HireEd
- 2010-09-09
As an experienced ESL teacher in China (5 years) and Seoul (1 year) I had my own experience with Ian Windsor and as you. it was ridiculous and insulting. China was fraught with problems but the experience was balanced by lots of fascinating adventure and hospitality from the people. Not so in South Korea, which for me was a flat-out negative chapter in my life. STAY away from Ian Windsor and (IMHO) Seoul.
HappyGoLucky
- 2010-09-09
I recently applied to work at Direct English in September 2010 (Pagoda's 1:1 tutoring service) and was provisionally offered a contract for employment by their head recruiter (Mr Ian Windsor). I found the contract to be heavily punitive but was willing to negotiate a contract that would be win-win for me and Direct English. However, my valid and reasonable contract negotiation points were brushed aside (and I was casually dismissed by email as "wasting their time") after I questioned the discrepancy in my contract (15 paid holidays and possibility of nil pay increases) with the "Official" website 20 days holiday and Pay increases Every 6 Months!!! To say the least, I was flabbergasted.
I recommended in my response email to Mr Windsor to change the obviously FALSE & MISLEADING "BENEFITS page" listed on their website so that potential teachers do not make the same mistake I did, thereby avoiding "wasting" his time. We shall see in the fullness of time if this actually comes about (or not), however, based on the curt email response I received to my valid concerns I will beg the latter.
My advice for teachers looking for good first job in Korea, STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT ENGLISH / PAGODA and enter a FAIR contract with a Korean public school job. Over and out.
bambam
- 2010-04-22
Reading these posts have been very informative to me--I was checking out on the internet about teacher reviews/experiences with Pagoda Teaching Academy and didn't have much luck until now. Thank you for those you have come forward to share your experiences. I had a phone interview the other night with Mr. IW and he definitely came across dull and didn't ask me very many questions. Red flag for me. If other have recent experiences, please reply to this post! The more information that is posted--the better it is for teachers to become more aware!
Sam Hobbs
- 2008-11-12
Blimey! Thanks so much for posting this Kelly! I have had an interview with Ian Windsor and just decided to look up pagoda for more info when I came across what you, Nu2Seoul and Walter had written! He seemed a bit blas about my coming over but thats all. I can well imagine what you're saying to be true however and thank you very much for posting this msg with so much detail! Think I'll try to check things out a little more before I plan on the next job!
Walter E
- 2008-05-09
AVOID PAGODA AND IAN WINDSOR!!! I am glad that a post on these guys has finally managed to stay up without getting pulled. I don't know what kind of pull this company has but I have read MANY posts about them and then they disappear. I think they pay to have negative posts removed. Thank you eslteachersboard.com for letting this one say afloat. I love this site.
I can attest to how Ian will act like a great friend and then turn on you the second you get there. This is EXACTLY what happened to me. He was such a cool guy and talked about the location and going the nice coffee shops and shopping and really had me conned. Once I got there I got a schedule that had me teaching from 8am to 9pm once every 3 hours. I had no life at all. I also got my schedule every month less than 24 hours before my classes started. I was late once because I got hit by bike on the sidewalk. I had to go to the hospital and they still threatened to fire me if I missed a class again. I think her name was Amy. There was a man name Jody Barron working there at the time who spent every waking moment complaining about how bad his life and schedule was but he was a manager and just bragged about how he toughed it out so that the teachers wouldn't complain about their life. It was a joke. Rumor was they had a 10% firing rate per month.
I quit and in Korea you cannot work for another company until you get released from the first one. They stuck me for every single Won they could. It is also true about the apartment. The guys name was Rocky and it was a scam.
BAD PLACE BAD PEOPLE. I left and worked with kids and found Korea to be a much nicer place when you get away from these types of places.
Nu2Seoul
- 2008-05-08
Hello, Kelly!
I greatly appreciate that you took the time and energy to post your experience with Pagoda. I recently interviewed with Mr. Windsor by phone and all appeared well, but at the final hour, he became (in my opinion) strange, aloof, and rude. (By the way, there had been absolutely no tension between us either by phone or email. The abrupt change was all from him. Your testimony serves as yet another factor in why I am relieved not to have joined Pagoda/Seoul.
Sorry you had to endure the poor experience, but again, thanks for alerting others to the conditions there.
Best wishes,
Nu2Seoul
Stay away from this academy at all costs. This is the type of place that gives South Korea the horrible reputation it has. If you do a search on the web you will notice that Pagoda and their hatchet man "Mr. Windsor" are ALWAYS looking for teachers. There is a good reason for that. English teachers are disposable and they are treated that way.
I would say that they I did not see the program go a single month without someone quitting or being fired. Often it was more. The program runs like this: at the end of each month students register for classes. The goal is to maximize profits at all cost and any teacher who interferes with that plan is gone. Expect to get your schedule for the month the night before the classes actually start. I got my schedule at midnight for an 8am class schedule. It is absolutely normal for your schedule to start at 8am and finish at 9pm.
Beware of Ian Windsor! He is ruthless. He will lure you in with nuances and suggestions that you can get a block schedule and they are flexible to the needs of the teachers. This was never the case. You have nothing to do with the schedule as a teacher and simply put they do not care.
While there Ian Windsor bragged to me that Pagoda pays a lot of money to teacher ESL review posts located in South Korea to keep negatives off of the websites. I have seen them appear and the disappear overnight. I had my comments deleted each time. I repost each hiring season in an attempt to save at least a few good teachers from this meat grinder.
There is a zero tolerance policy for complaints against you, regardless of the merit. If a student so much as whines that they do not like you, expect to be called in front of the "hiring personnel" where you will be reprimanded. Even if they find the complaint groundless they will reprimand you for not making friendships in the classroom that create a complaint-free environment. If there are problems you simply have to be to blame in part. This is absolutely a truism. No exaggeration.
The printer and office materials were normally broken or non-existent. Do not expect any kind of departmental assistance if you wish to do anything but follow the poorly written books that they make mandatory. The books are part of their profit and they don't want students to get a glimpse of alternate or better teaching styles.
You can also expect to spend a lot of unpaid time attending weekend and evening events and training and other useless time consuming activities. In addition they have a racket where the person who helps you find an apartment gets a percentage of the profit from your renting. He will only show you places that are connected with the school. Their housing assistance is horrible. They say it is part of the program but if there are any problems with it they will say it is only an optional service and will do nothing to help you fix it. You are ABSOLUTELY on your own there.
I was not fired. I quit and paid them the money under the contract. I never believed that South Korea could be as bad as people say. In truth it is only these kinds of places that gives South Korea the dreadful reputation. STAY AWAY FROM PAGODA TEACHING ACADEMY IN SEOUL GANGNAM/KANGNAM AT ALL COSTS!!