Breaking contract early: Hagwon to Public

[flytoseoul]

I have been working at a hagwon for about 2 months and its been extremely stressful and exhausting. I teach 8 kindergarten classes a day with minimal breaks, then I teach 2 hours of elementary in the afternoon. Although its only about 6 hours in the classroom each day, the lack of breaks between classes makes it very stressful. I know people that work at hagwons and don't like it, but I would say this place definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, and I can't imagine what working here for a year would do to my health. They also paid me 5 days late, ultimately breaking their contract, amongst other hassles.

I talked to some friends at a public school and the school wants to hire me. I understand the working conditions there and I find it to be much more doable.  What's the best way to go about breaking my contract and a visa transfer? Again it has only been 2 months. Do I have to wait until I have worked there 6 months? (The public school has year-round openings). My hagwon also requires 2 months notice, and I know they would be resilient about the LOR. I don't have my alien card yet as I actually have to transfer my Visa from a school 4 hours away (My recruiter accidentally assigned my visa to the wrong school in a different city). I'm going there this friday to transfer my visa to this hagwon..... perhaps I could just secretly transfer it to the public school, but then I'd probably be sent to immigration when they realize it didn't go through.

Anyways, there's alot of specifics here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please don't tell me that my job isn't that bad... ... ..

[marsavalanche]

I have been working at a hagwon for about 2 months and its been extremely stressful and exhausting. I teach 8 kindergarten classes a day with minimal breaks, then I teach 2 hours of elementary in the afternoon. Although its only about 6 hours in the classroom each day, the lack of breaks between classes makes it very stressful. I know people that work at hagwons and don't like it, but I would say this place definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, and I can't imagine what working here for a year would do to my health. They also paid me 5 days late, ultimately breaking their contract, amongst other hassles.

I talked to some friends at a public school and the school wants to hire me. I understand the working conditions there and I find it to be much more doable.  What's the best way to go about breaking my contract and a visa transfer? Again it has only been 2 months. Do I have to wait until I have worked there 6 months? (The public school has year-round openings). My hagwon also requires 2 months notice, and I know they would be resilient about the LOR. I don't have my alien card yet as I actually have to transfer my Visa from a school 4 hours away (My recruiter accidentally assigned my visa to the wrong school in a different city). I'm going there this friday to transfer my visa to this hagwon..... perhaps I could just secretly transfer it to the public school, but then I'd probably be sent to immigration when they realize it didn't go through.

Anyways, there's alot of specifics here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please don't tell me that my job isn't that bad... ... ..

That sucks man.  Oh your job IS that bad, don't worry I've been there done that.  Two options:

1) Get a new set of docs NOW and pull a runner.  Give the immigration officer your ARC on your way out of Korea.  You'll have to come back to Korea on a tourist visa and apply for a new visa when you're hired.  Make SURE you are 100% HIRED if you go that route
2) Get that LOR and switch to the new school.  However, chances are your hagwon will NOT give you the LOR if they are like every other hagwon so this is all you and how confident you feel you can get it from them.  You do not need to be employed for 6+ months to get a LOR.

But yea I'd book it out of that school if I were you.  I teach about half as many classes as that and none of them are kindy.  Make your move.  It will be worth it in the end.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

I've been in your position. It's quite likely that you'll need an LOR to get a new job within the next ten months. Your employer can volunteer to give you one (they rarely do this willingly) or you can go to immigration and try to get them to cancel your contract. In my case I had to get nasty and start contacting parents, threatening my boss to give them an honest appraisal of what kind of value they were getting for their money. My thoroughly astonished boss quickly agreed to do so and gave me a letter basically stating he was firing me. I couldn't have been happier, and 6 1/2 years later am still loving my PS job. This would never have been possible without Korean friends, so I sure hope you've made some.

[MTBman]

I also got out of a hagwon contract and jumped to a public school job.  I did it, though, in the eleventh month of my second contract after I knew I was not going to be renewed by that hagwon and a student of mine told me that the public schools in that city were hiring.  Like YBS, I had to force my way out.  I didn't call the parents, but I caught that hagwon director telling one story to me and a totally different one to my wife.  I also gave up around three to four million won in end of contract bonus, last month's salary, etc. 

I also suggest that you don't try to secretly change your visa to that other job without properly going through the transfer process with your employer and the other school.  You will get caught with your trousers down by Immigration eventually.  They won't be very sympathetic with someone who's trying to get out of their contract after only a couple of months.   Do it the right way and you won't have to worry.

It might be better for you to wait longer and then start the process of getting out.  Frankly, it doesn't look that good.  It looks better that way, too, on your EFL employment history. 

And if you have not taught before, you can learn a lot about how to teach in a hagwon, because when you do jump to a public school job, most likely you will not have any where's near the support you do at your hagwon.  Plus those kindy classes will help you greatly if you ever teach second and third grades in a public school with those kids very short attention spans.