Consultations are mostly filled with an explanation of the curriculum and a tour of the classrooms. Yet what parents come to regret later is usually not the curriculum but how the place is run. Here is a list of questions about the things that are not in the brochure.

1. How does the day actually go?

"Five hours of English exposure a day" is not information. What is inside those five hours is information.

Ask this: the ratio of lesson time to free play, time spent on snacks, lunch and rest, whether there is a nap, time spent outdoors. For a child of three to five, the total amount of time spent sitting is itself an important variable.

The World Health Organization recommends at least three hours of physical activity a day for three- and four-year-olds. The longer the hours spent at an institution, the more that recommendation becomes a practical question.

2. Class size and staffing

For the same fee, the number of children per class changes how much opportunity a child has to speak. Language does not grow from listening alone; it grows from exchange.

Ask alongside this about the roles of native-speaker and Korean staff. Does the native speaker lead lessons? Does a Korean teacher handle pastoral care? Is there an adult the child can speak to in Korean when they are struggling? For a young child, a safety net for when communication breaks down can matter more than the teaching method.

3. Does the timetable match the declared subjects?

An English academy for young children registers by declaring the subjects it teaches. Yet cases have been noted of academies declaring only "English" while also running mathematics, arts and physical education.

Ask for the timetable, and if there are subjects other than English, ask on what basis they are run. Check where and how their cost is included as well. The relevant legal structure is set out in the other articles in International Schools.

4. What happens to Korean?

Spending a large share of waking hours in an English environment means less input in the mother tongue. That is not necessarily a problem, but without conscious compensation at home the vocabulary can tilt to one side.

The question to ask the institution is not "do you teach Korean?". It is "when in the day does my child get the chance to express their own thoughts at length in Korean?". If there is no answer, it means you have to create that time at home.

5. Where do they go next?

The most practical question of all. Ask where leavers actually go on to.

If a high proportion go to ordinary primary schools, what matters is how those children kept their English going after starting school. If a high proportion continue into international schools or English-medium programmes, you need to start calculating the cost and requirements of that route now.

Either way, sketching out "the three years after this institution" is the basis for the decision. Looking at two or three preschool years in isolation makes the judgement hard.

In summary

Every institution's curriculum looks good. What separates them is the shape of the day, the class size, whether the declared subjects match, time in the mother tongue, and what comes next. Take those five questions with you and the character of the consultation changes.