My name is Braden Hammond I have some information about Kids Herald schools. I worked for a kids Herald school in Shinnae Dong it was a horrible experience!!!! I also had contact with the head office which was located in Myeong dong ( In the Korea Herald Building).I also have information about the Songbuk campus. I have two friends that are currently working there.
4 months ago I was hired to work at the Kids Herald Shinnae dong campus. I packed my bags from Canada and went. When I arrived in Korea I was met by my so called owner Mr.Kwon who them drove me to an appartment which was in the middle of nowhere he then said to me he'd be back in a couple days to get me????? I was just left in a apartment and had no clue what was going on. I went along with this for a couple days then was told that I had to move into an apartment with him. This was not what was promised to me. I was supposed to get a fully furnished flat to live in. For the next month I lived with my boss. He had an apartrment 50 min. outside Seoul. He would drive me to the hogwon and then I would have to stay there from about 8:30am to about 10:00 or 11:00 at night. This was against my contract as well. During this time I went along with things because I had trusted my owners judgement. At the end of the first month he suggested to me that my girlfriend come down and teach. I said OK and thought he was doing me a favor. I found out later that I had done him a favor because he had no new teachers to teach about 250 new students .So my girlfriend came down and we both taught a schedule from 10:00am to about 7:00pm. We were given an apartment and paid on time for the first two months. After those two months my girlfriend and I had major problems with the staff at the school and the owner and his wife who worked at the desk and basically ran the school.
I'll give you the lowdown in point form from now because this would be a book if I did otherwise.
Shinnae dong campus
-owner lied to me about just about everything!!!! I mean everything
-owners wife and other Korean staff would not speak with us??????
-no supplies for classes (kindergarten consisted of a coloring book and three sets of lego) -we asked for supplies and got none. The school was worth at least 300,000US dollars but we couldn't get supplies???
-text books were horrible- inappropriate for developmental level forelementary and middle school-but especially kindergarten
-the placement testing was half of the time done by the owners wife who spoke little english and had no type of educational training. Placement problems were looked at as ours to work with sp you had kids that spoke no english and some who spoke quite well- a hard way to teach concepts properly. Money ran this school - not the teaching of english in a sound and stable way.
-In the end we had had enough so we gave our 60 days notice then things went crazy!!!!!!!
-the owner accused me of trying to find a job under another name. Next he accused me of doing all types of crazy things like talking to the mothers of the children. I can't speak Korean so how would I talk to them???He basically accused me of things I did not do.
-the owner then called a staff meeting (the first staff meeting in four months) and told me I was fired??? I had already quit and given my notice so how can you fire me??? I tried to tell the staff this but nobody wanted to speak up because they were scared of losing their jobs.
- the owner then said if you don't leave now, he would call the police. I was just standing in the office. Why would he call the police????? I then grabbed my gilrfriend and we went and packed our bags fast then went back to the school and asked for our money (it was the 8th of the month and we were supposed to get paid on the 10th for the last month. After us sticking it out he gave us next to nothing and we ran home to Canada.
Korea Herald Head office
-gives no support to teachers even after I had met with many of the people. They tell you anything you'd like to hear but do nothing that they are asked.
Songbuk Campus
- NOT a registered school ( which means that they cannot get work visas for any teacher)
- has hired and fired teacher within days
BOTTOM LINE- THESE ARE NOT REPUTABLE SCHOOLS. THE CHAIN OF SCHOOLS ARE STILL QUITE NEW AND "WHITE SKIN" IS ALL THEY ARE AFTER. I DO NOT TRUST THESE SCHOOLS AT ALL. I WENT TO WORK AND WORK HARD. I LEFT VERY UPSET, BROKE, AND BITTER.
6/01