Korean Black List

Subject: Kid's College

Friday, December 18, 2009 3:19 AM

City: Nonhyundong Incheon

School Name: Kid's College

Reason: This is without question the least professional and least organized job I have ever had. In the past 10 months I have been here we have gone through 3 bosses. The current boss (A***) is by far the worst. She refuses to ever communicate with western teachers yet we are punished for not following her directions. A western co-worker of mine was given an official warning (which can lead to docked pay) for yawning during a classroom. She is a terrible boss who speaks great English yet lacks any social skills. She is constantly rude to western teachers and is impossible to work with. We are constantly under surveillance via cameras with audio. I have no problem being observed when I am teaching, however we are observed during our break time with audio. We are later questioned and punished for what we say. The hours are terrible. Some days I work 11 40 minute classes and the only break I have is during my lunch. However during this break I am forced to fill out various daily reports and prepare materials for my next classes. I would not recommend this private school for anybody. It is fairly new so it is possible they are loosing more money than they are making, forcing the vice president to constantly cut costs, most of which are at the expense of not only Korean teachers but western teachers as well. I hope this message helps other teachers.

Subject: Kids Club Fun Languages School in Uiwang

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:36 AM

Message: -

Kids Club Fun Languages School in Uiwang

Seriously, thats what they named it.

The owner of this place is absolutely insane. The employees of the school had to work 9-8 (split shift) from Monday to Friday, which is way more than most employees. The owner bought the worst possible apartments in the worst possible area and made fun of us when we asked for an airconditioner during summer (won't provide). The septic line was broken and the entire apartment smelled like sewer yet he was too cheap to pay for it and instead came over and put a piece of plastic on it, telling us "it will go away." It didn't.

Beyond working long hours, the staff were verbally abused pretty regularly. A co-worker wasn't paid at the end of a short contract because "he shouldn't have left."

The owner changed the locks on one employee's apartment on Christmas Eve, because he was mad at him. The only way the employee was able to get into his own apartment was to break his own window.

The school itself is in horrible shape. Its above a supermarket in an old, old building and is furnished with things found on the street (the owner has actually confessed to dumpster diving in order to get most of it). The computers/fax/printer do not work and will not be fixed. In of the classrooms there is a sharp, metal pipe sticking out of the floor and instead of paying for it to be fixed, the owner just put a carpet over it.

The owner also takes money off the top of paycheques. He says it is for taxes but its not as its three times as much as it should be. He fires most teachers on their 11th month unless they say they will renew their contract. He does not pay bonuses without a fight and has been known to deny teachers their airfare home.

The owner is loud, verbally abusive and more greedy than an elephant in a peanut factory.

Stay away from this hagwon.

Subject: CDI (Chungdahm Institute)

Date: Friday, October 30, 2009 9:22 PM

This post is for people who are interested in working for CDI and also reveals my experience to those who either didn’t pass the training or failed it. Chungdahm Learning requires teachers to train for one week. I don’t know what working for CDI is like after the training, but I left because the training demanded more than you could chew. What I mean by this is CDI requires you to complete the training under their standards (i.e., perfect memorization of the class structure, perfect usage of their methodology, babysit students, love teaching so much that you’d be willing to be their slave, be energetic, teach critical thinking, etc.) in a week while realistically it would take 2 or 3 weeks to learn. I caution those who read that this institute welcomes people with no teaching experience to beware about what you’re getting yourself into. If you can actually study the things I mentioned above flawlessly by the end of the week, then by all means this job is for you. I say this because the institute emphasizes absolute competency and expects you to perform perfectly from the first day of instruction. Now I understand that CDI would want competence, but a week of training for all this was really ridiculous. I witnessed with my own eyes that those with a few years of teaching experience were all becoming really exhausted from the training and jet lag. People were becoming sick too and I remember a trainee I was talking to was getting sick and asked CDI if it was okay for him to continue the training next week. They refused and I think he had to go to the hospital later on that day. I also knew a man in my training group who was CELTA certified having a really difficult time. I’m TESOL certified and we both didn’t have any teaching experience, but we didn’t expect the training to be like this. The sad thing is the trainers know the trainees are all jet lagged and understand they have to go through a hellish week, but they don’t do anything about it or even give advice on how to handle these problems. Also, while I was talking to my recruiter about dropping out, he said not to worry and that I should be able to get all this material down in around a month. That’s reassuring, but the school wants you to be completely ready as if you were a professional instructor for them by next week’s start of the job.

For those of you who will be working with CDI, you’re probably wondering if Chung Dahm gives you the study materials for the training at least a week before you arrive at Korea. You are given some study materials (including a welcome packet) but that’s a few days before you leave for Korea. The very important study materials are given to you on the first day of training and that’s the majority of the study materials, so CDI takes advantage of you after you’ve traveled thousands of miles to Korea!

If you want to work at Chung Dahm, be prepared financially because if you decide to drop out of the training for any reason, they obviously won’t pay you back for your flight to Korea and out. However, they also charge you for all hotel fees (including room and board) and they do this while holding your university degree ransom. They told me that they’d give me my degree back once I paid my hotel fees. At the time I thought nothing of it, but I found out later on that this wasn’t supposd to happen. Nothing was pointed out about hotel fees according to my contracts and the interactions I had with Aclipse and CDI before coming to Korea. In fact, my contracts said that my degree would be returned to me once I arrived in Korea. My official one stated that it would be returned to me during or at the end of the training week and there would be no conditions in the return whether I failed or not. After returning home and sending 2 emails about the whereabouts of my degree with no response from my CDI recruiter, my degree was finally mailed back to me around 2 weeks after I left Korea.

Be prepared for a disorganized schedule too. I was lucky to have caught some critical time schedule changes like leaving for the training center much earlier than expected, but some people weren’t so lucky. I was also puzzled when CDI dropped all the trainees at the medical center for our required medical checkups. It was so nice to finally have a good break from the training, but hold on. The bus left and there were no CDI staff to guide us. Okay, what were we supposed to do? Yes, we’re supposed to go inside the center and tell the front desk we’re supposed to get a medical exam for CDI. Easy enough. Anyone speak Korean? Alright, timeout. For awhile there was some confusion, but thank goodness one of the trainees could speak fluent Korean. The madness wouldn’t end there. I was extremely fortunate that I was the first one called up for the medical examination. Around an hour later, I was finished and I entered the waiting room to make my way to the exit, but I saw a big group of trainees. I stopped to chat with them and discovered that they didn’t even get called yet! That really shocked and disappointed me at the same time. Ah, but wait there’s more. I thought I was so lucky that I was the first one to leave the medical center that I rewarded myself with a soda. Let’s see, how do I get back to the hotel from here? Time to open my trustworthy Chungdahm binder! Powerpoint slides, no. Grammar review, no. Ah, here, maps and directions from the training center to the hotel. There must be directions from the medical center somewhere here, but what the… Nothing about getting from the medical center back to the hotel! Oh my god, I’m lost! Fear not though because after around 20 minutes of wandering around and asking for directions, a Korean lady graciously lead me to the nearest train station. She didn’t understand my Korean, but luckily I had my hand-dandy Korean translation book and showed her the question. Oh, yeah, I learned that bringing a translation book is also an assurance to save yourself precious time for studying when you need to get back to the place you’re staying at when CDI leaves you stranded in an unfamiliar location. Don’t wait, buy that translation book.

Honestly, I thought I could warm up liking to teach, but Chung Dahm made me detest teaching (for their institute at least). I would also recommend for people without any teaching experience to start off from the bottom or know what to expect if they’re considering to teach at Chung Dahm. What I mean by expect is you should know that you’ll be teaching mainly critical thinking in English to these children, not basic ESL skills. For example, you ask students Socratic questions or questions like what kind of group do you think he’s in? Why? What kind of group would you like to be in? Let’s do a 10 minute group exercise and think of a group (like astronomy group) that others may find interesting and explain why they should join your group, the costs to join, what makes your group worth joining, how your groups works, etc. Additionally, what I mean by starting off from the bottom is try the JET program or some other assistant language teaching position. Get a feel of what teaching and creating lesson plans are like. Again, please tell me about your experiences with Chungdahm training because I’m intrigued to know.

You may share them with me at http://luffy3.wordpress.com/.

Subject: Dong-ah Broadcasting College (DIMA) in Anseong.

Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:56 PM

Dong-ah Broadcasting College (DIMA) in Anseong.

Agreed to give private office, 3 meals provides per day, option to teach own material.

After contract signed.. 3 meals a day changed to 2 meals consisting of soup broth and rice with kim chi - everyday the same food. This is not a meal and the meals included option was important because of the college's remote location (25minutes to major area).

College agreed to give private offices, but refused to provide the office after the contract was signed. Weeks of arguing to get my office - they provided it for only 1 semester and then removed this benefit.

College said I could teach my own material, in the interview, but after I was hired they changed the policy so that I "must stick to the book", a book they chose for me. Teaching my own material was a major reason I chose to work for this college.

College also withheld my documents and stated that the immigration office hadn't returned them after the E2 visa was processed. They withheld documents in order to control teachers.

College initially said I'd be working for the director, a korean professor. After contract signed, they changed it so my boss was a Canadian woman with 4 months of University teaching experience (age 23). I'm a 34 year old University teacher with 6 years of University teaching experience. They wanted to create McManagement type of work environment.

I asked them to change these policies or release me from my contract. They chose to release me instead of adhering to professional University standards, by changing some of these bad policies and lies.

Subject: LnV / LNV / lnv English Hagwon in Suncheon / Sunchon Jorye-dong Korea

Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I would like to blacklist the LnV / LNV / lnv English Hagwon in Suncheon / Sunchon Jorye-dong Korea.

This Hagwon used to be a good Hagwon, but the owner died a year ago and now her brother runs it, and in the words of the Korean teachers he "does not care' about the school.

The main issues I had are -

1) He never paid my pension contributions.

2) I started in August, and I asked for my health insurance. I only received it in March after I wrote a letter to him.

3) My contract allowed me a 250,000 won a month housing allowance. The apartment he provided me with developed a huge leak in the ceiling and mold was growing within 5 days. I wanted to move out as he was doing nothing to fix it. So I asked for my allowance and he said no. So with the help of a friend I wrote a letter saying I wanted my pension, health and housing allowance, or I would report him to the Labor Board.

I received my health and housing, but NEVER the pension. He also made a huge complaint every time I asked for the money, telling me I was a bad teacher, I wasn't following my contract etc etc. He even told the children we were fighting, and he shouted at me in front of teachers and students. Which I felt was very unprofessional. 4) My E2 visa expired on the 20th Aug. But my contract did not end until the 23rd. In order for me to work legally he had to extend my E2 visa. I had planned to extend the E2 until the 25th and then my tourist for 30 days so I could stay with my boyfriend, and I had cleared this with immigration. But when I went on the 25th to extend my tourist I found out that he had extended my tourist AND NOT my E2, meaning I was working ILLEGALLY for him for 3 days, AND he signed a form saying I was leaving Korea (which I was never planning on doing!!) So I had 9 hours in which to leave the country before I was there illegally. This caused a great amount of stress, upset and not to mention money as I had to get to Japan as quick as I could!! Luckily I had a Korean friend who spent hours on the phone to immigration explaining what had happened, so I was allowed back into the country, but had it not been for them, I would have been stuck!

Those are just the legal issues. The Hagwon was also generally a bad place to work in.

At one point I had 8 classes where the students were on 4 different books, making control and planning a BIG issue. I had a class who had no book for 7 months, and I was told I did not need a book to teach, and I was given NO guidance as to what I should have being doing with them. The children were also rude and badly behaved, and if I took them to a teacher for swearing or generally being disruptive, the teacher seemed to take the child's side and they were rarely shouted at! This undermined my position as a teacher and so the children did not listen to a word I said!

Also the owner was generally unhelpful, I wanted a phonecard to call home at Christmas, he told me he didn't know where I could get one, I asked him to translate the water heater control instructions/ buttons, he told me no! It seemed as though I was more of annoyance to him then anything else. I had a very unhappy year there, it was stressful and I felt very alone. Had it not been for other friends I had made, I would have run a long time ago.

I do not want anyone to have the year that I have had. I know that they are currently looking for a teacher now, as they did not replace me before I left. They will look for people who have posted on the net, and I think they will go for another young female. If they contact you, PLEASE PLEASE say NO!! There are much better Hogwon's in the area!

Subject: LCI Kids Club- Gwangj

Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008

I would warn anyone not to accept a job with LCI Kid's Club in Gwangju. As a Sociology major, I focused on religious cult studies. After arriving at this school, I realized that this job had all the characteristics of a cult, only without the religious part. They owners ruled with fear, and everyone was afraid to voice an opinion. Most of the teachers "need" the job, and they've allowed themselves to be brainwashed. Teachers were given perks for snitching on each other. If you could provide dirt on your co-worker, you could receive preferential treatment. This created an understandable toxic environment of backstabbing and deceit. Owners also randomly select a "whipping boy," as a way to keep everyone in line. Pettiness also ruled, a clique of 5 foreign teachers would spend seemingly every minute of free time criticising and insulting their co-workers. Teachers who brown-nosed were praised as being the best teachers, whether or not they actually were. There were 15-16 foreign teachers when I left, so there were plenty of examples of this. I thought when I came to Korea, my co-foreign teachers would be a close knit group. Instead it's cliques, backstabbing, snitching, pettiness, and drama. Every time a teacher would leave, everyone would speak about them as if they were Hitler or something. The owners not only enable this division, they encourage it. Teachers who dare speak up about concerns are treated as malcontents. EVERY concern that was ever brought up was met with the phrase "that's the Korean way." Therefore, if you complain about ANYTHING, you're seen as being cultural insensitive.

The ironic thng is that I have Korean immediate family, I grew up surrounded by Korean culture, I'd spent time in Korea before I came to work there, so I felt I understood Korean culture better than anyone else there. With this is mind, right off the bat I realized this "Korean way" phrase was a complete BS tool to guilt teachers into shutting up and accepting their conditions. Let me repeat this for everyone, the "Korean way" phrase is a tool they use to EXPLOIT you.. Koreans know right and wrong just like everybody else, they know that some of the things they do are wrong. They can only get away with what they're allowed to get away with. Anyways, because I didn't accept this BS, I was expelled as an outcast among the brainwashed foreign teachers. The head teacher won't help you, he's in the pocket of the owners and is only concerned with his own bottom line, not in what is right. In fact, any of the 4 teachers who have been there more than a year will stab you in the back at any chance. They get favors for doing so, that is why they're still there. It's amazing to me that people will sell their souls for a $2000 a month job!

Truth is, the job is terrible, and everyone there knows it, and if there was ANY degree of unity, all the teachers (foreign as well as Korean) would band together to force change. Instead of improving the conditions, the owners choose to cultivate a contentious environment.

Teachers are overworked as well, most work 930-700 or 730 (way more than most other jobs) and that's including a draining kindergarten class. Owners will ask you (correction: TELL) to lie to the parents: if the kids aren't great artists, you're expected to do their art projects for them, and convince the kids to pass it off as their own. Lying is a general theme at this place: lie on evaluations, lie at parent conferences, do the kids' work for them if they're not very good, do their art for them, etc.

I was fired for refusing to come in on a Saturday for PT conferences (they picked this date 10 days in advance, I had already booked and paid for a trip for that weekend). Instead of terminating me professionally (with proper notice required by law, and with a chance to say goodbye to my kinder kids) the owner came to my apartment and tried to force his way in. He pushed me against the wall when I tried to leave, and continued to scuffle with me and yell and cuss at me in the street. A crowd had gathered in the street to watch, but they were just there for the show. I just wanted to leave for my trip.. I finally broke free and ran, and he CHASED me down the street for 3 blocks. I got away, but when I came back, my apartment had been emptied, all my belongings taken, and the locks changed. He left me jobless and homeless, all for refusing to come in on my day off when I had a prior commitment. I was given the impression by others that I should be fearful for my safety, so I fled the country. Never got paid for the 2 weeks of June I worked, or received a 30 day termination notice, as required by law. I truly believed they fired me in this dramatic fashion solely to scare the remaining teachers into subordination. My kids and parents apparently loved me, and I had the same number of students in all my classes after several months (I think I was the only one), so it wasn't because of my ability. Luckily I have the resources to pursue legal action for as long as it takes to get retribution, but it can be very expensive and time-consuming.

The school doesn't provide insurance and doesn't pay into pension. I was paid on time, and teachers were given severance when they completed their contracts. Of course, you'll be reminded of this constantly if you show any sign of displeasure: "yes, what you complain about it is true, but at least we pay you." As if it's a "special" benefit to be paid or something.

All this, and I haven't even mentioned my living conditions: I moved in my apartment mid-Feb (really, really cold). When I moved in, I had no heat, no hot water, plus the stove and washer were broken. The drain in the bathroom was broken, so there was a layer of hair and bandaid-infested water that I needed to step in to use the bathroom. It smelled like mold/sewer. My first night I was so cold, I needed 2 shirts, a thick sweater, 2 pairs of pants, socks, a stocking cap, and to hide under the covers just to survive. Couldn't take a warm shower to warm up, because the hot water didnt work either. I was treated like a whiner for complaining about this, it took about a week to get it all resolved. I was just trying to avoid pneumonia or something, as I was already sick. Also, it had roaches, and garbage bags were always piled up on the front steps of the building, which I had to literally step over every day.

Stay away from this hagwon at ALL costs, there are so many other better jobs that will hire anyone, why put yourself through this? It is possible to work here for a year, get paid, and have an okay experience, especially is you're a good brown-noser. But there's an equal (if not higher) chance of going there and living through hell. I would advise anyone to play the odds and work somewhere else that hasn't been blacklisted at all. Besides, my entire Korean family knows about this place, and word spreads fast in Korea.

Subject: Herald School

Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I was working for Herald School in Ansan for around 17 months. After my first year I was asked to resign and worked out an 8 months with Jake Ku the owner.

After my 17th month working for him he asked for a meeting. He told me that he had just opened a second school and was putting all his money into it so was in a bad financial situation. This meant that he needed to save money and wanted to let a teacher (or two in the near future) go. As I had just over 3 months left on my contract I was the next to go anyway. I was told that on a Wednesday night and that Friday would be my last day. Also he wouldn't honor the bonus, half that's months pay and stop all support (i.e. housing, medical) from 7.30 pm on the Friday I finished work. That gave me two days notice to finish me job, move out of one house and find a place to live.

Also, I was helping him out by working in a second school for him in the mornings. He went to this school and took my wages saying that unless I wrote up 120 reports for my students at his school with no pay for my time I could not receive the money from the other school. Wages for classes I had already taught.

