No surprise. Funny how the school told the labor board they were freelance teachers which is illegal on an E2 visa unless they admit they illegally employed them and also did not pay them. Either way they are guilty.

IN RESPONSE TO A FECHT -
ASSUMING THIS FELLOW IS PART OF CDI MANAGEMENT, HE IS A GOOD INDICATION OF HOW UNPROFESSIONAL THE COMPANY IS.
CDI HAS MANAGED TO DELETE MANY ONLINE REVIEWS OF THEIR COMPANY, MOST OF THEM BEING NEGATIVE.
A FECHT IS ALSO A GOOD INDICATION OF THE MEDIOCORE INTELLECT OF CDI MANAGEMENT. TAKE A LOOK AT HIS FIRST POST. HE ILLOGICALLY DEDUCES THE THE ORIGINAL POSTER IS LAZY JUST BECAUSE SHE WORKS 3 OR 4 HOURS A DAY. TOO BAD, HE PROBABLY HAS TO GRIND IT OUT EVERYDAY AT MEAGER PAY.

BY THE WAY, CDI LABOR ABUESES HAS MADE FRONT PAGE NEWS IN THE KOREA TIMES.

haha I love this quote from Aaron: "as Dale Carnegie said, any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain....and most fools do."

then ownage from ex trainee: "Clearly, you call everyone bad teachers and douchebags for no reason which is why you're a fool."

I love this the best from Aaron though: "Alrighty douchebags, this is my final kick at the can, so soak up the brilliance for the last time." If you don't then...

god I love this board!

Thanks for sharing your positive CDI experience with us, Elisa. It's reviews like yours that I enjoy reading that doesn't involve attacking other people, unlike Mr. Fecth. I hope you and your brother continue to have a great experience with CDI.

I have a very similar, Although not quite as bad of an experience. My problem took place in Mainland China. there are many of these so called schools. Most are uncredited and they hire from abroad because people living in the area already know that they could make 5X as much money doing freelance work teaching people. So I think everyone should be aware. Also find out about your visas. I have been teaching in China with an F visa. It is illegal to teach with F visa. You must have Z visa to truly work in China. Also they break many laws for example, they pay cash so they don't pay taxes on you and they don't supply medical care, these are the 2 biggest laws they break. So I would advise you get ahold of someone who knows the area before shipping out.
I am not surprised by your response, it happens in America too. Companies have been busted tricking students to come to America to work while they go to school and they ended up being strippers or treated quite poorly. If this happens in a massive country like America, just imagine how much worse it could be for people going to less powerful countries.

Wow, where to begin.
I can't talk about what CDI used to be like, prior to 2008, but I do know that since 2008 it is one of the most highly regarded schools in all of Korea.
I myself went through all of the training and jumped through all of their hoops, and all I can say is they never did anything that they didn't promise to do.
Training was hard, yes, but that is because they have very high standards and they expect you to learn a lot in one week. Hard, definitely, but not unrealistic. One of the tests they make you do is a grammar test. Well anyone born and educated in the US or in Canada knows that we are horrible at grammar! Unfortunately our education systems did not focus on our grammar, at least not during the 70-90's. So trying to learn 8 knew grammar things over night is difficult, for anyone! I suggest that if you are thinking about doing ESL, brush up on your grammar!
As for the mock teaching, being a trained and experienced teacher in the West, the training at CDI is great.
It is intense but they teach you very useful skills. It is like a nutshell version of Teachers College.
YES you DO get a certificate! I have one!

I have gone through Teacher's College back home and it was difficult! The good ones are!
Teaching and communicating are incredibly complex skills and not something to be learned or grasped over night.
I am not saying that after the week of CDI training you will suddenly be an excellent and confident teacher, but man oh man will it help! I actually experienced a co-worker who for reasons not important, missed out on their training and they did have a much more difficult time.

Then there is the complaint about the non payed holidays. Yeah, it sucks, BUT, they never promised they would be!
Basically, if you are going to work for ANY company, all I can say is research it and read the entire contract!
If they say no holidays, they mean it. Be prepared for it, but don't wine about it after you sign up!

Last part, the key money is real, and once again, they state right on their forms that it is a loan.

