International English School is an international school located in Wonju, South Korea.
Address: Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea.
Website: International English School
International English School - International School - South Korea
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- Parent Category: Asia Reviews (School)
- Category: Korea, South in Asia (School)
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Institute Review
I want to start off by saying that, without the one con of this job, it is a great job. The students are so smart and so sweet, the apartments are nice, and the pay is decent. But the one con of this job has made every single teacher leave this position because it’s such a terrible con. Unfortunately, this comes in the form of management, namely the head teacher.
While it is nice for lessons to be pre-prepared, that is it. You cannot deviate from the lessons at all, and if you do, you will be yelled at in front of your students by the terror known as the Head Teacher. At one point, I was told that I “cannot speak English” because I wasn’t phrasing a sentence the exact way that he wanted it to be said. Even for the smallest of things, he will belittle and embarrass you in front of your students. The students are so sweet and will try to comfort you, but you have to shake it off for the sake of them. The lessons are extremely unorganized and taught the exact same way for the student’s whole time there as well--you’re not sure exactly what books to read next, how to teach the specific lessons (don’t get me started on how obsessively you have to teach time to the students), or when to give specific tests. Again, if you do anything out of order or guess on anything, you get yelled at. You are just supposed to know, and if you don’t know, you’re “s*u*i*” and “how could something be so confusing when it’s so obvious.” More than once, I went home crying because of how myself, and the other teachers, were treated.
The head teacher is a nightmare to work for. He is the meanest, most self-centered person I have ever met. He has done nothing but constantly berate both the students and the teachers. The younger students are scared of him, with the students constantly checking the door window to see if he will walk by since he is always watching the teacher. The older students despise him, always saying that they never want to be taught by this teacher. I didn’t want to leave because I knew that they would have to suffer by being taught by him and being screamed at for little mistakes. He has told the students that their accent is s*u*i* and that, if everybody just went to this school (which is the only good English school in all of Korea, apparently), they would succeed and get into good universities. The students are constantly told how terrible Korea is, how terrible their Korean teachers are, and how bad their language is. It is extremely disrespectful and really hurts the students feelings. He says that “the only language you need is English, and if you don’t learn English, you will fail at life and never get a good job.” He went so far as to insult the cleaning lady that cleans their own hagwan. He constantly needs to validate his own intelligence by putting others down around him.
The principal of the school seems so nice at first, only to realize that she gossips behind the teacher’s backs and doesn’t listen to them when they need a student moved because they aren't keeping up with the unrealistic expectations that the head teacher has put on them.
While it is nice for lessons to be pre-prepared, that is it. You cannot deviate from the lessons at all, and if you do, you will be yelled at in front of your students by the terror known as the Head Teacher. At one point, I was told that I “cannot speak English” because I wasn’t phrasing a sentence the exact way that he wanted it to be said. Even for the smallest of things, he will belittle and embarrass you in front of your students. The students are so sweet and will try to comfort you, but you have to shake it off for the sake of them. The lessons are extremely unorganized and taught the exact same way for the student’s whole time there as well--you’re not sure exactly what books to read next, how to teach the specific lessons (don’t get me started on how obsessively you have to teach time to the students), or when to give specific tests. Again, if you do anything out of order or guess on anything, you get yelled at. You are just supposed to know, and if you don’t know, you’re “s*u*i*” and “how could something be so confusing when it’s so obvious.” More than once, I went home crying because of how myself, and the other teachers, were treated.
The head teacher is a nightmare to work for. He is the meanest, most self-centered person I have ever met. He has done nothing but constantly berate both the students and the teachers. The younger students are scared of him, with the students constantly checking the door window to see if he will walk by since he is always watching the teacher. The older students despise him, always saying that they never want to be taught by this teacher. I didn’t want to leave because I knew that they would have to suffer by being taught by him and being screamed at for little mistakes. He has told the students that their accent is s*u*i* and that, if everybody just went to this school (which is the only good English school in all of Korea, apparently), they would succeed and get into good universities. The students are constantly told how terrible Korea is, how terrible their Korean teachers are, and how bad their language is. It is extremely disrespectful and really hurts the students feelings. He says that “the only language you need is English, and if you don’t learn English, you will fail at life and never get a good job.” He went so far as to insult the cleaning lady that cleans their own hagwan. He constantly needs to validate his own intelligence by putting others down around him.
The principal of the school seems so nice at first, only to realize that she gossips behind the teacher’s backs and doesn’t listen to them when they need a student moved because they aren't keeping up with the unrealistic expectations that the head teacher has put on them.
The pros
Great Coworkers
Nice Apartments
Decent Pay
Free Dinner
Hours are decent
Nice Apartments
Decent Pay
Free Dinner
Hours are decent
The cons
Being embarrassed in front of your students
Watching the students be yelled at and mocked and there's nothing you can do about it
Be yelled at and belittled
Always looking over your shoulder
Never being good enough
Watching the students be yelled at and mocked and there's nothing you can do about it
Be yelled at and belittled
Always looking over your shoulder
Never being good enough
Advice to Management
You know you should do better. Stop with the mass delusion and actually help the teachers and students instead of belittling/mocking/embarrassing them.
Institution Location
Wonju, South Korea
Relationship
Former Teacher
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
Wonju is a lovely small town and the students at the school are so sweet, so clever, and so kind. When the head teacher would come in and shout nonsense at me they would always try to comfort me afterwards and tell me not to worry about what that "angry Grandpa" says. Of course I didn't want them to think they needed to comfort me or see any of that play out especially because it was wasting the time they paid money to be learning during, but it was still sweet to see kids be so innocent and kind in such a situation.