From a regular staff or 7 foreign teachers made me the 6th foreign teacher to have left or been made to leave his company on bad terms with no or very little bonus in about a year. I know I should have seen it coming but I was one of only two trained English teachers at the school and had a good reputation with the parents so thought I was safe. Silly me.

Below are the schools details. If you need any further information then please let me know.

May thanks in advance,

Herald School

3F Zest Plaza 712-2

e-dong Sang lok-gu

Ansan city

Gyoung-Gi Province

Subject: Canada International School (C.I.S.), Changdong, Seoul

Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008 1:29 PM

I came across the testimony posted on your website recently (here). I used to work at this school and can not say that I am surprised by what the author wrote. I used to work for CIS about two years ago and it sounds that things are pretty much the same. I also was told that it was an international school (an outright lie) and when I realized that it was a hogwon I tried to get out of my contract. However,I was terminated after 4 months and many arguments with my supervisor who I suspect is the notorious Mrs. 'K' that the author refers to. She used to spy in front of the cameras and record anything that she did not like. She used to argue with me in front of students and belittle me as well. She would hadn me pieces of papers saying that I was 2 pages behind where I should be and could not play language games with the students until I had 'caught up' and abide by her schedule-trying to explain to her that teaching strictly by the book was maybe not the most effective way to learn a second language (I have an education degree with an ESL/Linguistics minor) and she used to sit in the classroom across from me, glaring and making sure that I followed page by page of her schedule.

As for the owner Mr.'K'-I had recieved pay advances at the begining of my employment with CIS. which were refused as 'punishment' for not liking me. He used to hang out in the teachers workoom and spy on us (he supposedly did not speak english-according to his korean staff but, of course, he spoke it very well). My termination letter ended on a Friday and I started a new job on the next monday and I was moving on the Sunday. However, there was a special event all day sunday. I told them that i was not going to be there as my contract had ended and i started a new job the next day but they refused to listen and docked me hundreds of won on my last paycheque partly due to this. I also had to go to the labour board and legal aid where a korean lawyer pressured them to give me my release letter (they are required to give it by law) as they were at first refusing until I gave them my new principals name (i wouldnt of course) and then just flatly refused. In the meantime, getting telephone calls from a korean lawyer prompted the owner to pay up for air fare (at the end of other teachers contract) that was contractually owed but that he was not 'coughing up' for. I recieved a call from another teacher who had given his notice to quit (this was about a month later) asking me for the contact information for legal aid as they were threatening him and trying some of the same tactics (not providing release letters) that they had with me.

I would, in all good concience, to any teacher considering a job with these guys not to work for these guys.

AND A REPLY:

Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008 6:40 PM

Hi Jon,

I am writing to you about a letter posted Jan 2007 regarding C.I.S., Kangbuk (Changdong) Branch. I am sure you get many letters like these, but bear with me.

I am from Canada, related to one of the current senior staff at the school, acquainted with the teachers there and very familiar with their current situation.

In short, the school is fine as private schools in Korea go. In many aspects, a cut above. For the past year all 12 foreign teachers have been paid regularly, on time. Miscommunication happens. And the style of management is not perfect. Incompetence is not rewarded. However, to my knowledge, no foreigner has been mistreated/abused and any issues that arise are resolved. Cultural differences related to work environment and personal relationships play a major role, as one should expect working in a foreign country. All foreign teachers have received the standard package given by the majority of private language schools in Korea and an above average salary. Anyone is welcome to contact the current vice-principal (Judy Choi) to speak directly with her, as she is fluent in English, or one of the foreign staff. The school is not an accredited International School, nor do they claim to be if you read their literature. But, they do have an arrangement with the Vancouver School Board, offer a full-immersion program and base their curriculum on North American curricula. Note this is not a typical language school. Students learn English "through" their study of various subjects such as Math, Science, Language Arts, Music, P.E. etc. And, teachers have 1 class i.e. the same group of students, all year. This is why C.I.S. strives to hire licensed teachers. It makes sense given their curriculum.

Regarding the specifics of the letter, I do not see any issues that constitute "mistreatment or abuse" and only one issue that may be considered a breach of contract (late payment) and by the author's own admission, it was an isolated incident and they got paid fully, shortly after. Further, I can confirm that since then, all teachers have been paid regularly, on time.

The issue about the other teacher who had to leave for medical reasons, the author states that he doesn't know how the issue was resolved. I checked with management and apparently a compromise was made. It is a business after all and each teacher (C.I.S. Changdong alone employs 12 foreigners) is a huge investment, several thousand dollars just to get them to Korea, if you include recruiting fees and airfare. Plus, there is a big cultural difference between the workplace in North America and Korea. For example, in Korean, there is a commonly used word meaning "be strong, endure." So, certain reactions may seem unfair, from a North American perspective, but are not necessarily intended to be. As a related aside, recently one teacher complaining of a persistent headache was sent to the hospital for an MRI, all expenses paid.

Further, it sounds like the author organized a teacher strike and lobbied several other teachers to sign a formal letter of complaint drafted by himself, for personal reasons, which is extreme even in North America, I think. No teacher at any school I have ever worked for in Korea has gone to those lengths.

And regarding the extra-day off, I can only imagine the author was that upset because he/she alone had made non-refundable travel arrangements. Or something similar. While this is frustrating, it is not reason to blacklist a school. It simply means, expect the unexpected - get travel insurance. Perhaps the owner had a very good reason to have to withdraw the offer. Perhaps he wanted to be able to give the extra-time but a large number of mother's complained, considering the tuition they pay is, I believe the highest in the Kangbuk area. Also, my experience has been that since Korea is a strongly hierarchical society, seniors are not used to explaining themselves to juniors, which is frustrating to many foreigners who expect explanations and sound reasoning for most things.

As for the school not being an official, accredited "international school," its not and nor do they claim to be if you read their literature. This may have been wishful thinking on the part of the author. C.I.S. does have an arrangement with a school board in British Columbia, Canada and their curriculum is based on North American curricula, as much as possible in an ESL environment, given their resources. Its a full year long program and teachers have 1 class all year. I have looked at their textbooks (science, math, language arts, etc. etc.) and the program is great, compared to many private language schools. This is also the reason the school tries hard to hire only individuals with a teaching license, because some knowledge of grading, preparation of supplements, integration of various materials, incorporation of learning strategies etc. are very helpful.

Lastly, the author is upset that the school didn't buy a filing cabinet, despite his urging; that he didn't receive a gift for Chuseok; the Principal's allegedly poor English; lack of communication, some issue regarding field trips etc. etc. These things seem petty. The school is under no obligation to buy additional furniture. And, at C.I.S Changdong, it was decided that foreigners would receive gifts at Christmas time, not Chuseok, simply because Chuseok has little meaning to foreigners besides time off. Further, the manager of the other branch that he praises highly, does not speak English well either. In other words, English ability is not connected with management skill. Also, the fact the the principal is not an amazing manager, is also not a reason to blacklist the school. In my opinion, 'amazing managers' are rare, in any country. You just have to make do and do your best. After all, he did have round trip airfare, his accommodation paid for, paid holidays and a decent salary. Plus, many language schools never go on field trips :)

Based on the above, I think the author's attack on the school is personal and not reasonable. Working in Korea is not always easy for foreigners and requires a great deal of understanding, patience and flexibility. Plus, the letter is hindering the school now somewhat, by actually causing some of the potential applicants to withdraw their application, which affects the other teachers there (additional work, overtime etc.), some of whom have stayed with the company for several years. Mind you a quick phone call usually solves the problem, but nonetheless...

Please consider taking the flame letter down or at least posting this counter view. A year has passed, and the author has vented.

Sincerely,

Ben

P.S. As mentioned above, anyone is welcome to call the school and speak with the vice-principal or any of the present staff.

Subject: Ewha ALS Blacklist

Date: Sunday, June 1, 2008 5:34 AM

1. Full name of institute

Ewha ALS ( ECC)

2. City/Area

Gunpo Sanbon

3. Institute contact details (address, email, phone, web)

1061 2 Dong

Sanbon Gyeongido

Gunpo si

4. Director/Manager Mr. K**** and ****** K*****

5. Reason for blacklisting

Do not participate in the mandatory NHIC health insurance program. Do not participate in mandatory pension program. Manager does not help you get internet. Apartments are dirty.This hogwon will lie and say they offer 50% medical insurance to get you to sign.

6. Action Taken

Contract is almost up and I am leaving for a better school.

Thank You Jon for providing this blacklist service for many current teachers and prospective teachers. I have known many people who decided not to work for schools based on it and it is a valuable resource here in Korea. Thank you for all your hard work.

Subject: ECC Kumho also spelled ECC Guemho

Date: Sunday, May 11, 2008 9:04 PM

** POSTING DELETED UPON REQUEST, Friday, January 2, 2009 **

Subject: UNIUM COLLEGE (Busan)-The Wrong Choice!

Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 23:08:06 -0800

Unium College (with three branches, all in Busan) is among the most deceitful, abusive, dishonest employers in Korea . It is NOT a school you should go to work for under ANY circumstances. Not if you expect to get paid, for a start.

My time at Unium extended from July 2005 to September 2006. Having completed a first one-year contract in summer 2006, I then extended until September-clearly, in retrospect, a big mistake.

It's now late November 2006, and I have yet to receive the bulk of my severance pay from the first contract, which was owed me, contractually, in July. The full amount remaining unpaid is 1,600,000 won (over 1700 USD). I have called Unium many, many times in the intervening months (from my new home in Seoul ), politely asking to be paid. Again and again, I've been made false promises ("we'll pay you next week . . .") and am finally running out of patience.

I've chosen the word "deceitful" to describe this school's management with very good reason. Mr. P**** R*****, the "CEO," presents himself as Mr. Straight-and-Narrow-Church-on-Sunday-Christian. He prominently displays Bibles in his office, and shows an unmistakable hiring preference for similar chapter-and-verse Protestant types. If you don't know Korea well, you may not realize just how shallow and shambolic this Korean "Christianity" can often be.

Ahead of my vacation time at Unium, on two occasions, Mr. R**** asked that I lie to my students about going home to take care of my sick mother, or something equally creative, to justify my week-long absences (something which I refused to do). The sheer brazenness of it - the complete disregard for honesty—set off warning bells in my mind then, as it should in yours now, if you're thinking about going to work for Unium. P**** R**** is a liar, a cheat, and a bad man. He shows no compunction.

I could bring forward many more examples of how Unium mistreats its teachers. Forcing them (as I was, at times) to work 12-hour schedules, for instance, in addition to Saturday afternoons. To be sure, I was always paid overtime for the additional hours-but my pay was often late (and was on one occasion, I'm convinced, deliberately miscalculated to my disadvantage). The severance pay, once again, is now more than FOUR MONTHS overdue, and I have little hope of ever seeing it.

I want to make it very clear that I'm not putting this report on the Web out of spite, or malice. My sole desire is to warn other teachers against making the mistake I did. Don't be taken in by Mr. ***** R******'s sham religiosity. Don't go to work for an employer who will withhold your salary for MONTHS on end, while making endless lies about paying you "next week." No one in the world deserves to be treated this way.

AND A REPLY:

Subject: Unium College - The right choice

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:33:05 -0700

Hi, I finished my contract recently with Unium college and for no real reason I googled the name and was taken to the "black list." I am writing because I and 2 of the 3 teachers who I worked with that finished their contracts before me (the 3rd teacher being the exception who posted Unium to the "blacklist") had an excellent experience at Unium college. Firstly, although the college did have a short period of 3 months where our pay was a week late (due to the expansion of another Unium branch) I was paid on time for the rest of my contract. Secondly, I received approximately 5-6 weeks of paid vacation during my year. The hogwan gives a week vacation every time the middle schools have exams, as well as about a week during Solnal and Chusok. We were asked to work 2 Saturdays during the busy Summer term and 2 in the busy winter term without getting overtime. But these were in exchange for vacation time given during the same month. Certainly I received far more than the contractual 10 days I was allocated. They paid me my bonus for finishing my contract BEFORE I finished my last week at the school and they also helped me arrange a round trip ticket home and then back to Korea (so I could continue my time here at a Busan university). I was treated fairly and with respect and courtesy during my experiences with management. They did ask me to work saturdays for very fair overtime rates. But when I told them I was not interested I was not harassed or coerced into doing the overtime. My apartment was larger than average and very close to the school. The textbooks and curriculum were provided and easy to use. I wanted to give an alternative "Green List" rating of Unium college. The teacher who blacklisted the school did not provide a balanced view of the school and was treated poorly in part due to his own issues. I would recommend Unium for a person looking to teach in Korea. It provided me an excellent first year.

Subject: Delphi English Country

Beware of Delphi English Country located in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do. The director systematically pays his teachers late. From May to August 2004, I received my salary late on three occasions. The usually excuses given are that he "forgot" or it's the "Korean way". Very frustrating to be forced to remind your employer time and time again to pay you your salary.

AND A REPLY:

Subject: Green list--Delphi English Country

Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:50:58 -0400

Someone put Delphi English Country in Ansan on the blacklist on this site. They also posted derogatory comments everywhere they could on the internet. I worked for this school in 2002 and 2003, and had a wonderful, wonderful experience. It saddened me to think that potential applicants might google the school's name and find all these criticisms, all by the same guy. No, my year there wasn't absolutely perfect, but this guy's main complaint is payment, and that was a total non-issue for me when I worked there. Not a day late, not once, the whole year. I could depend on the direct deposit to be made to my bank account every month like clockwork--even early if payday fell on a weekend or holiday. The directors were very concerned for my health and safety and tried to make my transition to Korea as smooth as possible... doing everything from picking me up from the airport before I had even signed a contract with them, to getting me a decent two bedroom non-shared apartment, to putting my cell phone account int he director's name so that I didn't have to bother with a pre-paid account, to getting me christmas and birthday presents. It doesn't seem plausible to me that after I left they became dishonest flakes. I think (and have heard from a former co-worker) that they had problems with this teacher from the beginning and ended up having to fire him, and he posted all these black list reviews because he was bitter. During my second year in Korea, I worked for an institute in Seoul that paid almost a million won more per month and provided a swankier (though smaller) apartment near central park. I ended up hating it and quit in the middle of the contract, regretting that I had not re-signed with Delphi. If you have any questions or want me to send you a few of the bizzillions of pictures I took while working there, e-mail me at dithyxxxxxx@hotmail.com.

AND YET ANOTHER REPLY:

Subject: Avoid Delphi English Country: Reply

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 15:05:15 -0700 (PDT)

I'd like to submit a quick reply to the response to my post of Sept 24 2004 concerning Delphi English Country.

I cannot speak to the experience of the person who posted the reply; however, this person stated that I was fired, whereas I quit because I was being systematically paid late and told that forgetting to pay my salary was acceptable as this is the "Korean way" or because the director "forgot".

I also know for a fact that the Korean staff were also being paid late and that late payment of their salary had been occuring before my arrival at the school and continued during my time there.

Also, when I first met the director, he disparaged the former teacher who had lived in the two bedroom apartment, calling him dirty (as he had left the apartment infested with roaches).

When I posted my review my motivation was simply to warn prospective teachers based on my own experience, which included two other schools where I was never, ever paid late once (Gyeoyeon Academy in Ansan and Ewha ALS, Dongnae Campus, in Pusan)

I would also like to say that late payment of my salary began the first month I started working there (Wonder why the previous teacher left early)."

Subject: Feinschule of Ilsan

Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007

Hi Jon,

Could you please BLACK LIST Feinschule of Ilsan Ilsan Gu, Goyangsi, Kyonggi-Do

This school owned by Mrs Cxxxxx Kxxxx but run by Mrs Lxxx Hxxx still owes me airfare and Severance pay for last year.

I worked the first and last day of the school year but when I appealed to the Labour Board they said because I did not work for 12 months I was not entitled to severance pay, Even though I had one week of leave in my contract.

I can be contacted any time by email. I am an Australian and have worked in Korea since July 2005,

Another Australian teacher did not get his severance pay and many Korean Teachers were not paid so they left the school.

Best Regards.

Subject: Canada International School (C.I.S.), Changdong, Seoul

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007

For the past year and a half, it has been my displeasure to work at C.I.S. (Canada International School) in Changdong, Seoul. This school, first and foremost, is NOT an international school but a hogwan parading as such. Several employees I know were told that it was an actual international school, and were disappointed to find out this was not the case, but in fact a lie. This school will tell lies to recruit teachers, especially since they hire only certified teachers and the appeal of working at an "international school" is a great draw. Do not be fooled. There is nothing "international" about C.I.S. It's simply a hogwan that prides itself on hiring "certified teachers" and then proceeds to treat them like crap.

Let's begin at the beginning. When I first arrived, C.I.S. was not a horrible place to work. But after 4 principals in a year and a half, it has gone downhill incredibly. The real trouble began about a year after I arrived; just after I agreed to stay on to graduate the class I'd been teaching. The staff had been told we were given an extra day off for summer vacation and made plans accordingly. I personally was told this SEVERAL times by the person who was principal at the time. Then, about a month or so before the vacation actually happened, we were told we did NOT in fact have this day off. I had planned on having this day off, and was angry to find out my plans could no longer be the way I had anticipated, by no fault of my own. Other teachers felt the same way, and had also been told about the extra day off. When a letter was written (by myself) and signed by all the teachers saying we felt this was inappropriate behavior, a firestorm fell upon my head, simply because I asked for something I had been promised already. I actually thought I was going to get fired for about two weeks, and in fact was prepared to be. I did not want to work for a school that would treat professionals in this way. When I was not fired, and I thought it had all blown over (without our getting the day that was promised to us), I was asked by the principal (who, by this point, was different from the one who had told us about the day off) to apologize to our owner, who was the reason the extra day had been taken away, and to whom I had addressed and given my letter. I was asked to apologize to him because I asked for something that I had been told I would have and apparently "hurt his feelings." My letter was in NO WAY demeaning or accusing, but diplomatic and well-thought out, and should not have hurt his feelings. In fact, I even apologized if I was placing blame on the wrong person. Especially since, I'm quite sure, the owner at the time HAD no feelings about anything except money. I very carefully wrote a letter to him but in no way did I apologize for what I'd done because I didn't, and still don't, feel it was wrong. The entire situation could have been handled differently by the Korean staff at my school, and was clearly a result of miscommunication, which none of the foreign teachers were a part of but had to pay for. The excuse given was that this day was "not in our contract" so we didn't get it off. Yet all the holidays in my contract were incorrect to begin with. Plus, another branch of our school in Gangnam got this day off but for some reason we didn't. It was stupid of him (or whoever made the decision) to have the two schools on different schedules in the first place because this only causes confusion.

