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WILS Language School

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WILS Language School Reviews

2.4

31% would recommend to a friend

(12 total reviews)

24% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

12 reviews
2.0
11 Dec 2018

Would not Recommend!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I don't want to paint an entirely negative picture. There is a great conviviality among the employees and the foreign teachers are all very friendly and supportive. Unlike most academies in Korea, WILS has some advantages. There are no CCTV cameras in the classroom, meaning the teachers aren't always being watched. Teachers here have a fair bit amount of freedom to run their lessons as they want without being held under the microscope. The kids are really friendly and the parents are, for the most part, quite supportive as well. Apartments provided are all quite nice (though some lack wifi). Despite some frustrations with the job, I overall had a good time in Korea and an unforgettable experience, though there are several aspects of the job which caused many frustrations...

Cons

Working at WILS can be very frustrating, especially for foreign teachers. First off, there is near-no organization or forward planning. Schedules are messy and disorganized and subject to change at the last minute. We would often receive our teaching timetable for the next day via Facebook message late the night before. Though our schedules didn't change on a daily basis, we would often be given new classes at the last minute without prior notice. Things are always moving around and are hard to keep track of, and even the classroom design keeps changing because no one can make up their mind. Management is extremely disorganized and nothing gets communicated properly. Teachers often receive messages meant for them at the last minute, or sometimes not at all, and then get blamed for "errors" which was clearly not their fault. At the same time, management makes many impulsive decisions at the last minute which directly affect students and teachers, and often make no sense. Dealing with management or voicing any concerns/displeasure often gets disregarded or ignored, and a fair bit of insistence is necessary. Teachers who do voice their concerns are immediately disliked by management, who like to pick favourites. It is important to remember that WILS, despite being a language academy, is a business before it is a school. As such, the decisions management makes are motivated more by financial opportunity rather than what is best for students and teachers. Given this, many decisions regarding "education" make little sense and are of little benefit to the actual students. Teacher well-being is also not prioritized, as teachers and staff are often treated poorly (example: being heavily pressured and sometimes required to come in on a scheduled day off - which there aren't many of to start off with). Teachers are given hardly any positive recognition for all their hard work and are instead blamed or criticized over the smallest details (that they may not even be responsible for!). To note: salaries at WILS are generally lower than what other academies pay, and many teachers earn hourly wages as opposed to earning a fixed monthly salary. The hourly teachers, in particular, can be sometimes required to work 12-hour days, and are NEVER remunerated for any prep work... only paid for hours spent in a classroom with students. Payments are often made on time, but can sometimes be late (as happened to me on three occasions), and receiving your severance payment at the end of your contract can take a few months. Overall: Working at WILS is not without its fair share of frustrations. The management's extreme lack of organization and less than acceptable treatment of teachers definitely does this business a disservice. Class with the students was fun, however, and there was a great atmosphere among the teachers. Would I recommend working at WILS? Not really. Things actually got worse over the period of time during which I was there, not better, and dealing with management is nearly impossible, so I would advise to pick a place that's more willing to dedicate more time ensuring that both students and teachers can smoothly go about their job.

1.0
27 July 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Co workers are reasonable. Classes are small.

Cons

Not my first time working at a hard hagwon but this place is legit terrible. The interviewers will downplay how much work there is. There is a nonexistant structure or system. You will be given a schedule of minimum 7 classes perday. Ive had up to 10 classes three times a week. You will be overworked as management refuses to hire extra help even if they are understaffed. You may be asked to develop curricula for ages and subjects not specified in your contract. You will be asked to teach extra classes or have classes taken away based on the CEO's whim or mood without prior notice. We've been so understaffed I was once double booked for two classes and ended up running up and down the halls trying to manage about 18 kids in two separate rooms. I worked here for 6 months and didnt even have health insurance despite contract terms. Took more than 6 months for my mental health to recover.

1.0
26 Dec 2018

Not a happy place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flat provided was decent Teaching Colleagues were fantastic people and very supportive Area of Mokdong is nice

Cons

The management is rather draconian but also extremely disorganised at the same time, your lessons will change at the last minute or even part way through a lesson yet you can be chastised for not being prepared enough for your lessons. Communication is poorly set up and it all has to go through a messenger group chat which just adds to the chaos. The entire logistics of the company is once again, chaotic, few back ups of things exist so if something goes missing or if something goes wrong, all hell breaks loose and occassionally you will have to take the blame even if it is not really your own fault. I have been called at home out of working hours with management yelling and verbally abusing me down the phone, only to be made to come into work out of hours to be yelled at once again for a problem that was caused by poor logistics, this issue was solved within 10 minutes anyway so it is not uncommon for mountains to be made out of molehills. Management is somewhat Orwellian, if you displease management in any way (which is surprisingly easy to do) then you have a black mark next to your name and you are placed under heavy scrutiny due to the fact that management plays favourites a lot which is not constructive to a teaching environment. Any small slip up you make is then seen as a huge transgression, however what the management needs to realise is that placing teachers under such stress and pressure will in fact cause more mistakes to happen rather than prevent them. The management seems to be more concerned with image of the company rather than the education of the students, this is why there are a few 4-5 star reviews up here, I am 100% certain these are reviews that some employees have been forced to write as they definitely do not reflect what happens in the day to day life at WILS. One review seems to imply that we are being unfair, but I think asking to be treated with some basic decency is not an unfair thing to ask for. Teaching in Korea is no small task at any institution, it can no doubt be very grueling, but WILS language school definitely accuentuates this issue. A lot of the teachers are constantly very stressed and incredibly demotivated, which is a huge shame as they are incredibly talented and also lovely people. Continuing on from the opening statement of my previous point, there were oppurtunities where I could speak with parents and let them know what I wanted to do or try in the classroom to benefit their child's learning but I was heavily discouraged from this. I also felt that sometimes the welfare of the children are not considered, one of my private students clearly suffered from autism yet before I was given classes with the child I was told he just had adhd and 'behavioural problems'. Despite the fact I have a little bit of experience of working with children with special needs, my suggestions were ignored and also criticised. Instead of adjusting his classes to suit his learning needs better, the management's solution was instead to make me pile more and more work on him. In my opinion this is borderline child abuse and is quite upsetting to be privy to. Payment is highly unreliable, if you are on the salaried contract, you are worked like a slave that does not reflect the work you put in, the hourly contract attempts to give you as few teaching hours as possible yet you are expected to be around all day which leads to very poor wages. To anyone who thinks that this is the norm for teaching in Korean hagwons, it is definitely not the case. When I was trying to acquire my final wages the management launched into a very aggressive tirade against me and even slammed the door on my body. It capped off a rather unpleasant experience all round at WILS.

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Glassdoor has 14 WILS Language School reviews submitted anonymously by WILS Language School employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if WILS Language School is right for you.