LCI Academy/Kids Club – Jukjeon: Bojeong-dong, Gyeonggi-do

I have been working at this LCI branch for 9 months and I couldn’t be happier with my experience. I worked as a teacher in the states for 5 years, and this is by far, the easiest teaching job I’ve had. The school pays for your flight to Korea and they do everything they can to make the transition easy for you. I had to stay in a hotel my first week here because the apartment I was getting was occupied by an outgoing teacher. I was picked up at the hotel every morning and brought back every evening. Salaries seem to be pretty competitive, ranging from about 2.3-2.5 mil a month, depending on education and experience. As for vacation, our contracts state that we get 10 paid days a year, but we definitely get more than that. In addition to summer and winter breaks, there are a few Korean holidays in which we will have long weekends. You pretty much go through training for about a week. I have seen some teachers train more, others less. Training includes first observing other classrooms, then integrating yourself into them. You then have to do a silly mock lesson for the supervisors. Basically, this is for them to see your demeanor and such so they can place you with the class you will do best in.
I currently teach what we refer to as 6-1 kindergarten. These are children who are 6-years-old Korean age, so they’re what we know as 4 and 5-years-old; and this is their first year of learning English. Kindergarten runs from 10am-220pm with an hour lunch break. In addition to kindergarten, we also teach some elementary classes in the afternoon. There is an everyday class from 230-350 pm, as well as MWF and TR classes from 400-625pm. Some teachers do not have the TR class. This will depend on your contract. Each teacher gets a 40 minute plan period twice a week, as well as 30 minutes on Mondays and Wednesdays while the children are in music and PE classes.
Currently, there are 11 English teachers, all of us from America, and 5 Korean teachers. This is not including other staff i.e. secretaries, cooks, etc. The teacher/student ratio is never above 1:10, so class size is incredibly small allowing you to really get to know your students. The Korean teachers write all of the lesson plans for us and we follow these plans in our classrooms. We are not always required to stick to the lesson plan, as long as all of the necessary book work has been completed by the end of the term. We are required to make weekly vocabulary and monthly tests for our elementary classes. We also write weekly reports for our kindergarteners, and every 3 months we write evaluations for all of our students.
I’m not sure about the resources the teacher from the previous review was speaking of, but the only issue I have with the books and other materials we use is that you may run into spelling or grammatical errors in them. Most of the books we use are written in Korea for Korean students learning English. Each student receives their own book, and the only time I have had to use photocopies is when a student forgets their book at home.
I have not experienced, nor do I know of other teachers at LCI experiencing any issues concerning the integrity of our employer. We are always paid on time, and I even know of some instances where a teacher was given an advance when it was needed. The school pays all of your utility bills and then takes it out of your paycheck. When you walk into the office on the 10th of every month, a bill statement will be on your desk. Knowing that your bills are taken care of for you takes a ton of weight off your shoulders. You are then given your paystub which includes all taxes, pension, bills, etc.
The only thing that kind of disturbs me about the school is the fact that it is truly dependent on the parents of our students. If one parent feels something needs to be changed, it will be changed. LCI is not the only school where this is the case. It seems to be a cultural thing that occurs in hagwons throughout the country. Parents play a very powerful part in the hagwon system. Our main job is to do anything and everything in our power to keep the parents happy.
As for the location, Jukjeon is wonderful. It’s just outside the hustle and bustle of Seoul, but a bus or subway can get you there in 1/2 an hour. All of the teachers live close to one another, and our apartments are a quick 10 minute walk to school. There are many places to eat, as well as a movie theater, many shops, and a gorgeous park that I love to go to. I have had such a great time here, that I have decided to stay on for another year. If you click on the link to my blog, you will many pictures of Jukjeon and the many things we do at LCI. I heard a lot of negative stories of people teaching in Korean hagwons, but I have yet to hear one about this school.