Korean Job Discussion Forums

SweetLou · Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Location: mt. bu

hey there --

i'm currently looking to make the switch from teaching kids to teaching adults, and am curious about how the major adult chains compare. in particular, i'm considering pagoda, ybm, wall street, and english channel.

how are the teaching expectations different? do all of the places want foreign teachers to teach only conversation, or do teachers also work with students on grammar, writing, etc?

how "scripted" is the teaching? are instructors expected to create their own lesson plans, etc, or does the place stick to a prefab lesson plan and content?

are the split shifts all the same? 7-11am and 6-10pm, or something of the sort?

are salary and benefits essentially similar between them?

are there any pitfalls to watch out for when searching for a place?

can one get away without doing saturday classes realistically?

i've seen a couple of older threads dealing with adult hagwons, but i think wall street and english channel are a bit newer on the scene (at least in korea), and their presence may have changed the employment landscape.

any information you guys have would be appreciated...

-SL

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

You are here and experienced.

Negotiate your best deal and don't settle for less than you want in terms of shifts, etc.

The ball is in your court. Drop is and you will be treated like any other newbie.

postfundie · Joined: 28 May 2004

you ask a lot of questions.....

maybe you can get of doing Saturdays...not too likely though just bite the bullet and plan on doing 2 sats a month....it won't kill you and the overtime pay is nice

as for books YBM and Pagoda got you covered....prep is about nill... most places will have you doing conversation classes...YBM might try to stick you with an IBT Toel class or some interview prep class....other than that conversation classes seem to win the day.....

like the post before me negotiate your contract and stick to your guns,but don't expect the world......

ps. anytime it gets bad just remember that you are not babysitting anymore and adults can actually tell you useful things.....

Anicca · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Location: Jeju-Do, Korea

Did you choose your school?

I'm about to choose one of those major schools too. English Channel seems the easiest. All of them have serious split shifts.

If you chose one, let us know your experience thus far.

OneWayTraffic · Joined: 14 Mar 2005

Worked at Pagoda for 3 years. Splits to start but you may get off them in a few months if you're lucky. Some of the books are fine, but if you want to stay, you'll need some original (to the students) stuff. Try breakingnewsenglish for a good highint/advanced site. I wouldn't go for EngChannel though Wall St may be ok. YBM and Oedae are similar to Pagoda, I've heard.

Smile a lot to your students and tell them how much you like living here, as they'll decide your future through evals/complaints. Make corrections and sound like you're trying hard and you'll be fine.

edited: damn your/=you're

alwaysfaithless · Joined: 22 Jun 2007

I worked for Pagoda a few years back in Busan; there were no problems with classroom management; usually 12 adult students to a class sitting around a large oval table. Pagoda provided the material, usually a text book written by foreign teachers designed to generate conversation.... It was a great job because once the students started on a topic you basically just sat back as a moderator......It was a great way to get to understand Koreans......The students enrolled once a month so there was a great diversity of students to look forward to. Six classes a day, 50 min. each. Usually 3 in early morning and 3 early evening.....always a total of 6 classes a day. We paid our own rent but Pagoda deducted all bills (rent, phone, oil, utilities) from your pay so there was no worry about having to pay it yourself. What I didn't like about it was its corporate attitude--wearing ties, name tags--meetings, teacher evaluations, etc. but that's just me. Of course, we had a great director who never left his office and never came into the teachers lounge......If anything was needed to be told to us it came from a receptionist , manager, etc.

michinkorea · Joined: 27 Jul 2006

I'm currently working at YBM in Jongno and it's great. Split shift for 3 months, then block morning or night. Saturdays if you want them for easy overtime, but you don't have to. No problems finding a place to live. They put you up in a hotel for up to two weeks until you find a place to live. Managers are foreigners and are amazing people. We have about 35 full time native speakers (I think) and more than half have been here for more than a year, lots for more than 2 or 3 years. I think that speaks a lot for the school by itself.

Trumpcard · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

i work for Wall Street Institute, no split shift, up to 4 adult students per class, max 6 classes per day. msg me if interested

Been There, Taught That · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject:

I have 21 months experience in Korean hagwons and will be coming back to Korea when I find what I want. Can I assume, from what I read here, that one feature of these adult chains is that you find your own place and pay your own rent, or does that depend on the chain or branch or what?

birdflower · Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Location: Australia

Different posters, from different time periods, have all said that English Channel is a bad place to work.

1) http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=57787&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=english+channel+learn&start=15
2) http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=74883&highlight=
3) http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=74299&highlight=
4) http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=76761&highlight=
5) http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=77018&highlight=

English Channel's policy of not paying their teachers their last pay check on their last day of work but after they have left the country is a big red flag. As for the idea of staying in Korea to wait for your last pay check, you can not do that as they force their teachers to leave their apartment once they are done working. Where's my f---- hard earned money?!!

oneofthesarahs · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Location: Sacheon City

I'm tossing around the idea of doing the adult thing too. How much should I reasonably expect to be paid with only one year of teaching (not with adults) in Korea under my belt? I'll also presumably have my certification from KEI by then. I don't have any unreasonable expectations, but I don't want to get ripped off either.