Lykeion Language Forum Suwon: Hagwon Blacklist
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon Blacklist update 2022 – I was requested to write an updated post by teachers that have worked at the academy since my departure.
The Lykeion Language Forum Suwon has been the subject of many complaints by ESL Teachers in South Korea over the last few years. I left the school due to mistreatment and contract illegalities and since doing so, many other teachers have contacted me to report the same.
Lykeion Language Forum, Suwon
The Lykeion Language Forum in Suwon is a teaching academy that belongs on a hagwon blacklist. There have been countless incidents of abuse, poor working conditions, illegal contracts, missing payments, and other problems over the last few years.
This article exists to prevent future ESL Teachers from falling into the same trap and having a terrible experience in Korea.
I urge all affected teachers to file the petition for violations in Korean hagwons and contact the police where necessary. I understand it’s daunting to take action. However, if you do not report instances of violations, these issues will only arise again with other teachers in the future.
Timeline of Events at Lykeion Language Forum Suwon
- Spring 2016 – My predecessor does a midnight run from Suwon Ingyedong campus due to mistreatment
- Spring 2017 – I leave Suwon Ingyedong campus due to mistreatment
- Autumn 2018 – An Australian ESL Teacher does a midnght run from the Suwon Ingyedong campus due to mistreatment
- Spring 2019 – Four ESL Teachers conduct a mass walkout at Gwanggyo campus due to abusive conditions and contract illegalities
- Summer 2020 and ongoing – Myself and other past teachers continue to received disturbing threats from the school who, instead of assessing their conditions, try to harass those who say anything bad about their experience
- June 2021 – An American teacher leaving Lykeion Language Forum Suwon reaches out to warn that the conditions have not improved. She also advises poor hygiene and condition of teacher apartments – with no hot water and serious mold issues.
- Late 2021/early 2022 – Repeated messages from current and recent teachers expressing their concern at the conditions at Lykeion
Lykeion Hagwon Blacklist
If you are considering a position teaching English at any Lykeion Language Forum campus, I urge you to read the below before signing any contracts or coming to a conclusion. Issues at the school range from lack of pension, healthcare, and other legal requirements, to physical abuse and bully tactics.
My specific experience relates to the Lykeion Language Forum Dong Suwon campus. However, issues have been reported at other campuses by numerous individuals.
This article will discuss:
- All things you need to consider before making a decision as to whether or not you should teach at Lykeion Language Forum Suwon
- The illegalities in Lykeion’s contracts
- Reports of negative treatment at the various campuses of the hagwon
- Why Teachers stick ill-treatment
This article is pretty lengthy. Feel free to use the table of contents to skip to the sections that are relevant to you.
If you want to discuss any aspect, you are free to contact me. I am also happy to put you in touch with other past teachers.
Context to the Lykeion Language Forum Blacklist
I worked at the Lykeion Language Forum Suwon Ingyedong campus from 2016-2017. I loved living in Korea, and I moved to the country with the intention of having a job that made a difference (i.e. teaching children English).
During my time there though I had a terrible experience teaching at this hagwon. Korean hagwons have a notorious reputation for treating their teachers badly.
I never thought that a negative experience would happen to me. However, it seems that I could not have chosen a worse place to work.
Issues have been reported across numerous Lykeion Language Forum hagwon campuses in Suwon over several years. Teachers have conducted midnight runs and have been left feeling as though there was no alternative.
When I wrote a hagwon horror story on my blog back in 2016, I just wrote a rambled, journal-entry type post. My blog didn’t receive so many visitors then. It was more of a hobby than a business and I just wanted a place to vent.
These days my blog is the first result that pops up under a search for “Lykeion Language Forum Suwon”. Other Teachers from various Lykeion Language Forum campuses (including mine) have reached out to me about my blog post and have told me that they had equally negative experiences.
Some have done midnight runs. Others have felt trapped and in despair.