The school and the apartments for teachers are so dirty. You will find huge gray and black dust clumps everywhere as well as doors and walls tinted grey from never being cleaned. When I was there I gave everything a few times over with a clorox wipe and it lifted a significant amount of the grey tinge.
The school is all about making money and using cheap sales tactics, the actual quality of education there is so low its pretty much nonexistent. You could always tell which kids came from which schools because their English level was directly related to the school they went to in the daytime, not anything done at the Hagwon. For just one example of the cheap sales tactics they relied on over actual results and quality, T=they tried their best to shout at us teachers and berates us until we would tell our students "this is the only place in the whole world you can really learn English if you don't come here you will never be able to learn it and if you don't learn English you will never succeed at anything in life." This is some nonsense the head teacher would drone on about on repeat. I think he may actually believe it himself but its so ridiculous I can't fully accept that as the case. Even the youngest kids never fell for it, they would always make fun of him behind his back for his less than logical rants among many other things. At least they were learning English when they would try to mock him for what he said lol.
They had us treat the kids differently depending on how rich the families are and how many potential referrals can come from the parents. I had one young boy who loved to bully his classmates, but his mother was apparently very well connected and the family rich, so I was shouted at to never say no to him or discipline him in any way, but if any of the kids he was poking or punching or slapping would do it to him back they would have to stand at the wall with their arms above their head in timeout. Obviously the kids saw the pattern right away (anything "so unfair" is definitely something kids that age will catch on to right away) so between the bullying and the lack of respect the kids had for the system the learning environment was constantly disrupted. How was I told to deal with this? I believe the exact words were "Just yell at them until you make them cry. Don't stop until you see tears. This is the only way to break them into our system." Literally "break them into our system" like this is a prison camp or a breeding facility for animals.
The materials they use are photocopies of an old book that was covered in whiteout blotches and extra words written in unsophisticatedly. A lot of what they teach is incorrect or heinously outdated (IE "u*d*e*" "boxers" and "underwear" are all incorrect the students, both boys and girls, can ONLY call them "p*n*i*s" and "beatbox" isn't a real word it "almost was in the 80s but nobody has said it ever since and if you use it in the US people will stare at you like you're an idiot because it's not a good word they don't know what it means") reflective of how old and out of touch the head teacher is. The other teachers and I would always chat in comedic horror about the day one of the boys grows up, goes abroad, and says anything about his "p*n*i*s" to his friends.
They also demanded I work when I had food poisoning (and active double-end excretion); the principal just said something along the lines of "go to the bathroom when you need to, then just go back to the classroom. You don't even have to say anything, you just have to be there at least once per class so we don't have to cancel the classes." (but in broken English because ironically the principal's English was awful) Then I got in trouble for chewing gum, despite it being an attempt to spare my students of my v*m*t breath and general disgusting odors as much as possible, and despite the fact that I was there with back to back rounds of v*m*ting and diarrhea and they were so unappreciative they were literally shouting at me about walking out of the bathroom with gum in my mouth as if it were any other day and I were just chewing gum for the fun of it. It also really creeped me out the way the principal dealt with my food poisoning in terms of trying to stop me from talking to any doctors etc and just being super controlling about it. Kind of like the way they didn't let us open or pay our own bills - the principal was adamant we just hand them over and let them deduct it from our pay without checking LOL wonder why. The first time I got a bill I just went and paid it myself, as they never said anything about it to me (there was no orientation btw they just let you sit in on classes of the teacher you're replacing and ask you to duplicate what they did) and I just assumed I'm an adult I have a job I pay my bills. The principal shouted at me about it in broken English insisting "ANY MAIL YOU GET, YOU BRING ME, ALL MAIL YOU GET, BRING ME!" on an endless loop for at least a few minutes (as if once isn't enough to understand that statement?), and I'm just in my head like "lol so if I get a birthday card from my dad bring that to you?" but obviously I could read the subtext that it was about bills and not birthday cards (unless the birthday card would have money in it, then I'm sure they'd want it haha) and I asked my coworker about it later and she filled me in fully.
I always got the impression that the head teacher really resented that my education level was higher than his and that I didn't pretend to fall for any of his nonsense. He was also weirdly compet*t*ve about gifts from students. He would only rarely get any, whereas the other teachers got them often. One day another teacher got a bunch of stickers from a student and she put them up on her board (as we do whenever we get such type of gifts). The next time he came into her room he got visibly upset when he saw them and started obsessing about them, asking her all sorts of questions about which students gave her gifts and how many did she usually get etc etc and then going on to waste her time talking on end about how she "wouldn't even believe all the gifts" he gets "from students" "too many to even display them all" etc etc. It was so pathetic in a weird compet*t*ve kind of way it was actually really sad. Then when she came back to her room after lunch she saw him in their trying to remove all the stickers from her board. He said it was "too cluttered" and he needed to. So deranged.
