NaviESL
- 2011-06-07
Hi Curious, I'm from Navi ESL. I was searching Google in the hopes of finding a review. I found this thread, and I just could not help but add my two cents to the conversation.
Well, NaviESL is operating for four years now and so far, we have helped a lot of aspiring English Teachers to fly to South Korea to do just that. We hire teachers the whole year, and we do not do an urgent hiring unless requested by the applicant. We are very careful in following our process, and preparing the documents for an E2 Visa takes very long, two months at least. Aside from that, we make sure that we keep in touch with the applicants and make sure that we are assisting them with the process as much as we can. And when every document is ready, we set a phone interview with the school and let them speak with a foreign teacher that's already teaching there. When that's done, we arrange their flight and we always make sure to meet them in the airport when they arrive. And while they are teaching in South Korea, we don't cut our communication with them. Leaving them with the best impression is very vital to us.
I hope this helps. 
Dee
- 2011-03-09
You need to be really careful of both the schools and the agents! I am currently in Korea, arrived about three weeks ago, and the whole thing would appear to have been dodgy from the start. I have an E2 visa but no job - no Letter of Release and the school will not return my Original Documents! So I am now left in a very frightening position!
GEPIK, a supposedly good Government school funding and support body has done nothing to assist all, and they are supposed to be the best outfit to work through in Korea!
Now don't get me wrong, I do not blame all of Korea for this. Korea is a great place and I have been offered amazing help from Korean nationals that just want to see me placed in a good school and are really helping me to get this mess sorted out. So ALL Korea and Korean's are not bad, but there are a few here that do not play by any rules and will lie through their teeth just to make a buck. I have also met a number of Native English teachers that have been here for years and never had a problem.
I intend to stay in Korea to work if I can, and if it was that bad I would not. The majority of people that I have met have been great, helpful, kind and fun. The food is wonderful and the experience is good (other than the work drama!) in every other way. You just need to be careful.
Check out some of the websites that allow you to talk to Native English teacher that work here and they can warn you about the pitfalls and tell you where the blacklists are.
Crap School Spotter
- 2011-03-05
Agreed. Forget Korea. I could write 10,000 words about how bad most schools in Korea are, at least the training academies, but why? Everyone knows that you should not sleep with a prostitute because you could get a disease and die. Korea is the same. Just say no and keep on moving. I knew one man that worked in a Korean college on an E1 visa that liked his job in the past 10-years. If you can get a job in some company or work for an embassy, Korea could be do-able enough. Otherwise forget it. Take a walk through the dog meat markets and watch how Koreans beat, torture and slowly kill dogs before eating them. Just Google Koreans eat dogs or Korean dog meat markets and then click images. While you are at it, type in Korea sucks into Google. You will get nearly 3 million returns.
Kanadian
- 2011-03-05
yea Korea.. I fell into that one - just being stupid ( my bad ).. Longest 2 months of my life.. Anymore, if it's not a government college or university - I just remember commercial on drugs - don't do it
sw
- 2011-02-24
Did you ever find anything out? I am having the same experience - no real interview process, a big rush, and I can't find any information.
New Generation ESL Teacher
- 2009-01-08
If I were you, I would be suspicious as well. Let's break this down in a logical perspective to help your thoughts.
1) All you found were a few little ads tied to some recruitment thing - shows they are either low budgets or new. These are both warning flags, low budget usually means cheating you out of benefits/late payments and new means inexperienced. That means BIG HEADACHES for you.
2) You said they were urgent to get you there. Well that could mean that their previous ESL teacher ran off, they are just opening and are highly unorganized, or they don't want to give you time to research and think about this position so they can trap you before you get wise. Sounds like another red flag!
3) I have seen many Korean posts and this one to me is unfamiliar, which lends support to my "they are new" theory. It also sounds like a training center which is a BIG NO-NO! That in itself is always a HUGE red flag.
So if I were you, I wouldn't take my chances and I would look for a more reputable establishment. There are tons of schools in Korea, research until one doesn't leave you feeling like you are walking into a slaughter house.
Hope that help,
NGET! :)
Hello,
I've recently been offered a job teaching English in Korea by a company known as NaviESL. I've recently done a google search, but was unable to find out anything about them except more ads from recruiters. Is anyone out there famaliar with this company or know if this is a scam? I'm a little suspicious because when I spoke to the woman on the phone, they seemed pretty urgent about having me come over there asap.