Teaching at Poly (Korea Poly School aka KPS) in Mannyeon Dong, Daejeon was a nightmare. The management was not only ineffective but, they were actually hostile towards foreigners. It was clear from everything they did that they thought foreign teachers were lazy, useless, and, above all, replaceable.

* The hours are incredibly long.

When Jennie Kim (assistant director) sent me my contract, I questioned the hours in the contract. The hours listed were 9am to 7:30pm. Jennie told me that this was the absolute longest I could be asked to work. So, I assumed that these hours were for intensives. (Intensives are the extra classes academies offer when students are on breaks from their regular schools.) Well, on my first day, when I complained about the long day, I was told that these were the regular hours (9:30am to 7:30pm MWF and 9:30am to 6:40pm T/Th). I reminded Jennie that she had told me that these were the absolute longest possible hours and not normal hours. Jennie then denied ever telling me this. She even denied knowing what intensives were - as in “How could you assume that these were the hours for an intensive when I don’t even know what an intensive is?!?!?” So, for several months, I worked 9:30am to 7:30pm. Then, on March 1st, the hours went to 9am to 7:30pm MWF and 9:00am to 6:40pm T/Th. To give you some perspective, other schools I have worked at were from 3pm to 10pm each day and 4:00pm to 10:30pm each day. Plus, within 6 weeks of me being hired, Poly had summer intensives. Clearly, Jennie was lying about the hours and about not knowing what an intensive is.

* The salary is too low for a 50+ hour work week.

Salary is another terrible issue at Poly. Poly’s salary is low. I accepted the job because they matched my previous salary of 2.6 million won a month plus a housing allowance. I thought I was getting a good deal because I thought I would be working a similar amount of hours. Nope! It turns out that with 2 years of previous teaching experience, I still made less than first year teachers who were hired three months before me. Poly had started new teachers at 2.8 million won plus benefits. However, I was hired, with experience, at less money. They also never pay you one penny of overtime for all of those hours. They just play with your salary to justify the hours to the labor board. My pay stub stated that I made 1.8 million won as a base salary, 100,000 won as a meal allowance, and 700,000 won as overtime. When you add it up, it’s just my regular salary of 2.6 million won. People who were hired after me make even less money for the same amount of work.

* Poly clearly does not value their foreign teachers.

An example of this is their Teacher of the Term award. Originally, this was awarded to one foreign teacher and one Korean teacher each month. This lasted for about two months. After that, it was awarded to two Koreans employees of the school who, more often than not, rarely even interacted with students. Eventually, the award was discontinued.

* Management is ineffective.

Poly’s management is horrible. During our Monday afternoon meetings (foreigners only), we were regularly given lists of 15 to 20 things that we were doing incorrectly and had to change immediately. It’s very discouraging to get such a list week after week.

In addition to this, the director, Calvin Jang, is pretty much never there. I could go a month and only see him once. Now, he is regional director of three Poly locations but, as those locations are within an hour of each other, it does not make sense that he was in Mannyeon Dong so infrequently.

* The parents rule the school.

The majority of Poly’s considerable rules and regulations are created to keep parents happy. Teachers must sign each page of each child’s workbook to signify that they checked each and every answer and that all of the answers are correct. Teachers must also sign underneath each homework assignment that a kid writes down to verify that the assignment was written down correctly. I understand that, as a private business, Poly does need to keep parents aka paying customers happy but, there is a limit to this.

There was an instance where a teacher signed a page of a kid’s workbook and one of the answers was misspelled. This led to about 5 hours of meetings for that teacher. Poly’s managers (Jennie Kim and Calvin Jang) said they did not agree with the parents getting so angry about this but, neither of them did anything to stop it. The parents would not have had access to this teacher if the management didn’t allow it.

*Poly is racist.

Poly management, which consists of assistant director Jennie Kim and regional director Calvin Jang, have made it abundantly clear that Koreans and those of Korean descent are preferred to teachers of other ethnicities with the same (or sometimes better) qualifications. When a Korean American manager left, two Korean American teachers were each asked if they wanted her position. This would have been fine except that there was a much more experienced supervisor (not of Korean descent) in the position just below the open one. Poly was going to skip right over him, despite his higher position and 5+ years of Poly experience (more at other schools), for a Korean American with one year (one year total) of experience. Eventually, he did get the position but, only because the less experienced Korean Americans declined.

In addition to this, a white teacher was 20 minutes late to a class and he was fired immediately. However, a Korean American teacher left at lunch, at 12pm, and didn’t come back that day. He missed 7.5 hours of work without permission and nothing happened to him. These incidents happened within days of each other so, timing certainly wasn’t a factor.

In conclusion, work anywhere in Korea but here. Sure, they’ll pay you on time but, you’ll be miserable.