Honestly there's so much more I could say and some of it a lot worse but I feel like those small bits of info give a clear insight into how the school is. Overall, its a depressing, disturbing place, famous in Wonju for losing teachers within 1-3 months of their joining, and struggling to fill classes (despite claiming they have a long long waiting list). The teacher I replaced made it so much longer than most do because she was consistently promised a glowing character recommendation for a compet*t*ve post graduate program she really wanted to get into, but when the letter of recommendation finally came it was actually just boldly defamatory towards her. The worst part is she wanted to screen it first just to be safe (because the head teacher is such a loon she thought he might write something so silly the school wouldn't take it seriously) so the head teacher sent directly to her by email, knowingly, a long list of insults in the (very loose) form of a letter of recommendation. He is absolutely shameless and completely lacks class, integrity, and professionalism - not to mention connection to reality and emotional stability. The principal is so depressed, disempowered, and low self esteem which everyone thinks is the result of working with the temper-tantrum prone less than intelligent head teacher for so long. But she does it for the money (btw she seems to absolutely detest being around the kids and often b*o*s up at them spontaneously or just walks away from them to bang her head on her desk and talk to herself under her breath) while it seems the head teacher does it because its the only place in the world he could manage to create where he could indulge his own self-delusions. He would never in a million years be able to teach in the US (where he's from) and he certainly would never be able to work under anybody else without getting fired. One of my coworkers while I was there was convinced he had autism based on how he conducted himself but I really don't think so. Autism is not that dark.
The school and the apartments for teachers are so dirty. You will find huge gray and black dust clumps everywhere as well as doors and walls tinted grey from never being cleaned. When I was there I gave everything a few times over with a clorox wipe and it lifted a significant amount of the grey tinge.
The school is all about making money and using cheap sales tactics, the actual quality of education there is so low its pretty much nonexistent. You could always tell which kids came from which schools because their English level was directly related to the school they went to in the daytime, not anything done at the Hagwon. For just one example of the cheap sales tactics they relied on over actual results and quality, T=they tried their best to shout at us teachers and berates us until we would tell our students "this is the only place in the whole world you can really learn English if you don't come here you will never be able to learn it and if you don't learn English you will never succeed at anything in life." This is some nonsense the head teacher would drone on about on repeat. I think he may actually believe it himself but its so ridiculous I can't fully accept that as the case. Even the youngest kids never fell for it, they would always make fun of him behind his back for his less than logical rants among many other things. At least they were learning English when they would try to mock him for what he said lol.
They had us treat the kids differently depending on how rich the families are and how many potential referrals can come from the parents. I had one young boy who loved to bully his classmates, but his mother was apparently very well connected and the family rich, so I was shouted at to never say no to him or discipline him in any way, but if any of the kids he was poking or punching or slapping would do it to him back they would have to stand at the wall with their arms above their head in timeout. Obviously the kids saw the pattern right away (anything "so unfair" is definitely something kids that age will catch on to right away) so between the bullying and the lack of respect the kids had for the system the learning environment was constantly disrupted. How was I told to deal with this? I believe the exact words were "Just yell at them until you make them cry. Don't stop until you see tears. This is the only way to break them into our system." Literally "break them into our system" like this is a prison camp or a breeding facility for animals.
The materials they use are photocopies of an old book that was covered in whiteout blotches and extra words written in unsophisticatedly. A lot of what they teach is incorrect or heinously outdated (IE "u*d*e*" "boxers" and "underwear" are all incorrect the students, both boys and girls, can ONLY call them "p*n*i*s" and "beatbox" isn't a real word it "almost was in the 80s but nobody has said it ever since and if you use it in the US people will stare at you like you're an idiot because it's not a good word they don't know what it means") reflective of how old and out of touch the head teacher is. The other teachers and I would always chat in comedic horror about the day one of the boys grows up, goes abroad, and says anything about his "p*n*i*s" to his friends.
They also demanded I work when I had food poisoning (and active double-end excretion); the principal just said something along the lines of "go to the bathroom when you need to, then just go back to the classroom. You don't even have to say anything, you just have to be there at least once per class so we don't have to cancel the classes." (but in broken English because ironically the principal's English was awful) Then I got in trouble for chewing gum, despite it being an attempt to spare my students of my v*m*t breath and general disgusting odors as much as possible, and despite the fact that I was there with back to back rounds of v*m*ting and diarrhea and they were so unappreciative they were literally shouting at me about walking out of the bathroom with gum in my mouth as if it were any other day and I were just chewing gum for the fun of it. It also really creeped me out the way the principal dealt with my food poisoning in terms of trying to stop me from talking to any doctors etc and just being super controlling about it. Kind of like the way they didn't let us open or pay our own bills - the principal was adamant we just hand them over and let them deduct it from our pay without checking LOL wonder why. The first time I got a bill I just went and paid it myself, as they never said anything about it to me (there was no orientation btw they just let you sit in on classes of the teacher you're replacing and ask you to duplicate what they did) and I just assumed I'm an adult I have a job I pay my bills. The principal shouted at me about it in broken English insisting "ANY MAIL YOU GET, YOU BRING ME, ALL MAIL YOU GET, BRING ME!" on an endless loop for at least a few minutes (as if once isn't enough to understand that statement?), and I'm just in my head like "lol so if I get a birthday card from my dad bring that to you?" but obviously I could read the subtext that it was about bills and not birthday cards (unless the birthday card would have money in it, then I'm sure they'd want it haha) and I asked my coworker about it later and she filled me in fully.