Reasons for Writing this Lykeion Language Forum Suwon Post
I decided to create a more objective post in order to give those considering working at Lykeion Language Forum a wider view of the matter. This is because I feel that I cannot morally let people wind up working at a horrible place and having the same negative experiences that I and so many others have had.
I hope that the existence of this post makes it easier for you to make an informed decision about teaching English in South Korea. Korea is a beautiful country and you deserve to experience living there without abuse and corruption.
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon Contract Illegalities
I was naive when I first moved to Korea. I didn’t do my research properly and I accepted the position at Lykeion Dong Suwon without knowing what to look for in a Korean teaching contract.
It is advisable to post your contract in a teaching forum such as Waygook, Reddit, or Dave’s ESL Cafe. Experienced ESL Teachers can then help you understand if the contract is good or bad.
A teacher that fled the Ingyedong Lykeion Language Forum Suwon campus sent me a copy of their latest contract. This is current as of August 2021. You can read a Reddit discussion of everything that is illegal about this contract here.
Summary of Illegalities within Lykeion Suwon Contracts
There are many illegalities in the Lykeion Language Forum Suwon contract. This includes:
- No state pension
- Fees if you leave the school early (major red flag!)
- Teacher responsible for agency fees
- A portion of the final salary is withheld to pay final bills
- Incorrect tax deductions and teachers incorrectly documented
- The school will terminate you immediately if necessary (hagwons are required to give 30 days notice by law)
- Shady healthcare
- Only 5 days vacation per year, with vacation days used if you are sick
I will not post the full contract here. However, an applicant who turned down a role at Lykeion has posted it in the Reddit discussion. I urge you to check it out.
If this is your first time teaching English in Korea you may be unsure about what to look for in hagwon contracts. That’s okay. Below we will look at a few illegal snippets from the Lykeion contract.
No State Pension – ILLEGAL
The school runs its own “pension” which is highly illegal. Many teachers (myself included) left Korea without having received their pension (again, illegal)
Fees Charged for Leaving Early – ILLEGAL
“If the employee breaks the terms of the contract and gives a notice of less than 90 days, the employee will be subject to a penalty of 1 day’s salary for each day for which they do not give notice.”
If you are charged a fee for every day that you leave ahead of the 90 days, that can amount to a significant amount. It is actually laughable.
This is illegal and not at all reasonable. Hagwons that operate above board do not have such clauses in their employment contracts. Find one of these above-board hagwons.
As one Redditor states, this is not only bad ethics. It is also illegal.
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon thinks that they can get away with things because they feel that people don’t know what to look for. Let’s change that so you don’t fall into the same trap.
Incorrect Tax Deductions – ILLEGAL
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon pays an incorrect tax rate for its employees. They are documenting them as Independent Contractors, not employees.
This is illegal. Furthermore, it could actually get you in trouble.
Lykeion Language Forum state they will terminate contracts immediately if necessary – ILLEGAL
This is illegal. All hagwons are required to give their Teachers 30 days’ notice by law.
Teachers are Responsible for Agency Fees – ILLEGAL
Lykeion state that Teachers will be responsible for agency fees if they quit.
This is illegal (noticing a theme yet?) The agency fees are between the hagwon and the agency.
This has nothing to do with the Teacher. Lykeion Language Forum is just trying to exploit employees as much as they can.
200,000 Won of final pay check used to pay bills
200,000 KRW equates to approximately $200. When I lived in Korea my monthly bills never amounted to 100,000 KRW per month let alone 200,000! Lykeion Language Forum will screw you over and steal $200 in the last instance.
Shady Visibility on Healthcare
All English Teachers working in Korea should be provided with healthcare. Many Lykeion workers are not.
Teachers should also be provided with clear information on the healthcare plan prior to signing the contract and arriving in Korea. Lykeion’s avoidance of sharing this information just outlines that they are trying to conceal something.