About two months after this, we were supposed to be paid on a Friday, as per the contract that Mr. K*** loves so much. I found out on Tuesday that this would not be happening, and told the other foreign teachers about it. We discussed it and decided to bring it up in the meeting set for that Thursday (they'd never been on a Thursday since I could remember). The meeting was set on Thursday by no coincidence. I'm certain the principal at the time was going simply slip in the fact that we weren't going to get paid at the end of the meeting right before the bell and then we'd all go off to class not being able to do anything about it. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the meeting agenda and "pay day" was listed at the very bottom, after a bunch of stuff that really didn't need to be discussed. Long story short, we demanded that we be paid by 3 pm the following day (we'd always been paid by noon before and figured 3 pm would be possible) or we would not teach the afternoon. Some foreigners on staff would not be able to eat during the weekend if they didn't get paid. This was not a situation any of us took lightly.

We were not paid by the set time the next day, so we didn't teach. Our owner came in and said that we would be paid if we went back to work. Now, please understand that this man (Mr. K***) is not a good person, nor does he know ANYTHING about education, or how to treat people; he's lied on several occasions (the day off I mentioned above for example) and personally, I could find no reason to trust him. I had no doubt that we would go back to work and still not get paid. He claimed that we "didn't care about the kids" because we weren't teaching (he clearly has never cared AT ALL about any child that has walked in this school, only the money they provide for him) and that we were "breaking the contract" when he's the one who was going to break it by not paying us. It's funny that when the contract suits him, he goes by it (the day off, our not teaching because we didn't get paid) but when it doesn't suit him, he ignores it (not paying us because tuition money was collected later than normal). Plus, I did not understand how somehow, magically, the money would appear so we could get paid like he claimed. If he had the money, which he clearly did because we did end up getting paid, why couldn't he just pay us earlier like we'd asked? It's almost like he held out to punish us for being bad, when all we were doing was getting something that we were entitled to BY THE CONTRACT.

A final incident involving Mr. K***** is the worst of all. A foreign teacher became extremely ill after serving 9 months of their contract. This teacher had been sick on and off all year, finally realizing it was an environmental allergy causing all the problems. This teacher was told by a doctor that she needed to leave Korea, and that she should be hospitalized. That's how horrible it was. Yet, when she tried to leave the school professionally and with dignity, the school told her she needed to pay back her airfare TO Korea (like most schools, CIS pays airfare to Korea and home again at the end of the contract). This stipulation is NO WHERE in the contract (again, Mr. K*** didn't seem to notice this), plus it's just a horrible way to treat a good, dedicated teacher whose body can't handle being in Korea. I can't say much on how this situation was resolved, as I have never found it my business to know or ask, but the fact that any place of work, or any person, would treat someone this way makes me sick.

This is the type of person he is: vindictive, arrogant, money hoarding and, in his mind, blameless. DO NOT work for this man. He is one of the most horrible people I've ever met in my life. Even the supervisors at the school don't like him, calling him Black Snake behind his back.

The other most horrible person is also an owner at my school. Shortly after this pay day incident, Mr. K**** sold part of the school to a woman who was a supervisor here previously. Her name is Mrs. **** **** K***. She is equally as horrible as Mr. K*** himself (they are not related as far as I know) and it is clear why he would choose to sell part of the school to her.

I first knew that she was a bad principal when I requested a meeting with her regarding some questions the teachers had about the Christmas Performance. Our questions were not answered by our supervisors (they had not been given enough information to answer them) so another teacher and I personally requested a meeting with her so we could have our questions answered. We set it at a time of day that SHE choose so that she could come and answer our questions. Yet when the time came, she could not make the effort to show up. Granted, it was a busy week (Parent/Teacher Conferences) but SHE chose the time and STILL didn't show up. To me, this shows a CLEAR lack of respect and professionalism on her part. So basically the meeting was a complete waste of time because all of our questions were once again not answered.

Mrs. K**** claims that she is very busy, and I don't doubt that she is. But she also used to stand in front of the video monitors in the lobby and wait for a teacher to mess up (in her eyes a "mess up" is one child not sitting down) and then go into their room WHILE THEY WERE TEACHING and yell at the students. Again, this shows a lack of respect for the teacher. If there is a problem, it should be brought up in a professional manner and discussed, not her bursting into someone's room to yell at a child. It's like she doesn't trust professional, certified teachers to do the job we were hired to do. Nothing says appreciation like a lack of respect! I remember once incident when I was out sick and she came into my classroom and made up some rule for my students and didn't tell me about it. Then, once I was back, she proceeded to yell at them for breaking a rule I had no idea I was supposed to enforce. Um… right. I also resent the fact that she has "observed" my morning class for a total of about 10 minutes (while they were eating snack) and thinks she knows my students. She has NEVER seen me teach my afternoon class, yet decided to make up a rule for them as if she knew ANYTHING about the way they behave in class or what they need. Again, we're not trusted to do our own jobs.

Another example: I asked the school for a filing cabinet to keep in the teacher's room where we could put class materials we'd made (games, old tests, math work sheets, holiday activities, etc.) so that teachers in the years to come could have an easy way to find resources that might be useful, rather than making their own or searching through piles and piles of books. I asked for this over 4 months ago, and I asked twice, once directly to Mrs. K***, all the time explaining why we need it and what it would be used for. While all the teachers agree that it's a good idea, we still don't have a filing cabinet because Mrs. K*** "doesn't know if we'll use it." Awesome. Let's just be honest that the real reason is money that it costs money, which is unacceptable to her.

Keep in mind that I had an entire 20 minute conversation with a supervisor about this issue with her explaining Mrs. K****'s decision to me because Mrs. K*** wouldn't do it herself. This has happened a few times for a couple of different issues; having to talk through a supervisor rather than directly to Mrs. K*** herself. At one point I said something to the effect of "If she has something to tell me she can tell me herself" to which my supervisor said, "She's not confident about her English." Now, Mrs. K*** was a supervisor at this school before she returned and bought part of it. A supervisor's job at my school is to go between parents and teachers, so they must be fluent in both English and Korean. And my supervisor's telling me that Mrs. K*** doesn't speak English? She either must have at one time or she shouldn't have been hired to be a supervisor. My personal feeling is that she is simply too good to talk to a lowly teacher like myself, even to do something as simple as answer a question. This is only my opinion but I'm a pretty good judge of character and this woman doesn't have a good one, by any means. The few times she has attempted to talk to me, there was no discussion. It was simply her telling me what I had to do, regardless of the fact that I know my students and she doesn't. She was also quite unable to answer any questions I presented to her, because it's either her way or no way and questions or suggestions seem to be unacceptable.

Even her interactions with the children give me the heebie-jeebies. It seems so insincere and ... wrong. It's really hard for me to believe she even cares about the children at all, when she seems to take pleasure in yelling at them. Again, these are only my feelings on the matter but I know you will find others at the school that feel, or have felt, the same way. She rarely says "good morning" or is even pleasant to the teachers. I think once when I cut my hair she bothered to talk to me about it. She doesn't seem to do anything to contribute to a harmonious and pleasant working environment, only to a toxic, mentally and physically draining one. Foreign teachers were given nothing at Chuseok or Christmas, not even a card of appreciation or a personal thank you. Nothing. A minimal effort was made around Christmas but by the time she decided she wanted to buy us a meal, it was the day before we all left for vacation and had already made plans. Plus, let's be honest here, the last thing I'd want to do is spend more time with her than I have to because she makes me sick. We were told we would have a dinner in January instead, and here it is, the final week of school, and no mention of any dinner has been made to anyone.

The working environment she's created is made worse by the way she treats the supervisors, who are supposed to pass information onto us, especially now since Mrs. K**** won't talk to teachers. She has all of the supervisors here on edge, and they all seem afraid of her. For example, we are currently getting ready to change classrooms to prepare for a new school year. I wanted to know who would be moving into my room, so I could start taking things down, or leave them up, based on what the new occupant wants. I asked who would be moving into my room and was told it was "a secret." What?! I had a flashback to the fourth grade when someone is whispering about you and then, when asked what they're talking about, says, "It's a secret." Why does this simple information need to be kept secret? What's the problem with wanting to know things ahead of time so that a teacher can plan some things in advance? I'm certain the reason for this being kept "secret" is because a) no one around here could make a decision to save their life because Mrs. K**** has absolutely NO managerial skills or b) they think teachers will complain about it so they don't want to tell us until the very last moment so we'll have no time to. This sounds eerily like the time we didn't get paid and were supposed to be told in a meeting the DAY BEFORE. There are legitimate concerns being expressed by some teachers about next years schedule, and when a meeting was requested to discuss them, teachers were again denied. Clearly, Mrs. K***'s management style is one of scare tactics (toward the Korean staff), domination, withholding information, and miscommunication. This does not make for a pleasant teaching experience in ANY way. I seriously can not stand this woman, and don't want anyone out there to have to work for her because she is horrible.

If the above reasons weren't enough to turn you off of CIS Changdong, here are some more. I realize that CIS is a hogwan and therefore a business designed to be profitable and not an actual school, but Mrs. K****'s (and Mr. K****'s as well) concerns with money have reached a disgusting and ridiculous level. There is the filing cabinet incident, and the Chuseok/Christmas incidents, as I have already explained, but I have two more stories to relate to really illustrate this point. We went on a field trip that involved seeing a show. Only teachers, students, and one supervisor were allowed to go. The rest of the supervisors (4) and bus teachers (5, I think) had to stand outside in the cold while we watched the show because Mrs. K*** wouldn't pay for them to see it. This is a perfect example of not only how ridiculous of a person and boss she is, but also how highly she regards her employees. She doesn't even care enough about them to pay a few thousand won for them to see a show on a fieldtrip. Wow, that certainly says something about her character.

Another incident involved my supervisor. Mrs. K**** had hired another supervisor, paying her less than the others, and so needed to fire a person who was already employed. After a miscommunication between supervisor and student, and the student lying to her grandmother, and the grandmother subsequently calling to complain (about something that wasn't even true), my supervisor was fired. She was even told something to the effect of, "You're not the one I wanted to fire but oh well." My supervisor has never received a complaint from me or the other teacher she supervised, and was well liked by the parents of my students, plus she did her job well. Yet she was fired simply so the school (and Mrs. K***, a part owner) could make more money. Nice. Way to appreciate someone who does their job well.

I also find it interesting that Mrs. K***, whose English isn't good (as I mentioned earlier), thinks she is able to hire people with quality English skills. This seems a little counter intuitive, and judging from the people she's hired, I am correct. The level of English of some of the supervisors is literally below that of some of our kindergarten students. There is a fairly high turn over, however, so I can't say too much about this aspect of teaching at CIS.

Please be advised that this pertains ONLY to the Changdong campus of the school. I have heard only positive things about the CIS in Ueijongbu, so if you are looking to work there you will probably have a great experience. I also cannot comment on the Gangnam campus of the school, but I know that Mr. K*** is heavily involved there, so you be the judge.

Subject: Oedae Language Institute

Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 00:03:18 -0800

Oedae Language Institute, Ansan

(was Wonderland)

Switched contract from one I was sent while in the states (said the first was an "error". One issue is that they never give teachers the medical though promised.

After I came back from Japan they tried not to get my work visa for 90 days and wouldn't return passport, etc. I called the agent & they went and got the work visa but then wouldn't give it (or my passport)to me so I called the labor board & they returned my paperwork. etc. but then started sitting me in front of recorders, recording teaching sessions, etc. They said I shamed them by going to the labor board but it was the only way to get them to do anything. Then they called me in and tried to get me to sign a release that I had violated the contract (I hadn't, they had) so I refused. Then they rewrote it just as a release and i signed just to get out of there. They took 800,000 out of my Nov pay & 600,000 from December. There were manu spurious deductions and they got angry if anyone asked for proof.

added: (4 Feb 2007) they slander ex teachers and call the next schools, etc. to try to get them fired. They also did this to korean teachers.

And the response:

Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:33:35 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: Oedae Language Institute, Korea, Ansan---highly recommended.

Hi Jon,

Please give special attention to this mail as it is intended to serve two purposes.

First and foremost, it is to serve as a 'rebuttal' to the entry made on your Korean Hogwans Blacklist against Oedae Language Institute, OLI, Ansan.

For your attention, the blacklisted entry was made on 1 January 2007 by our former American teacher.

The school that she blacklisted (OLI), can easily prove to you that the actual story is just the reverse of what she has portrayed in the above blacklisted mail.

The above-mentioned teacher came to OLI having previously had bad experiences in Korean Hogwans. And she wasn't prepared to give the 'new' school any benefit of the doubt.

It started with her demand that she be paid precisely at the end of the working month, while the contracted she had signed stated differently. In my 2+ years with the school, I don't know of anyone who hasn't been paid on time, i.e on the 5th of each month.

Furthermore, she has had advance payments made to her by the school on so many occasions that one could easily lose count!

And, she has borrowed W 50,000- from me and failed to pay it back.

I fail to understand why she had to go to the Korean Labor Board as I have never come across a school so accommodating as OLI, Ansan. And this is my 7th year as a teacher in Korea.

Jon, if you have any specific questions that have been raised in the above mails, please feel free to address them to me.

Secondly, I would strongly recommend the Oedae Languate, Ansan to anyone who desires to teach in Korea, hassle free.

I am Canadian, and the supervising teacher here at OLI, Ansan. This is the start of my 3rd year with the school.

You don't have to take my word for it---we have 4 other foreign teachers who will verify the above.

With thanks, Mark

Subject: LCI Kids Club in Pyeongchon, Anyang City

Date:

To Whom It May Concern:

From May to November I had been employed as a conversational English teacher at a private English institute called LCI Kids Club in Pyeongchon, Anyang City. In Korea these schools are known as Hagwons. In early November my mother told me that my father was sick, the prognosis was not good, and that I would have to come home in December. I relayed this information to my academic director, G***, who informed the owner of the school, Mr. P****. I'm not sure of his full name because he never told me. I asked if I could have the month of December off to go home and be with my family, he agreed to give me the time off, a fact for which I was very grateful. A few days after this agreement was made my mother called and told me that my father's condition had gotten worse and that I would have to return immediately. I informed, G**** once again and she in turn informed Mr. P**. G*** told me afterwards that Mr. P****** would not allow me to take more than a month off and that if I decided to go home I would have to quit. As much as I enjoyed my job I had to quit for obvious reasons. Before I went home another employee of LCI Kids Club, a man named David Yoon, approached me. He is the coordinator at the school. He told me that I needed to have a doctor's note that contained my father's diagnosis and a letter written by myself explaining why I had to leave sent to the school before I went home. I agreed to this request and prepared the documents. After submitting these documents David told me that I would receive a letter of release from the school, signed by Mr. P*****, whenever I decided to return to Korea. As an employee of a private English institute I require a letter of release from my previous school if I leave that school during the course of a contract and wish to work at a different school, my contract is from May 2006 to April 2007. After all this I returned home on November 21st and attended my dad's wake and funeral, unfortunately I did not get home in time to see him before he died. Last week, Thursday December 14th, I was contacted by my academic director G**** and asked to return and finish my contract. After thinking about it for a few days I agreed to return, but was told by G*** that Mr. P**** informed her I would not receive my full end of contract bonus if I did return. I told G*** I didn't want to return if I would not receive my full bonus. I told G**** I was willing to add two extra months on the end of my contract in order to make up for the time I missed, but was still told by Mr. P***** I would not receive my full contract stated bonus. Mr. P***'s reason for this action was that many students had quit the Kids Club because they were told I would not be returning, so in order to make up for this financial loss I would not be paid a bonus. Taking this into consideration I told G*** that I would not be returning to the school and asked her to have my release letter prepared. She in turn told me that Mr. P***** would not grant me a release letter anymore; her exact quote was "If you will not work for us you will not be able to work for anyone." My former employer is currently blackmailing me. I've placed the contact information for this school at the end of this message. Thanks for reading this.

Sincerely,

Bill H

School name: LCI Kids Club

Owner: Mr. P****

Address: Kids Building, 1058-5 Hogye Dong, Dongan Gu, Anyang City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Subject: Kid's College Daejeon

Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 10:05:29 -0800

Once again the Kid's College name is being destroyed by the Daejeon branch. Stay far away from this struggling school they call a hogwon. The weak, spineless (name deleted) serves as head of foreign teachers having no clue as to what that means. He is the second of two minions under the control of director the evil Ms. ***** H*****. The other being, Ms. H******* number one favorite, the pretentious (name deleted). The combine efforts of the three treat there workers like absolute garbage. Unless you are looking to "teach more harder better I'm thinking, okay" reconsider. Kid's College Daejeon, horrible.

Subject: Kids College franchise, Jukjeong-dong Yongin-si Bundang

Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006

I would like to comment on a Kids College franchise that is located in Jukjeong-dong, Yongin-si, Bundang. I am going to keep my head in a composed state as I write this brief dissertation regarding my former place of employment, despite the fact that I am seething over the blatant disregard they hold for teachers who work there. The school opened last September and is run by an American-Korean woman named Ms. K***. I had numerous complications with the school throughout the year. To begin with, it took 4 months for the school to even send me the visa after I started working there. Furthermore, the school did not honour their contractual obligations. Pay, Pension registration, health insurance, living allowance, end of contract bonus and air tickets were all unfortunately negated at the contracts end and eventually I had to pressure them to pay, which took several weeks to do. The school is a horrible place to work for and the director is a conniving vixen who routinely lies to parents and teachers alike. The school operates on a shoe string budget with no supplies to facilitate the elaborate program they market to parents. Cooking and craft supplies are routinely purchased by the poor teachers working there. I had personally spent a small fortune on supplies. This is one of the most expensive ESL school franchises in the country and if child's parents really understood what was going on, this school would fold in a heartbeat! On several occasions I bent over backwards to assist in the operations of this establishment and received nothing but a slap in the face, total disrespect and a very bitter taste for the ESL industry in Korea. A school doesn't get much lower when the director/owner tells you that she didn't sign your contract to begin with and passes the signature off as a forgery by someone else in the office. Who's kidding who here ??? Keep your sanity and stay away from this institute !!

Subject: Wol-piong Foreign Language Institute

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:23:09 -0800

I have had quite a bad experience working at this Hagwan called GNB English. It is located in Daejeon. Wol-piong Foreign Language Institute. I have been here for less than three months. There have been issues right from the very start. I would have to say that one of the most frustrating experiences that I encounterd was with the language barrier.

L*** is the current director and she is terrible. She doesn't speak English very well and made my experience more of a hassle. Nothing has been easy for me since I arrived. Everything from giving me the wrong bank to do foreign banking to not paying me on time. There were a few times where I had to phone her to remind her to pay me.

