r/HagwonBlacklistKorea

Guys I have a question.

I don’t know if I’m overthinking this or what. I work at an academy which has five teachers. Me, one Korean and another foreign teacher including my employers. Weekly I have about 113 students and every week I get asked to check books and writing. At my previous school we were provided with writing textbooks so that the children can learn but this school has no writing books so I have to come up with the topics. Every week I have to set reading tests then check the tests including grammar tests. I overslept twice and was late to work and they gave me two written warnings stating that I would not be granted an LOR. There’s nothing I can do right. He literally just barges into my classroom and yells which has now given me panic attacks. I write daily reports every day and every Friday it’s a class report. I’m honestly exhausted.

Hello if anyone has any recent information about ftk bucheon from the past year to now please let me know I am considering signing a contract with this hagwon but I would like to hear from any current or recent teachers before I make my decision!

I’m here to remind everyone that Bano Willy abuses teachers and they don’t even give you a lunch break and shout at you for using the bathroom.

A certain P***K*** (not sure if i can say the name I'm new to the subreddit) is trying to argue with me and keeps giving me poly schools. Thankfully I'm using like 7 recruiters at the same time but this is just proof that we shouldn't trust these recruiters! Always advocate for what you want and stay far away from bad schools.

Hello all, I wanted to ask if you guys recommend any non-blacklisted schools for the Busan or Daejeon area by any chance. I really should've trusted the blacklist here for all schools, I was in a very dangerous situation with no status and no pay. Would really appreciate any input, and I apologize if this is a wrong post to put here thanks guys.

I worked at a hagwon for a month. The workload was extremely lot . I resigned with immediate effect before we could go to immigration. The director refuses to pay me,and been sending death threats, saying that I'm dog,and trash,and the will haunt me down and he's gonna kill me. I had to move from where I was living to a far away province because I once gave him my ARC which had my adress. He deleted the messages,but I already took pics. He claimed I owe him money, I don't know what for, as he never paid anything for me. He said he reported at immigration for immigration fraud,and the police. Will he really kill me? Can I report this matter at Moel and the police station where I am now?

Has anyone here worked at or heard anything about POLY Cheongna or POLY Siheung Janghyeon campuses?

I'm considering an offer from one of them and would really appreciate any honest feedback. I'd love to hear the pros, cons, what management is like, workload, work-life balance, and whether you'd recommend either campus (or avoid them).

Thanks in advance!

I have been a teacher for 10 years in Korea and have dedicated the last 2 years to trying to clean things up and improve quality of life for all teachers here. I believe we can have another golden age of ESL in Korea. I do believe things can improve (even though they've been on a steady decline for 20 years). I put my money where my mouth is--I even went so far as to report my previous academy for intentionally underreporting salary and pension contributions of all the teachers, and reporting abuse and misuse of CCTV and private recording to police, which was akin to swatting the hornet's nest. I have stuck up for my fellow teachers and will continue to do so.

I've created initiatives, launched two different services to try to help tackle various pain points in the industry, and continue to brainstorm new ways to fix what's broken. The truth is that it's hard to find support from teachers like me who are willing to tackle the problem. Sadly, most of the subreddits and Facebook groups related to teaching in Korea or ESL jobs in Korea are moderated by recruiters or people on power trips concerned about "self-promotion" (even though nothing is monetized or for-profit), are employers/recruiters and have no incentive to support change, or just act hostile over off-topic elements like whether something sounds like AI slop or not (ugh). It's not about money, there is no money involved. My posts are either withheld by the moderators or struck down for "self-promotion" (why I'm not going to publicly state the name of any of the sites/services I've been working on). As a teacher who has been part of this community, I am trying to bring change from the inside, to clean the house I live in. I want to find people who actually care to fix what's broken.

I genuinely wonder if there are teachers out there who want to help make a positive change in our community or if I'm wasting my time after 2 years?

So, I'm at a loss. All I can say is that if you:

1. want to hear my initiatives I've launched,
2. have ideas of your own,
3. have skills or talents to contribute (e.g. software development, marketing, event organization, asset creation, etc),
4. want to have a dialogue about it over voice chat (Discord, or in-person),
5. would be willing to share your stories and experiences just over chat or via interview for a series I'm putting together, can be on camera or off (change needs awareness first).
6. just want to connect to support or chat about it

Please DM me. This has to end.

BeaconHill used to be an excellent, small, independent Hagwon until it was bought out by Till I’m Eleven and management changed at the start of 2025. Since then, it has been on a major downward slide and should be avoided at all costs.