The above factors in the Lykeion Language Forum contract are downright illegal. There are also things that are not strictly illegal (to my understanding) but also not pleasant.
You can find better conditions elsewhere. These aspects are detailed below.
Only 5 Days Vacation Per Year. Sickness Deducted from Here
Yes, you read that correctly. While hagwons do have less vacation time than public schools in Korea, 5 days is stingy.
Actually, the funny thing is that Lykeion tries and make it sound as though you have a whopping 7 days vacation by including the weekend… that you have off anyway. Sigh.
By comparison, public school teachers often get upwards of 18 days of holiday per year. Even the majority of hagwon teachers have far more days off than just a measly five days.
If you are sick, your sick days are deducted from your vacation period. I got sick with norovirus while teaching in Korea (which I suspect I got from a student). I had to take two days off which were deducted from my vacation.
Employees Required to Accompany Employer to the Korean Immigration Office to Notify of Termination
This is just a strange clause to find in a Korean hagwon contract. It’s not necessary for the Teachers to accompany the school to the Korean Immigration Office.
The sheer mention of this suggests that they are trying to pull something. Just one more obscurity in the contract.
As I can attest to, if you sign a bad contract for teaching English in Korea, you are going to have a bad experience. My naivety was to blame, as I presume was the case with several other unhappy Teachers that fell into the Lykeion Language Forum Suwon trap.
Read the Reddit thread and join in the discussion if you want further opinions. Waygook is another useful resource for discussing teaching jobs in Korea. So too is the Facebook group “LOFT – Legal Office for Foreign Teachers in Korea”.
Recent Negative Experiences from Teachers at Lykeion Language Forum Suwon Campuses
I did a midnight run from Lykeion in March 2017. This was probably one of the worst periods of my life.
As I summarised in my anecdotal hagwon horror story post about teaching there back in 2017, there were several reasons for my decision. First of all, was the illegal terms of the contract made me feel nervous and uneasy.
Secondly, when a colleague had to return home to the UK because his father passed away, Lykeion made all manner of illegal deductions from him. This only added to my distrust of the administration.
The main factor for my decision to leave though was related to how teachers were treated. We were treated like petulant children, verbally abused, and yelled at for ridiculous things.
In one instance, the Supervisor twisted my arm because the red circles that I had marked on a student’s homework book were not big enough. She made me go back and redo them all.
The Supervisor has caused numerous teachers to leave the school including Koreans. I felt quite bullied by her.
Timeline of Recent Events
Teacher Flees Suwon Ingyedong Campus – October 2018
In Fall 2018, another Teacher reached out to me to tell me that various teachers had fled the hagwon since his arrival. This was the first communication I had from anyone at Lykeion since leaving in March 2017 so it alerted me that conditions had not improved.
His experience was pretty much identical to mine. Ultimately he decided to do a midnight run.
Spring 2019 – Several Teachers Report Poor Conditions at Lykeion Gwanggyo Campus. All Leave.
Several teachers left the Gwanggyo campus of Lykeion Language Forum Hagwon in Spring 2019. They reported incidents of physical violence and teachers not receiving their pensions.
This resulted in a mass walkout. The teachers received harassment from Lykeion months after they left.
Since this blog was subsequently updated after speaking to these individuals, Lykeion Language Forum Suwon realised that they had spoken to me.
As such, they began to threaten, bully and intimidate the teachers that had left Gwanggyo. They made all manner of profound claims – including that they would get the teachers that remained in Korea deported or jailed.
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon obviously has no such power, particularly when so many aspects of their operation – from taxes to treatment of staff, are illegal. But they depend on foreigners in Korea not being informed about their rights and the law.
Is this the kind of hagwon you want to be involved with? The fact that they opt not to address concerns or assess issues in their administration but instead, to try and scare people who have moved across the world to teach English, is terrifying and disturbing.