When I got there I was told that I'd be working two schools. I didn't think much of it at first but what I discovered was that it was illegal. I had no idea. The other institute was on Tuesday and Thursday's. They did pay for the cab fair but it was such a hassle getting to work.

I'd have to say that the curriculum is terrible. I mean repeating things like "Are you my mother?" over and over again to 6 year olds. And the kids are terrible as well spoiled rich kids who complain about every little thing.

I found out through one of the kids that throughout there 2 years of being opened they go through teachers like the revolving door. 8 teachers all together. I'd say that is enough to cause alarm bells.

The director called me into the office. She said that my classes were boring and that I wasn't doing enough. She wanted to reduce my pay. I'm the type of person that likes to stick things out so I was getting 2.0 million and she wanted to reduce the pay to 1.9 million I said ok.

The very next day she called me and said that the other institute didn't want me working there anymore. She said that she didn't want me their either and gave me less than a month to pack up my things and leave.

I don't have a lot of experience teaching and I felt that I didn't get any support or training. This Korean teacher came and it was agreed with the director that he would help me for a while. Everything was working great. Then all of the sudden she cut the Korean teacher hours and I was back working by myself.

I do like Korea and am awaiting employment at this other institute teaching adults. I want to leave on a good relationship with her. I'm not ready to return to Canada just yet and feel so determined as to make this work. Surly there must be more decent places to work then the place that I was at. What I don't like about Korea is the uncertainty. I believe that they can do what ever they want to during your first six months of employment here. I don't know but I heard of constant stories of Koreans doing just that. I have also found them to be quite judgmental. I mean if they don't like you or your appearance your in trouble.

Subject: Boston Language School, Suweon, Korea

Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 02:03:23 -0700 (PDT)

This school has a slow turnover, but it sure gave me a raw deal. The school has elaborate and expensive video and recording equipment. Why, I do not know. The only time I ever saw them use the recording equipment was for a Christmas CD which they sell to the parents.

I accepted the job understanding that the school would help me produce commercial quality videotapes with the children. How naive I was! While I was employed there, I wrote three video scripts and asked the director to help me produce them. He ignored me.

I also accepted the job, understanding that I was to have a full schedule, with a kindergarten class in the morning. Through no fault of my own, the school was unable to enroll enough kids for my kindergarten class, so they transferred my kids to a class under a teacher with greater seniority.

I was concerned that I would be a financial liability to the director, so I agreed to work temporarily for part-time salary, provided that the director accept me as an apprentice in operating the video and recording equipment. He agreed that he needed help in that area, so we signed a contract to that effect.

My first assignment was to write music files on my computer at home. For about a month, I worked diligently on that task. At the end of the month, I told the director that I was finished with those files.

He ignored me. My afternoon classes were assigned to a new teacher, and I was dismissed.

Subject: Kang's English Academy

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:28:34 -0500

The following Korean English school should be blacklisted in Canada, the United States, and any other English speaking country. This school's name is Kang's Academy in Seosan, South Korea.

Kang's English Academy Eupnae-dong

Seosan, South Korea

A second foreign teacher is leaving this school for many disturbing reasons. She has been in Seosan for less than a month. The living conditions which are provided by the school were less than favorable providing a water problem within the apartment. The apartment is extremely slippery with wet water and has caused this teacher to fall twice. The director was not responsive to her complaints as the second time she fell, she felt as if this was a serious serious issue. She took a bus to a neighboring city *an hour away* as the director's did not help her find a local hospital. She got the x-ray's back and found out that she had a broken bone in her back. When arriving back to the school, she informed the director of this issue, and she requested better living conditions. The director ignored the situation causing her to arrange a departure from the school. She is now finishing up a month of teaching, so she is monetarily compensated with a broken bone in her back, difficulties walking and waking up, and uncertainties of where her future lies due to this unfortunated circumstance. IT IS NECESSARY THAT THIS SCHOOL BE BLACKLISTED!!!! THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR TEACHERS, AND THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM AND PUT THEM IN HARMS WAY! She was not directed to a hospital and had to travel over an hour with a broken bone. No remorse was exhibited from the directors. This is by far one of the worst schools in Korea with irresponsible directors.

If you have any questions, Please feel free to contact me !!! THIS IS BY FAR NOT A JOKE!?Please HELP KEEP FOREIGNERS AWAY FROM THIS SCHOOL! THEY DO NOT CARE!!!!!

Subject: Stanford Academy in Jeonju

Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 17:06:51 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Jon,

I want you to know of a school in Jeonju...it is called Stanford Academy. This school is in the Seo Sin Dong Area, Wan San Gu, Jullabukdo Area, in Jeonju. The director operated another school before near i think it was Jeonbuk university, and also operated the Dr. Lee's Toeic class.

This (director) is the devil itself. One cannot get lower than this guy. Problems to obtain full bonus, repeated history of paying late. The contractual terms he refuses to respect. Instant dismissal if one does not do overtime, even though contract states that there is to be no weekend work and that overtime is discretionary. In reality, it is coercive. There are changes to the contract terms. The worst part is that one would be forced to teach for close to 10 hours without as much as a half hour break to have something to eat. If you complain, you are fired and then you will be kicked out of the apartment and be on the streets. Forget about trying to get a letter of release, learn to get accustomed to invasions of your privacy because employer has keys to your apartments and will enter your apartment. He would back every few seconds to "peep" at you. YOu are not to stand for the entire period. There is no syllabus/curriculum with respect to the school. This is a sorry name "school" which is nothing more than a money making gimmick for duped parents. There is an official complaint lodged with the Jeonju Labour Board. He was ordered to pay one ex teacher some money. This is after he threatened her for the repayment of the one way ticket. The labour board ordered him to pay. This director is very vindictive and one needs to know what one is going to have to cope with. The apartment is the only redeeming feature..it was not a one room but a one bedroom apartment.

Subject: Oxford, also known as the KCG (Korea Campus Group), Jeju-do

Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:20:34 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Jon,

Thanks for running your lists. I've got another school to add to it, unfortunately. Here are the plain facts of my story.

Hello. My name is Melissa T., I'm a US citizen who worked at Jeju International English Village on Jeju-do, South Korea from July 15th to August 28th, 2006. The reason I am writing is to let you know that the managers of this hogwan (Oxford, also known as the KCG (Korea Campus Group), among other names) are breaking contractual agreements and actually breaking the law through their labor practices with US, UK, and New Zealand citizens. I left on August 28th, and I hope that my experience will add to others and get this hogwan shut down.

BROKEN LAWS:

Mr L*** **** ***, the owner of the camp, made the Korean and foreign teachers work for two weeks straight with no weekend break, 12 hours a day. I have since managed, through a strike, to get overtime pay for one break day. No one else has been compensated.

I, Melissa T., was not paid for 8 weeks of work, 12 hours a day, or compensated for my airfare, to the tune of 4.1 million won.

BROKEN CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS:

Mr L*** **** *** promised to pay me, Melissa T., 4 million won on August 28th, a contractual agreement which he did not honor.

Mr L*** **** *** promised a New Zealand teacher, Aroha, that she would work 30 hrs a week, a contractual agreement that has not been honored.

Mr L*** **** ** promised a New Zealand teacher, Aroha, that she would work Monday through Friday, a contractual agreement that has not been honored.

Mr L** *** *** promised two New Zealand teachers, Aroha, Molia, and myself that we would have private accomodations, a contractual agreement that has not been honored.

Mr L*** **** *** gave Aroha and two UK teachers, J** C. and M*******, no warning that they would be coming to Jeju Island, and they were on Jeju, working 12 hrs a day, on their vacation time.

FURTHER INFRACTIONS:

Mr L*** **** *** and his camp coordinator, Mr N*** **** ***screamed at M*****, A******* and myself, causing us a lot of emotional strain and anguish.

Mr L*** **** *** promised New Zealand students and teachers (B******** W***** and K**** M**********) one New Zealand meal a day, which was not honored.

During the camp, Mr L*** **** *** did not pay the supermarket over 1 million won, so the supermarket would not sell food to the cooks. Most of the cooks quit after one night when all we had to eat was french toast and potatoes.

Mr L*** **** *** promised New Zealand students and teachers a field trip every weekend, which was not honored.

At the camp, Mr L*** **** *** did not pay for oil to heat the water, so for over one week 80 students and teachers were forced to have cold showers.

Mr L*** **** *** told me that 60 NZ and Aussie kids are scheduled to come for the next winter camp! He is trying to scam even MORE people! It seems that unless he commits immigration infractions, the police and labor board are reluctant/unable to do anything.

BAD PRESS:

I saw a Korean newspaper article that Mr L*** **** *** did not pay the rent on the winter camp location, and as I left, he was scouting out places to have his next winter camp.

This is just a rumor, but I heard from another foreign teacher, J** C*********, that Mr L*** and his wife used to run a Wonderland hogwan, which had been shut down because of poor management and bankruptcy.

Another rumor, heard from another foreign teacher employed by Mr L*** for the past 10 months, M***, is that the owner of the camp, Mr L*** **** **, has been in jail before, and is not allowed to use his name with this camp, but he is using his name with this camp.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS:

I was screamed at by Mr N*** **** *** for perhaps the third time on the night of August 20th so I cried and called the police (dialed (02) 114) but no one there could speak English, so I hung up.

On August 21st two policemen showed up at the camp around 2pm, (I was taken out of my class to give them my passport), (but a Korean teacher, Hannah, told me not to tell Mr L** or Mr S***, it was a secret raid, they'd been investigating the camp for some time) and through Hannah I told them how upset I was and how no one was getting paid, and she told them about all of the other Korean teachers were getting scammed as well.

The police got very angry. A******* K** is an American citizen (Kyopo) who was forced to work 12 hours a day despite the fact that she does not have an E-2 visa and is not legally able to work more than 20 hours a week in Korea. The police have been investigating this camp for some time. I told my lawyer, Mr J*****, and he said, "But aren't they a government sponsored camp?" And I said, "Well, I hope not!" The lawyer told me to call him on the last day, and the police gave me their card and told me to call them too.

(The Big "office helper" apparently knew they were there, because he took off in the van and didn't come back until nightfall, but it's possible that Mr L*** **** *** never knew).

On the 23rd I succeeded in talking with the lawyer, Mr M****** J****, around 1pm, and he advised me to sit tight and be a model teacher in the HOPES that I would get paid.

On August 27th the board of education raided the camp again in the mid-afternoon/evening, but I don't know if they succeeded in talking with Mr L**.

On August 28th I was supposed to meet with Mr L*** **** *** at 8:30am and I was waiting in the office but at 8:15am he ran out and wouldn't come back in and a Korean teacher, J******, ran after him and begged him to pay me, and he reported that he would pay me at noon on August 29th, and I said no, he can't, I'm leaving at 11am that day, and so J******* promised to go back and try to convince him to pay me earlier again and I left for Seong-Eup to catch the bus.

I got to the Jeju airport at 10:30am on August 28th, where I promptly went to the information desk on the 2nd floor and asked the woman there to help me call the policeman who had given me his card when he secretly raided the camp on August 21st. She did and he arrived within ten minutes, with an interpreter, Ms. Y**** ***-*****. Then the interpreter arranged for my flight to be delayed until 3:30pm, and my baggage to be left in the luggage office, and we went in the policeman's car to the Labor Board. In the car he and she quizzed me about my boss and what was happening and what my address was in America and where I went to school, etc, and wrote it all down.

We got to the Labor board around 11:30 and E**-Y****** took photocopies of my diploma, the contract that Mr L*** signed, my passport, my alien card, and Mr L**'s business card, all of which I'd luckily had on hand. Then the man at the labor office (sitting in the desk nearest the door) (whose name I never learned) called Mr L** (around 11:45?) and asked him if he knew me, Mr L** at first said no, then he said that I'd have to wait two weeks for my money, and the labor guy said, well, okay. And the policeman, Y*** ***-****** and I went back out to the car and I was SPITTING MAD and waving my contract but apparently there was nothing that they could do, they said it's better to have many people who were scammed with you (but I didn't have any of the Korean teachers' contact information, argh).

Then the policeman asked if I wanted to go out for Jajamyeon so I said all right even though I didn't feel like eating and at 11:50am we went to this restaurant where all of the senior police officers were eating (around the corner from the police station) and I used Y*** ***-******'s cellphone and called my lawyer, Mr M****** J*****, from there, at around 12:15pm. I told him the problem and he said he'd call a friend to check on the law, and call me back. So I tried to eat with the policeman and the interpreter and tried to be friendly and not cry, and I think it worked for a little while. E**-***** asked me if I could stay on Jeju for another two weeks, (as she thought I could get paid if I stayed) and I thought about it, but said that I had no money. And then she offered to let me stay with her, and pay for my food, which was sweet, but I told her that I just couldn't, I was so homesick (but really just sick of the terrible lies and screaming and injustice). Then the lawyer called me back after we finished eating (Around 1:20pm) and said that Mr L*** was within his right to deny me pay for 2 weeks.

So I gnashed my teeth and went with E**-******* and the nice policeman to Nonghyop bank, to see if I could transfer my money out of there from America, and it seemed that I could, so we went back to the airport and they left me there.

At 2pm I found the Korean teachers, A*******, H****** and S***** waiting with the kids at the airport, they of course asked why I was there, and I told them, and they wanted me to wait with them, but I didn't want anything to do with them anymore, it was just too painful, and so I took my Asiana flight at 3:30 pm back to Seoul, saw the big ugly office helper greeting the parents with the kids, (suppressed my urge to kick him, walked on by), caught a bus to Itaewon, left on August 29th for the airport. Caught my NW008 flight to Tokyo/Seattle at 11:20am and was back in Portland, Oregon, USA at 11:20am the same day.

Anyway, hope this will help others not work for these despicable people.

Peace,

Melissa

Subject: Blacklist Ewha ALS Saha-gu, Busan

Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:21:39 +0000

Useless school. I feel sorry for the teachers and students still there. A psychotic director, she'll stop at nothing to make you feel worthless and at her mercy. I was there less than 3 months when I had enough and she told me that I'd never work in Korea again. She blacklisted me, didn't pay me, and got the police after me for petty lies she created. She also took it upon herself to email a bunch of schools in Busan with my passport photo telling them I was a horrible teacher and a theif etc... (deflemation of characher? i think so!)

She also told people I ruined her business... She ruined her business on her own! She's gone through probably 10 teachers in the past 6 months which is tons considering this is a very small school. She takes advantage of the contract and skims money off the top of your pay. She pays very little, works you very hard and treats you like dirt. The resources are embarassing and the atmosphere is miserable. If you have any respect for yourself, other potential teachers or the students, never work at an Ewha and hopefully they all shut down so nobody has to deal with this crap again.

Anon.

Subject: IN THE WORLD (they also use the name E&E) - Located all over the city.

Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006

-They have not filled their end of the contract several times in regards to pay and hours.

-Very little support is given

-poor books

-bad attitude towards teacher: the hours and pay might seem like a good deal, but it's not worth the hassle

-No insurance is given (all E2's require it)

- They require you open a bank account which they have complete control over. The kids money goes into this and then they pay you from this into your other personal account...the one you still have the bank book and password for. It's unclear if tax is being payed on this. The bank account is in your name and they take control of this. You should never give anyone control of your personal bank account.

Subject: The Sang Kyoung Elementary School, Madeul

Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:38:41 -0400

Hi! I was cheated out of $1100. The Sang Kyoung Elementary School in Madeul, Seoul and/or the scumbag recruiter GLE (Good Luck English) didn't pay me for the last 3 weeks. G.L.E. and in particular Mr. L**** are incredible scumbags and liars. They constantly lied about things from first contact. (He) is a real turd. I had some other bad experiences in Korea but that was the worst. The Madeul school had 5 teachers in 1 year. That's a deathtrap.

Subject: either JaSan and/or Kids Club, Pyeong-Taek

Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:22:45 -0500

Hi Jon.

This school goes by either JaSan and/or Kids Club. They all keep changing to different job titles so I just added all the names above.

It's probably the worst school around in this area (Pyeong-Taek) The director has conned numerous teachers and owes millions to former employees. Do not expect your own apartment or any form of payment whatsoever.

Severance pay has been withheld from teachers on at least three occasions.

Contractual obligations in relation to accommodation, pay dates and vacations will not be kept. The director has little or no respect for Westerners. This is a poorly managed school with no interest in education. No teaching materials for native speakers are provided. Expect your pay to be docked if you decide to take your contractual vacation time.

Poor accommodation with a complete lack of privacy. Do not expect your medical insurance or your pension contributions to be passed on. Do not expect your final wages, or your contractual notice time to be honored.

There is a high turnover of staff here, with very few teachers staying longer than 6 months. Former teachers have found the director deceptive and guilty of trying to implement ridiculous rules.

Teachers here were fired with short notice so that the director could save money. Compensation was not paid.

Statutory notice not given. Expect to be fired unjustly.

Delays in pay and non-payment of some wages and original deposit. Tax, insurance and pension are taken from teachers' wages but are not paid.

Horrible and unsafe living conditions

Less than half salary was paid to three foreign teachers and two Korean teachers due to various, dubious deductions. Airfare also wasn't paid. The apartment provided lacked furnishings.

Early firing of teachers to avoid severance pay for two teachers.

You may be harassed, threatened and not paid if you work here.

I know I may have repeated a lot but I want other foreigners to be aware. I suggest that you ask the school to provide you with the other foreign teachers email address and/or phone number and contact them first before taking the job. I made the mistake of not listening to the other foreign teachers and took the job because the school was the closest to my friends. As of July 2006, I know of 2 Canadian teachers, 4 American teachers, 2 New Zealand teachers and 3 Korean teachers that have worked there in the past. Be wise as to which schools you choose. I have been working at other schools and I have never had any problems like this before so please be careful. If you have any question concerning this school or any other questions please contact me via email: bytcxxxxxxx@hotmail.com

Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003

Subject: LCI Kidsclub/Yangchun-Gu,Mok-Dong,Seoul,www.mkidsclub.com;

This institution is dishonest and has left many of the teaching staff without a final full paycheck.

They have deducted huge amounts from the last months salary for pension cost's, even after monthly payments have been made.

Personally, I would not trust working for these people! They will try and swindle out every penny, leaving you with nothing.

The Korean staff is a different story, they will lie and cheat by sneaking things into your classroom to cover-up their own mistakes.

