Moonkkang is Closing

I just found that my old hagwon, Moonkkang, is closing its doors on December 23rd.

wow.

Moonkkang has been a Daegu institution for almost twenty years, and I have to admit that I am sad to see it go. Not surprised, but sad. I think a lot of us saw this coming and got out in 2014 and 2015. Still, Moonkkang was a great employer. I worked for them from Oct. 2012-Oct. 2015. It paid for my entire MA. I also did a short covering stint there in 2016 for three months while waiting for my job at SCIC to start. I remember getting hired on in 2012 and considering myself lucky. It was a hard gig to get. We had so many great people and I met a lot of my good friends in Korea there. I still talk to Nathan and Tobe regularly and Matt and Kelly, Eddie, Diana, Jarrod, Jung-su, Dan, Miyoung, Mina, Minji, and Hyun are all people I remember very fondly and would love to see again. We had great bosses in Lynn and Chris and later Nicola and Ivan. I am sure I am forgetting others too, there were a lot of good people.

The move to a Chinese/English hybrid academy was what, I understand as an outsider, finally killed it off. They lost their entire middle school student base in three months. I wasn't there for it, but from what I understand it was put through without enough planning and forethought. That being said, a few rapid structural changes, as well as a declining birth rate, didn't help matters. I remember even as far back as 2014 feeling that the ship was starting to sink. There seemed even then to be a lot of sudden changes. Nothing like deciding to have mandatory Chinese lessons, but it seemed less steady than it was in 2012. I may never know exactly what happened.

I feel bad for the people there. However, I understand that Moonkkang is actually taking good care of them, and doing everything legally required of them as a company. Hopefully people will be able to find new jobs, though with so many teachers suddenly flooding the Daegu market it might be a bit tough. I hope a few are willing to head elsewhere. If you are reading this Daejeon is very nice, also very affordable, and only 45 minutes from Daegu on the KTX :) My friend Tobe was the last guy I knew really well there (more than a facebook friend), and he handed in his notice yesterday after getting an offer to work at KNU. Talk about timing.

I am actually more sad about it that I thought I would be. While I rarely think of Dynamic Workshop classes when I look back on my time in Daegu, it was the job that underpinned everything else I did there. They were also fantastic employers in an industry that does not boast a great number of great employers. So much so that I am on their website telling people to work for them. I wrote it in 2014. I meant it in 2014. It was a place that people stayed, and it brought people from around the globe together. I have lifelong friends in several countries now thanks to my time at Moonkkang. It was possible because people wanted to stay there. Running with Nathan or GS beers with Matt are what I will remember about Moonkkang.

They were good days.