Ongoing – 2017 to Present
In addition to the above instances, I should add that numerous people have contacted me stating that they have had terrible experiences with Lykeion over the past few years. Some have tried to grin and bear it which is quite upsetting.
It’s scary trying to leave a contract in Korea, especially when your employer is brutish. Sometimes it can feel like you are trapped.
There is little support for foreign people working in Korea. Hopefully, in time, legislation will improve.
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon:
A Conclusion
Since publishing my initial article about Lykeion Language Forum Suwon, I am no longer in Korea.
I wrote my initial article as a personal way of venting. I hadn’t realised so many people would read it.
There have been enormous numbers of people who have contacted me to say that they have had similar experiences at Lykeion Language Forum, or who have contacted me to say that because of my article, they escaped working there. This has made me realise the severity of the issue and the importance of having a resource like this available to help those moving to Korea.
Life is Too Short to Do Something You Hate
There are tons of jobs for teaching in Korea. Millions of them.
Trillions. Gazillions even!
Okay maybe a slight exaggeration but there are a lot. The ESL market is in no way in decline here.
Sometimes agencies will try and tell you that there are few positions available to try and force you into taking a particular job role. The truth is, they want their commission and they want to close the deal.
When I accepted my role of death at the Lykeion school, the Recruiter advised me that there were no jobs in central Seoul and that I should take this one if I hoped to teach in Korea that year. I later learned that that was BS and got a lesson in not being naive!
Don’t accept this contract, or any sketchy Hagwon contract. Don’t try and negotiate and don’t waiver the red flags. Move on and find a good contract.
Teaching at a bad place will taint your experience of being in Korea. Korea is an incredible and beautiful country and you should experience all of that without stress, anxiety, and abuse.
Why Do Teachers Stick Bad Contracts?
Korean hagwons are known for treating their Teachers badly. It always sounds like someone has it worse than you.
This attitude causes people to sweep issues under the rug, or normalise things that are not acceptable. Cultural differences and local norms get tied in with poor and abusive working conditions.
While I fully acknowledge that the Korean working environment may be “stricter” as compared to what you are used to, it should never be abusive.
Don’t be one of those people who tolerate unacceptable, illegal, abusive treatment from their employers because you think it’s “how things work here”. Strict conditions differ significantly to those that abuse and demean, and affect your mental health.
The Korean Midnight Run
Doing a midnight run in Korea is kind of the ultimate faux pas. I didn’t want to do it, but I felt as though I had no other option.
People believe that midnight runs contribute to Korean Employers not taking their Foreign Teachers seriously. My rebuttal is that Foreign Teachers should be treated with respect and compassion in the first instance.
These are people who have left their lives behind and moved to a foreign country to teach and help people. Sticking terrible work conditions and accepting it is just as bad as midnight running in my eyes: It sets a precedent that ill-treatment is okay and it is not.
Message to Hagwons
If your staff have pleasant and safe working environments, they will stay and do the job well. The people you hire are degree-educated, intelligent people. They are not petulant children.
Threats and Intimidation Tactics from Lykeion Language Forum
It is worth noting that since publishing this post, I have received numerous harassing communications from Lykeion. So too, have teachers that have spoken to me.
Current and recent Teachers have advised me that the school has had numerous meetings to discuss the ways to remove this blog. It is profound to me that their focus is on concealing the evidence of their problems, as opposed to focusing their energy on improving the situation at the school.
In some ways, I find this quite scary and disturbing. Particularly as defamatory and abusive messages to me pop up every now and then.
However, in my opinion, it only goes to demonstrate the true nature of the people that manage Lykeion Language Forum Suwon. Equally unnerving are the fake positive blogs that the administration have in the past attempted to try and hide the substantial negative online footprint surrounding the academy.
If you have any experience with
Once things improve for the Teachers I will write that here accordingly. Until then, I will continue to expose illegal and unethical practices to protect those considering moving to Korea.