AND A REPLY:

Subject: L.C.I. Kids Club-Mok-dong

Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:10:26 +0000

S.L.P. Gwangjin/Godeok

The worst, and I repeat WORST hagwon in S. Korea. Cheating teachers out of lunch breaks, not paying over-time, not listening to suggestions that would raise enrollment and then yelling at teachers when enrollment drops, lowest pay I've earned in my life as a teacher, teachers are told to teach Arts & Crafts and must find and pay for all supplies, no technology is used-poor toys in play room, playrooms are also the cafeteria, there isn't a teacher's room, then they overcharge you on ALL utility bills, threaten to fire you when you complain about it, directors constantly screaming in the corridor, and one month away from my 2,000 bonus, they fired me. No reason to be fired--given the fact that I wanted to quit after 3 weeks but held on for my bonus--strongly encouraged by my recruiter--I was a very good teacher. I could go on, but don't want to remember anything about my experience there.

AND A REPLY:

Subject: LCI Kidsclub, Mok-dong

Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008 5:02 AM

Could you please remove this - this information is false. Please confirm that you have removed this. I worked there for 1 year in 2005 for the full year. During my year, I even received a pay increase. As well, my friend has been there for 4 years. Again this information is FALSE.

Sincerely,

SUBJECT: HEARLD SCHOOL CHEONG JU CITY

Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:28:51 -0700 (PDT)

(1) Students are sent to classroom without books.

(2) Teachers are told to make copies for the students without books.

(3) Casette tapes are used in classroom, not spoken English.

(4) Students repeat after tape, they do not engage in English conversation.

(5) Teachers are told to write elevuation reports that reflect only good about school and students.

(6) If teachers write truth about school or student reports are retyped and changed to reflect only what is good for school.

(7) Teachers are told they must order new books two weeks before finishing the old book but have no way of knowing what book is to be ordered.

(8) New teachers are placed into classroom with no training.

(9) School is only interested in filling the slot not the walfare of the student or teacher.

(10) School is not interested if students learn English as long as they can make the school look good on paper.

(11) School is only intrested in the money they can make from the students and the parents.

(12) School is not concerened about students learning or the walfare of it teachers.

(13) I would not and could not recemmond this school to anyone wanting to learn English.

(14) Therefore I am leaving this school as I will not be a part of this scam to steal from the parents and students.

(15) School took my passport to get my alien card and charged me for card and now refuse to return passport or card and origianl copy of my degree until I leave Korea.

(16) Gave school 60 day notice, and had to pay back fonds for trip here which is fine. But school wants me to leave in less time and kept all of my pay for the month of June to pay for their ticket. But given me nothing to live on for the month of July and the earilest fight I can ge out of Korea on this ticket is 7 September, 2006.

Had I worked the two months required by school 1/2 June pay and 1/2 July pay to refund ticket price. But because they want me to leave earily have to borrow money from friends or not eat until I can live. Have no money or anywhere to live. But as a dog on the streets. It is reasons like this that teachers will not come to Korea to work.

(17) Now school wants to redo my contract to reflect only 6 classes a day and cut my pay also. They are the ones who took the classes I only requested that they reduice one class on Firdays.

(18) The school says I must also pay for the trip to Japan for my Visa and they are the ones who asked me to come here without it. I worked 30 days with on contract of Visa . Then had to get my passport extended and make a Visa run to Japan. Because school did not do their job upon my arival.

(19) Feel this looks bad for the Education system and reflect bad on Koreans and the way teacher are treated from other countries here in Korea.

(20) If you came to America and were treated this way with no friends or way of support how would you feel about Americans?

(21) had I known this about the Korean school system here I would have never come to Korea and never will again.

Subject: Poly School - Incheon City.

Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:45:25 +1200

Hi Jon,

I am writing to warn possible employees of this school. There were a host of issues right from the time I started. I have over two years experience teaching in South Korea and they were the worst employers I had. The list of problems listed includes issues experienced by other teachers working at the same time as me just so everything I know of can be included.

-Takes non contract deductions without explanation. Money was removed from first pay checks and later for reasons including "apartment deposits" and " overdue gas bills". Nothing mentioned in contract.

-Illegal pension deductions. Later complaints were made to the Pension office and some remunerations were made but not to past teachers.

-Sub standard apartments which had issues including- no hot water, bug infestations ( more than a couple at night ), no furnishings, no kitchenware.

-TEACHERS FIRED ILLEGALLY- I heard that one teacher managed to sue the school but they are 'letting staff' go at the moment just before contracts are finished.

-A manager and director who are hostile and will yell at staff. Tactics included but were not limited to trying to make people work extra hours, taking money from the contract end bonus, blaming teachers for students violent behaviour, going through staff members desks and bags.

Please think twice before you choose this school. Thanks.

Subject: Sejong Language Institute, located in Apgujeong, a district in Seoul

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:32:29 +0900

Hi, I'd strongly discouraged any one from working at the school in Apgujeong, Seoul called Sejong. It is run by J------- P---. The school is located across the street from the Hyundai Departmet Store. The assistant director is a Korean man by the name of Mr. C--. Last I knew the academic director was a Canadian man named R-----, but I don't know if he is still there, because my friend told me this and she left some months ago--they go through academic directors fast: in the four months I was there, they went through four. In the four months, half the teachers wer arbitrarily dismissed and I know of one teacher who was fired after one month, not even given notice, just told to not come back again, and then had to pay a significant amount of money to obtain her letter of release!

Finally, while I can't confirm or deny it (the incident took place after I left), I was told that the assistant director, C--, forced unwanted intercourse upon a teacher. He seduced her while she was in a clearly confused mental state, which was in some degree brought on by the stressful conditions at the school, her doctor stated. Based on the facts I heard, I think he would be convicted of rape in most states in the U.S.

I do know, because of their repeated promises to provide me my promised health nsurance "next week," my own health was gravely impaired due to my need for prescription medicine. Upon return to the United States, my physician recommended me for hospitalization, though I declined.

Try CDI--I work there, it's good. I interviewed at Hoyah and got pretty positive vibes, though some of my collegues at CDI have warned me about Hoyah, and this was coming from people I don't think would mislead me on this point. But the Hoyah stuff was pretty minor--not getting as many hours as promised, though I read on-line a posting that said the person got paid less then the agreed amount . . . One person who wrote me in regards to a posting about Sejong told me that he had been told he could make up to 10 million won a month, that's why he was writing me; it sounded a little suspicious. All I can say is that to the best of my knowledge no teacher was paid that amount. I was paid 2.6million a month which Mr. P--- told me in an e-mail was the highest amount they offered teachers. I later found out this was false, as some teachers were making more than that, though I don't know exactly how much. Because of serious financial problems (they were 8 million in the red my final month there--June/July, 2005), I seriously doubt they could offer 10 million won a month, no matter how good the teacher was. In fact, a former teacher told me that, as their financial problems had persisted, the pay was well below what it was last year, when I worked there.

Finally, all of my students I have run into or talked to since have quit the school. . . not a good situation.

Subject: LangZon Language School, Kyunggi-Do

Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:33:17

I came to Korea in the beginning of December 2003 at:

LangZon Language School

Kiheung-Eup, Yongin-City, Kyunggi-Do 449-903

Before taking the job (my director) said I would share a two bedroom apartment with the other teacher. I said this was no problem as long as he DID NOT smoke. She said he did not smoke. When I arrived in Korea she said she was sorry and had just discovered HE DID smoke.

My employer, X******, requested that I assist her in falsifying my contract's monthly pay so she could cheat the government heath care agency, and save herself money. Therefore, I waived all my health coverage. I did not think I'd need it anyway. She told me that falsifying documents to the government health care officials was just a "white lie" and commonly done. I replied that although I might break the traffic laws with impunity on my bicycle, I would not knowingly sign a written document falsifying information in order to cheat the government out of their lawfully due health care payments. She said was doing this with her other employee and I should too.

X******* hired a third American teacher in the beginning part of March 2004. This seemed to be a strange thing to do as she had earlier mentioned student enrollment had been going poorly. (I had many classes with only 1-4 students or no shows) Due to the hiring of this other American employee, (who happened to already have been in Korea) I was only teaching three classes a day for around fifteen hours a work week. The other teachers and I all were pleased but curious at our exceedingly slack schedule. I spoke with the new employee, and he said he was getting paid 2 million won a month- the same salary of the other foreign Canadian teacher. I was making a little more around 2,070,000.00 won the equivalent of 1,800.00 US dollars a month.

Coincidentally my employer told me April 12, 2004 that she did not have enough adults for me to teach, my teaching style did not fit with her younger students, and that she needed to fire me to protect her school. She said she would not be reimbursing me for my flight back, nor would she be giving me my bonus salary sum, or any sort of severance pay. I agreed that April 30, 2004 would be my last day because it was clear to me that arguing would just make the whole situation ugly- and she obviously had one too many foreign teachers.

(This was a surprise and disappointment because She had NEVER before threatened to fire me nor had she hinted that I was a bad teacher and soon to be fired. I was NEVER taken aside by her and counseled that I must drastically change or improve or I would be fired.)

I agreed to finish out my days at the school in a conscientious and normal manner; I agreed to not inform any of the students of my soon departure. I did tell my fellow teachers the situation as I felt they deserved to know, and seeing as how they were employed at the school as well. But, I did not ever mention my firing to the students.

At first I planned on leaving Korea; however, when I realized I could still teach here for a while, and have the advantage of previewing the school- I decided to stay. My employer agreed verbally to pay me all my last days of work: 20 days were due me as I was paid on the 8th of each month- and my last day would be Friday April the 30th. The only thing I agreed for her to withhold was around 100 thousand for utility bills that would come in after I had left. Doubting the honesty of the words of my employer I again spoke with her Tuesday the 27 of April asking her if she would like to inspect my room as I could easily clean it up early. I wanted to make sure I got paid on the 30th of April.

She assured me that she was not like other dishonest employers and she would pay me on Friday April 30. Towards the end she became discordant and uncooperative. At first she claimed I did not need a letter of release until my last day, then later when I informed her that prospective employers earnestly requested she grudgingly wrote me one. But she became very sullen and angry, and told me not to ask her for another one because it was the only one she would write. She refused to let me have even one vacation day off in my final few days to look for another teaching job.

Needless to say, she refused to pay me anything on Friday the 30th of April, which caused me to become angry- which she in turn reciprocated with much more fervor, I calmed down and she agreed to pay me 100 thousand in advance. However, she informed me that I must be moved out of my apartment by Monday May 3. She said she would pay me after she had inspected it Sunday. She claimed she had a wedding to go to on Saturday; thus she could not spare me her time. She said if I stayed past Sunday May 2nd she would take money out of my last pay as rent fees.

She also said that she was only going to pay me 500,000.00 won because she thought I had paid too much for my ticket here, and therefore she was taking money out of my final paycheck to get money back for this. Further, she said she was withholding money for a cleaning fee. She told me she would pay me whatever was left over after all these charges were taken care of, unless it was a small sum of less than 50 thousand or so - in which case I should "just write it off", if I was no longer in Korea to collect it.

I was in Korea two years after and my bank account is even now still open- but I seriously doubt she will be paying me any more money out of her own free will.

I had flown to Jeju Sunday the second of May, and surprisingly, she actually did pay me 500,000.00 won on Monday May 3, when I checked my bank account. But, I feel she should pay me the other sums that she unfairly withheld from me. I also want her to pay for my four vacation days - I was never sick and took no vacation days- but I was not reimbursed for these.

I later discovered she had also fired the other original white guy worker there and hired someone from New Zealand.

As to my teaching quality itself- I admit I was knew to ESL (not teaching) on coming to Korea but I did two consecutive years with EPIK after that- and they wanted / want me to do a third.

I should also mention that early on a Korean teacher was also let go for no apparent reason that I could tell- and for reasons she could / would not explain to me ether.

It is sad it had to work out negatively like that, but I think others should know that she has set a pattern of "me-first" business in her mind. I do hope it all goes well for her and she feels enough regret to pay me some day- my bank account is still open. However, I doubt she ever will. It is all to easy to justify smart business sense by claiming the teacher caused her losses.

In fact months later she became angry when I again contacted her and asked to be paid still. She said I had damaged her school and therefore I owed her money. So I guess in her mind she was kind for not withholding more of my pay. At any rate, I DO NOT hate her, but I do feel regret that it seems she put money before me. But, as I said it seems some can justify anything if they put their business mind to it... The love of money...

Subject: Seon's Cooking and Acting Kids English Co., Chuncheon, in Toegye-Dong Green Town

Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006

Hello, I want to tell everyone about Seon's Cooking and Acting Kids English Co., Ltd aka Seon's Kid's Cooking and Acting aka Seon's Kid's English aka I Love Gym aka My Gym...

Our boss was S**** ******, an evil man who is evidently a popular English idioms author (if cutting and pasting means you're an author); he was also good friends with the people working at Chuncheon immigration (Mr. P****).

1) He refused to pay us on time or to pay us overtime.

2) He refused to make good on our recruiter's promises (things like my husband having a job with the school--when we got to Korea, the women working at our hogwan didn't even know my husband was coming; free Korean lessons; trips back and forth between China and Korea for winter camps)...

3) He refused to meet with us to talk about grievances we had with the school before we even got here, he refused to put anything in writing

4) He hired teachers to take our jobs while we were still there working

5) We were fired without notice: we were yanked out of our classes and told to go to our apartments. We were locked out with our phones shut off. When we got inside the manager had already been there, taking the phone and disabling internet (among other things). We did not get to say goodbye to our students.

6) The two month termination notice (outlined in our contracts) was not honored- -instead our manager just made up lies at immigration to try to prove that we were a threat to our students (things like we taught class drunk and taught the children how to cuss and say really horrible things to their parents).

7) Our boss threatened our friends, who were trying to open their own legitimate hogwan.

The school is in Chuncheon, in Toegye-Dong, Green Town, right around the corner from Best English.

My name is Julie McGeorge, and I would prefer that you DO leave my name (on this)

My website is www.shakespeareseast.blogspot.com

Subject: Daejon: Information & Communications University

Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:38:16 -0400

The Information & Communications University (aka ICU).

Problem: Failed to pay severance payment benefit upon my departure as required by Korean Labor Law. I tried to work with them on it, giving the administration three months to check out the law themselves and see that they were indeed obligated to pay this benefit. Instead of cooperation, I got angry letters from the ELP director, Professor K********** attacking my character and my teaching performance. This was followed by a period in which my inquiries regarding the matter were simply ignored. My former colleagues still teaching at the university reported being "called on the carpet" by the ELP director to find out whether they supported my claim for the severance benefit. I had to file a complaint with the Korean Labor Board and the matter was settled quickly thereafter when the university was ordered to pay or face a court appearance.

A short while after this, Professor K**, the ELP director, in an email to me, referred to me as "a complete nuisance to the university" and issued what I took as a veiled threat against me should I ever contact the university again for any reason, and against any of my former colleagues who might mention me in her presence.

Other incidents at ICU included:

** Was told housing would be provided, then required to pay $200 a month for rent. When recruited, I was told housing would be provided on campus. The contract included this term, saying housing would be provided with the professor (myself) paying a management fee. In Korea, a "management fee" is a small monthly fee paid to the building management for services such as cleaning up and handling garbage disposal. It is usually $20 or $30. After arriving and taking up residence, the university administration referred to this as "rent" not "management fee" and informed me it would be $200 a month. A few months into the contract, the university tried to raise this to $300 without any consultation by simply sending out a memo saying it had been raised. My colleagues and I objected loudly and that increase was put off to the next year.

By the way, if you choose to live off campus, the university will not provide any housing allowance. The apartment provided on campus is quite small and is in the students' dormitory, so you are basically living with the students. (See more below about salary and expenses.)

** As I lay in a hospital bed at the end of one semester for nine days, the administration kept calling me - - - asking (demanding) me to submit my final grades ! At the end of one semester, I was quite ill. I had a fever, headache and severe sore throat. However, I stuck it out and made it through the exams. I went to the hospital the day after exams were over and I was in the hospital for nine days with a very serious illness. While my colleagues visited me and the secretary of the ELP office was very helpful, the Academic Affairs team's only concern was that I had missed the deadline for submitting final grades and they called my hospital room telephone every day after the deadline asking when I would submit them and suggesting they would send the exams over to me so I could mark them and calculate the final grades - - - and use the hospital's internet cafe to submit them - - - - all this with two IV's in my arms. Appalling.

** I was given permission to buy an item at a cost of $140 for a special lecture the university had asked me to do. I made the purchase and paid for it out of my own pocket. Then, I got an email saying that the special lecture was cancelled. When I brought up the fact that I had already bought the approved item, I was basically told "tough luck." Despite several appeals to the administration, showing them copies of their email in which they approved the purchase, they never agreed to reimburse this.

** The above two incidents are telling of the university's administration's attitude, which in my opinion is arrogantly "we can do whatever we want, whenever we want." I think this is what led them to think they could get by without paying the severance benefit; they simply didn't think they had to listen to or care about me. Time and time again, things like this happened at the university.

** The contract reads in such a way that the university can shift your required teaching hours around to meet their schedule. While the contract seems to say that you will teach 5 courses per semester, and three courses in a winter English camp, you can end up teaching much more in the spring semester because they don't need you to teach the winter camp usually. They shift these required "camp" hours into the spring semester, the busiest semester and you can end up teaching 7 courses, which there is no way you can do effectively. I was given seven courses to teach in one spring semester, including three writing classes with a total of 67 students in those writing classes. (Oh, and class size is usually 22 or 23 students.) The emphasis was getting the classes covered, not necessarily taught well, it seemed.

** All my efforts to make any kind of contribution to the development of the program went without support. In fact, in my first couple of weeks there, I presented some ideas the director, Professor K****** for classes I would be teaching, and instead of hearing encouragement, I was told "If you teach the book, I'll be happy" and with that she moved on down the hall.

** In my opinion, ICU in Daejon is not the place for a professional TESOL professor. I believe it is run more like a hagwon (language academy business) than a university program. There was no professional development opportunity; in fact, new ideas, it seemed to me, were taken as a personal challenge by the director of the program, K*******. There was great potential for an excellent ESP (English for Specific Purposes) program there since 100% of the undergrad students study just two majors: IT Engineering (about 90%) or IT Business and that's what attracted me to the program - the chance to develop ESP curriculum; but the potential, in my opinion, is squandered away in uninspired mediocrity and just plain neglect by the director. "Warm body in the classroom" and "got all the classes covered" seems to be the extent of mission accomplishment for her, in my opinion. Perhaps this will change with time, and maybe with a new director who is truly interested in the job and has the ability, training, vision, personality and emotional confidence needed for the job of being director of a university program.

