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Location: 623-3, Mugeo 2-dong, Nam-gu
Phone: 052-225-0505
Website: http://www.lcikidsclub.com
LCI Academy/Kids Club – Ulsan: Mugeo-dong, Ulsan
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| Ratings | |
| Benefits & Pay | |
| Working Conditions | |
| Integrity | |
| Location | |
Location: 623-3, Mugeo 2-dong, Nam-gu
Phone: 052-225-0505
Website: http://www.lcikidsclub.com
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
They don’t pay into pension. They offer private healthcare or a “bonus of 400k” at the end of your contract if you choose not to enroll into a private healthcare plan. The private healthcare is not as good as the National Health Insurance that they are required to enroll you in. It is illegal to not pay into pension.
They don’t tax at the right amount. They tax at 3.3%. This is illegal since that tax rate is for independent contractors, but foreign teachers don’t qualify to be independent contractors according to Korean Law.
Each class doesn’t count as a teaching hour, so your 30 teaching hour schedule will be 43 classes a week. You get 2 free periods off a week and quick breaks in between classes. You have to do grading during this time. Overall, not worth flying thousands of miles away from home for this job. They give you minimal vacation and a few times a year you have to work Saturdays.
Cannot trust management. They tell you one thing and then change your mind. “All about pleasing the parents” according to them, but it’s very clear they just care about how much money is coming in. Basically they expect you to take it up the ass.
No freedom with you classes. Do what they say and be happy doing it.
DISCLAIMER: Reliable Teacher Hagwon Review does not verify the statements made in these reviews. These reviews are user-generated content and may or may not be accurate. We do our best to weed out ones that are inappropriate or blatantly exaggerated, but we cannot claim responsibility for any misleading information posted by our reviewers. If there is a review that you believe should be removed, please contact us.
They lie about everything. The director Brian will say something and change his mind 5 minutes later. He will tell you it was a misunderstanding and that he never said that. Whatever is stated in your contract is not true, you don’t learn this until you get there. We worked long hours and were still expected to correct papers during our breaks that for the most part were 2 minutes between classes. Korea is such a great place but the Ulsan LCI is terrible they only care about profits and lie constantly. If you are considering a job there DON’T you will regret it!
DISCLAIMER: Reliable Teacher Hagwon Review does not verify the statements made in these reviews. These reviews are user-generated content and may or may not be accurate. We do our best to weed out ones that are inappropriate or blatantly exaggerated, but we cannot claim responsibility for any misleading information posted by our reviewers. If there is a review that you believe should be removed, please contact us.
As a couple, we were hired at LCI in 2010. After our interview with a foreign teacher, we felt assured that we were leaving the United States to go work for a reputable Hagwon in South Korea.
Upon arriving, it was obvious that we had been severely misled. We are a pretty flexible couple. We knew for the most part things wouldn’t be perfect at a Hagwon, but now we know that LCI is as bad as it gets.
The first week, we were told in addition to our “duties”, it was our responsibility to interview potential new teachers. This was difficult for us, as we could not honestly answer any questions asked by Americans and Canadians during their phone interviews.
In addition, the Director and Manager would sit-in on phone interviews (unbeknownst to the interviewee) and tell us what we could and could not say.
We were told to only talk about the city and how great the students were. We were told not to answer any questions about pension, health insurance, or taxes. (Our recruiter told us we would be getting all of theses, which we did not.)
While working at LCI Kids Club, Ulsan, we were harassed on a daily basis by the incompetent manager(s), as they had to do the dirty work of the directors.
In addition to teaching 40+ classes a week, we did not receive break-time, prep-time and were not paid over-time for coming in early for “field trips.” Kindergarten is babysitting and elementary is dealing with kids who have no respect or foreign teachers.
The curriculum was in insult to the students and anyone who considers themselves an educator. The materials we were expected to teach, were either far beyond, or way below the ability of the classes.
Teachers came and went (as they do at sketchy hagwons) almost monthly. One teacher was fired for asking too many questions about their health insurance (or lack there of). No notice, they were fired on Friday.
Teachers were asked to sign documents that stated they would not ask questions regarding pension, health insurance, etc. Upon refusal, they were harassed and then immediately terminated.
The director, MR. PARK DOES SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH. Only when interviewing potential teachers, can he not. BRIAN is the second in command and the “muscle” of the school. He is a two-faced person.
Ellie and Maya (the mangers we experienced) have no experience managing a school and care more about sexual relationships with the male teachers than educating students. Ellie had a mental break-down as a result of one of these “relationships.” Maya was just inexperienced and malicious. She would often try to pit teachers against each other.
Finally, the school is filthy and does not have heat in the winter (when it is miserably cold!) There is only one bathroom on the main floor which is shared by teachers, students, and staff.
Ulsan is a great city, but you are better off working for a Hagwon that is well established and abides by Korean law. These guys are the sorriest excuse for low-life gangsters Korea has to offer.
DISCLAIMER: Reliable Teacher Hagwon Review does not verify the statements made in these reviews. These reviews are user-generated content and may or may not be accurate. We do our best to weed out ones that are inappropriate or blatantly exaggerated, but we cannot claim responsibility for any misleading information posted by our reviewers. If there is a review that you believe should be removed, please contact us.
My partner and I worked there 2010 and I have to say there are far better places to work in Korea. We we cheated out of our pension and felt along with our co-workers that we would be fired if we challenged it. We were told to fill out some insurance forms and then a couple weeks later, to sign Korean forms and that English wasn’t available (even though we had been given forms to fill out in English from the same company weeks earlier). To top that off, I caught the supervisor filling out our blank insurance forms herself even after numerous issues about medical privacy and issues involving medical privacy how if ever you needed to go to the doctor, your director or supervisor had to go with you for “translating” as well as to ensure you truly are sick.
I found that for a better part of the first few months there, I was always loosing my breaks, working overtime as well as staying late to finish marking or extra projects for my students. No one cared and more and more work was dumped on my desk. To make it worse, the supervisor started hiding books on my desk that needed marking and then yelling at me for not marking them. At the end of my contract, I kept asking if I needed to do reviews and I was told no until 2 days before the end of contract when I was told I needed to do all the kindergarten reviews and a handful of elementary…but I could do them on my vacation and email them to the school who had not paid our final paycheck yet.
During our stay, we had two teachers fired about challenging the supervisor and the insurance, one for not putting out with our drunk supervisor, and one who was almost fired over the insurance until she called the recruiter and they intervened…they only did it once. We found out when people were going to be fired by finding their jobs posted on Dave’s ESL cafe. (pretty sure we found our own on their once or twice).
The final straw was when we were given a raise for overtime and then when I asked about the mistake on my paycheck, Brian told me that the raise was only till December and that he forgot to tell us that Mr. Park had taken it back.
In short, Ulsan is great, LCI isn’t. Look elsewhere.
DISCLAIMER: Reliable Teacher Hagwon Review does not verify the statements made in these reviews. These reviews are user-generated content and may or may not be accurate. We do our best to weed out ones that are inappropriate or blatantly exaggerated, but we cannot claim responsibility for any misleading information posted by our reviewers. If there is a review that you believe should be removed, please contact us.