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Hello!
I loved reading your blog about Hagwons vs Public schools in Korea. I am currently teaching at a Hagwon in Korea, however, I recognized that I would honestly prefer working at a public school. I was wondering what the application process is like? Thank you so much! 🙂
Emilie M
Hiya,
Hope you don’t mind me reaching out, but my name is Lily and I’m looking to go to Korea to teach English with my boyfriend. I recently came across your blog and wondered whether you had any advice for couples wanting to go out. I’ve come across a lot of nightmarish Hagwon stories, and am starting to question whether there are any decent Hagwons in Korea! Is there any hope that we’ll be able to find anywhere nice, or are Hagwons generally no-go?
Thanks,
Lily
Hello, Lily! Sorry for the late reply. We’ve stepped away from blogging, but hope what remains on our site is helpful for you. To answer your question: yes, there are good hagwons. I believe that the number of shady, terrible, and problem hagwons greatly outnumbers the good ones, but we’ve had friends who were very happy with their academy experience and loved their schools. There’s not really a great method for finding them beyond knowing the teacher who is leaving, as even the well known name brand franchise schools are independently run by a business man/woman. Some are kind and care about the students’ education and the happiness of their staff, but many are simply looking at profit margins or worse. Our hagwon in Seoul (first year) was one of the top companies for English academies but we didn’t know at the time that the director had 4 previous bankruptcies that Korean law required him to pay on each month before paying the operation costs of the current business. After that year (still not sure why we finished the whole contract) we moved into the public school world and have been much much happier. The lawsuit with the hagwon took three more years to resolve, but that’s a different story. Everything is much much more reliable in public schools. You might not live where you imagine wanting to live, but you’ll have more money and 5-6 weeks of vacation each year instead of just 10 day (if you’re lucky), all national holidays, and a ton of other guarantees that hagwons promise but rarely deliver.
I hope this helps. We’re currently in South Jeolla province and we’ve loved our experience down here away from the big cities. On the other hand we’re also a 1.75hr train ride from Seoul, so we’re not terribly removed if we wanted to go.
Ryan
Hello! You’re information about the islands off the coast of Yeosu is fantastic! I’m traveling to the area with my husband for a few days (we’re still deciding if we want to stay in Suncheon or Yeosu or a couple nights each). There’s so much to do in the area! I don’t think we’ll have a car, but we want to spend a day traveling to an island or two. We don’t plan to camp, but we do enjoy hiking and seeing nice views. If you only had one day from Yeosu to island hop…do you have a recommendation on which island(s) you would visit? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions!! Thank you!