The present director, was rarely seen while I was there. In this very small school, she holds another position as a kind of personal assistant or travel secretary for the school's president and, in my opinion, she seems much more interested in that job than in being involved in the English language program. My colleagues and I used to describe the department as being run "on autopilot."

The school itself is very small - - a few hundred students - - and the undergrad is really just a technical college with its two majors, though they have some kind of plan to start a liberal arts department some time, I hear. (In Korea it seems "university" is used to describe any kind of higher education institute beyond high school.)

The students are bright, but because they only get one credit hour for each of their eight English courses, - - even though these are full courses meeting 3 hours a week - - it's difficult getting them to invest much into the classes. In my opinion, poor choice of textbooks and a lack of focus or "purpose" in the course don't help. While you're encouraged to "challenge them", the more you make the students work, in my experience, the less popular you become and the lower your student ratings are. Student ratings are the only measure of your teaching success in the English Language Program at ICU; there is no classroom observation or independent assessment of your teaching by the director, which one would expect with a professional program. It is the first university position I have had where there was no professional review of my performance by the director.

There was some effort toward professional development sessions when I first arrived there, but that seems to have been a remnant of the previous professional administrators of the program, UC-Riverside, and faded away when the "university" decided it could run the program itself and put one of its Korean ESL teachers in charge as the director. In my opinion, that was a fundamental mistake that led to what I see as the major flaws of the program; it just isn't managed well, in my opinion, - - I would even opine that its grossly mismanaged - - and thus it can't even approach its considerable potential. "Quite a shame; what a waste" I used say to myself when I saw what was going on there and think about what could be going on there.

The salary the university will offer is slightly higher than what you can get at average universities in Korea. They tend to offer about 2.6 million won per month (about $2,600 US dollars). However, from that you would have to pay your own housing while nearly all universities in Korea provide housing for free or provide a housing allowance averaging 400,000 won. In the end, I think you make less than you would at most universities in Korea. (And, since the university is in Daejon, where "the scene is dead" . . . . you'll find yourself traveling to Seoul often to be where your friends are . . spending at least a $100 a month in transportation . . . and always having to beg a place to stay overnight in Seoul with a friend on the weekends when you're up there – or pay for a motel room.)

In short, the Information & Communications University has problems that should give pause to a TESOL professional considering teaching there in the ELP. The university, in my opinion, has an "above the law" attitude and the English Language Program if rife with professional shortcomings. At the urging of my colleagues, I'm adding that and sending you this final (promise!) update. Hope it's not too much trouble. Thank you, Jon.

Subject: Changdong area, Seoul, SK.

Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 01:51:22 +0100 (BST)

Hi,

I was working for Canada International School (a hogwon posing as an international school) before and think that there are really some concerns that teachers should be warned about. I was waiting to see how it was resolved (ie-recieved my final pay) .

Okay, I will go back to the begining. I started working for them (for about a month) with a C4 for a winter camp that i had finished. I was working for 2 days before seeing the contract. I was surprised that they were not an 'international school' but a hogwon as I believed that i would teaching in an actual school. I also only talked with the principal about teaching BC curicullum classes (based on the BC program of studies) which I had done in China. I was also told that I would be observed for one day (first day) only to 'mold me to their teaching style'. I also explained that my passport expired in 6 months and that I would have to pay back an emergency loan before I could get it renewed which would be very expensive. The principal told me 'no problem-we will sign a six month contract'.I was also told that it was not a problem to not have to pay into pension as it was 'very expensive'. A co-worker later told me that they were told that noone was getting their pension. So, during my first week, I found out that I was going to be working almost 34 hours (I had not seen the contract before then), teaching ESL and not BC classes, that it was now not okay to sign a 6 month contract but that I had to sign a year contract and that I would have a permanent 'supervisor' in my room observing me (one of my co-workers told me this). I refused to sign the contract and actually tried to give my 60 day notice explaining that I just needed until the end of the month and then I could accept another job offer working in a public school for the government. I told her that I had thought they were an actual international school and not a hogwon (' but we are a very good hogwon that does'nt have to advertise') and that I believed that I could not be completely effective as a teacher with the amount of hours that we were requied to work. I also said that I did not want to work at a job that I did not believe that I could put 100% effectiveness into. The principal kept telling me that it would be very bad that I quit ( as the parents would ask questions) and eventually (due to my financial circumstances at the time which she knew about) I relented and signed the 6 month contract-refusing to sign a year one. I also kept trying to get my original degrees and teaching certificate back for a period of about a month (starting from this time) and was kept being told that 'I could come back tomorrow for them' and that 'the owner had them at a house' and that they 'needed to be scanned' (I told them to scan them and give them back to me as it would only take a few minutes-she walked away at that point). Eventually, I went into my file and found them there and took them back.

When it came to my visa run (a month or so after I had began working there) first, the principal kept trying to pressure me to use my holiday to go to a visa run-I kept refusing and also telling her that i had little money and did not want to go to an expensive country like Japan with little money. She kept insisting. Then, they had taken all of the deposit from me (was supposed to be in three equal installments) and I came home (between 10-11pm) to find that they had went into my apartment and left airplane tickets for 7am the next morning. I had been trying to talk to her all day to explain that they had left me with 300 thousand won for a paycheque by taking all of the deductions in one go. She was too busy during the day. I called her and told her that I would not be going. A few days after, they refunded the money they had taken.

My supervisor and myself had a conflicted relationship. I was eventually fired (halfway through my contract) due to,at least in part, listening to her and believing everything that she said about me. The principal kept pulling me into the office to address complaints from pretty much the first day. She would belittle and reprimend me in front of the other teachers in the resource room. She would tell me to 'liven up the class' and then gave me a letter saying how unhappy everyone was that I was behind on the book pages and that I had to teach straight from the book. When I suggested that they should provide training to new teachers, she said that it was my job to know how things were supposed to be (or something close to that effect) etc. etc. We spent a good portion of our time arguing. I was asked by the school to open up a Korean bank account as they would not continue to deposit into my American one. Most of my bills are tied to this account through direct deposit. I found out that I could not open a Korean bank account without my original passport which was being held awaiting an Alien Resident Card. Therefore, I found myself having to send money for bills back to my home country through mail which would take about 2 weeks. I requested a meeting with her to translate between the owner and myself (although I was told later that the owner speaks very good English!) to ask for an advance (I had gotten them before with no problem). He outright lied to me saying that it would not be possible as he had to 'pay the busdrivers' etc. Later, when she was reprimanding and belittling me in the resource room, she said that I was being 'punished' by the owner for previous ESL complaints. After all this, I taught a Kindergarten science class that involved an experiment with candles. Two of my students lit their vocabulary cards on fire with the candles. She never really communicated information to me. Eventually, she handed me a horrible, cruel letter dated April 21rst (our gym day was may 21rst) of 30 day termination (which ended may 20th) citing 'neglect' as the reason for termination. I was pressured up until the end to attend the My 21rst gym day and 'have pictures taken with the parents'.

I had set up another job offer. I kept asking them for my release letter as it was required to be sent in order to process paperwork for my new school. She (the supervisor) kept delaying saying that she needed the name of my new school to put on the release letter-I refused to give it to her and told her that I did not believe that was needed. More delays. I had also emailed her stating that I needed a monday afternoon off to go apply for a new passport (had to make an appointment with the consulate). She told me I could go on tuesday as the consulate would not be open on monday. I called the consulate, told her that it would be open and that I needed to go on the Monday as I had another apointment at 3pm. that had to be done on that day. I got a nasty letter later (when I eventually got my release letter) stating that i had 'taken off' on the Monday afternoon and that is not how things were 'done at CIS' that one ended up a screaming match in front of the reception desk. My appointment at 3pm was with legal aid (I had told her that I would be seeking legal help if I did not get my release letter by a certain date). The lawyer called CIS and got them to promise to have a letter by the end of the week and that they would return my deposit after calling the utility companies to get bills up to the 3rd week of May. I still ended up having to go around to everyone 'reminding' them that the letter was due that day. I also later found out that they purchased the plane tickets for another set of teachers-who had told me that they felt that they were being stalled and could not understand why on the same day that the lawyer called about me.

Well, my last day ended (fittingily enough) with me spending hours figuring out my deposit, them calling the utility companies (for the first time-this was supposed to be done beforehand) and telling me that there is no record of me ever having paid utilities!! i got my last pay deposited-which is at least 300 thousand won less than I (and the lawyer) estimated and lost one days pay either for not attending the gym day or for the national holiday so I am going back to legal aid to try to sort this all out again tomorrow.

I am writing this as I know that I was not the only teacher who was lied to/misled at this school. I think that while there behaviours may not necessarily earn them a 'spot' on the black list-it is definitly in the 'grey' area.

Is there anyway that you could post this annonomyously please?

Subject: Oh Sung Sik, Suwon, Korea

Date: Mon, 29 May 2006

When I arrived in Seoul in January 1st 2005, the director and his wife were not there. After phoning them they arrived 45 minutes to an hour later to pick me up and take me to my apartment.

There were a few students who had difficulties, and a few with behavior problems, but the majority of the students were exceptionally keen and made progress, with the results proven by test results.

Around May 2005, the director came to me and stated that my students had difficulty in understanding me. However these same students have been exposed to other foreign teachers who had American, Canadian, British and other western accents.

I contacted my recruiting agent at Englishwork.com on her cell phone only to get cut off and a nasty phone call back from her either husband or boyfriend telling me not to call her again. The next day I phoned the head office of Englishwork.com and asked to speak with the supervisor, and told them what had happened. I was then informed that she no longer works with them, and apologized about the rude treatment I got from her and was given the name of my new recruiter/agent.

I do remember during my lunches with the director, that I declined pork, whereupon she asked about my religious affiliation.

I was never informed about anything with regards to teachers meetings nor invited to take part of.

There were some newly hired Korean Teachers at the school whom I found were rude, unprofessional and impolite. Anytime they messed up they would find a way to put the blame on the foreign teacher.

During a field trip, I was the only teacher who maintained supervision of the students, while the other teachers went off to do their own thing. The resort facilities were dreadful and I did suffer from food poisoning.

Defined by other work standards as overtime (having to work the extra day) I was never paid for this.

After my summer vacation on August 17th 2005: I was given a warning notice, and at the same time a personal letter from the director's wife, which was a goodbye letter. The letter stated that I was a bad teacher.

I had only 2 1/2 more months left on my contract. (the school was notorious to fire foreign teachers before their contracts finished to avoid the severence and airfare back home)

On October 2005 (while back home in Canada) I was contacted by a Korean recruiter (People Recruit). Based on my qualifications I was offered a teaching position at another school. After accepting the offer, the recruiter called me to set up a phone interview with the school's director.

The following day the recruiter called me to inform me that the offer was withdrawn. I was informed that the school's director contacted my director at Oh Sung Sik. The recruiter told me that my former school director gave a bad reference stating to the potential school that was considering me, that when they met me for the first time at the airport in January that they were disappointed because I was not Caucasian and had a twist at corner of my mouth (left as a result of my ear infections and surgery in early childhood, which does not affect my speech).

So in general the only reason I was brought on to the school was that they were in desperate need of a teacher, and I guess I had to make do until they found their right candidate. In general I was let go because simply I was not a Caucassian, and they sure didn't do a good job to cover that up that they were racially prejudice against me by revealing to another school director and later passed on to the recruiter.

The school to this day has continued to bad mouth me to any school that has been in contact with them (even when I requested not to speak to them, giving my reasons).

Subject: KNC Hyunjae, in Mok-Dong, Seoul

Date: Mon, 29 May 2006

KNC Hyunjae is not the worst school ever. On the plus side, they do pay you on time, and the students are a very high level. However, they are defintely not the best option, there are many schools in Seoul, and KNC Hyunjae doesn't pay more than usual, so I would suggest going with one of the hundreds of other schools looking for teachers.

The first problem with the school is the books. They have recently replaced the books in their conversation, listening and writing classes, with new books that are written by Koreans. (As foreign teachers, you teach reading, conversation and listening. However, you also have to explain large parts of the unintelligble writing book to your partner Korean teacher. Their reading books, however, they have not changed, and they are fine.) The conversation book is basically a vocabulary book. Each chapter consists of a list of words that are very complex. (At level one, where the reading book was teaching words like empty, husband, forest, fruit, and groceries (which were the right level) the conversation book has words like pruning, climbing plants, chilblained (in a survey of all the teachers at the school, no one knew what this meant- it's related to frostbite) defecate, urinate, call of nature, erratic, scattered rain showers, wind chill index, muggy, sweltering, harvest season, and autumnal tints. (Sorry, got a little carried away there, the point is, the words are far too difficult.)) Also, there are no definitions for these words. You can either have them write the definitions down- there are usually about 30 words per one-day chapter, or type them up hand them out each day, which obviously adds to your workload considerably. After the list, you have 6 conversations in which you are supposed to put the words- often none of the vocabulary words make sense in the blanks. The other problem, beyond the fact that none of the books are the right level, is that they have not been edited very well. My book was the best-corrected of all the books. Some pages on had 3 or 4 clear mistakes, but others still had as many as 20. Other books seemed to have been completely unedited- they had at least 20 mistakes on every page. The kids in my level rarely noticed the mistakes, but at all the other levels, the kids saw and made fo the books- the school would never tell us how to respond to this- that way you could get in trouble if you said "yes, the book is wrong," but they you clearly couldn't tell that it was correct to say instead of "How are you?," "How was the feeling?" and instead of "I don't like that sweater," "That sweater would make me appear as the gay." (Yes this is actually in the level 2 book.) The listening book is even worse, it is just completely above their level. It is so difficult that if you ignore the questions in the book and ask the simpliest possible yes/no questions, they can't answer them because they give up completely.

In addition to the books, the supervisors are a problem. The director and owner of the school don't speak English (The owner won't even speak to you if you speak to him in Korean as one of the foreign teachers tried.) The partner Korean teachers speak widely varying levels of English. The supervisor is the person who is supposed to be the middleman between the director and the foreign teachers. However, this person is also the directors scapegoat for any possible problems (like low attendance, teacher, parent and student complaints), so supervisors are fired very quickly- around about 4 months seems to be the current average for the supervisors (Apparently, they used to stay much longer in the past.) Also, after we had been there for about two months, they fired (they never admit to firing the person, they "get sick") the supervisor and instead of hiring a new one, they gave the job to one of the Korean teachers, so she held two full time jobs, and had absolutely no management experience. So for about 3 or 4 months, we didn't really have anyone to even pretend to listen to us. Just before I left they hired a new supervisor, who I have heard is supposed to be one of the worst so far. But overall, the general problem with the supervisors has been that they have no power to change things, even if they listen to your complaints. The other problem, is they have recently decided to be more strict on the foreign teachers, and so they don't even pretend to listen to complaints. Every Thursday, during the teachers meeting, they come up with new little directives. For example, at one point, teachers had to do 30 phone tests a month. Then they had to do 60, now they have to do one for every student (This is not in anyone's contract, all of them say 60, but they really don't care what the contract says.) (Phone tests are one of the biggest problems for teachers who have a lot of students- I had 78- and are not at all a problem for teachers with very few kids, as few as 30 or 40 kids.)

In terms of following the contract, there are some other issues. For example, they recently decided to change the levels, so that the middle school kids were seperate, and their classes were later, from 5-11 instead of 4-10 (which significantly changes the number of restaurants open when you get off work). Instead of trying to give us stuff to convince us to want to switch levels, they started with threatening us- they told some people that if they didn't switch levels, their friends would be fired!!!! We found that entertaining. In the end they used a combination of threatening, waiting until the last minute, and then finally, offering some extra benefits. One guy stayed and taught for a year. Then, at the end of an entire year, they were going to give him the money, instead of his plane ticket, "as a favor." However, they decided that since the contract did not explicitly say it, they did not have to pay the tax on the ticket, just the money for the ticket itself. He eventually got them to pay it, but that took a lot of arguing. Ok, now that I have gone on a bit, I will say why I left. My fiance and I worked there for 6 months. Everyone's class is monitored by Closed circuit tv at all times (another "welcome to KNC surprise")- you have a camera in your room and the receptionists, director and any parents that come into the front office, watch your class at all times. (Since they're not usually listening, and don't speak much English anyway, they are entirely watching to see if your classroom is well controlled. You are never allowed to play games and one teacher got in trouble when a student was being "disruptive," crawling under the desk. Watching on the monitor you miss the fact that the kid had dropped his pencil.) The kids get used to this monitoring, although they occasionally wave to their parents or the director. Anyway, the school recently decided that in addition to this monitoring, they also needed to videotape our classes ( They didn't realise they could use the CCTVS to do this, so bought a lot of expensive equipment. We didn't help.). They told us they would videotape eveyone, including the Korean teachers, and that the purpose was to watch the tapes and give us feedback. So they videotaped our classes- I had ten minutes warning. They videotaped most of the foreign teachers, but not all, and only one Korean teacher. Then a month later, without telling us anything about the first tape, they decided to tape us again. (They said this was all part of "School Policy," which you agree to follow in your contract. However, they actually give you a copy of school policy, and they aren't really allowed to change it on a whim, as they do.) Now, the only possible documentation we had was the meeting agendas that said they would tape everyone and they would give us feedback. So my fiance and I who were really unhappy with the whole situation, said they couldn't videotape us until they videotaped everyone, and gave us feedback. This "refusal" led up to many many meetings in which the end result was I said all they had to do was watch the videotape (They changed their story often, from "We have watched them" to "The camera didn't work" to "We haven't had time to watch them, but the camera might not have worked, we don't know.") They said that we were refusing to follow their policy and fired us. (At first we were unhappy, one never likes to get fired, but then we realised we were free and we were happy.) We got just over a months notice, because they always change teachers at the end of the month. During that time they tried to shame us into paying back our airfare, then into paying back half of our airfare, and then they tried to dock us two days pay for arguing. They said our contract required us to pay it back if we left before 6 months was up, it didn't and we didn't. Then they said we had bought a round trip ticket. They had the receipt. We didn't.

Anyway, despite going on, more than a bit, the point is I would suggest you work at another school. If you want to work at this school, make sure you see a copy of the books you will be teaching, and that you talk to at least two teachers at the school.

Subject: My Experience in Korea

Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 11:35:48 +0000

Hi,

Just thought I would mention my experience.

I was sitting in england looking at my new TEFL certificate and feeling broke...so I looked at Korea to work. I answered some ads ont eh ESL websites and as you can imagine had several replies, recruiters phoning England in the early hours talking to me and making promises.

