TOPIA English Zone (Elementary School) – Junggye 2: Junggye-dong, Seoul

Perhaps this “Junggye 2″ is an attempt to cover up the ratings of “Junggye 1″ but the same comments apply. Help with the updates if there is ever a “Junggye 3″.

THE GOOD AND KINDA GOOD
- pays on time (except for housing deposits, pensions and illegal and immoral pro rating for part months). everyone who completes their 12 months seems to get their return ticket and severance pay
- large apartments (some need renovating) close to work with good amenities
- clear and easy to follow lesson structure
- students are usually well behaved compared to in the west
- occasional opportunities to earn some additional money (but nowhere near the amounts summer camps in the public sector will pay)
- Korean co-teachers and almost always helpful and nice
– employs large numbers of foreigners so you can tap into their experience and knowledge of Seoul
- manson went home. two of the other foreign corodinators are at least able to have a go at showing you how to teach effectively enough to survive the 12 months

THE BAD AND THE APPALLING
- company repeatedly breaks their own contract when it favors them and disadvantages you. if you try the same trick they will fire you, count on it
- the company cannot be trusted, promises and information means nothing. the company will do backflips, revoke benefits, contradict itself and out and out lie in order to do what it wants. it is an example of the worst kind of antiqudated korean management practices. it doesn’t matter how well you do your job or how hard or how long you have worked there for, they will screw you regardless. regularly.
– you will teach 27-30 classes a week (go teach public if you don’t want to grind out class after class) and will receive virtually no holidays outside of national days, for example Christmas is a 1-day break. i could go on but in general between in-class and out-class duties expect your workload to be double that of a public school teacher
- if you want to cash in your airline ticket they will only give you bottom dollar for it
- they break the law by not paying the pension. despite having been exposed at least 3 times and made to pay, they still try to get away with it because the National Pension Service doesn’t punish them.
- if they fire you or you leave or even if you finish your contract, expect often as little as 24 hours notice to move out. not nice when you are thousands of miles from home in a foreign country

The sad thing is that the poor decisions made by Junggye management in order to save them a few dollars is costing them far more in the long run. Their reputation is mud, good teachers will not want to work there, those first-time teachers who take the job because they (as we all did) know nothing about the Korean job market. will not stay and will not extend. This means increased attrition and more inexperienced teachers who are less productive, less effective and cause issues with parents who are the academy’s customers as well as more flight costs and resource drain through training and administration. Word will continue to get out about how bad Topia is, they will then struggle to recruit – and without foreign teachers they will be in deep shit.