I always got the impression that the head teacher really resented that my education level was higher than his and that I didn't pretend to fall for any of his nonsense. He was also weirdly compet*t*ve about gifts from students. He would only rarely get any, whereas the other teachers got them often. One day another teacher got a bunch of stickers from a student and she put them up on her board (as we do whenever we get such type of gifts). The next time he came into her room he got visibly upset when he saw them and started obsessing about them, asking her all sorts of questions about which students gave her gifts and how many did she usually get etc etc and then going on to waste her time talking on end about how she "wouldn't even believe all the gifts" he gets "from students" "too many to even display them all" etc etc. It was so pathetic in a weird compet*t*ve kind of way it was actually really sad. Then when she came back to her room after lunch she saw him in their trying to remove all the stickers from her board. He said it was "too cluttered" and he needed to. So deranged.
Honestly there's so much more I could say and some of it a lot worse but I feel like those small bits of info give a clear insight into how the school is. Overall, its a depressing, disturbing place, famous in Wonju for losing teachers within 1-3 months of their joining, and struggling to fill classes (despite claiming they have a long long waiting list). The teacher I replaced made it so much longer than most do because she was consistently promised a glowing character recommendation for a compet*t*ve post graduate program she really wanted to get into, but when the letter of recommendation finally came it was actually just boldly defamatory towards her. The worst part is she wanted to screen it first just to be safe (because the head teacher is such a loon she thought he might write something so silly the school wouldn't take it seriously) so the head teacher sent directly to her by email, knowingly, a long list of insults in the (very loose) form of a letter of recommendation. He is absolutely shameless and completely lacks class, integrity, and professionalism - not to mention connection to reality and emotional stability. The principal is so depressed, disempowered, and low self esteem which everyone thinks is the result of working with the temper-tantrum prone less than intelligent head teacher for so long. But she does it for the money (btw she seems to absolutely detest being around the kids and often b*o*s up at them spontaneously or just walks away from them to bang her head on her desk and talk to herself under her breath) while it seems the head teacher does it because its the only place in the world he could manage to create where he could indulge his own self-delusions. He would never in a million years be able to teach in the US (where he's from) and he certainly would never be able to work under anybody else without getting fired. One of my coworkers while I was there was convinced he had autism based on how he conducted himself but I really don't think so. Autism is not that dark.
The pros
Wonju is a lovely small town and the students at the school are so sweet, so clever, and so kind. When the head teacher would come in and shout nonsense at me they would always try to comfort me afterwards and tell me not to worry about what that "angry Grandpa" says. Of course I didn't want them to think they needed to comfort me or see any of that play out especially because it was wasting the time they paid money to be learning during, but it was still sweet to see kids be so innocent and kind in such a situation.
The cons
The school and the apartments for teachers are so dirty. You will find huge gray and black dust clumps everywhere as well as doors and walls tinted grey from never being cleaned. When I was there I gave everything a few times over with a clorox wipe and it lifted a significant amount of the grey tinge.
The school is all about making money and using cheap sales tactics, the actual quality of education there is so low its pretty much nonexistent. You could always tell which kids came from which schools because their English level was directly related to the school they went to in the daytime, not anything done at the Hagwon. For just one example of the cheap sales tactics they relied on over actual results and quality, T=they tried their best to shout at us teachers and berates us until we would tell our students "this is the only place in the whole world you can really learn English if you don't come here you will never be able to learn it and if you don't learn English you will never succeed at anything in life." This is some nonsense the head teacher would drone on about on repeat. I think he may actually believe it himself but its so ridiculous I can't fully accept that as the case. Even the youngest kids never fell for it, they would always make fun of him behind his back for his less than logical rants among many other things. At least they were learning English when they would try to mock him for what he said lol.
They had us treat the kids differently depending on how rich the families are and how many potential referrals can come from the parents. I had one young boy who loved to bully his classmates, but his mother was apparently very well connected and the family rich, so I was shouted at to never say no to him or discipline him in any way, but if any of the kids he was poking or punching or slapping would do it to him back they would have to stand at the wall with their arms above their head in timeout. Obviously the kids saw the pattern right away (anything "so unfair" is definitely something kids that age will catch on to right away) so between the bullying and the lack of respect the kids had for the system the learning environment was constantly disrupted. How was I told to deal with this? I believe the exact words were "Just yell at them until you make them cry. Don't stop until you see tears. This is the only way to break them into our system." Literally "break them into our system" like this is a prison camp or a breeding facility for animals.
The materials they use are photocopies of an old book that was covered in whiteout blotches and extra words written in unsophisticatedly. A lot of what they teach is incorrect or heinously outdated (IE "u*d*e*" "boxers" and "underwear" are all incorrect the students, both boys and girls, can ONLY call them "p*n*i*s" and "beatbox" isn't a real word it "almost was in the 80s but nobody has said it ever since and if you use it in the US people will stare at you like you're an idiot because it's not a good word they don't know what it means") reflective of how old and out of touch the head teacher is. The other teachers and I would always chat in comedic horror about the day one of the boys grows up, goes abroad, and says anything about his "p*n*i*s" to his friends.