They’re unable to keep any teachers for longer than a year. They’re trying to pressure prospective teachers into signing 2 year contracts to lock them in instead of actually fixing any of the reasons teachers are leaving. They have lost 80% of their foreign staff, including teachers who had worked there for 4+ years, within the span of 9 months, largely due to the school's mismanagement. Many teachers come in excited but become burnt out within 3-6 months and suffer through the rest of their contracts.

BeaconHill expects you to let the students and management walk all over you. You are actively discouraged from disciplining students as management is extremely fearful of parent complaints. Some students are great, but the majority run around doing whatever they want, screaming indoors and eating snacks during class time. You’re hired to be a babysitter and to make classes “fun” until a parent complains, and then you need to be more focused on teaching. It’s a never ending cycle.

The minute you stand up for yourself in any way shape or form you’ll get on management’s bad side and they’ll make your life hell. You can do everything perfectly and still if a student or parent complains, you will be reprimanded and asked what you’re doing wrong instead of management asking for your side of the story.

The owner is an openly misogynistic hot-head who has sent drunk rant texts at 2am as well as once accidentally sending a video of what appeared to be him engaging in bedroom activities in the work group chat. He’s had full-on public meltdowns and crashed out over students discussing social issues like income inequality. Thankfully you shouldn’t have to interact with him much as he views his employees as lowly “McDonald’s workers” whom he can do whatever he wants to and who can’t say no to him.

The principal is entirely incompetent and perhaps the worst part of the hagwon. She has a very kindy-friendly approach to everything which doesn’t work when you’re dealing with elementary and middle school students as well as the adult teachers. She hides in her office all day, assigns her responsibilities to others, and deflects blame. She uses ChatGPT for quite literally everything, even when you ask her the most basic questions. She knows nothing about how the school actually operates, frequently incorrectly or simply not answering questions about curriculum, schedules, classes, students, etc. She constantly needs her ego stroked and will put her name on anything you produce, claiming it as her own to feel important. She tries to come across as friendly and caring but don’t let the act fool you. If you come to her with any problem she will laugh in your face in an attempt to defuse the situation and gaslight you into believing your problems are all in your head. She’ll tell you to trust her and then a minute later will turn around and try to launch a smear campaign against you. She tells teachers she values them and their feedback but will not listen to any suggestions. However, when a parent complains about something, she bends over backwards to appease the parent by changing the curriculum at the drop of a hat, usually doing something a teacher had already suggested she should change months ago. As she doesn’t know anything about the school, these sudden changes are usually improperly thought through and cause more problems. The students have no idea who she is because she never shows her face and the few who do know her, dislike her as they know she is the primary culprit for the good teachers having left in the past year. She is universally disliked by the foreign and Korean staff. It’s telling that the school ran the best whenever she wasn’t there.

The head teacher is embarrassing and inappropriate. She was only promoted to ensure she would sign another contract as otherwise all of the foreign staff would’ve left in under a year. She will ask you to come to her with questions and problems but when you do she will say she doesn’t know and become aggressively defensive. She has no sense of social awareness. She insults coworkers to their face and harasses them nearly daily by blurting out descriptive details of her private life completely unprompted. If this were a job anywhere else she would’ve been reported to HR and fired years ago but instead those things get you a promotion at BeaconHill.

Summer and winter camps have been newly implemented and teachers have been expected to plan and run them despite this not being a part of your contract. New teachers are especially pressured into participating in the camps. If you stand your ground you will be harassed for “not caring about the school.”

Classes are becoming overcrowded so that there is physically no room to move in the classrooms. Classes used to be capped at 8 students, now many have 10 and there are talks of upping it to 12. Despite this, the curriculum has not been updated to accommodate the increased sizes, leading to lots of confusion and a complete inability to properly teach. The principal has started AI generating entire lesson plans and workbooks with zero editing, resulting in nonsensical slop, further adding to the confusion. The students and parents call it out and you struggle to not tell them the truth.

School policies are frequently changed whenever any issues arise so no one has a clear idea of what the rules are. When you ask for clarification the principal will avoid giving an answer. The goalposts are constantly pushed back. They will offer “perks” like flexible leave or extra pay for student speaking admission tests and then randomly take them away with the only explanation being “you shouldn’t have been offered them in the first place.” They will throw papers in front of you and ask you to sign away your rights, claiming it is for legal reasons, when in fact they break the law nearly every day.

