Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sophie23]

ok guys- i posted on here a while back about my husband and i planning to do a midnight run from our hogwan. we have succeeded in going so and therefore i will post the name and location of the school we fled per the request of some of the people on here.

it was suseong dingdingdang english school in daegu, south korea.

the two supervisors there are absolutely horrible people. we had neverending conflict with them. the main problem was that they would have these meetings with us where they would ask us, "why aren't you doing such'n'such?" and we'd say well, we didn't know we needed to do such'n'such because you never actually told us to. then they would say that it was common sense! (which is wasn't at all) even when we would acquiesce and say, ok. now we know. we'll do it know. they would still turn right back around and ask. "WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" as you can guess, these meetings just went in circles for up to an hour and half.

in quite a few meetings they ended up making me cry because all they ever did was criticize us and it seemed we could never get it right. there was always something we were doing wrong and they made us feel like idiots for not being perfect.

the boss would also determine whether or not we got paid and got days off on whether or not she liked our performance at the time. we asked one day off the entire time we were there and she said, "well, first i want to observe your class, then we will have a meeting and then next week i'll tell you if you can have it off." this wasn't even during a probationary period! this was out of no where. we had again for at least the 3rd time thought we were doing fine yet they had even more qualms to bring up with us and were acting like they weren't going to give us days off because of it. it was ridiculous. they never even mentioned the day off again.

our last meeting at the end of sept. was so awful i would have left that night if i had had the money. but we didn't so we had to tough it out a few more weeks and then we were outta there.

the head boss at the hogwan is just a miserable, hostile woman. she constantly has a scowl on her face and never acts like she enjoys being there. anytime you ask her a question she acts extremely annoyed.

they also pile on the classes, meetings and paperwork at this school to such an extent that the idea of being a good teacher is a joke. you don't have time to be a good teacher. you're too busy writing bullsh*t reports on each student in each class every month and telephone teaching up to 50 students a week. not to mention the pointless ent meetings where they just tell us stuff that happened that we already know about like- "oh last week the preschool went to the library!" oh really? WE WERE THERE! this is during the time in which we could actually be having lunch. lol

anyway, i could go on and on of course but i'll stop here. don't know if this will even help anyone but if you are thinking of coming to korea and want some advice- i'd say teach at a public school, teach adults or thouroughly research any hogwans you're considering. if you can, try to correspond with every ent at a school through e-mail. each teacher has a different experience and different motives behind what they tell you. they may be giving you a positive picture of the school simply because they can't leave until they find replacements for themselves.

ps- if you are looking for a hogwan in daegu i hear mookong is good (but don't take my word for it- research it)

[The Hierophant]

Sounds awful. Glad to hear you got out.

So, how good does it feel to be free?

[Kimchieluver]

Not to pry, but because you're not an English teacher anymore are you reviling in the fact you don't have to use any capitals?

Cheers,

You are out of that situation. Was "dingdingdang" a mod edit?

[laogaiguk]

[jinju]

ONLY EVIL PEOPLE USE CAPITALS.

[The Hierophant]

[John Henry]

If you want a day off, you just tell people you are taking the day off. No asking about it.

[sophie23]

[sophie23]

[babtangee]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My pity is with the OP, but she's really the type of person who should have learned how to say 'screw it - if you don't like it you can fire me'. My friend did this, and he had a great, relaxing 11 months before he finally left out of disgust at boss' harrassment of the young, spineless, Korean female staff, especially as he came to realise that this was partly being brought on by his indolence.

[rhinocharge64]

This seems to be a trait of the Dang, worked for this chain for 5 months and all sounds similar. The location, Jeju, specifically, Shin JEJU. Thank the lord i am out of there.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Probably only Wonderland is a worse chain.

[sophie23]

[the eye]

Sophie,

The name of the CHAIN is not sufficient. There are multiple locations in Daegu, and I've got friends at some of them who have never complained.