Hey, I just got accepted to the Chung Dahm program through the recruiter Aclipse. Was wondering if anyone had input on whether to pursue this and on whether to accept a monthly or hourly salary. The monthly provides housing... which seems to be pretty bad from what I read on here. I don't want to walk into a scam or anything, I've wasted enough of my life on that. Please help me know if I am doing the right thing by pursuing this work.

Aclipse was my recruiter and I worked for CDI for a month, but left because it was not a place for me or a place I would recommend even to my worst enemy. I am not working for a public school in Gyeonggi Province (the province that surrounds Seoul). I am must happier and completely satisfied with my life here in South Korea.

My friend left CDI during training to work for a public school in Gangwon Province. He was in my training class at CDI but dropped out because he thought the method was bogus. I should have left at that time, too, but when one has little information he or she feels like he has few options.

(The information below is not germane to the topic of how good Aclipse or CDI is, but this tells you how desperate I was to get out from under CDI. Also I want to spread the word that changing jobs with an E2 is possible!)

After visiting him during Korean Thanksgiving I started looking for a new job. Most people will tell you that it is difficult to change jobs especially if you are on an E2 visa. My friend is Korean American and is on a F4 visa so it is a bit easier for him to change because the basis of his visa is not with a specific employer. But changing a job with an E2 is not impossible, even working with CDI only a month. I am living proof. I just got my passport back with the amendment to my E2 visa. They just changed my employers.

But you have to be smart about it. Find a good recruiter who knows the inner workings of immigration. You have to get a release letter from your employer but don't get released until you get another job because you need to transfer the E-2 from one employer to another. Get the release date set the day before you are to start with the new employer.

NOW back to Aclipse. I answered an advert about work in Korea. I was living in Europe for 8 years and was looking for a new adventure. I taught at various institutions in Europe and the USA. I was interested in teaching in the public schools but the recruiter at Aclipse steered me to CDI implying that it was too late to apply to EPIK, the government-sponsored program. This was in April 2008. (I found it was not too late because my friend who left CDI during training got a job with EPIK in August 2008. FYI, I join GEPIK which is like EPIK but it is for Gyeonggi Province in early October 2008.) Anyway, I wanted to teach in Korea so I allowed myself to be sucked into CDI.

CDI is ok for those who have no teaching background and really don't feel comfortable being creative when it comes to teaching. Everything is laid out for you at CDI. All you have to do is follow the schedule and make sure that you manage your time because you have to follow the program to the tee. I personally do not like such methods because I have created my own lesson plans for many years. For the time I was at CDI I felt like an automaton and I felt sick everyday. I am a bit older than most and for all the time I have been in the workforce I never had dread to go to work. I did not want to go to work.

The school is little more than a high class cram school. There is not much language teaching going on. All the teacher is doing is preparing the student to take exams like TOEFL or an entrance exam.

When it comes to CDI, just make sure that is really you want. A year is a long time to be miserable.

Hey, just want to thank you flame-warriors for making this thread largely useless. It takes one post to know when someone's off-topic (let alone being lame) and a great way to completely waste a thread is to keep complaining back and forth. This is particularly frustrating since this was the only accurate hit I could find on Google while searching for "Aclipse reviews". So, aside from Trunoi's somewhat concerning post, I have (and anyone else has) got nothing to go on regarding these guys.

Arigato gozaimasu. Baka ne.