Two-Year Contracts: Coming to a Hagwon Near You?

I heard a rumor the other day that might have huge consequences for the Korean EFL job market.  A fellow former-employee of Avalon English+ informed me that, per her director, the company is going to start offering two-year contracts to foreign teachers.

I spoke to two recruiting companies who deal with Avalon and neither has negotiated a two-year contract so far, so this may be specific only to the Imae branch, or nothing but a rumor.  However, Reuben Zuidhof, CEO of the recruiting agency Adventure Teaching, did suggest that it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Avalon HR representatives did not return calls.

“Would be a huge task, but one I think you’ll see in the years to come,” he said in an email.

Indeed, two-year contracts may be the hagwon industry’s attempt to bring down a high turnover rate.  My former head teacher at Avalon Sunae branch, Naved Ali, mentioned that corporate HR sought advice from head teachers throughout the company on how to retain foreign staff, although he declined to put his response on the record.

The possibility of two-year contracts leads to a few other questions:

1. How will it affect Avalon’s success at attracting foreign talent?  Two years is a bit more of a commitment for many EFL teachers here, considering that most are using the experience as a gap year after graduating from university.  Why would anyone sign on for two years in a strange country they’ve never visited, for a job they know they are probably not qualified to do?  Remember how nervous Jen and I were?
   
2. What will it signal to other hagwons?  Given Avalon’s big-dog status in the hagwon-osphere, such a big move could be taken as a sign by other English academies to follow suit.  If Avalon has trouble attracting foreign talent, it won’t matter once Topia and Chungdahm  institute similar policies.  These companies set the standards for everyone else.
3. What other staples of the “standard” Korean TEFL contract would change?   Will teachers still get a one-month severance bonus?  Will they get proper vacation guarantees?  If companies are asking for double the commitment from teachers, are they willing to give teachers double the anything?

Two-year contracts ” would change the industry and the quality of teachers who come,” says Zuidhof.  As of this writing, he hasn’t elaborated on this statement.  Any further clarification will come in an update to this post. “I think the teacher quality would get better simply because you’d be getting teachers who are more committed to teaching, learning the system, and (hopefully) engaging with the culture.”

I’d love to hear what readers think.  Has anyone else heard this rumor?  Would you come here on a two-year contract?    What kind of benefits would sweeten the deal for you?

–Daniel Daugherty

Full disclosure: Daniel used Adventure Teaching’s services to get his first job placement in Korea, at Avalon English+.

In which Daniel lands a job

At long last, one of us has a job in Korea. Jen’s still waiting for a position, but I received an offer shortly after my first interview, with Avalon English School. If all the paperwork goes through smoothly, I’ll be headed to Korea in a little less than a month.

I wasn’t sure about my phone interview. It was conducted while I was on the road, right after wolfing down some ribs at the landmark barbecue restaurant Rendezvous in Memphis. I took the call and headed outside to an alley. My interviewer sounded like a disinterested American female, but I was told many interviewers will sound this way and it’s best to maintain enthusiasm despite their lack of it. She didn’t even say her first name. Combine this with the noisy alley and I felt an increasing lack of confidence.

I had little time to prepare for it, too. The night before hitting the road to visit Jen’s father in Arkansas, I received a call from Adventure Teaching and had to head out to a wifi hotspot around midnight so I could download the contract details. This is normal because Korea’s 14 hours ahead and it was daytime. What I wasn’t expecting was an essay prompt – 500 words on one of nine provided topics. I went with “Is torture ever justified?” and stayed up late arguing against Dick Cheney’s favorite talking points, then woke up early to go out and email it before we got on the road. At the end of the interview I asked about my essay and was told it hadn’t been received yet.

After that, I went back into the restaurant and hogged a fresh pitcher of beer, regretting my lack of preparation and overall poor form. Also, pitchers are good for crying into – I like to share the salty taste of my lamentations with others.

Almost a week later, back from Arkansas, I received an email with a job offer and a contract attached. The details are pretty standard for English teachers: Provided apartment, roughly $2,000 monthly salary, health insurance, airfare to and from Korea reimbursed by the employer, and severance pay. I read that Avalon is a particularly desirable private school to work for, so I signed the last page, scanned and emailed it back. Now I’m just waiting to find out exactly when I leave.

Street view of Bundang

I was told the job would put me in Bundang, a city with very recent history. It was planned by Korean officials and the project wasn’t completed until 1996! From the city’s Wikipedia page:

The local government announced on April 27, 1989, that it would undertake construction of a futuristic and environmentally conscious city with a population of 450,000 people.

While I strongly believe in organic city growth and mixed zoning, I can definitely get behind environmentally friendly policies. That means I don’t have to own a car – a post for another day – and can expect clean air and water. Also, Wikipedia says “futuristic.” I’m keeping my fingers crossed for jet packs.

Bundang Central Park

I’ll post more information as it comes. Sorry it took me so long to get this post up. In the meantime, be on the lookout for news about Jen. Adventure Teaching is trying to get her a job “in or around” Bundang.

-Daniel Daugherty

Street view of Bundang