They also demanded I work when I had food poisoning (and active double-end excretion); the principal just said something along the lines of "go to the bathroom when you need to, then just go back to the classroom. You don't even have to say anything, you just have to be there at least once per class so we don't have to cancel the classes." (but in broken English because ironically the principal's English was awful) Then I got in trouble for chewing gum, despite it being an attempt to spare my students of my v*m*t breath and general disgusting odors as much as possible, and despite the fact that I was there with back to back rounds of v*m*ting and diarrhea and they were so unappreciative they were literally shouting at me about walking out of the bathroom with gum in my mouth as if it were any other day and I were just chewing gum for the fun of it. It also really creeped me out the way the principal dealt with my food poisoning in terms of trying to stop me from talking to any doctors etc and just being super controlling about it. Kind of like the way they didn't let us open or pay our own bills - the principal was adamant we just hand them over and let them deduct it from our pay without checking LOL wonder why. The first time I got a bill I just went and paid it myself, as they never said anything about it to me (there was no orientation btw they just let you sit in on classes of the teacher you're replacing and ask you to duplicate what they did) and I just assumed I'm an adult I have a job I pay my bills. The principal shouted at me about it in broken English insisting "ANY MAIL YOU GET, YOU BRING ME, ALL MAIL YOU GET, BRING ME!" on an endless loop for at least a few minutes (as if once isn't enough to understand that statement?), and I'm just in my head like "lol so if I get a birthday card from my dad bring that to you?" but obviously I could read the subtext that it was about bills and not birthday cards (unless the birthday card would have money in it, then I'm sure they'd want it haha) and I asked my coworker about it later and she filled me in fully.
I always got the impression that the head teacher really resented that my education level was higher than his and that I didn't pretend to fall for any of his nonsense. He was also weirdly compet*t*ve about gifts from students. He would only rarely get any, whereas the other teachers got them often. One day another teacher got a bunch of stickers from a student and she put them up on her board (as we do whenever we get such type of gifts). The next time he came into her room he got visibly upset when he saw them and started obsessing about them, asking her all sorts of questions about which students gave her gifts and how many did she usually get etc etc and then going on to waste her time talking on end about how she "wouldn't even believe all the gifts" he gets "from students" "too many to even display them all" etc etc. It was so pathetic in a weird compet*t*ve kind of way it was actually really sad. Then when she came back to her room after lunch she saw him in their trying to remove all the stickers from her board. He said it was "too cluttered" and he needed to. So deranged.
Honestly there's so much more I could say and some of it a lot worse but I feel like those small bits of info give a clear insight into how the school is. Overall, its a depressing, disturbing place, famous in Wonju for losing teachers within 1-3 months of their joining, and struggling to fill classes (despite claiming they have a long long waiting list). The teacher I replaced made it so much longer than most do because she was consistently promised a glowing character recommendation for a compet*t*ve post graduate program she really wanted to get into, but when the letter of recommendation finally came it was actually just boldly defamatory towards her. The worst part is she wanted to screen it first just to be safe (because the head teacher is such a loon she thought he might write something so silly the school wouldn't take it seriously) so the head teacher sent directly to her by email, knowingly, a long list of insults in the (very loose) form of a letter of recommendation. He is absolutely shameless and completely lacks class, integrity, and professionalism - not to mention connection to reality and emotional stability. The principal is so depressed, disempowered, and low self esteem which everyone thinks is the result of working with the temper-tantrum prone less than intelligent head teacher for so long. But she does it for the money (btw she seems to absolutely detest being around the kids and often b*o*s up at them spontaneously or just walks away from them to bang her head on her desk and talk to herself under her breath) while it seems the head teacher does it because its the only place in the world he could manage to create where he could indulge his own self-delusions. He would never in a million years be able to teach in the US (where he's from) and he certainly would never be able to work under anybody else without getting fired. One of my coworkers while I was there was convinced he had autism based on how he conducted himself but I really don't think so. Autism is not that dark.
The school is all about making money and using cheap sales tactics, the actual quality of education there is so low its pretty much nonexistent. You could always tell which kids came from which schools because their English level was directly related to the school they went to in the daytime, not anything done at the Hagwon. For just one example of the cheap sales tactics they relied on over actual results and quality, T=they tried their best to shout at us teachers and berates us until we would tell our students "this is the only place in the whole world you can really learn English if you don't come here you will never be able to learn it and if you don't learn English you will never succeed at anything in life." This is some nonsense the head teacher would drone on about on repeat. I think he may actually believe it himself but its so ridiculous I can't fully accept that as the case. Even the youngest kids never fell for it, they would always make fun of him behind his back for his less than logical rants among many other things. At least they were learning English when they would try to mock him for what he said lol.
They had us treat the kids differently depending on how rich the families are and how many potential referrals can come from the parents. I had one young boy who loved to bully his classmates, but his mother was apparently very well connected and the family rich, so I was shouted at to never say no to him or discipline him in any way, but if any of the kids he was poking or punching or slapping would do it to him back they would have to stand at the wall with their arms above their head in timeout. Obviously the kids saw the pattern right away (anything "so unfair" is definitely something kids that age will catch on to right away) so between the bullying and the lack of respect the kids had for the system the learning environment was constantly disrupted. How was I told to deal with this? I believe the exact words were "Just yell at them until you make them cry. Don't stop until you see tears. This is the only way to break them into our system." Literally "break them into our system" like this is a prison camp or a breeding facility for animals.
The materials they use are photocopies of an old book that was covered in whiteout blotches and extra words written in unsophisticatedly. A lot of what they teach is incorrect or heinously outdated (IE "u*d*e*" "boxers" and "underwear" are all incorrect the students, both boys and girls, can ONLY call them "p*n*i*s" and "beatbox" isn't a real word it "almost was in the 80s but nobody has said it ever since and if you use it in the US people will stare at you like you're an idiot because it's not a good word they don't know what it means") reflective of how old and out of touch the head teacher is. The other teachers and I would always chat in comedic horror about the day one of the boys grows up, goes abroad, and says anything about his "p*n*i*s" to his friends.