Most days I felt like Jim Halpert on The Office because I could not believe the words and actions of those around me and constantly felt like I was being pranked but not let in on the joke. I cried in the bathroom multiple times while working there because of how management spoke to me and made me feel. I have countless stories I could tell but don’t want to make this post too long nor identifiable. 

Do not fall for their lies and tricks. Do not sign a contract with BeaconHill.

P.S. I included TIE in the title in case BeaconHill tries to hide behind their name. I can’t fully speak to TIE though I’ve heard some questionable things about what goes on there

Hey everyone I’m wondering what your experiences were and what you recommend I do. I am not really a morning person I hate waking up early so by default I was interested in working at hagwons for the night shift. Do you all recommend morning shift or night? I’m open to suggestions

Hello Mr. Areolas (not real name, he'll understand), Heard you lost your job and were forced to "retire" from Korea. Good luck in America. Maybe now you can be the cop you always dreamed to be. Oh wait, your former employees have family in the force and impersonating an officer by telling them you used to be a cop (which was recorded btw) is a felony. Oops.

Oh and the Japanese and Chinese embassies will be getting a little tip about how you helped open "schools" under the wrong employment visas.

Really, truly, it's about to go down and maybe you'll receive enough consequences to shave down your Everest sized ego. Please know your motorcycle was never enough compensation for your 5'4" mediocre white ass.

Sincerely,

Everyone who had the unfortunate chance of seeing your face.

To anyone wondering why this post, ding dong the witch is gone and he deserves to know he will not be missed.

Hello everyone I have been job hunting for an English teaching job in South Korea these days. Perhaps it’s the timeline as to why some schools are simply not hiring however I do have two questions and I’m wondering if anyone can help me understand… 1.Craigslist postings/Davesesl cafe show some job listings but I see they mention only teachers currently in Korea would be considered. My knowledge is that if you are a tourist in Korea you cannot job seek so do people do the visa run in Japan for this exact situation? My second question is how long does the visa run typically take to complete in Japan?

I’m a US foreign resident who has lived and worked in Korea for over 10 years. I originally came here through the usual path (D10 to E7 to F2), so I understand how easy it is to feel stuck between hagwon jobs, unclear contracts, visa concerns, recruiter promises, and limited information about what else is actually possible here. (I can’t speak Korean either)

My professional background is in recruitment, HR, and corporate hiring in Korea. I’ve worked in Korean and international office environments, including corporate recruitment, global HR, candidate screening, resume review, interview preparation, and hiring strategy.
I’m starting to offer guidance for foreigners in Korea who want to explore non-hagwon job options, especially more corporate or office-based roles.

This could include support with:
Understanding what types of non-teaching roles may realistically fit your background
Reviewing your resume/CV for the Korean job market
Helping you position teaching experience for corporate roles
LinkedIn profile improvement
Job search strategy in Korea
Identifying companies or industries that may be more foreigner-friendly
Interview preparation
Basic guidance on how Korean hiring processes usually work
Thinking through visa/work authorization concerns from a job search perspective

To be clear, I’m not promising that everyone can immediately move into a corporate job. Korea can be difficult without Korean fluency, and some roles will require Korean language ability or specific visa eligibility. But there are more options than many people realize, especially if your background is positioned properly.

I also do not represent any hagwon, and I’m not here to push people into teaching jobs.

If you’re currently trying to get out of hagwon work, avoid a bad situation, or figure out what your next step in Korea could look like, feel free to DM me. I’m happy to have an initial conversation and see whether I can point you in the right direction.

Hello I was wondering if anyone has heard of Walnut Academy? I read somewhere that some of the foreign teachers are toxic there?
If anyone has any experience working there, any answers would be greatly appreciated.

I am a first-time English teacher, but it won't be my first time living in Korea. I've recently been offered a position at King's Kids International (Daechi Campus), and out of all the offers I've received, this is the one I'm leaning toward accepting. I was wondering if anyone here has worked for them or knows someone who has. Good experiences? Bad ones? Anything helps.

I am looking to switch schools and just looking to know if anyone has experience at SLS. I am just curious on vacation days and hours and lunch break?

Hello. I recently got a job offer at an SLP in Pohang, but I’ve seen some bad reviews online. I am interested in this school and I like how it is by the beach, but if I am going to be miserable the whole time, I might as well not take it.

Does anyone know anything about this school or why they say SLP’s are bad?

My recruiter said they have a positive working environment and good reputation amongst the teachers, but I would rather know more about personal experiences. Anything helps!