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reeshar
Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Location: back home for now
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 Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:30 am Post subject: wonderland in busan, good or bad? |
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| hello guys. i'm just about to start my first ESL job, in a wonderland school in busan. i've seen some stuff around on the internet suggesting they're not a great company, but also other information suggesting it depends on the individual school. Does any one know any more on this? Also, has any one taught at this school? It's in hwamyeong. Anyway, thanks in advance guys, hope you can enlighten me on this one! |
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garykasparov
Joined: 27 May 2007
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| Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:41 am Post subject: |
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Wonderland doesn't have a good reputation. At a majority of Wonderland schools there have been complaints about labor law violations, "pocketing" deductions from monthly pay, forced overtime and the list goes on. I hope you consider working elsewhere in Busan. Busan is a nice city.
http://www.efl-law.com/warnings.php (Brief mention of Wonderland)
"B. One school chain that continually features in e-mail's to us is the Wonderland School. It appears there are over 80 schools in the chain. One should very carefully read the contract offered by them and receive advice before signing it. The Internet provides many links regarding this chain of schools. One site well worth a read is the Prisoner of Wonderland site that provides balanced comments about this chain." |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: Re: wonderland in busan, good or bad? |
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| reeshar wrote: |
| hello guys. i'm just about to start my first ESL job, in a wonderland school in busan. i've seen some stuff around on the internet suggesting they're not a great company, but also other information suggesting it depends on the individual school. Does any one know any more on this? Also, has any one taught at this school? It's in hwamyeong. Anyway, thanks in advance guys, hope you can enlighten me on this one! |
Every few months someone who's thinking of coming to Korea asks this and every few months I reply:
Would you get on a plane with 100 seats if you knew that 80 of them were going to fall out of the aeroplane? No? Then don't, don't, don't go to Wonderland. It is simply not worth the risk. The franchise is completely messed up from top to bottom and operates under the guise of 'learning English is fun with us'. I.E. you're only there to horse around and for photo-ops. You'll get absolutely zero respect from the kids and everything that goes wrong will be your fault.
Just tell the recruiter that you're no idiot and you won't even think of working for this black mark upon Korea's private education system. It's beaten out some very fierce competition to get the worst reputation in Korea for a reason. |
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pest2
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:18 am Post subject: |
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| yeah, even if the wonderland branch doesnt have a bad rep per se, wonderland as an education concept and provider is complete crappola. I'd run.... |
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garykasparov
Joined: 27 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:40 am Post subject: |
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| pest said it best "complete crapola." |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| If you take that job you are forever banned from complaining on this board. That should be the rule for anyone who takes a position from Wonderland. |
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reeshar
Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Location: back home for now
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:32 am Post subject: thanks for the advice |
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| many thanks guys, that's one job definitely struck off the list! |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| pest2 wrote: |
| yeah, even if the wonderland branch doesnt have a bad rep per se, wonderland as an education concept and provider is complete crappola. I'd run.... |
On top of that, the big problem with franchise outfits in South Korea is that they are not anything at all like a franchise is in the West. For example, if I were to grant a franchise to someone for a famous name burger joint back in the US, that person would have to agree to follow certain business practices to include obeying all the relevant laws. If they ignored that, I could order them to remove my business name from their franchise immediately and in the event they refused to do that, I would easily prevail in court.
Here in South Korea, a franchise--especially for English hagweons--is merely a contract for a specified time during which the franchisee has the right to use the franchise cover name and I would have the obligation to sell the franchise material to them. If they do anything that makes the entire chain look bad, my only recourse is to try to convince them to clean up their act. I cannot refuse to provide the material or they can sue me for my failure to comply with the contract. Actually, there is one other recourse: refuse to renew their contract.
I discovered all this at the end of my contract with one of the more dishonest hagweons in Incheon. The headquarters people actually did try to get them to honor their obligations and finally asked for the Canadian employee's and my statements so they could show the founder of the chain why they would not renew the hagweon's contract.
Ah, justice Korean style is quite convoluted sometimes.
With all this information in mind, why would anyone want to go work for a chain that's already infamous for not following the rules? The franchisees have a number of choices (Bridge, EBY, various other letters of the alphabet). That they've chosen to go with Wonderland is a good indicator to me that they already don't care one whit about their employees. |
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