What Goes Up Must Come Down

When I first started at JLS, my intention was to stay for at least five years because I wanted to find out how far up the ladder I could go by staying in one place. After about three years, it seemed like I could actually go pretty far at JLS. Baker indicated that JLS might be hiring at least one foreign teacher as a CEO (which was a rather extravagant title). As many of the teachers who had worked at JLS prior to my arrival began to move on, it appeared that my star was rising. Even Mr. Huh himself seemed to say that such a position -- and the accompanying salary increase -- was inevitable.

To increase my chances of such an opportunity coming true, I took a few steps of my own. In March 2003, I began my graduate studies in Education by doing a master's degree by distance learning through the University of Phoenix. For a brief time, I also contributed some of my time to the new JLS online venture CyberJLS. In addition, I made proposals directly to Mr. Huh concerning ideas for improving employee morale, all with the objective of showing management that I was interested in staying at the school for the long term.

Around 2004, things at JLS began to change. Baker was reassigned to the new Vancouver branch of JLS, and almost immediately the attention that had been paid to the native teacher staff during my first three years began to dissipate. At the same time, other language academies opened up in our neighbourhood. With the extra competition, school enrollment began to drop.

For the first time, when foreign teachers left, they were not being replaced. Our Bundang staff, which had reached a high of 11 teachers in 2003, dropped... to ten, then nine, and so on. The funny thing is, though, that our schedules didn't increase all that much. The school was losing students. Whereas we typically had classes of 30 or more kids in 2003, they were now more likely comprised of 15-20. This was also the period when the school opted to take most of the middle school classes out of our hands. So, really, the native teacher roster was now going through attrition.

The reasons for this attrition have never been explained, but it is my opinion that we have simply been deemed expendable. JLS, like any English academy, benefits from the reputation that students receive lessons from native English speakers. However, the school's primary mission is to help students' test scores because this is what concerns the majority of parents. The Korean teachers are better suited to this task, in my opinion. Consequently, here we are in 2007, and the native teacher staff at Bundang stands at five. Even as student enrollment has recovered somewhat, the number of foreign teachers has remained at five since the end of 2004.

Five years ago, it seemed like the sky was the limit for us at JLS. Apparently, however, the good times were simply too good to be true. Don't get me wrong -- JLS is still one of the best places for which to work. But at this point, it is obvious that there is not much hope of moving up any longer at JLS. Most of us have reached the salary ceiling. We are no longer being considered for upper-level positions within the company. And the overall work environment is not what I would have hoped for. The students increasingly make excuses for not doing homework, and they have become bolder than ever in their insults towards native teachers.

And that, frankly, is why I made the decision that 2007 would be the year that I end my career as an ESL teacher.