Lykeion Language Forum Suwon: Parting Words
Do you have any questions about the Lykeion language forum or teaching in Korea in general? Alternatively, do you have a hagwon blacklist story you would like to mention?
Feel free to reach out to me and I will get back to you asap. Safe travels and happy teaching! Melissa xo
What we need is an FTU–Foreign Teachers Union. Barring that, what we need is to warn others. I just went through my own hagwon nightmare in Seoul at CCLC, or as I like to call it, “The School That Made Me Quit Korea”. 7 months of my life that I will never get back, plus so much money lost, plus so many opportunity costs.
And I could have been spared if only someone had bothered, in the school’s 10+ years, to write a review on Waygook, Dave Esl’s, The Korean Blacklist, an independent blog, etc.
Of course CCLC wasn’t as bad as yours. In fact, it was your original post that inspired me to do my own midnight run and make sure I warn others. But I’m surprised foreign teachers are still going to Lykeion even after your easy-to-find and totally credible warning review.
We teachers need to demand better; we deserve better. And we need to stop tolerating such poor treatment. But everytime we knowingly sign with a “blacklisted” school we keep the cycle going, making things worse for every foreign teacher.
I’m glad you more than landed on your feet. Keep up the great work.
Hey George,
Thank you for your message and I am so sorry to hear about your experience at Seoul CCLC. If you Google “hagwon black list”, there are a few sites that accept submissions on stories from problematic schools to help raise awareness for future teachers. One big problem RE people not writing blogs about negative hagwon experiences or openly discussing their experiences on forums is the libel laws in South Korea. There, it is considered “libel” if you write anything negative about anyone – even if it’s completely true! Hagwon owners often start harassing and bullying blog owners threatening them to remove their sites. In the case of my school, I spoke to a guy that had worked there before me who told me he dealt with the same issues and discussed it on Dave’s ESL Cafe, and action was threatened against the site so they had to remove it and more teachers fell into the trap! Terrible!
Teachers definitely need to demand better. I hope in the future that there are more rights for foreign workers enforced in South Korea. Some sort of union as you suggest would also be extremely beneficial. I also hope that the mentality about teachers that leave hagwons due to the conditions there changes – too often things that are abusive and unacceptable are written off as “culture difference” or as the teacher just whining, complaining and not handling the situation well, without people even realising what the individual went through. Sure there are those who come to South Korea with no interest in their students and just to travel, party and drink but that doesn’t account for all of us who had negative experiences. It’s a sad victim-blaming mentality.
I am glad that you got out. I feel the same about time, money, and opportunity costs lost. I left a very good corporate position for my role at Lykeion (though things worked out, so I just write it off as an experience). Wish you all the best going forward!
Hey! I use to teach at CCLC, too! LOL small world. I went from Lykeion in Suwon to CCLC in 2014. It was harder for me because I went from middle school to kindergarten and elementary but I made a couple good friends there. I didn’t renew though in 2015 because the supervisor (Cecilia? Or… Susan… forgot her name) was a tyrant. I use to teach the owner’s daughter and in the last part of my year she moved away to the US and left CCLC in the hands of her friend (the fat one). I soon left after for another school in Gangnam lol.
I added an excerpt of your story to a reddit Hagwon Blacklist community, thank you and sorry for the never-ending cycle of victims who have fallen for this ridiculous trap……just like I did, TWICE!
https://www.reddit.com/r/HagwonBlacklistKorea/comments/g5bnrl/hagwon_horror_stories_from_around_the_internet
Thanks Dave. Ugh I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. Korean hagwons really should be assessed and regulated better because these cases are certainly not few and far between and far too often, illegal or unpleasant working conditions are passed off as “cultural difference” which is not acceptable.
The Korean defamation laws really don’t help the situation as it makes it really difficult to gain an understanding of what a school is really like before going to work there. Hope that you are doing well now and away from it all. Take care! Melissa
Thanks for the post Melissa… I just got a job offer from the Lykeion Suwon Jangan campus. Do you have any insight into the Jangan campus? Thank you so much!
