Oedae Language Institute – Namyangju: Pyeongnae-dong, Gyeonggi-do

I taught here August – June 2009. I was able to leave early (and am now at a different, and wonderful hagwon in Ulsan) thanks to the school’s constant financial problems. The Director was happy to avoid having to pay my completion bonus.

Until there is a complete change in management I strongly advise this hagwon be avoided. The Director is mecurial and can be verbally abusive (in Korean). The Korean teachers were afraid of him. Turnover was very high.

The school was very disorganized. Also, if you tried to impose any sort of (mild!) class discipline and a student complains, the Director would explode.

There is one other foreign teacher (retired, ex US military). He’s a nice guy. Note: In 2009 he had to wait 2 1/2 months for his completion bonus.

If payday falls on a holiday you have to wait till after the holiday to get paid. Sometimes pay was late.

Teaching 7 or 8 classes in a row was common. Last-minute schedule changes, ditto. Communication was poor, to non-existant. The then-manager of the English Program was incompetant.

The overall environment and work-culture was extremely stressful.

Also, the parents were not getting what they signed there kids up for. Much of the class material was sub-standard.

To be fair, the English Program manager gave me a glowing reference when I left.

Pyeongnae is 1 1/2 hours from Seoul by bus/subway. It’s a ‘bedroom community’ and there’s nothing there. However, if you like hiking, there are fantastic hiking trails within a 10 -15 minute walk from the school, as well as a short bus-ride away.