Woosong Language Institute (WLI) – Jayang-dong, Daejeon

I have to completely differ with Ex-Woosong Professor. My experience was very different. Two of the administrators were extremely difficult, giving little consideration to teachers. They were so difficult, I really wondered about them.

Illness is not tolerated, all teachers are threatened in emails, as an example we were told that if we didn’t do exactly what was required (in one case, giving quizzes) we would receive a letter of reprimand and that two letters result in termination. I’ve never heard of any organization except the military giving letters of reprimand.

I was told to not let any administrator know if I was ill and certainly not if I had a medical condition. I was told not to see a doctor in Daejeon but to go to Seoul so administrators would not know.

A number of teachers told me to be very careful about criticising Woosong because the wrong person hearing it could inform on the me and that criticism was grounds for termination.

I felt that one had to be very careful around the administrators and others, rather like walking on eggshells. I was also told by a teacher there, and this is not confirmed, that another teacher went to meet a friend at a private institute to go to dinner and a parent called Immigration, telling them the teacher was teaching illegally.

The teacher, his / her friend and people from the institute were taken to Immigration and questioned. It was determined that the teacher was not teaching there at all but did frequently go there to meet the friend.

An administrator at Woosong sent an email to all the teachers saying that no Woosong teacher could set foot on an institutes grounds without either then getting a letter of reprimand or, I think, termination immediately.

Korea is a free country and people can go where they please, except of course for certain strategic areas. No one has the right to limit where some one goes. Also, the administrator, a foreigner, had a management style would not be tolerated in a Native Englsih Speaking country and I know for a fact that something he did would be completely illegal in his home country under the labor laws in that country and might be illegal in Korea.

Had I known if it was illegal, I’d have gone to the Labor board, but at the time I knew very little about the Labor Board, except that another teacher told me to go to them to make a report of an (un) veiled threat by the administrator in case that behavior continued.

I didn’t go because I didn’t know where the Labor Board was (I’d just gotten to Woosong) and I couldn’t imagine the administrator having the management behaviour he had.

I’d known about Woosong for ten years as I’d known someone who taught there, but I wanted to be in Korea again and two Korean friends told me their thought about Woosong, not knowing what I knew.

When I arrived at The Incheon Airport and walked outside, I was approached by five or six taxi drivers who asked me where I was going (Daejeon) and why (to teach at Woosong).

All of them gave me their opinion of Woosong and all the same opinion.

I would recommend that anyone considering teaching at Woosong should ask any Korean friends or any foreign teacher in Korea about Woosong.

It was also very apparent from the telephone “interview” Woosong was hiring people just to fill vacancies. There was no discussion about methodologies, department philosophy or anything regarding teaching.

The books I was give were pretty poor, one virtually unusable. I also found the students to be mostly uninvolved at best; they just didn’t care.

Before I went to Woosong, a teacher there said the students had done so poorly in high school they couldn’t get into any other university. I thought the students would realize they had a chance at an education and would have started striving for knowledge and grades. That was not the case in the majority of students.

Also, in contrast to other universities where students were a pleasure to be with and worked hard, many students at Woosong at bad and poor attitudes and too many were just obnoxious. I’d not experienced any of that before in universities except in just two individual cases.

Too, many of the teachers were poorly qualified for the job, I doubt even with education degrees, let alone TEFL degrees. Many had been institute teachers and it seemed they were hired simply to full vacancies, with so many teachers needed.

I was paid on time and certainly appreciated that but was told by another teacher that extra classes might not be paid on time. That didn’t bother me so much because they were extra classes and not on the regular schedule. I don’t know because I never taught extra classes.

I thought the location was alright. It’s not difficult to get to downtown by taxi, though it is a bit expensive to go to Dusan-dong by taxi where EMart and a variety of restaurants are.

The Woosong apartments are in a very poor area, a lot of it looking pretty badly and there are burglaries there. My apartment was burgled one night while I was asleep in the apartment. I’d left the door open a bit because it was so hot, which I obviously should not have done.

The apartment building was had a card key entry but someone did get in unless it was someone else living in the apartment building.

I believe it was before I was burgled, but the front door to the building did not close properly and I informed staff and it was repaired. But it was easy for someone to come in from outside anyway.

A woman teacher in another apartment building was awoken one night by someone using a torch while trying to break into her apartment while she was asleep

I didn’t mind “sharing” an office because the four or five of us who used it had much different schedules and there was rarely more than one person there. I was warned about the computers though. More than half had burned up because of electrical problems. I do think computers were replaced with computers from classrooms when they were replaced. It’s just a bit concerning to have staff warn me about the computers.

Much more happened, but I don’t feel I can divulge any more because it might identify me and also because of the law in Korea that says a university can sue someone for criticising it.

I’d gone to Woosong just to be back in Korea and as backup to another plan, I’d stay at Woosong for one year and them move to a different university.