NY English Studio: Hyehwa-dong, Seoul

Today, I would like to give you a story about my recent experience at a hagwon in Daehakro.

First, I would like to share my experience and then follow up with highlights on why I am suggesting to you that you should avoid this school.

The name of the school is NY English Studio. This is an adult hagwon. The school has been around since 2009 and is a private and independent school.

My Story:
Last summer and early fall, I was desperate to find a job near daehakro because it is close to my girlfriend at the time. I was very interested to find an adult teaching position off of Dave’s ESLCafe website. I was quickly invited to come and interview for the position before Chuseok of this year.

The Interview:
In the interview, I had a terrible time. I used to interview people as a manager in retail, and I never had such a terrible interview. I have been through probably 100 interviews, both as the interviewer and interviewee. I was asked to teach a sample class during the interview, however, I was not allowed to prepare until the interview. I was handed a book and told to teach the owner. I was interrupted by the owner several times and was talked down to quite a bit. I thought I made some serious mistake, however, I am not new to teaching. By the end of the interview, I knew that I didn’t get the job, so I didn’t think a thing about it. I told my friends that I didn’t get the job because it was such a bad interview.

Acceptance:
I was called several days later. I was offered the job around 11pm right after Chuseok. I was suprised that I was offered the job because the interview was so terrible. Now, I had three or four other offers on the table, and it was between public schools, which were far from Daehakro, a children’s hagwon which has been declining for some time close to Daehakro, and this job. I decided to accept this job and I was told to come back. I should note that I was living in Busan at the time, so I spent a lot of money going from one place to another. I came back for that weekend for “training,” which is just watching other people’s classes. I stayed in the provided housing, which was a room that was about 2 or 3 pyeong. It was also very dirty. On that day, I was also told to sign the contract. Actually, I knew that was wrong. I knew I should walk away, but I continued. I signed the worst contract I ever saw.

The Contract:
After asking for several changes, these are the things included and excluded from the contract:

Included:
Payscale which was appropriate for my experience and education.
5,000won for each hour of overtime
Housing paid for (2-3 pyeong one room that was supposed to be furnished, which wasn’t)
600,000won deposit
Health insurance (this was never provided and paperwork was never started)
30 to 35 teaching hours a week (I started at 56 hours a week, that is right, fifty-six)

Excluded:
Sickdays (zero sick days)
Vacation (zero vacation days)
Severence (not included)
Pension (She claimed that it wasn’t necessary, although after contacting the pension office, I was told that it is illegal not to pay pension for an American on an E-2 visa)

Working Conditions:
I will try not to leave too much hanging here and I promise that I won’t exaggerate.
-Daily reminders that I will be fired if my rentention rate doesn’t go above 70%
-Daily scoldings about what I did, didn’t do, what someone else did, or didn’t do
-I was signed for a split shift, however, often, I wasn’t permitted to go home, or my break would only be two or three hours maximum
-Started at 6:25am and finished at 10pm weekdays, 11pm on Thursdays, and Saturdays 9am to 6pm
-9 to 10 classes daily
-constantly changing teachers
-Lunch and dinner breaks are 30 minutes, however, a class should finish five minutes late and we are required to be back at work at least ten minutes early, so lunch and dinner are realistically 15 minutes
-No breaks allowed
-Each class should start five minutes early and end five minutes late for “extra service” and we were not paid for this
-Daily being told to be less American and act like a Korean
-Being told daily that I am not trusted by the owner because I am a foreigner
-Often being told that we are not teachers, but sales people, so teaching is only secondary
-Told to never speak with other teachers at work or outside of work

Ok, I will leave it here for now and try to keep my personal feelings out of this posting. As you can guess, it was a bad time for myself. I only want to create this posting because I want to let people know what working at this school is like. You have to make the decision to avoid it, not me. I am only doing this because I wish I had seen a post like this before I decided to work there.

Because of these work conditions, I left. I did a midnight run, and I am not proud of it, even though the owner said she has had over 300 foreign teachers work for her at her present and previous school (which failed and started back in the mid 2000s). I have taught in Korea full-time for two years and I was a part-time ESL teacher at my university for three years. I am not a rookie and I am sad to say that I had to pull a rookie move by doing a midnight run, however, it needed to be done. The wisest words I ever heard from my step-father was “Why do you put up with those conditions? Would you put up with it in the states?” And my answer was “No, I have self respect. I wouldn’t accept that in my country.” And then he said “Well, it is time to leave, job or no job. Come home and start again.”