STAY AWAY FROM AVALON/LANGCON, PYEONGTAEK SOUTH KOREA!!!!!!!


I cannot stress enough, do not walk away from this school, RUN FROM IT! The owner goes by the name of Michael, and if you do your research you will see that he was also the owner of the infamous Wonderland Schools in Osan and Pyeongtaek area. This guy is the reason that I will never teach in Korea ever again. Let me just list the number of issues at the school. Just an FYI, these are personal accounts of my own, as well as accounts told to me first hand, from other foreign teachers.

1. The environment is toxic. Foreign teachers are treated like c*a* from Korean students, parents, and staff. The owner has created an environment where foreign teachers are expendable and treated like illegal workers. There have been several occasions where the owner has yelled at and reprimanded a foreign teacher in front of students and in front of the Korean teachers.
2. If you expect to get paid on time or even at all, good luck. I have yet to get paid on time,I have to literally beg the owner to pay me, and every foreign teacher has given up on having any expectation of an on time pay check.
3. Incorrect Pay. The owner looks for every opportunity to nickle and dime you out of your money. He will try to pay you incorrectly, hoping that you don't notice. Then when you mention it, he will promise to pay you the balance on the next month and that never happens. This has occurred to me personally and other foreign teachers, all of whom have just given up on asking for their pay.
4. If you owe him any money, he will hunt you down like the Mafia. So, it's okay for the owner to owe you money and pay you incorrectly. However, if you owe him anything, including the smallest amount of money, like 5 thousand won, he will call you, text you, show up at your class, and ask you every single day for the money until he is paid back.
5. Any feedback, will not only be ignored but, it will be followed with a list of how you and all other foreign teachers s*c*. I tried to explain to the owner some major issues that all foreign teachers were having and what he said to me was amazing. He will give you a lecture as if you were a child, telling you how you and all other foreign teachers are a disappointment and should be embarrassed to be American's. How we are not at the level of the Korean teachers and how we and all other countries should learn from him and Korea. I'm like, “um, this is an English school. You guy's want to speak English because of how important it is to the growth of your country. Yet, all other countries are somehow inferior to Korea?” I really don't understand why you have this feeling of being superior.
6. The owner will not live up to the contract. There have been several teachers that have completed their contract, only to learn that they are either not getting their severance pay or they are getting substantially less than what was promised. So, imagine working at a place for a year or longer, in these conditions and then once it is over, you get s*r*wed again!
7. The Korean teachers are not prepared, sabotage your lesson plans, and are no where to be found when they are assisting you in co-classes. They are no help, do not give out material on time, and they leave you alone during the times that they are suppose to co-teach a class with foreign teachers.
8. The owner has a son named “June” that attends afternoon classes. He is rude and disrespectful to all foreign teachers. He does no school work at all while in class. He come's and goes, whenever he likes to. He yells and curses during class as well. Myself and other foreign teachers have complained to the owner about his son, and the owner says that we should focus on the other kids and his son is not a problem. Clearly, he is delusional and his lack of respect for foreigners has rubbed off on his kid.

So that's it guys. I cannot stress enough, this owner is the worst person I have ever worked for in my entire life. His family and Korean teachers treat foreigners with disgust, and rudeness. The owner is extremely crooked and should not be allowed to run an English school, not only in Korea, but anywhere.

Again, PYEONGTAEK, SOUTH KOREA. The school name changes but, AVALON, LANGCON, WONDERLAND. The owner's name is Michael.

The only pro is working with the kids, and meeting other foreign teachers that suffered through the same job that I did.

If foreigner keep quitting at your school and you have negative reviews all over the web, maybe the problem is the owner and the school. Not all foreigners...

Pyeongtaek, South Korea

May 2015-May 2016

I would not say this is a bad school to work at. However, I am sure there are better ones out there or at least places located in Seoul. I worked at this location for two years.

Pros:
Paid on time
You follow a curriculum and have freedom to do what you want as long as the pages are completed (either in class or assigned as homework)
The kids are mostly well-behaved (they are mostly wealthy kids who can act a bit spoiled, but with proper discipline they are good kids)
There is not a lot of last minute stuff that comes up and if it does, it typically does not take long to take care of.
The current foreign head teacher is super nice and helpful. He will go out of his way for you if you need anything.
The co-teachers are nice but overworked
Decent studio provided that is about five minutes walking distance from the school.
The neighborhood is quiet but Seoul is easily accessible by taking a red bus close to the apartment. Takes an hour to get to Seoul if you catch the right bus.
There are quite a few restaurants around the area and decent gyms (between 50,000won to 80,000 won per month). The one near the fire station is owned by someone who speaks great English and is super helpful if you are serious about training. It is an older facility, but a decent gym.
13 vacation days (10 that you get to choose and 3 that are at the end of July). Please also read cons with regards to vacation days.
I liked the speaking book and reading book. There was a lot you could do with the material and engage the kids.

Cons:
The owner is cheap. In the last six months that I was there he took away toilet paper from us. When we wanted new board markers, we had to turn in the old ones first.
There is a lot of paperwork. You will be required to fill in monthly comments for each teaching subject (reading, writing and speaking). For myself, this ended up being around 40 pages of typing. However, the second and third month, you just recycle comments. It is the first month of the term that requires the most work. I would just change whatever the student had improved on or any new issues that came up.
MWF: pretty packed schedule of 6-8 classes (most classes are around 45 minutes). However, Tuesdays and Thursday are pretty easy between 2-6 classes max. These classes are usually a bit more laid back.
Summer and winter vacation schedules are brutal, especially if you are teaching intensives where you are only paid an extra 100,000-150,000 won. You will have an additional 90 minutes of classes eight times spread out on MWF.
If you take time off, you are to pay for a sub and you will not be fully compensated for it. At the end of your contract, you are given 1/3 of your monthly salary which typically does not cover a sub as most subs are willing to work for a minimum of 100,000 won per day.
Please get everything in writing as he will try and short change you for anything not stated in the contract but agreed upon verbally. He has done this to the foreign and Korean teachers. I had this experience at the end of my second year as I had trusted him to pay me everything he agreed on but he backed out last minute knowing I was leaving in a few days.
The writing topics could be pretty bad and difficult for the students to relate to or write about. There is a lot of work to be done in writing class. The kids hate it and it requires a lot of preparation of additional materials so the kids have something to write about.
The streets can get pretty icy in winter compared to Seoul.
Once or twice a year, you will be required to attend some sort of unpaid event on Sat*r*ay (either the Avalon main training meeting and/or a meet/greet event where you just stand around doing nothing).

I would like to highlight a really good Avalon branch in Gumi, the Okgye dong branch (there are 2 avalons in Gumi and the other one was awful at least until 2013).

I have worked in the Okgye dong branch since 01/02/2014 and I have really enjoyed my time so much I have decided to renew the contract for another year. If you are going to go for a relatively easy position, with ready made books for each classes and helpful director as well as co-worker then I really recommend to take up a position in my hagwon  *well when i have left. Right now all the current teachers have resigned for another .... Its that good!

Great students, always paid salary on time and flight ticket and bonus paid straight into your account (at the final month after your one-year contract is up), good Korean teachers that are not too bossy but helpful.

Well its the usual, 8hour long days where a couple of hours a day are wasted on desk warming once the prep for classes are finished. Mon-wed-fri are usually 6 classes which can be exhausting but fun. You do get a break on tue and thu with only 4 classes (each class is 45 mins). Also, last minute one2ones is normal. But that is a normal occurrence in any hagwon position.

Avalon English Okgye Dong branch in Gumi city