The Horrors I Saw at Korean Private Schools | Informer

My roommate in college was from Korea - she told me she begged her parents to go to private school in the us at the end of her eighth grade. She said she was so overworked, as were her classmates, she hit her breaking point. Class for her started at 7am and ended at 10pm, you go home only to sleep. The cruelty she experienced from her classmates were considered normal. I couldn’t imagine growing up in an environment like that.

there’s this girl from South Korea that came to mexico to teach korean, she was miserable in SK and she got so sick that she couldn’t eat or move. her father bought her a ticket to south america and when she got there she started feeling better. somehow she made it to mexico and she says she never wants to leave. she goes back to South Korea once in a while to visit her parents but she actually gets sick again when she has to face that kind of stress. it is so sad how we glorify that culture not fully knowing how much harm they do to South Korean people and foreigners working there

Yes..I say this as a Korean American who dipped her foot in the Korean music industry as a teenager. Stop idolizing (idealizing) Koreans. There’s a reason why suicidal rates are so high. The culture is very narcissistic and that means a lot of darkness and deception while looking very shiny on the outside.

As a Korean, I can assure you that 99% of teenagers have or had suicidal thoughts. In fact, someone's suicide is not news anymore in here. When I was in middle school, someone living in apartment near my hagwon dived from rooftop. I saw people gathered and police officers. I searched for that case, I couldn't find any line of that case.

Glad this is getting more attention. Very recently midnight ran myself, after typical hagwon treatment to foreigners, as well as seeing a 13 year old commit suicide via jumping from their hagwon on the tenth floor. My partner also had parents trying to sue her over a 4 year old not scoring high enough on a test.

I back up what the woman in this video describes. NIGHTMARE! I worked at a private ESL school in Seoul. It was in an area considered the Beverly Hills of South Korea so it was supposed to be upscale. It was a nightmare to work at. When I got hired, the school booked my flight from another part of Asia to Korea. It was an overnight flight so I tried to sleep on the plane but I really couldn't. When I arrived, they drove me directly to the school and said it is time to work. I told them I need to get to my apartment, get a shower and some sleep. They said my contract started that day so they took me to the school, put my luggage in a classroom and told me to sit in the back and observe classes all day. I fell asleep in my chair within minutes. They acted like they owned you and you feel helpless. In a foreign country, they control all aspects of your life, by design. The school provided a studio apartment and it didn't have heat or hot water (it was the middle of winter). The next day when I told them about the apartment, they sent one of women who worked for the school to inspect the furnace and hot water heater. She kept telling me there was nothing wrong with it (she was an ESL manager, not a HVAC person). They kept jerking me around about it and after I threatened to quit they finally sent an actual HVAC repairman. Sure enough there were big problems with the furnace and electrical and they fixed it. But I froze for that week, could barely sleep because I was shivering so much, and I couldn't take a shower. They didn't want us going off the property for lunch so they provided what they called lunch. I felt like I was in prison with the slop they passed off as food for the teachers. The staff got much better food. Then when summer came, they kept the remote controls for the A/C units so we couldn't use the air con. They taped up the A/C control panel on the wall unit so we couldn't turn it on that way. I had to use a razor to cut the tape so they couldn't see it because they checked the tape every night. It was crazy. The final event for me was when we had a scheduled two week vacation I asked if it was okay if someone covered the last class of mine before the break because the only flight I could get out of Korea meant I had to be at the airport that afternoon. The manager said yes, as long as my class is covered I can leave early. We often covered classes for each other, it was common. Anyway. I went on vacation and coming back my flight was delayed so I was late coming into work. The owner called me into her office an started yelling at me for leaving early before break. She said I didn't have permission to have someone cover my last class. I explained to her that I did. She said I was told that as long as "I" cover my last class I could leave early (that didn't make sense). I told her the class was covered, the students had their lessons that I gave the teacher who covered for me, and there were no problems. She escalated, continued yelling at me, and she jumped up, pointing her finger at me while she yelled. I told her this conversation is no longer productive and I will come back later when we can speak without her yelling. I stood up to leave and she jumped in front of the door and told me I can't leave. This is how crazy the people at this school were. After trying to calm her down and failing, I finally told her I am leaving so she better move or I will move her. I knew at this point I was quitting so it didn't matter what happened. I told her I would call the police if I needed to but she wasn't keeping me captive in her office. Then she finally moved. I was on a one year contract and this was month six. I went to my apartment, packed my things, and followed up on the job interview I had on my vacation. I got the job in this other country in Asia so I booked my flight. I was going to do a "runner" like the girl mentioned in this video. The next day I got a letter from the school terminating my contract. That afternoon I was on a flight out of there. I left out a lot of the drama but it was an overall horrible experience. Stupid things happened daily. They really didn't want us to teach English, it was more like entertaining than anything else. This was about 20 years ago and I lived in an all Korean neighborhood. I was dating a nice Korean woman but back then interracial dating still wasn't accepted, especially with the older generation. Often when I tried to buy food at the local shops no matter what I ordered, they said it was sold out. They would do this until I gave up and left. People stared at her and I when we were out. Sometimes they would say nasty things to her. I felt really bad for her. I'm sure it's not that bad now. The ironic thing is I made a couple Korean friends and they were awesome people! They helped me out when locals treated me badly and warned me of things to look out for.