After much tooing and froing, and even a 'phone interview' which I think consists of checking if you can speak english, with the director, I even managed to speak to another teacher at the one school. He initially said all was fine...and then said fast, the director had left the room, he could see my email address and he would email me. He didn't..forgot my address....and so I assumed everything was fine, packed in a hurry, posted more stuff over, arranged for my son to courier my degree..etc etc etc and flew over.. fortunately the school paid my flight.

On arrival however things were not so rosy. I was presented a contract rather different from the one I had been sent in england. It had all mention of Holidays removed, leaving only sick leave being mentioned. and as I wanted to plan a trip back to NZ (to see my new Grandson) I was concerned. I was then told that 5 days leave.(the original contract mentioned 10..to be taken in 2 lots of 5) was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Mmm I thought, I dont' work weekends....so I said this was not acceptable. so the directors assistant ..who has a very bad reputation..rang the recruiter and after much discussion...5 days became Wednesday, thursday, Friday, Monday, tuesday...not much time to fly back to NZ...this also was not what the recruiter had promised me.

That was a Friday, I said I would think things over and we could talk on Monday. I then went to watch the classes and talk to the other teachers. I was told I would have autonomy on what to teach, that I could input my own ideas etc. this was so not the case. We were to be in front of the class for 20 minutes only, and were told what to say, what materials to prepare and even what game to play. Not what I had done the TEFL course to end up doing.

I then had time to talk to the other teachers, the one who forgot my email address said he felt awful as he would have told me what not to come, he had tried several variations of my address without success. The recruiter had told me only one person had left in the last year...it turned out 8 people had been and gone in the last 6 months!!

On Monday I told the school I would not sign the contract, I would work 2 weeks and I would pay 1/2 of one way (they could get a refund on the return and if they hadn't tried to cheat me I would have signed it.) Needless to say I had to fight for that 1/4.

On the last day I was taking photos of the classes when I was told not to, the time was for teaching, not photo taking..up to that point everyone had taken photos. I asked if I could take them out of class...no, I was not special, I was not a teacher....I asked what i was doing there and half way through my last day, with lessons all prepared and kids waiting...I was told to stop teaching....crazy.

So I asked for my final pay....and ofcourse they had deducted the full one way airfare...so many phone calls to the recruiter and me getting really pissed but trying to stay calm...I kept repeating that they had agreed to it when I offered to work for two weeks to give them time to find someone else...they agreed to it..I wanted it.

I then sat in the foyer. I hadn't been asked to leave the premises so I just sat..and looked at the Director and the Assistant every time they walked through. When the police came and were given beverages my heart fell to my ankles..but they hadn't asked me to leave so I reasoned to myself there was nothing here for the police and I was right, they left without even looking at me. The Assistants grin was no longer on her face. I kept sitting. It must have looked odd to the students - why was I in the foyer and not teaching them??

Eventually the assistant left and 15 minutes later the Director called me in again, and offered me 200,000. I took it.

Recruiter: katexxxxxxx@myedec.co.kr

School: EFL Daegu (English fun Land)

Part Two

I am now in Jecheon, being too nervous to work for a Hakwon again and am trying to work for an elementary school. the recruiter her also stuffed up. He told me I would be starting right away, the contract is dated the 29th May. I asked him before I came up, as I could have stayed at the above school a bit longer..they ofcourse were having trouble finding a replacement.

So I am in Jecheon with no job, living on very little. the apartment was new and had to be outfitted with everything except the basic furniture at my expense and the Internet and Cable I was promised would be available is not. The apartment was not ready when I arrived, no furniture and I had to stay in a hotel for two nights, also at my expense, and I have heard 3 different stories from him on how I am going to be re-imbursed.

I am sitting hoping things will work out..I can't keep moving, but the frustration level is getting about 2 steps away from the airport!!

Recruiter : Su ******* K***

Liz

Subject: KNC Hyunjae

Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 18:18:15 +0800

Hi,

I would like to report the following school as it is a nightmare of a place to work for:

KNC or KNC Hyunjae.

This school has 2 branches, 1 in Seocho and one in Mokdong. They are both owned by the same guy who is one of the greediest and most racist people I have ever had the displeasure to work for.

In the 1 year I worked for them, I replaced 1 teacher who was fired because he got angry when he discovered the owner had made a deal with his landlord whereby he would pay for the cable bills for himself and the landlord (ie: he was charged twice without knowing).

In the time I worked there, 4 teachers were foced to quit or fired. 1 teacher was bullied into quitting because he looked too young. The supervisor at the time (we had 4 changes of supervisor in 1 year, the wongjonnim likes to shift blame for everything onto the foreign teachers or the foreign teachers supervisor) would openly "tease" him in the corridors and in front of students saying things like "we all wish you would quit, everyone hates you", in actual fact he was a really nice guy. 2 teachers were constantly harrassed and accused of being bad teachers, they were fired after refusing to have extra video camera's observe them in class at all times (we already have ccd cameras in every room, this was just to apply pressure).

The school hires a lot of teachers, but has some strange tax dodge happening where they declare us all as part time teachers, this allows them to avoid paying for the health insurance included in our contracts.

Every day a teacher is harrased by a supervisor due to a complaint from the wonjonnim who does not speak english but knows that our lessons are not of good "quality".

The text books we use were developed on the cheap inhouse, my own textbook includes such phrases as "i dont want to appear as the gay" and on on lucky page, contains 17 grammatical errors, we are asked to just cover this up or hide it from the students. The errors are obvious and the students complain about this to the parents, when this happens the teachers are blamed.

The managers constantly attempt to make addittions to our contracts and working hours by calling it a "policy" modification, instead of a contract modification. Our contract says we must follow KNC policy, but no copy of this ever changing document is provided before or after signing with the school.

The school will not help you if you have any problems of any kind, I was attacked in my apartment by a neighbor who complained that my water pipes were too loud. The third and fourth time he came to my door and kicked at it, I didn't open the door. I notified the school of this 4 times before they even made a call to the landlord.

When i finished my contract they refused to pay the full cost of my flights home, instead they paid the "tax free" cost, leaving me with the tax bill.

Don't work for KNC hyunjae, each day will be a nightmare.

Thanks

TOM School, Language Institute.

Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 21:43:27 +0900

Hi,

I want to report TOM School, Language Institute.

Jeonnong-3-Dong 1-187

Dongdaemun gu

Seoul

I just want to warn any prospective employees to stay away from this school. While it may not seem so bad compared with some of the stories on this page, I would still recommend not working here! This school used to be called 'English Friends' and there are still the same problems as already reported on other blacklists. Non payment of salary, airfare, bonus; Bad accommodation; Unfair treatment of teachers. A tendency to think he can change the terms of the contract at his whim to suit himself, going back on his word and being generally unreliable and untrustworthy. I would stay well away from this school!

I threatened to take him to the labor department if I did not receive full payment of monies owed. As I was staying in Korea he paid me. Several Korean teachers have taken him to the labor department for non payment of salary.

Thanks

Subject: Coryo English Academy, Ulsan

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006

Dear Jon,

I would like to place Coryo English Academy in Ulsan on the black list. When my contract was finished, I was shortchanged. When I asked for documentation, they provided none. We were always paid with an envelope of cash with no receipt because it was their policy to cheat the government on taxes. They later called my new employer and told lies about my character. The school has a long list of former teachers who loathe the school and the owner Mr. P****. A former manager was accused of stealing from the school as well. I was often paid late, and the Korean employees were treated poorly. My experience wasn't so bad in comparison to the stories of others on this page, but I urge the readers not to teach at Coryo English Academy.

Subject: EFL Language Institute, Daegu

Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006

Hi Jon,

My name is Lxxx and I have been in South Korea for three months, and after the experience I have had, I feel it is only fair for me to send you an email about the school I was working for. They were horrible and I would hate to see other foreign teachers wind up there. I worked at EFL Language Institute in Daegu, in the Daegok area and the owners name is Mr. Lxx and the manager's name is Sxx who you will be dealing with most of the time. They are doing things there that are highly illegal, and can get foreigners in a lot of trouble. I only found this out after signing my contract and living here for a couple of months. Now I am in a battle to get my release from them, which they are refusing to give me. Unfortunately this means I may be going home sooner than I thought, but I want to warn others not to work for this company. Everything sounds great, until you actually start working there and then you feel that you have stepped into some kind of hell. They verbally abuse their employees on a regular basis, both foreign and Korean, and they encourage their teachers to hit the students - something I know is accepted here in Korea, but very rarely in English Hagwons. It is their way of showing that you " care " about your students. Whatever you do, do not come to work for this company. You will come to hate your job and your situation quite quickly if you do. I was lucky to have a great support group here, who are helping me to fight these people, but if I don;t get it out on the internet I am not doing enough to help everyone else out there looking for a job.

If you could post this warning about this school that would be fantastic.

Subject: LCI Kid's Club in Anyang

Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006

Dear Jon,

Hello. Over a year ago, I fled in the night from the hagwan I was teaching at, LCI Kid's Club in Anyang. Boy, do I wish I'd found your site before I went over. Albeit, your site doesn't have my school listed, but it would have given me pause, and goaded me into researching more about teaching in Korea.

I went over there as a last resort: my job had been eliminated, and it was extremely difficult to find work (I'm not one of those "creepy teachers" that the person from Alaska was writing about). Anyways, long story short, I received no support from the director of the school. She had no college degree to begin with, and had a very difficult time separating her personal life from her professional life. She played favorites, and if you weren't on her good list, she had no support for you. Eventually, I began losing students from my classes who were in the words of one of the Korean teachers there, no longer interested in learning when they realized that there was actual work. I've had teaching experience and working with children before I went to Korea, but the attitude of LCI Kid's Club Anyang was "Let's keep the kids in Kid's Club, and if they learn English, then that's even better." Eventually, I was going to be let go at the end of their school year in March, 2005. This was done in order to not to have to have a teacher replace me right before their all-school assembly at the end of the year. Two weeks after I was given my notice, a particularly difficult little girl had a meltdown in my class after refusing to put on her coat to go home. To her credit, the little girl apologized the next day, but the damage had been done. I was called into the owner's office, a man who had very poor English skills, and was basically told that I could be fired without being paid the next day. I had already planned to go home a few days before the assembly (to the school's "credit", they did offer me the months time to look for another job and sign a release for me before I left Kid's Club). I had come to learn that this school was interested in business rather than education, so I really felt that I was going to be fired a few days before I got my last check. I called the airline and had my ticket upgraded to leave that weekend. In the middle of the night, I left for the airport and made it home.

The epilogue of this story is that when I contacted my friends back in Anyang, they told me that the school had called immigration in order to have me arrested at the airport. A few days after I got home, my mother told me she was never notified that I had gone "missing", so in her charming, stubborn Southern Mother way, she called the school and was told by my boss "He ran away, it's not my problem." After that, I received a very frantic email from my friend saying that a flag had been put on my passport, and if I was still in the country, to get out as soon as I could. Luckily, I'd already been in the states.

Anyways, that's my story, thought I would share. My only regret is not calling my boss the morning I got back saying I wouldn't be able to teach that day.

Subject: CESS, Chang-yu, South Korea

Date: Dec 24, 2005

It seems that there is an endless amount of terrible Hagwons in Korea. I envy the teachers that actually have a good Hagwon to work at. But at the same time I am happy for them. Anyway, please avoid working at any Cess Hagwon (franchise). Especially this one in Chang-yu, South Korea. Why I say to avoid all of them? Simply because the philosophy on how to govern the school is the same throughout. I will try to keep it simple and sweet as why you should avoid this hagwon/franchise. Safe to stay this is a below-standard-contract positon and you should avoid it like the plague. 1. You have only five minutes between classes for anything, whether it be to prepare for class or eat. This is totally against Korean-labor laws, so if you encounter this, don't put up with it.

2. You may have vacation time stipulated in your contract, but your lucky to actually get it, if and only if you do, it is at the discretion of the director and not yours.

3. You have three sick days in the contract, but according to the director, only if you have a operation of some sort.

4. Consider it lucky that you get paid on time. He was several days late with my pay and if I had not reminded him, it would of been a lot more then that.

5. Your shacked-up with another teacher, irregardless if you get along with him or her, it doesn't matter. Oh yes, he will have no hesitations about sticking a male and female teacher together. Hey, your in Korea, do like the Koreans do, right?!? Pack 'em in there!! Well, according to this director, he believes that if you were in the military, you should be use to it.

In summary, this is not slander or personal. This is objective and relative to this Hagwon. There are many more stories to collaborate the above-stated-points. If you don't believe what has been said here, at least take it into consideration. I have also noticed that the korean staff and director are chronic liars, the latter more so then the former and will take advantage of you as much as you let them. Presently, the foreign staff are suffering under this tyrannt for a director. Quite simply, I woudn't want anyone else to. It wouldn't be surprising that a midnight-run occurs soon amongst the foreign staff.

Best regards and take care everyone.

Subject: ANDONG REI (Reforned English Language Institute)

Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005

for years the director has been cheating foreign teachers. He brings them, has them work before the visa so the visa is 1 month later, then when their contract is up, he doesn't pay them salary, severence or return trip. when they leave, he lists them with immigration as having jumped contract. In addition, every month is a fight to get paid (i have been here8 months). He dribbles the pay over weeks, sometimes still owing a few hundred thousand won from the prior month when the next payday arrives. He has an Australian that lies to teachers and he and Angela (korean) tell everything to the boss (true or not) so their pay is covered. He has cheated Korean teachers as well. Basically the school is a scam since he teaches other subjects under the table all night and that is where his dark money comes from. He is going to bankrupt the school (his third business) so I don't know if he'll change the name.

Subject: ANDONG REI (Reforned English Language Institute)

Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005

Hi. I have been here a few months. The owner lets teachers go and doesn't pay them. He is currently giving my 4th and 5th graders unrelated middle school tests that they can't possibly pass so I am on the line. I have now heard of 5 teachers he owes money to, one of them I watched him cheat. He has no scruples. More teachers have to warn applicants about bad schools. Thank you for being there. This is my 3rd year and 4th school. 3 of them were crooked.

can you sign it anonymous.

Subject: Oh Sung Sik (OSS) English Club English Club, (Jeonju City) Ajoungly.

Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 23:58:04 -0700 (PDT)

Hello,

I would like to add to the hagwon blacklist as I have had a horrible experience. Here are the details:

I want to warn anyone who is considering teaching in Korea, to keep well away from the Oh Sung Sik English Club (Jeonju City) Ajoungly. I have never been treated so badly in my life and dont want anyone to have to go through what I went through.

This Hagwon has got to be the worst one in Jeonju.

They don't care about the employees at all. This institute is strictly money orientated. Pay was never on time and it always ended up in an argument. Korean teachers were crying and complaining on a regular basis. They were treated like slaves. We also had to eat like animals in the tiny lunch room all standing up due to the lack of space.

This hagwon has employees and students beyond its physical capacity. I am in the proccess of filing a complaint with the board of korean labour.

***AVOID THIS HAGWON AT ALL COSTS***

Subject: Kids Club Suwon

Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 04:48:36 +0000

Hi Jon.

Two friends of mine have been in very big trouble with immigration in south Korea because a recruitment agency OMEGA CONSULTING (whose operator has recently gone to prison) and the director of their school KIDS CLUB faked documents to get them visas. they swear they didnt know they needed a university degree to work here (as do 150 other foreigners) The director told them when they got here that their contract was not the right one and that the recruitment agency gave them the wrong one. so they had to work longer hrs and sometimes on weekends. they found out from their director a week ago that they were illegally in the country and that immigration would be looking for them. they decided to pack everything as quickly as they could and leave to the Canadian embassy to ask for help. they asked the boss for their pay for the previous month and he refused, then he said that he would pay them in a few days, which they wondered how, since they would be gone by then.

Their boss told them that they should help each other by helping him save face with the school by playing the role of the horrible teachers who are just leaving the position because they are selfish people. But he refused to give them money and help them with immigration. they he told them that he would change the locks on their apartment if they didnt help him.. They decided to turn themselves into immigration so he in turn locked them out of their apartment. They asked if they could return to the apartment because they had no money and nowhere to go but he first said no because they would have no food and when they said they didnt care he said that it would be bad for the school to see the teachers because he had told the parents that the teachers were bad people. When they got to the embassy they told them to go to the immigration office who told them to try to leave the country but their passports had been flagged so they had to stay until they processed all the information.

I spoke to them a week ago and they seemed very upset. i havent heard from them since but last time we spoke they were waiting for immigration to decide what would happen to them. 150 other foreigners are in the same predicament and are all being detained in korea since last week. They all went through the same recruitment agency. its really unfortunate that these people are doing these sort of things and getting away with it so on behalf of my friends I'm letting everyone know that if you are thinking about taking a job at KIDS CLUB, in suwon or you are going through a recruitment agency called OMEGA CONSULTING. Save yourself some headaches and find another job. The kids club director in Mr. Sxxx is an asshole who is keeping our friends belongings such as their guitar and clothes, for what reason I dont know. I had the displeasure of talking to him myself to ask him to let me in to their apartment to get their things for them, now that he knows they arent coming back, but he refused and said that they would have to contact him . I asked if email was ok and he said yes. They emailed him saying it was ok for me to enter and get their things, but then he said no, he would need a phone call. How they are to do that from a detention centre in Korean immigration I dont know. Anyway have rambled on a bit, sorry. but they are feeling really hopeless and wanted the word sent out. We just dont want anyone else to go through the same thing they did.

Subject: SLP Pyeongchon, Anyang Si

Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 22:28:46 -0700

Salaries not paid on time according to contract due dates.

Severance payments not paid on time according to contract due dates and Korean Labor Law.

Low salary offer for first timers and experienced teachers do not get much more compared to the ESL employment market in South Korea.

Reputable and experienced foreign teaching staff, reasonably autonomous working environment and well developed curriculum. Housing on offer is very basic and shared unless you are a couple.

Subject: Yeosu Wonderland, located in Yeosu Channum

2F Hanguk Bld 225 7 Yeoseodong Yeosu, Chunnam Korea.

Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 09:26:29 -0400

I signed an 11 month contract with this director in early Sept. My contract would start as soon as I arrived (so I would be back in time to enter a PhD program in Sept 2006). After many delays, I received an email from the Director telling me that he was breaking the contract. He wanted me to go to Korea with the visa for his school, and transfer to another wonderland school for the 'same deal'. This deal excluded my bonus (1.9 Million Won). His reason for breaking a legally binding contract was that he had a new investor, and that business is slow. He presented the potential transfer to the Gwangju School as a blessing. What an expensive Blessing.

By delaying so long, it was made virtually impossible for me to find another job in South Korea, as good 10 month contracts are very hard to get. Also, his disregard of Korean labour law and just general decency has dissuaded me from re-starting the process. I have lost an awful lot of money in the name of Yeosu Wonderland. From inoculations to travel guides to visa payments, my relationship with Yeosu Wonderland has cost me a few hundred dollars.

