I work for K English, a private English academy, or, hagwon. The K brand supposedly sponsors somewhere in the ballpark of 50 hagwon all around the country. Each individual school is franchised however. My school’s owners run a total of three schools, the other two of which are in the next town over, Yongin.

This school in Dongtan just opened in September 2007, and I am the first, and as of yet, only, foreign teacher. There are two native Korean teachers, Sena & Young, with whom I tag-team teach. Past that, there’s my boss Andrew, the school manager; Jane, who I gather is some sort of lower level manager; and a higher up manager, a friendly middle-aged woman whose name I don’t know. The owners and some managers from the other campuses stop by fairly often, but on an everyday basis, we number six.

The students, who range in age from 7 to oh, let’s say 14, are bused in and take on average five classes per week. The youngest students come in every day for one class. Older students come in less frequently for more classes per day.

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Please join me on a virtual tour of K English. My name is Michael. I’ll be your guide.

Welcome to K English. Before we go inside please take note of the solid glass doors. Inside you’ll see many clear glass walls as well. This gives K a modern, spacious look. All right then, if everyone is ready, let’s head in.

As we enter the main lobby, you can see that the front desk appears to basked in soft blue lighting. This is somewhat of an illusion. It not nearly so strong in person. Ah; it seems you’ve come during the lunch hour; there is no one at the desk. If you’d like, I can go get someone to help you. No? Well, let’s just continue along with our tour then.

Turn to your right and follow me. This is the teachers’ room. Come on in, there’s plenty of space for everyone.

And here is the desk of our wonderful new foreign teacher, Mr. G. He just started here a couple weeks ago, but he’s great. You should really meet him.

All right everyone, follow me on down the hall. Are there any questions so far? No? OK great.

On the left, you can see the TOEFL Cafe, otherwise known as our computer lab.

And this is one of our classrooms, where the real magic takes place. Come on in and take a look.

Let’s head back out this way now. Be sure to check our listening stations on your right. Here you can listen to a CD while standing up and facing a wall. But I don’t want any of you to get jealous of our students. We have enough stations for five people to do this at once, so there’s always plenty of room. Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn after the tour is over.

As we move past the listening stations, we come into the K Theme Park, featuring the fastest, highest, funnest roller coa– hold on a second [what's that, we don't have any rides at all, oh damn] — sorry folks, I take that back. I actually have no idea what this room is for, but there turf on the floor, so hey, whatever.

Well that concludes our tour. Thank you for spending part of your day with me. I hope you’ve all enjoyed yourselves as much as I have. Oh I almost forgot, on your way out, you can see one of our fine K school buses parked up the street. OK, that does it for me. Please come back and visit, and don’t forget to check out our fine gift shop. Get yourself a t-shirt or key chain to remember us by.