I know a guy that taught in Korea. He was a nice American guy, white guy, and while he never mentioned sexual harassment, the "always watching" thing is true. He was under strict orders to only speak English in order for the students to have complete immersion. So despite knowing the language, he wasn't even able to speak it in his day to day work. One day, he was letting the kids out to be picked up by their parents. And they spoke to him for a bit. When the child said goodbye in Korean, he responded in kind. And that one little slip up was reported to his supervisor and he was severely reprimanded for it. Like, to the point where he was afraid they would revoke his work visa and he'd have to go home that day. For something he did off duty basically. But he said he loved the job and the culture, and has good memories, though he's not teaching there anymore.

This video was really triggering for me. My hagwon director abused me in so many ways to the point where he'd come to my apartment unannounced and actually knew my password to get in. He fired me multiple of times until I finally did a midnight run. I went to the labor department and eventually had 2 court cases against him but AGAIN as a foreign woman, nothing came of my case due to lack of evidence yet i had pictures, 15 audio recordings and 10 statements from previous foreign female teachers who were abused by the same man. This needs to be exposed because its ruining our lives. Thanks vice for the video.

Im a private school teacher in sk, its not just our employer is our problem but also the students that is backed with rich politician parents, they regularly assault the teachers and no one is able to stop or even report it because everyone is scared of losing their job.

If you want to teach in Korea, go through the government programs and teach at a government school, not a hagwon. The pay is much better, the amount of paid leave is much better and everything is far better regulated in general. Only down side is that the government will decide where you go which could end up being in the middle of nowhere in a tiny town. As long as you end up in a half decent sized city you'll have a great time.

one of my closest friends was from korea and she had to beg her parents to come to school in the west as she hated it in south korea. she was constantly overworked, pressured, stressed, exhausted and even bullied by other classmates. eventually after convincing, she made it to california and she says she doesn't regret it at all. she often travels back home to visit her friends and family for weeks at a time, but even there she complains that she wants to come back to the states. its crazy how schooling in different parts of the world could be very different.

Yes, can confirm. I worked for a private school in SK. I also did a midnight run and suffered from PTSD (diagnosed) afterward. The thing about CCTV is true, I had parents watch me teach in groups in another room. I've had parents threaten to sue the school for very minuscule reasons. I've seen co-teachers have breakdowns, an ambulance had to come. I've had parents literally take pictures (while hiding) of me while I was outside with the kids. I've had children attack me, claw my face...definitely the worst experience of my life. I had previous experience in Korea for an internship and came back to teach, so I thought things would be fine.

Even the owners at the hakwons here in the United States are messed up, from the perspective of an ex-hakwon student. I grew up attending various hakwons in Koreatown Los Angeles. I witnessed multiple incidents of extreme verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and intimidation by owners and instructors. One particular incident that I can remember, I saw the owner/instructor at one of the hakwons I attended, lash out at one of the female students for not paying attention. He yanked her out of the classroom and into his private office, and screamed at the top of his lungs for over an hour, while he threw and slammed things, as she sobbed. He called her awful names... a man in his mid-40s and a young woman who was only 16 years of age. His wife sat outside and did nothing. When her parents came to pick her up, they sided with the owner and didn't protect the daughter. These types of incidents are not uncommon.

I also worked at a hagwon. A lot of this was true for my situation as well. Although I did not personally have any problems with the director, I saw many other people did. The kids and Korean teachers are SO over worked. I tried to let my kids have more fun time than I should have and got told to stop. :( Now that I'm teaching in Canada, all the problems at the hagwon have become even more evident.

I’m glad this is getting more attention. I had to flee Korea. I moved to Taiwan, where I have lived for the past 5 years working at a cram school. The experiences I dealt with in Korea caused anxiety and depression, which I am coping with until this day. It’s hard for me to say anything good about the country and carry much resentment until this day. I hope this eventually goes away with time.

I had a friend who went to South Korea as a part of an ESL program. She barely made it back. She told me of how horrible both teachers and students were treated. Suicide was normalized among the students and the daily workload was 12 to 14 hours or more. The only benefit she got was that she paid off her student loans when she got back.

I literally watched a few videos about folks teaching abroad in Korea and Japan, and they mentioned they weren't given bathroom breaks or an actual lunch hours. They are paid extremely low and it came off to me as another form of slavery. I remember thinking of teaching English abroad, I'm glad I never did.

Some of the comments on here are disgusting. Workplace harassment should not be accepted ANYWHERE. It may be the perceived norm in some cultures but it doesn't have to stay that way.

In Korea I dated 3 Korean girls and all of them told me how they had been physically abused by teachers their whole lives. We think we have problems in the West, these kids experience unimaginable trauma, many end their lives. It really made me depressed just listening to these stories. Nobody deserves this kind of life

I was lucky to work at a hagwon that was not as strictly controlled as these places.. but there definitely were some issues.. and the biggest part was the kids were so overwhelmed. They would come from a different hagwon and then go to a different hagwon afterwards and another after that until late at night. Their whole day consisted of waking up to go to school, going to various hagwons, then going home to finish homework and going to bed for school the next day. And these are elementary schoolers. When I was in elementary school, I just remember coming home from school and playing outside for hours then doing homework for like one hour. And I made it through college lol. They need some freedom..