DO NOT WORK HERE!
Let me clarify something first: This is not a rant, for rants sake nor am I a whiny, spoiled American who walked into this job thinking everything would be perfect. I had an open mind and willingness to work hard for this school. Ok, now that you know where I am coming from...let me explain.
I'm writing because I want to help people make a good decision about where to work ,and working here is not a good idea. Yes, the apartment was wonderful and the students/Korean co-teachers were great, but the challenges outweigh the perks.
The owners have two locations and I worked at their school in Gwangjin. They also have a school in Gangdong that, from what I hear, is equally as bad as the Gwangjin location.
The work environment is hectic at best. Foreign teachers are required to teach a kindy class (or multiple classes if a foreign teacher quits-and they will) for the first half of the day. After lunch they are required to teach after school classes for elementary students. I taught, on average, 38 hours per week. That means I was on my feet, teaching children…not planning, grading tests, writing report cards or doing entrance interviews. All those things have to happen when you find time (during your unpaid lunch, before school starts, or in the rare event that all of your kids are absent from an afternoon class) The owner/director will get every minute of work out of you that they can, no matter what your contract says. The pay (I made 2.1 million), compared to the workload, is entirely too low.
As if that weren’t enough, the owners cheated me out of a lot of money. They were deducting pension and pocketing it. They, according to the contract, were supposed to be matching my pension but they were not actually paying in anything. I caught it early enough that I got the local pension office involved. In the end, after numerous lunch breaks on the phone with the pension office, I got some of what I was owed several months after completing my contract.
We were rarely paid in full and on time.The owners also over charged me for utilities and made me pay for repairs that were supposed to be their responsibility (I went two days without heat and hot water in the winter because of this). I also had to have a recruiter friend call on my behalf two months after completing my contract, to get the owners to pay my severance and apartment deposit refund.
14 teachers quit in the 12 months that I worked for this school. I stayed the whole year because they refuse to give release letters so that teachers can leave SLP and work legally. Moving back to my country was not an option I wanted to choose, so I reluctantly stayed. Looking back, I probably could have gotten out of this job and into a better one if I had known more about the resources outside of the school available to me (my recruiter bailed on me after he was paid his commission but there is support in other places)...lesson learned.
There is so much more I can say, but I think this is adequate information for anyone considering working here. It was the longest, most stressful year of my life and I tried REALLY hard to stay positive. I am thankful to have learned the lessons I have through this experience, but I wouldn’t wish the stress and disrespect that comes with this job on anyone.
I really hope this helps. Best of luck on your job search!
