Testimonial #1 - Andrew S.

I wrote Andrew a couple days ago and asked him what he felt about Guri Wonderland (구리 원더랜드). While he didn't tear the school apart, he actually didn't have anything good to say either. I suppose the highlight of his email was "the school definitely pays on time". While I understand some teachers have issues with that, I would suggest this is the bare minimum an individual should expect from their employer. I will speak to the fact that on several occasions I was not paid on time, and I had disputes over two of my other pay checks.

Here are the "low lights" from Andrews email:

• "i can't say it was the best school..."
• "it was my first time to teach in korea so everything was a new experience and a bit difficult."
• "...there was some confusion about the pension at the end of the contract."
• "don't expect the owner to be very friendly. she all about business."

Going point by point we have our first confirmation that if you want, you can find better in Korea. The underlying tone of this blog, be careful.

The second and forth points highlight how unwelcoming life is at this hagwon - something I will write at length about during my testimonial. As foreign teachers in Korea we are guests, in fact, the E-2 visa is set up in such a way that we have very few rights and are, in a manner of speaking, the property of the hagwon which hires us. With that being said, why does this academy feel the need to make things "difficult" and un-"friend"-ly?

Why, because at the end of the day, they truly do not care. They do not care about the quality of education for the students, nor do they care about the well-being and happiness of their teachers.

The third point is something that some, but not all hagwon teachers have to deal with. Wonderland decided to avoid paying both the health insurance AND pension, which if I am not mistaken, is actually against Korean law.