pulled strings before.

My experience at Poly: never had a problem with pay (although there has to be some cooking of the books), the students are fantastic, and co-workers were incredible.

Yeah, managemet can get on your nerves and i'll never trust them 100%, but I never had any serious problems with them.

Although they do have a Confusion approach in that their teachers aren't really supposed to give their opinion. This is one change i'd like to see. But then again John, there a very few people who like to give their opinion and it's only a few individuals like ourselves who have the motivation or courage to speak out.


And to be honest, I think Poly is a great place to get your feet wet in Korea and gain valuable experience before you move on to other things like public schools. But each Poly hagwon is different.

[hermit]

[Milwaukiedave]

I don't think it will get pulled. There has been much worse stuff said about other schools. This thread is very mild discussion compared to others.