Bottom line, I had a positive experience teaching with CDI.
So much so that I convinced my brother and my best friend to come over and join me, all of us working for CDI.
We all enjoyed our time.
Yes there are difficult times but that is life!
No job is perfect, especially when you are working with people!

My brother is still there after 3 years, is planning to remain for many more, and I myself after taking a 1 year travelling vacation, am on my way back to Korea, to once again work with CDI!

I just wanted to set a few things straight and shine a positive light on CDI, since pretty much everyone else here is so negative.

Many of the trainees at CDI I met were already teaching English in Korea and some even had many years of experience. Yet, many of them failed one of the two written tests and had to retake it (some even 3 times). Some didn't do well at the mock teaching since they did things like forget the material, stammer, or got confused. I passed the 2 written tests on my first try and I did very well at the mock teaching, yet all I had was a TESOL certification and no teaching experiencing. However, I thought many of the trainees would become great or even exceptional teachers. They had good potential and as each day of the training week passed by, they improved. My point is why are you saying everyone who flamed CDI are bad teachers? If what you said is true, that makes you a fool. I just don't see what makes them bad teachers. Tell us why. Are they bad because they couldn't grasp CDI's teaching methods or didn't like CDI's structure? I knew a trainee who had smoked pot during the training week but I heard he got hired so does that make him bad? Many of the trainees (myself included) complained about CDI amongst ourselves because of deception on CDI's part. CDI didn't advertise in their brochure that the students had already grasped a good understanding of English and the teachers would be teaching a much higher level of English (almost to the point of a upper US middle school level). In fact, the brochure made it look like teachers would be teaching English at an elementary level when explaining CDI's concept. That broke our expectations. What I learned from my TESOL certification was suited for students with no knowledge of English to elementary level. I got the TESOL certification because that's what my recruiter recommended I do, but what I should've been doing was studying how to teach higher level English. During the training week, my recruiter also told me not to worry since I'd learn everything in about a month. Everything everyone had to learn had to be in one week. I was fed up with the lies so I left. So can you tell me why I should've stayed with an organization that lied to me? Why should I have stayed with an organization that said no teaching experience was needed?

As a person who worked there for over a year and a half I thought I would weigh in. And by worked there, I mean in the main building in Chungdahm Dong. I knew all the top dogs there, and got along very well with InChul.

There is a bit of a cult there, but thats so they get consistent teaching qualities. While it was never admitted to me, I came to realize that the purpose of the training was less about training than screening, though they could be more forthright when someone doesn't make the grade. Politics also play a part - I was hated by one guy in particular who took to swearing at me, but i clicked with bigger fish, and he eventually had to pipe down.

If you make the grade there's a hefty steady paycheque. Mine was 3.6 mil back when I started in 04, which is not bad for base pay, but I did have to pay rent. Pay goes up from that point. I knew one guy who went to stanford and was getting paid 50,000 an hour (which is 6 mil a month). I'll tell you right now, retention rate is key. If kids drop out in your first class...dude, you're getting fired.

There's also one thing none of you mentioned - the structure. Humans function best in well structured environments, and CDI has the best I've seen. Your time is organized into 5 minute chunks and the time goes by very quickly. No more dead time/playing worn out games/using a book they've done a half dozen times...we've all been there with sub-standard programs. CDI has excellent material, there's no question about that. So even with only 20 mins of breaks over 6 hours, the time passes quickly.

Oh, and the CCTV is to prevent disputes. The only way to settle he said/she said disputes between student and teacher is to see what actually happened. And there is the added side benefit of keeping everyone in line. I benefited from it, cuz they saw that my classes had the greatest interaction in the school. And the question remains...if you have nothing to hide, why do you care? It is also a great tool to weed out bad teachers.

Anyway, thats about it. everyone else flamed CDI cuz they got the runaround...but I can almost assure you thats cuz they are just bad teachers. That said, CDI could be clearer with disclosure.

There's a saying that in terms of foreigners all you find in Korea are military, misfits and mercenaries (corporate as well as military). The fact of the matter is that by nature ESL teachers are just not that professional...if they were, they wouldn't be teaching int he first place. To get into CDI you have to be better than the rest. That means ok clothes, clear eyes, etc...but also punctuality. That is the first mark of professionalism (and it's in cdi's handbook i think).

