AndyPrep: Shinsa-dong, Seoul

This hagwon runs pretty exclusively on the backs of undergraduate college students from tier 2 and above schools. AndyPrep understands that the difference between college students and college grads is negligible in terms of real teaching ability and use this to justify paying a little less than other hagwons. Pay is 30,000 won per TEACHING hour, and if nobody shows up, you don’t get paid. Prep time isn’t included. That being said, they openly court undergraduates and welcome people for summer-long stints in the program, since their clientele is mostly students who study in international schools or boarding schools and that therefore have the same 3 month summer break as college students.

AndyPrep will pay for your housing, but not for your ticket, and like many places, if you don’t need housing, they don’t add that to your paycheck. AndyPrep usually arranges for housing in a so-called goshiwon or goshitel, somewhere in the city center (past locations have been Gangnam and Apgujung). While the location is pretty nice, the living arrangements are tiny, probably less than 60 sq. ft. Consider yourself lucky if you get a window. You do end up with your own bathroom and free internet. Silver lining I guess.

The working schedule is different for each teacher, but almost everyone works 6 day weeks. There are two summer sessions of 5 weeks, with a week of vacation in the middle. Classes are 1.5 hours and start at 8 AM and run all the way to 7:30. Most teachers end up teaching 3-4 classes a day, for anywhere from 25-35 hours a week. There are also some students that elect to be privately tutored at AndyPrep. The pay is usually the same, and the prep work is almost always more. Of course, on the other hand, the tutoring is at the high school level. Note that this is the average teacher in the average year. Schedules will vary significantly based on demand.

AndyPrep definitely takes full advantage of your presence, but they pay you, and I’ve yet to hear of someone getting scammed by them. There’s pretty much no better location than Apgujung, but many other hakwons can probably boast the same. Six day weeks are pretty typical, especially if you’re only teaching for a summer session. No airfare is a big killer here, but again, I don’t know how many other places will offer airfare to summer-only teachers.

For the undergraduate with few connections in Korea looking for someplace reputable that won’t completely take advantage of them (or rather, will first make sure you know how you’re going to be taken advantage of and get your agreement), then I would definitely recommend AndyPrep. There are probably places who pay better or who will work you less hard, but most will require some sort of korean-speaking ability. There were several teachers who could speak little to no Korean who functioned perfectly well at the hagwon.

I would advise to apply early. Though applications have no definite cut off date, the earlier you apply, the more quickly your confirmation will come. If you wait until late April or May to apply, prepare to wait until early June to hear back. This is because the directors of the hagwon can’t really know how many teachers they’ll need in addition to the ones they’ve already hired in March. It’s completely based on student demand.

Definitely not a walk in the park–you’ll have to work hard for your money–but you’ll definitely get paid at the end of the summer.

Benefits & Pay:
The pay is 30,000 won for current undergrads and 33,000 for graduated students. Although this is decent, I have heard of places that give their workers more money than this so if you want more money, do your research. Do not go into this job expecting a certain amount of money by summer’s end because their scheduling is very erratic and often don’t tell you what your schedule is like or how many classes you have until a day or two before the actual session starts. So it’s possible that you may not get many classes, which will result in less pay. They offer free housing (tiny room with bathroom, fridge, bed, TV), but they don’t reimburse you for your plane ticket, which may eventually take a huge chunk out of your paycheck. They have some ridiculous policies, including tardiness or absence by the teacher. One of the teachers were 5 minutes late to class and got a 500,000 won penalty (by way of some nonsensical equation). One absence results in you losing 25% of your entire summer’s paycheck. Also, for one-on-one classes, you do not get paid for the hours that your student doesn’t show up because AndyPrep reimburses the kid’s parents for that missed teaching time. Almost all of the office workers only know how to speak in Korean; there are only a few who can speak in English (and even those people prefer Korean), but if you are not Korean or not too good at speaking Korean, don’t worry too much because there were a few non-Koreans who handled everything ok anyway.

Working Conditions:
All in all, I would say the facilities at AndyPrep aren’t too bad. I have nothing to compare it to, but the rooms are pretty clean and it seems like a good place to study for students. The teacher’s lounge is not very big. It consists of 3 pretty old computers, a printer, a copier, and a couple work desks. The schedule for the teachers varies widely: There are six 1.5 hour blocks of teaching possible from 8AM to 6:30PM with a one-hour lunch break for everyone at the hagwon from 12:30PM-1:30PM. You will most likely have to work on Saturday so expect 6 day work weeks. Prep time is not included in the pay. The amount of prep time varies depending on which subject you are teaching. Math teachers require very little prep time; you just need to solve the problems and know how to explain them to the kids. Reading & writing teachers, however, require much more prep time. They need to prepare vocab quizzes, make sure they read the passages and know how to answer all the questions, and worst of all, grade essays from the kids’ practice tests. Also, attendance sheets must be filled out online after every class and at the end of each session, you must fill out a fairly thorough evaluation of all of your students. There are cameras with audio in every room so you can’t just goof around if you don’t feel like teaching or you will be penalized.

Integrity:
The office workers responsible for the workers’ pay is very precise and usually does not make mistakes when it comes to paying you your money. He double checks with you about how many hours you have worked during that session and how much you should be making. However, I just have a problem with the program that AndyPrep runs in general. Although this hagwon is for kids to do well and I’m not saying that they do not care for the kids at all, but this program is all about pleasing the parents. The office area, where the workers meet and talk with the parents whose children could potentially come to AndyPrep, looks extremely nice with leather couches, a private meeting room, glass doors, etc.

Location:
Apgu-jeong is a fun place to be in Korea and there’s definitely a lot to do in the area. There are many places to eat and chill around the hagwon. The subway is only a few minutes away and there are buses constantly running.

A few notes: Applying early is always great, but if it’s around May and you’re still looking for a job, apply anyway. There is a worker who applied the weekend before the first session started so it’s not impossible. Just know that applying early will probably give you first choice on what you want to teach (math, reading, writing, science, etc). When you apply, if they don’t reply after a couple of weeks, it is not because they do not want to work with you and are ignoring you. They are very disorganized and don’t get back to applicants very quickly. Be proactive; call them and ask what the situation is.