Hey Austin,
Hope you’re doing well.
I have never actualy heard anything from the Jangan Campus personally – only my former campus (Dong Suwon) and Gwanngyo. Each of the hagwons are managed seperately despite being under the Lykeion umbrella so there is a chance that the situation is completely different at Jangan.
More than likely though, all Lykeion campuses have the same contract that’s discussed here, with all of its illegalities and issues. So even if the day to day at the hagwon is okay, you could still do a lot better contract wise. Personally I would avoid any Lykeion school.
Kind Regards,
Melissa
Wow! I just remembered this is the hagwon I taught at (Jangan) – apparently this is the best campus, but I did a year here as well per my comment below.
I work at a school right by the Gwanggyo campus now and know the head teacher at that branch. I’ve been out with them several times. There wasn’t any mass walkout. lol, there was like one runner.
didn’t you leave in like 2017? How do you not have something better to do by now
Hey “Lou” – where can I start with this comment? You mean, you know the abusive headteacher that caused three teachers to leave the Gwangyo campus? The abusive headteacher that was physically violent towards one individual, and nasty and harassing towards others? I think it’s pretty obvious, Lou, that going for a beer with someone here and there is extremely different to working at the Gwanggyo Campus, or reporting to this person daily. It would not sit well with me personally to defend someone with a track record of being violent and abusive – particularly when it has been reported by several people. However, you seem very oblivious.
Yes I have much better things to do – living in Greece and working as a Travel Writer. Don’t YOU have better things to do honey? You are commenting on a post written years ago. This post was written to help teachers affected by that abusive headteacher and make sure that others moving to Korea don’t have the same negative experience or that they know what they are getting themselves into with Lykeion Language Forum. What positive things are you contributing? Besides ranting on the blog of a woman you never met?
Since you opened with a story about how you go drinking with the headteacher accused of assault, that has told me everything I need to know about the type of person you are.
Hello. This is my last semester at Lykeion. I would like a chance to tell my story to warn people not to come. Especially with the living conditions. Mold. old floors and walls. I moved in and had to do two weeks without hot water due to being quarantined. No one checked the apartment. I got sheets that were too small and dirty walls
Hey Stephenni, I am sorry to hear about your experiences at Lykeion. Expecting you to go two weeks without hot water is just unacceptable and they should have put you in a hotel nearby temporarily! I hope that you otherwise enjoyed your experience in South Korea. Best of luck with whatever you move on to after this semester xo
Please contact me
Our comments are the most recent. December 2021… are you there now?
Interesting article. I use to work at Lykeion Language Forum RIGHT when they left the Avalon English brand. This was May 2013 – May 2014. First 6 months was under the Avalon brand, last 6 months was under the NEW Lykeion company – which the owner created, I think. Anyhow, yeah, Baxter (owner’s name, I think?) owned a few campuses in Suwon. I was at the one inside “White Shopping Plaza” but I honestly can’t remember which campus name it was, lol. That was my first year in Korea. I was in Korea from 2013-2017, and after my first year finishing Lykeion, I left and got a new job in Seoul (Samsung-dong).
My work conditions were actually very good at Avalon/Lykeion. I had a pushover of a supervisor by the name of Raul, and they never really bothered me and let me teach the way I wanted. It did get more intense during the transition but by that time, I was already mentally checked out. I think I asked them to stay for another year, which they said yes to, but I ended up leaving for Seoul. The foreign head teacher for elementary (Spencer) had been there for like 5 or 6 years prior and the middle school foreign head teacher (Tim) was in his 3rd or 4th year as well. Overall, it was a good experience and a good starting point for me in South Korea, but I was ready for something else. I didn’t have a lot of classes 3-5 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday… and only like 2-3 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I’m at Lykeion right now and little has changed. Can you please please help me?