They also demanded I work when I had food poisoning (and active double-end excretion); the principal just said something along the lines of "go to the bathroom when you need to, then just go back to the classroom. You don't even have to say anything, you just have to be there at least once per class so we don't have to cancel the classes." (but in broken English because ironically the principal's English was awful) Then I got in trouble for chewing gum, despite it being an attempt to spare my students of my v*m*t breath and general disgusting odors as much as possible, and despite the fact that I was there with back to back rounds of v*m*ting and diarrhea and they were so unappreciative they were literally shouting at me about walking out of the bathroom with gum in my mouth as if it were any other day and I were just chewing gum for the fun of it. It also really creeped me out the way the principal dealt with my food poisoning in terms of trying to stop me from talking to any doctors etc and just being super controlling about it. Kind of like the way they didn't let us open or pay our own bills - the principal was adamant we just hand them over and let them deduct it from our pay without checking LOL wonder why. The first time I got a bill I just went and paid it myself, as they never said anything about it to me (there was no orientation btw they just let you sit in on classes of the teacher you're replacing and ask you to duplicate what they did) and I just assumed I'm an adult I have a job I pay my bills. The principal shouted at me about it in broken English insisting "ANY MAIL YOU GET, YOU BRING ME, ALL MAIL YOU GET, BRING ME!" on an endless loop for at least a few minutes (as if once isn't enough to understand that statement?), and I'm just in my head like "lol so if I get a birthday card from my dad bring that to you?" but obviously I could read the subtext that it was about bills and not birthday cards (unless the birthday card would have money in it, then I'm sure they'd want it haha) and I asked my coworker about it later and she filled me in fully.
I always got the impression that the head teacher really resented that my education level was higher than his and that I didn't pretend to fall for any of his nonsense. He was also weirdly compet*t*ve about gifts from students. He would only rarely get any, whereas the other teachers got them often. One day another teacher got a bunch of stickers from a student and she put them up on her board (as we do whenever we get such type of gifts). The next time he came into her room he got visibly upset when he saw them and started obsessing about them, asking her all sorts of questions about which students gave her gifts and how many did she usually get etc etc and then going on to waste her time talking on end about how she "wouldn't even believe all the gifts" he gets "from students" "too many to even display them all" etc etc. It was so pathetic in a weird compet*t*ve kind of way it was actually really sad. Then when she came back to her room after lunch she saw him in their trying to remove all the stickers from her board. He said it was "too cluttered" and he needed to. So deranged.
Honestly there's so much more I could say and some of it a lot worse but I feel like those small bits of info give a clear insight into how the school is. Overall, its a depressing, disturbing place, famous in Wonju for losing teachers within 1-3 months of their joining, and struggling to fill classes (despite claiming they have a long long waiting list). The teacher I replaced made it so much longer than most do because she was consistently promised a glowing character recommendation for a compet*t*ve post graduate program she really wanted to get into, but when the letter of recommendation finally came it was actually just boldly defamatory towards her. The worst part is she wanted to screen it first just to be safe (because the head teacher is such a loon she thought he might write something so silly the school wouldn't take it seriously) so the head teacher sent directly to her by email, knowingly, a long list of insults in the (very loose) form of a letter of recommendation. He is absolutely shameless and completely lacks class, integrity, and professionalism - not to mention connection to reality and emotional stability. The principal is so depressed, disempowered, and low self esteem which everyone thinks is the result of working with the temper-tantrum prone less than intelligent head teacher for so long. But she does it for the money (btw she seems to absolutely detest being around the kids and often b*o*s up at them spontaneously or just walks away from them to bang her head on her desk and talk to herself under her breath) while it seems the head teacher does it because its the only place in the world he could manage to create where he could indulge his own self-delusions. He would never in a million years be able to teach in the US (where he's from) and he certainly would never be able to work under anybody else without getting fired. One of my coworkers while I was there was convinced he had autism based on how he conducted himself but I really don't think so. Autism is not that dark.
Institution Location
Wonju South Korea
Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
Relationship
Former teacher.
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33 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
This school is located in a great area and the city of Wonju is a great place to live, with easy access to Seoul. The apartments are much bigger than most places teachers get when moving to Korea and they are located in good areas, close to the school. I have never had any problems with getting any promised benefits or getting paid on time which is good compared to a lot of other hagwons that do shady business. You will never need to worry about any of those things at this school. The students are so sweet and they really make you want to do your hardest to help them improve their English.
Institution Location
International English School is an international school located in Wonju, South Korea.
Address: Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
Address: Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I enjoyed the idea of not having to make my own lesson plans since the same material was used by all teachers. At my previous schools I had to allocate extra time for lesson planning, but at IES I was able to focus on grading at the beginning and end of the day. However, my enjoyment was short lived as I soon found out that there was no flexibility in the lessons. Any sort of deviation resulted in being reprimanded by the head teacher. During your first few weeks you will learn that you must teach certain ideas that you don’t agree with even when you a native speaker were taught those same ideas in school and life. Everything you know will have to be shelved for the time being so that you are able to conform and make it through your contract. It won’t feel like you are teaching because you aren’t.
You will also have to combat the students’ boredom and potentially your own. I am fluent in a second language and this program just does not work for students or teachers. The material goes in circles. Lather, rinse and repeat. The students hate the material and it differs too much from what they are learning at their regular school so by the time they reach higher grade levels they leave IES and go to hagwons that will better prepare them for college entrance exams and even just everyday English.