Anyway, you will not find a better place to work. Yes there are drawbacks, but every school has that. I taught for almost 7 years in total, (both Korea and Taiwan) and CDI ranks at the top of my experience.

Remember to consider who you're getting your advice from. As Dale Carnegie said, "any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain....and most fools do."

And just so you know I actually worked there, look up my name in the directory. It's usually the first one.

Aaron Fecht

CDI '04-'06

BEFORE ACCEPTING A JOB OFFER FROM CDI, DO ASK FOR A COPY OF THE CONTRACT. THERE ARE A FEW CLAUSES ABOUT THE SCHOOL WANTING TO WITHHOLD SOME OF YOUR EARNINGS FOR THIS REASON OR THAT REASON.
MANY INSTRUCTORS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO REFUSE AFTER COMMITTING THEIR TIME TO THE 1 WEEK UNPAID! TRAINING.
SO GO OVER THE CLAUSES BEFORE JOINING.
FRANKLY, I WOULDN'T JOIN TO BEGIN WITH, CONSIDERING THEY INTEND TO MISLEAD YOU TO BEGIN WITH.
A MISLEADER IS LIKELY TO MISLEAD YOU AGAIN.
TAKE CARE AND BE CAREFUL.

I got used and abused by CDI (Chung Dahm Institute). Watch out for these guys. I actually thought this was an honest and fair company, being publicly traded and well known. What ended up happening is that they, at the recruiting and training office, are a bunch of callous, cold people users. I will go over the details in a later posting, but the bottom line is that I got REALLY BURNED !!! by these buttheads!
If you don't want to waste your valuable time, your valuable life, your valuable effort, stay clear of CDI!
Man, did I ever get conned by them. FALSE PROMISES!, LIES!, THESE GUYS ARE CHEATS!

This bunch of people advertise regularly on sites such as Dave's ESL Cafe and other boards. Below is a typical example of the moonshine they peddle.

"Dear Applicants,

CDI is seeking qualified Gyopos (overseas Koreans) and native speakers for instructor positions to begin immediately and in Nov., and Dec, across Seoul and other major cities. As the foremost ESL firm in the nation, we welcome your application to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow, today with CDI. "

Pigs fly !!! CDI is a bog standard hakwon with delusions of grandeur. The "leaders of tomorrow" are in fact just ordinary teenage kids. CDI recruits western teachers who have Masters Degrees and give teachers the impression that they will be teaching advanced courses in Literature, History etc to students in their "Masters Programme" Fantastic - you'll be teaching University students some interesting stuff. Er no. Of course you won't. You'll be teaching tired and bored 13 year olds English Grammar and Language from 4:00 p.m in an afternoon to 10:00 p.m in an evening. Oh and all your lessons will be monitored by CCTV. Keep smiling though your heart is breaking!! Total time wasters are CDI. And there's more....

CDI says it will train you and give you a certification once you have trained. Well, the "training" is at best a joke, and you won't be paid any money whilst this "training" is being done - if you are even trained that is! After my "training" I didn't get a certificate. A shame cos I couldn't afford any toilet paper at the time. My certificate would have come in very handy. So you can expect to be in Seoul for anything up to a month before you start work without them paying you any money. Nice one CDI !!

Oh what else? Oh yes, they offer "key money" for accommodation. Once in Seoul, they then tell you that this money is actually a loan for accommodation , which they will automatically deduct from your salary as they will money for bond, securities, rent in advance etc etc. They will offer you really tempting salaries 4,000,000 a month - but will deduct money so that you are looking at well under 3,000,000 - and of course they will forget to tell you that Seoul is one of the most expensive places on the planet.

Oh - and no paid holiday entitlement either. Brilliant!!!

Yeah. Anyone still tempted to work for this bunch should contact their HR Managers Jimmy Chang and Edward Lee ( both Gyopos hailing from Vancouver) Judging by their flashy suits and flash cars - they make a decent living unlike teachers who they dupe into coming to work for them.

Thanks to them, I was messed about for 6 weeks with no pay. Other teachers - you know with MAs from Cambridge, Harvard and Yale were in the same boat.

CDI gives Seoul and Korea a very bad reputation. I've left the place - and would NEVER consider teaching in Korea again. Perhaps Korea's "future elite" would be better off getting a decent night's sleep rather than suffering with their teachers in cowboy outfits like CDI.