Wonderland English – Sosa: Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do

I 2nd the previous comment made regarding Wonderland. I randomly stumbled across this site as I needed details of this specific hagwon and it reminded me of the horrendous management days whilst teaching there between 2006 to 2007. The students and fellow teachers are fine but it seems like ass kissing is all that matters to the locals. When i was there, it was all about prestige and image and something for the ‘moms to talk about whilst having kimchi with their girlfriends’ but sadly the curriculum was lacking big time. I felt more of a babysitter there than an english teacher. Disgrace to my title of being a ‘teacher’. Management needs to improve big time here and discipline needs to be set in place. Teaching standards aren’t really on par with other hagwons. The owner has only one mission of making alot of cash, and ignoring the power of knowledge.

None of the above comments are accurate. The school has a detailed curriculum outlining the books to teach for each class, and every two months the classes proceed to the next book in the progression. Therefore, it’s possible to know what you’ll be teaching up to a year in advance. The calendar concerning field trips, activities, special events, vacations, and holidays up to the beginning of the 2012 school year is already in place and posted clearly, in English, for all the teachers to see.

As for the Korean teachers, four of them speak English well. One teacher, who only teaches Korean to kindergarten students, understands English but doesn’t speak it. The secretary, who spends the day dealing with the mothers, likewise understands English but doesn’t speak it. They are all very kind and caring, and do their best to teach the children.

They are friendly to foreign teachers who are friendly in turn. They’ve had bad luck with poor foreign teachers in the past, including some who were aggressive towards the children, and one, in particular, who constantly smelled of a foul odor, touched the female teachers inappropriately, and alienated the students by openly disliking them. I suspect one of the comments above is by this person, who also happens to be a prominent member of the ex-pat blogging community in Korea.

There are cctv cameras in each room, but they are deactivated. In the past, the mothers were overly sensitive to what they observed in the small, soundless, hard to see images, and the Korean teachers had to spend an inordinate amount of time listening to the mothers complain and make ridiculous demands. Now that no one can watch the classes on the internet, all teachers are much better able to focus on actually teaching the children, rather than worrying about the mothers.

As for the schedule, the foreign teachers actually teach the least amount of class hours. Korean teachers always teach the last classes of the day, so the foreign teachers are free to leave well before closing time. Also, foreign teachers don’t have to do any work outside of class, except for an hour of lesson planning once every two months, while the Korean teachers are constantly busy making homework, exams, and lesson plans for the children.

In particular, the comment of “Never again at Wonderland” is misleading, vicious and slanderous. Its few legitimate claims are no longer true, and the rest is pure fallacy. The cited “popular expressions found on the Web” are a small sample of comments chosen with extreme bias to create a negative picture of the school, and they aren’t even referring to this school in particular. If popular opinion is important, many other “expressions found on the Web” say that Wonderland is a wonderful place to work.

The book which the commenter recommends is an account of one particular terrible experience at a Wonderland in Daegu, not at the Wonderland in Sosa. Also, the book ends with the author returning to Korea to work at a different Wonderland and having a great experience. The commenter “Never again at Wonderland” references it to take a quick and easy cheap-shot against Sosa Wonderland, but the book’s inclusion is baseless and irrelevant.

Individual experience varies. The comments above show evidence of particular individuals who, for whatever reason, had a bad time at this school. I’m beginning my third consecutive contract. I find it to be a fun, exciting, warm, inviting, and rewarding place to work, where the teachers actually care about their students and each other. It’s a terrible place for someone who doesn’t work well with small children between four and seven years old Korean age, three to six years old international age. But if one enjoys being around children, it’s a great place to work.