You will also have to combat the students’ boredom and potentially your own. I am fluent in a second language and this program just does not work for students or teachers. The material goes in circles. Lather, rinse and repeat. The students hate the material and it differs too much from what they are learning at their regular school so by the time they reach higher grade levels they leave IES and go to hagwons that will better prepare them for college entrance exams and even just everyday English.
Advice to Management
Change is good.
Institution Location
Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
Relationship
Former Teacher
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
What claims to be the best English school in S.K. (serious) is actually far from that. While money seems to be the main motive here, this school has sent a number of students to American Universities, which is pretty much the only positive aspect of this institution.
Expect to be micromanaged and belittled while working here. Occasionally yelled at in front of students and other teachers for not putting pens away the right side up or touching playing cards wrong.
Looks like there is one real review here by a teacher and the rest by students; likely they were coerced into writing these reviews as this school is ran by fear of the head American teacher. I'm sure most potential teachers doing research will easily see past this facade and get the real gist of this place . Stay far away from this hagwon, It has dime a dozen benefits with severe cons (namely the head American teacher).
Expect to be micromanaged and belittled while working here. Occasionally yelled at in front of students and other teachers for not putting pens away the right side up or touching playing cards wrong.
Looks like there is one real review here by a teacher and the rest by students; likely they were coerced into writing these reviews as this school is ran by fear of the head American teacher. I'm sure most potential teachers doing research will easily see past this facade and get the real gist of this place . Stay far away from this hagwon, It has dime a dozen benefits with severe cons (namely the head American teacher).
The pros
Cool teachers
Cool apartment
Free lunches
Cool apartment
Free lunches
The cons
Being yelled at
Being belittled
Being micromanaged
The head teacher (he does the hiring)
Mass delusion
Being belittled
Being micromanaged
The head teacher (he does the hiring)
Mass delusion
Advice to Management
Beyond help
Institution Location
Mushilro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, South Korea
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I’ve been at this school as a student for about nine years now. I can remember my attitude on my first day of school. I really didn’t want to study. But as the time went by, I started to enjoy studying English here. I think the main reason for this change is this school’s environment. International English School provided me the feeling of studying abroad. I was hearing English everywhere. In school, I could listen to tapes recorded by the teachers at the school. They have a library of books for outside reading and books on tape. They also have lots of movies and TV shows for students. In addition, we study math, science and social studies in English. By learning these subjects in English, I have been able to scrutinize more books, journals and so on.
On holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas, we always have a little cultural experience. In class, we read a book titled “Arthur’s Halloween.” In the book there was candy corn, which is hard to get in Korea, so I was unaware of it. But during class, the Wonjangnim brought us some candy corn so we could try it. It was so sweet. To be honest, it was too sweet. There are so many stories to tell and fun times to remember.
The school is filled with such good memories and love and I think it is the best place to learn English with good friends and teachers.
Now I’m studying at Seoul National University, and as I major in art, I go to museums and galleries a lot. After I study the exhibition in a museum or a gallery, I always buy a book which is usually a catalogue of the exhibition or reviews and journals on the artist. There is always English, and sometimes I find some mistranslation between the English and the Korean. When I read the text in English, it is rather a different context. The context of the world is different around the world and being bilingual gives me greater insight.
I’m still studying at International English School and I feel that by learning a language in a natural way I can have a more abundant life.
On holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas, we always have a little cultural experience. In class, we read a book titled “Arthur’s Halloween.” In the book there was candy corn, which is hard to get in Korea, so I was unaware of it. But during class, the Wonjangnim brought us some candy corn so we could try it. It was so sweet. To be honest, it was too sweet. There are so many stories to tell and fun times to remember.
The school is filled with such good memories and love and I think it is the best place to learn English with good friends and teachers.
Now I’m studying at Seoul National University, and as I major in art, I go to museums and galleries a lot. After I study the exhibition in a museum or a gallery, I always buy a book which is usually a catalogue of the exhibition or reviews and journals on the artist. There is always English, and sometimes I find some mistranslation between the English and the Korean. When I read the text in English, it is rather a different context. The context of the world is different around the world and being bilingual gives me greater insight.
I’m still studying at International English School and I feel that by learning a language in a natural way I can have a more abundant life.
The pros
Good facility and vast resources for students
Institution Location
Wonju, Korea
Relationship
I'm a student of international english school!
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21 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I went to this academy since I was in third grade. As I grew older and realized the necessity for learning English, I was grateful for learning English at this academy. Wonjangnim always takes care of the students, and the head teacher helps us use perfect English.
Because of their passion and effort, now I am very good at English than when I first came to this academy - When I first came to this academy, I didn't now what does 'wrist' mean, but now I can communicate in English and also come to think of going to a foreign university.
I appreciate them so much and I have no doubt that English I learned in this academy would be my golden ticket.
Because of their passion and effort, now I am very good at English than when I first came to this academy - When I first came to this academy, I didn't now what does 'wrist' mean, but now I can communicate in English and also come to think of going to a foreign university.
I appreciate them so much and I have no doubt that English I learned in this academy would be my golden ticket.
Institution Location
Musil-ro 181, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-040, South Korea
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29 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I first went to this school in 2007, when I was 6 years old. More than 10 years have passed since then. That little 6-year-old kid has become a high school student now and is still going to this school. I want to write something since I’m a pupil of International English School, who has spent more than half of my life with this school.
I have lots of things to say about this school and I first want to talk about the teachers. I actually appreciate them, especially the Wonjangnim and the head teacher. I think I am really lucky that I got to know them and learn from them. I don’t think I’ll ever meet teachers who are so warm and really care for the students the way they do.
When I was 9 years old, my mom started to go to work, and couldn’t drive me to my English school anymore. My parents thought that my brother and I were too young to go to English school by ourselves, and decided to move right next to the school. It’s a quite unusual thing to do. I think my parents had a strong belief in this school to help us. I was too young to think about those kinds of things.
After moving, my brother and I were alone in the house until my parents got back home. We both slept a lot, and didn’t want to study. Mom and dad weren’t there to make us go to school and study, so we often went to school late, or took a nap. After a few days doing that, we couldn’t do that anymore because every time we were late, the Wonjangnim came to our house, woke us up, and took us to school. I remember that I didn’t like that then because I didn’t want to study, but now, I really appreciate her for the affection she has shown us.
The head teacher is one of the teachers I most appreciate. I learned lots of things from him - English, of course, but also many things about life. He always cares about students. He encourages students to work harder. He helps students to believe in themselves. When students have a hard time, he’s the one who convinces them to keep trying and helps them to cheer up again. He means a lot to me. He’s the one who gave the English golden ticket to me and who made me dream about a bigger world, about becoming a better, best me. He’s not only a great teacher for me, but also, a good friend.
I have lots of things to say about this school and I first want to talk about the teachers. I actually appreciate them, especially the Wonjangnim and the head teacher. I think I am really lucky that I got to know them and learn from them. I don’t think I’ll ever meet teachers who are so warm and really care for the students the way they do.
When I was 9 years old, my mom started to go to work, and couldn’t drive me to my English school anymore. My parents thought that my brother and I were too young to go to English school by ourselves, and decided to move right next to the school. It’s a quite unusual thing to do. I think my parents had a strong belief in this school to help us. I was too young to think about those kinds of things.
After moving, my brother and I were alone in the house until my parents got back home. We both slept a lot, and didn’t want to study. Mom and dad weren’t there to make us go to school and study, so we often went to school late, or took a nap. After a few days doing that, we couldn’t do that anymore because every time we were late, the Wonjangnim came to our house, woke us up, and took us to school. I remember that I didn’t like that then because I didn’t want to study, but now, I really appreciate her for the affection she has shown us.
The head teacher is one of the teachers I most appreciate. I learned lots of things from him - English, of course, but also many things about life. He always cares about students. He encourages students to work harder. He helps students to believe in themselves. When students have a hard time, he’s the one who convinces them to keep trying and helps them to cheer up again. He means a lot to me. He’s the one who gave the English golden ticket to me and who made me dream about a bigger world, about becoming a better, best me. He’s not only a great teacher for me, but also, a good friend.
Institution Location
Musilro 181, Wonju, Kangwondo, South Korea.
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65 of 78 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I’ve been studying at International English School for about 8 years, and it has really helped to improve my English speaking, listening, writing and especially the understanding of English culture.
The teachers who work here are all very nice to the students and give them lots of information which helps them. Also, the principal is very kind and friendly and really cares for us. She treats the students like her own children. She is very honest and her main interest is how much we learn. The head teacher is very concerned about us. He always mentions the words which we’re using wrong and tries to correct them.
I think I am lucky to learn English at International English School.
The teachers who work here are all very nice to the students and give them lots of information which helps them. Also, the principal is very kind and friendly and really cares for us. She treats the students like her own children. She is very honest and her main interest is how much we learn. The head teacher is very concerned about us. He always mentions the words which we’re using wrong and tries to correct them.
I think I am lucky to learn English at International English School.
Institution Location
Wonju
Relationship
Student
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75 of 86 people found the following review helpful
Institute Review
I am a middle school student who has been going to International English School since I was in second grade. Since I graduated from elementary school, I have been thinking a lot about keeping going to this school, because in Korean middle school students need to study English only for the tests, but it's not real English. So, I have never regretted going to this school.
International English School is a great place to study because it's really clean and everything you need to study is there - like books, videos, and cassettes which students can use anytime they want to study themselves. Even on weekends, the teachers help students to study.
I think the greatest part of International English School is that teachers teach students sincerely. They talk to students in a friendly way, and they give advice on how to study, how to find your talent, and how to get into college etc. Especially, the Wonjangnim and the head teacher always take care of the students and the school.
When I first came to this school, I thought I didn't need English except for school tests. So it was not fun, it was stressful. But after I learned English there, I learned how English is important, so I decided to try to keep improving my English. International English School helped me in many ways and I am very grateful for it. I can confidently say that International English School is one of the best.
International English School is a great place to study because it's really clean and everything you need to study is there - like books, videos, and cassettes which students can use anytime they want to study themselves. Even on weekends, the teachers help students to study.
I think the greatest part of International English School is that teachers teach students sincerely. They talk to students in a friendly way, and they give advice on how to study, how to find your talent, and how to get into college etc. Especially, the Wonjangnim and the head teacher always take care of the students and the school.
When I first came to this school, I thought I didn't need English except for school tests. So it was not fun, it was stressful. But after I learned English there, I learned how English is important, so I decided to try to keep improving my English. International English School helped me in many ways and I am very grateful for it. I can confidently say that International English School is one of the best.
Institution Location
Musilro 181, Wonju, Kangwondo, 26447, South Korea
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76 of 87 people found the following review helpful