Subject: Ju Kuong Hagwon - Wando

Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 14:52:23 +1000

Hello,

Thankyou for your site.

I will try to keep this to the point and precise. It is happening to me now so I am very upset about the situation. I have been in Korea for 9 months. For the first 8 months everything went smoothly.

She will not fulfill the contract period and will not pay any money owing. She will change the contract to suit herself and lie and say you agreed to it. Basically she is a liar in all regards.

She came to my house and physically attacked me. I had to call emergency and have the police come to tell her to go. Do not expect any support from her with the children. She will say she is busy. Even though I paid the electricity, gas and TV, she did not pay it for 4 months. It is about to be turned off. The principle at this hagwon pays late every month. No teachers at this hagwon have EVER stayed for 12 months.

I hope this warns others. Should you require more information for your website, please email me. Thank you

Subject: Hyundae Interpretation and Language Institute in Gim hae.

Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 07:03:00 +0000

Thanks Jon,

I hope you will post this, for some reason the other blacklist sites require that I have the business number of the school. I have no idea what that is and it is very unlikely that the owner of the school would ever give it to me.........legal or not.

So I hope this will not prevent this warning from being posted here. The school name is Hyundae Interpretation and Language Institute in Gxx hxx. It is located accoss the street from INJE university in Gimhae, above Lotteria.

This school doesn't pay wages to employees as per the contract. I am still owed 2 months back wages as well as a severance. Every teacher who worked here has had the same problem. He always promises to pay "next week" or "tomorrow" but then never does.

Best just to avoid this place.

Cheers.

Subject: SBSi Kids in Gwansan Dong, just outside Seoul, in Gyeonngi-do.

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:14:10 +0000

Dear Jon,

I am a professionally qualified teacher from Ireland, now working in a university in Korea after spending four months in a hellish hagwon from which I escaped only by paying back the recruitment fee, having been duped into signing a bad contract.

It's a long story but I feel that other potential teachers need to be made aware of this school because they are in danger of finding themselves trapped in a very bad situation from which the only escape will be to pay a lot of money.

The school is SBSi Kids in Gwansan Dong, just outside Seoul, in Gyeonngi-do.

Basically the school is on the lower floor of the director's house and the director is a middle aged woman who believes in giving her teachers zero autonomy or respect. She is the boss and whatever she decides must be done, regardless of how outdated and tyrannical her ideas might be. Essentially she wants to employ native speakers to talk at kids thirty hours a week and the kids are not allowed to speak.

Basically the school is so small that she only needs one full time teacher and this is where many of the problems stem from. Several teachers have left within a few months of starting the job in the past few years and indeed only one foreigner appears to have remained long term, an American guy who comes back to work illegally and cover her ass whenever the latest teacher quits.

I got ripped off for about a million won and the teacher immediately before me also got ripped off. I want to make sure that this does not happen again. This woman is not running a school. She is simply trying to grab as much money as possible from all angles, whether from parents or teachers.

I hope you can help me publicize this story and give me some small measure of satisfaction that nobody else will get burned in the way I did.

Subject: Daegu Polytech Institute of Foreign Languages

Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005

KBS Media - Daegu Polytech Institute of Foreign Languages is bad news. This is a Christian - Catholic place that doesn't think much of the Ten Commandments.

My salary for a one summer camp was agreed at 2 million, the owner stiffed me for 1.2 million.

The camp curricula was really bad. They cheated the parents and the students They cheated the other native speaker teacher. The hours increased when I arrived as did the number of days. This issue is black and white. The schools is bad and the owner is slime.

Subject: Mr. Song's Language School: JeonJu/Jeonbuk

Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005

I worked there last year. The owner puts medical in the contract but doesn't give it. He's had another foreign teacher there for 4 years that has a heart condition and has asked for the medical and has it in his contract but Song refuses and just gets doctors to use Song's medical card when the man needs to get meds, etc. Song also doesn't pay into the pension fund although it is in the contract.

Subject: Samyook Elementary School - Daejeon

Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 01:13:23 -0700 (PDT)

About two month ago I handed in my resignation letter to the pricipal Mr Lxx.. It ws translated to him into Korean, he signed and agreed that I can finish and stay in my apartment until 31 July....

We also went to query a Mr Cxxx about money owed to us since March, seeing that we are finishing up and that our departure date is coming up....

A week or so after I handed in my resignation letter, the school asked me if I want my release letter so long, so that I can give it to my new employer... So I said no problem.. Bonus, because most of them dont want to give it....

It was dated 18th July....

Now after me asking where my money is and when I will recieve it, they tell me that I must now leave the apartment on the 18th..... And also a lot of other nonsense

Another teacher is also in the same situation.. He was told to leave his apartment today, although they said he can stay on till the end of the month.....

The now want to deduct all kinds of money and refuse to give my full salary....

Another teacher who left a few weeks ago, got her severance, airplane ticket and full salary.. She did not give notice and she did not finish her contract....

But bear in mind she was the priciple's badminton buddy.......

So now in total the school is loosing 3 foreign teachers and two Korean teachers.....

Mr Lim was previous at Samyook School in Busan and left there because to many teachers resigned........

The school is also very racist towards people of color... The might say they are SDA Christians, but dont behave like them......

People of color at the school got a bed only after 3 months, havind had to sleep on the floor....

But a white teacher got new wallpaper etc after a week.......

New teachers also get new bedding etc, but when we got there we were given 2nd hand used bedding.......

Be very carefull before coming to the school........

Regards

Subject: Jung Chul: Busan Dae yon dong, near Motogol subway

Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:38:24 +0000

Hi,

I just finished a year teaching and only now found out about this list, which I think is a great idea! I worked at two schools this past year, on of which was a nightmare and the following one which seemed like pure heaven in comparison. Here are the reviews that I hope will help someone picking a good school...

1) School name: Jung Chul Location: Busan Dae yon dong, near Motogol subway stop.

Only work at this school if you want to enter the fifth circle of hell. The school itself is a pure joke, I was the only native english speaker there, and only two of the four Korean teachers there could truly "speak" english. Although to be fair there was a constant overturn of Korean teachers in the time I was there... not a good sign.

I was paid late form the first month and my boss constantly complained about my teaching style, but I did exactly what she wanted to the very detail. One of the Korean teachers told me once that she thought my boss had gone insane, seriously.

Long story short, I was fired at the five month mark of my contract, I was never given a reason, just that there had been many complaints. Just in time to be denied any of my bonus and they made me pay my plane ticket back! At the time I thought with the help of my recruiter we would be able to salvage some of the money, but he ended up being a useless loser in dealing with the situation. I decided to let the near 2 million won that they owed me go, and move on from the worst working situation of my life...

The good news is that the school I changed to was much better! And it was just down the street and around the corner, Little Campus Dae you dong, Busan. Surprise I had no complaints there! And I was paid on time and in full every month. It was much better run and the teachers there were much happier not to mention more proficient in english. It's not like it was perfect (this is Korea) but I did get paid at least.

Subject: Canadian International Education Centre

Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:29:43 +0900

Hi Jon,

I want to Blacklist a Canadian company that recruits teachers to work in Korean public schools.

The company name is the Canadian International Education Centre, and a particularly bad owner is the one I worked for in Cheongju.

I was:

1) not given the money for the plane ticket.

2) not paid.

3) when told that I was going to be replaced after only working 3 weeks and having heard only positive things about my teaching, no firm date on when I would be replaced.

I am currently making a complaint against them.

I suggest other teachers refrain from working for this particular organization, and that branch of it in particular.

Cheers,

Subject: Cambridge School, Kumi

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005

Hello,

Currently my son is teaching at Cambridge School in Kumi City, and since October had never been paid on time. No only has he never been paid on time, my son is still owed for March, April and now May salary. He has been requesting his college diploma from the director for several weeks now. This diploma was turned in to get his E-2 visa in August, 2004. His apartment had no bed, he slept on quilts on the floor and finally bought himself a futon at Christmas , 2004. He has no stove, only a hot plate. Yet, Peter his boss, takes out the 300 dollars a month for rent.

Avoid this school like the plague.

Subject: SISA in Sanbon

Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 00:28:30 -0230

SISA in Sanbon has a very good teaching staff. The teachers hired at this school care about their students and their colleagues, and likewise the students care about them. Here is a short list of things you might want to consider before you sign:

-You may not want to send your original degree a notarized copy of the original along with your original transcript is enough

-you may want to watch out for the length of your visa and the length of your contract - you cannot fill a 12 month contract on an 11 month visa (watch your bonus)

-you have to pay into the korean pension irrelevant on what anyone says.

-you may want to bring your own furniture to your furnished house

-make sure you bring a lot of healthy snack food to eat on the 5 minute breaks between your classes, as you cannot eat in class

-You don`t have to work 6.5 hours straight (no break for lunch) because under Korean Law you work for 4 hours and then you are entitled to a break (30 minutes)

After all these things are sorted out. SISA has a great bunch of kids and an excellent staff team.

If you have any questions please contact me at: simonjayxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com

Subject: MagicLand Ulsan City South Korea

Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005

MagicLand Ulsan City South Korea looks to be going down fast, lied to me several times, and screwed me out of 800,000 won. The recruiter was in on it, a place called ESL Dream in Busan, the woman I talked to was named Darlene. Dont trust her, dont trust the school, they get you there and then change all the terms of the contract, not to mention the sewer they referred to as housing.

Subject: JUNG-IL AND ETON LANGUAGE SCHOOL, MOKPO, SOUTH KOREA

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005

Jung-il Academy (also known as ETON LANGUAGE SCHOOL) have refused to pay me my salary for last month and also, as I am finished my contract they refuse to pay my bonus or last months salary.

On Saturday March 12, 2005---I was told by Guni, the man who is my supervisor, and who hired me, told me to come to work on my day off (Saturday) and to receive my pay. I arrived with two English teachers as witnesses and the Hogwan Owners Mr and Mrs Kxx and Gxxx Kxx went absolutely ballistic. they called the Police, but before they did so they physically assaulted me and threatened my life. Today is Monday and I have contacted the Prosecutors Office to lay charges against them. I shall stedfastly remain in Mokpo until I have the monies they owe me....I WILL NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO ANOTHER TEACHER. This has happened to many English teachers who blindly come here believing everything will be great as per the contract. But, the owners change the contract (3 times in my case) and lie about things such as receving only 1 million won for salary instead of 2 million because they don't want to pay a higher premium rate for MEDICAL INSURANCE. As it turns out, this is all a crock and they only want to change your contract......they are verbally abusive to me and now have physically attacked me and Guni has stood with his arms straight and screamed at the top of his voice in a gorilla fashion. He said he was "Mad at myself". These tantrums are meant to scare the Teacher, but little do they know, that I lived here before and have maintained good friends with some Professional people here, and they are calling the Prosecutors Office on my behalf.

I shall update you when things get moving or resolved.

DO NOT EVER EVER EVER WORK FOR THESE FREAKS---THEY ARE DANGEROUS AND VICIOUS.

Subject: Hamilton School/Oxford English School

Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:09:47

I used to work at Hamilton/Oxford and I agree with everything that has been said plus more. Its hell. They lie at every opportunity and every attempt at adressing anything in the contract will be met with threats. If you work for them, Seoul Immigration will likely let you out of the contract. Do research on "deposit grabs". Pull one off, then split. They still operate out of Bangbae, a block away from their old office. They work at a Christian School now. I'm very angry at them for the tension, bullying and perpetual lieing. I'm angry at them for them making the schools disrespect me. I'm angry with them for causing me to leave the schools in shame and not being able to say good bye the the children that I worked so hard to make like me. I was also attacked after I pulled of a deposit grab. A Hamilton employee pushed on me for a block and into the subway while I tried to get on the subway. I'm much bigger than that employee, he is very lucky he was not seriously injured. I dearly wanted to smash him at the time. If you ever thought the people at this school would hurt you if they could, they would.

Subject: Top Language, Jeongu, S. Korea

Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005

Hello Jon I just got back to the USA. I was teaching in Jeongu, S. Korea for Top Language Schools. I had three months left on my contract and I was fired; they told me I dressed poorly ( other teachers wore shorts, pierced everything, tatoos etc.) , walked srangely , and that the hogwan owner did not like me. They made a contract for 17 mil Won for me and told me I will make 19,700 per month in which they will pay the remainder 2,700 mil Won per month at the end of my contract. The hogwan managers lied to me about many things; for example the foreign manager told me he would pay half of my 2,700 mil Won after I was fired. Top Language Schools is a highly unethical hagwon and I don't recommend anyone to teach there.

Subject: Hamilton Institute

Date: 21 Feb 2005

Nice service that you provide..thanks a bunch for it...

Well, got onto your site by a recent post from someone who was F-d over by Hamilton Institute...well, i once was an employee for them, worked less than 2 months...same bullshit. Anyways...i'm getting sued for embezzlement right now, got fined from immigration and am going to the police station today for further "Questioning" about my wrongdoings...without going into too much detail, the situation is ridiculous...

Subject: BEWARE OF KOREA CAMPUS/Hamilton Institute

Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005

Daehak Foreign Language Campus (incheon, locked out it's unpaid teachers/hapless students in September 2002 in a midnight run purportedly with a posse of gangsters on their heels) renamed Hamilton Institute of Oriental Medicine Language Centre/Hamilton Institute (serious! Operated in Bangbae-dong from September 2002 to November 2004. Closed down by the immigration department for illicit recruitments to the Seoul Public School system but not before making life hell for it's teachers by not paying them, not housing them, and constantly threatening to deport them if they quit) is now operating under the name KOREA CAMPUS.

This hakwon has a long long history of exploiting, ripping off, and abusing its unfortunate teachers and getting repeatedly fired from the schools they pimp out to.

Mr. Lxx (blubberass) and his evil wife Jxxxxxx (widely known as the dragon lady) will make your life a living hell if you work for them.

And recruiters beware: they also have a long history of not paying their headhunter fees.

If you have any bad past experiences with Mr. Lxx/Jxxxxxx and their nasty hakwon from hell, I would like to hear about it. Please email me (Steven)at:sreyesxxxxxx@hotmail.com

Subject: "the hamilton language school" aka "the hamilton school of oriental medicine" aka "daehak language institute" aka "korea campus":

Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005

hi jon! just a further note about "the hamilton language school" aka "the hamilton school of oriental medicine" aka "daehak language institute" aka "korea campus": (shape-shifting esl oufit run by mr. lee and his wife jasmine)

this school has had a long long history of serious employee grievances. blubberass Xxx and the dragon lady ("jxxxxxxx") are a nefarious duo and act like they own their employees. unfortunately, under the unfair laws that govern foreign workers here which they take full advantage of, they do.

i worked there for the longest and most depressing three months of my life. after failing to secure me an apartment for my first month (i had to sleep on the floor of my friend's one-room), pimping me out to a myriad of overcrowded completely disorganised public school classes (i was hired as a TOEIC instructor but discovered after my visa run that the school didn't actually have any students), not paying me on time, subtracting mysterious "administrative deductions" from my pay, not provididing health care, threatening to fire me on numerous occasions when i complained about anything, refusing to give me my passport and alien card back, I FINALLY QUIT.

but you know how it is in korea: even if my boss breaks labour laws and ignores the terms of my contract, i cannot quit without my boss' permission (letter of release). since there was no love lost between blubberass lee and i, i figured he would let me go. no dice.

i complained to the immigration department. no result. but i did find out that there have been a number of foreign teachers stretching from incheon (where they had the habit of firing their teachers in the 11th month of their contracts) to kangnam that have filed complaints against this school between at least 2001 to 2004. to my knowledge, immigration and the labour board have done exactly nothing about the growing pile of complaints.

and the korean labour board's advice to me? apologise to my boss. if that failed, sue him in civil court. kinda hard to do from canada.

in the mean time, blubberass lee called the labour board and immigration and told them they should forbid me from entering korea to work FOREVER because he alleged "i was an unkind physically violent teacher"! aaagh!!!

i had to collect letters from coworkers and former students attesting to my gentle pacifist nature to get a new visa. this man is evil! EVIL!

at one point in the battle, i actually had to sneak into blubberass' office and persuade a sympathetic secretary to slip me my passport.

finally, i realised that all odds in this country were overwhelmingly stacked against the foreign worker, so i took the labour board's advice: in order to get my freedom papers, i signed a letter he wrote (in korean!) promising 1. never to say anything bad about blubberass lee, his evil wife "dragon lady" again as long as i lived and 2. retract my complaints against them from immigration and the labour board and tell them that i was lying.

in the letter it said that if i failed to do 1, 2, and 3, blubberass "was allowed to deport me now or anytime in the future". luckily blubberass doesn't speak or read a word of english so he wasn't able to read the addenum i put at the end: "blubberass lee is a slimy gangster bully with a little dick who is blackmailing me into signing this letter against my will". yours truly.

what a maroon!

he then called a gathering of all the staff and forced me to humiliatingly apologise in front of them while he gloated, letter of release in hand. i've never felt so angry and diminished in all my life. but when the staff unanimously walked out in protest and disgust, it made me feel bigger and blubberass's dick got even smaller. i got my letter.

i am free from mr. Xxx and his scary sidekick jasmine's evil clutches now BUT BE WARNED!~ this chameleon school is still in existence:

i recently heard that he tried to have one of his teachers arrested when he tried to quit. the police actually came to this teacher's door to question him - mr. lee was falsely accusing the teacher of assault.

dont' be one of the many many teachers whose life he has made a living hell.

ESP in Korea

Prisoner of Wonderland: An ESL misadventure in South Korea.

Hello Jon,

Kwaks English Country

Hwawon Eup, Dalsung Gun, Chun na ri, 256-2 Kwang Duk Daegu

As the school is so bad, even after 6 months of working there they wont tell me the business registration number, and mostly ignore me. Speaking to me only when given threats or screaming abuse in Korean to me or anyone else. If you take some other action as reporting all this to an, or the authorities, (which would be good) please do that after December the 30, as I need to be well clear of this hell hole. The situation is deteriorating, if that's actually possible, please do not contact them directly or indirectly until after 30 December, as it is too dangerous for me whilst I am still there, by force of circumstances, I need to get out ASAP. Labour Law advise me to seek civil action, I have had enough, I came to work not to seek court proceedings.

The reason for blacklisting: refusing to pay a monthly salary to me for agreed work done without any breach of contract, not accepting my 30 day notice of cancellation of contract but simultaneously trying to make new contracts for replacement teachers, threatening to sue me, a current teacher for wanting to leave, even though they asked for my notice, (also I am working without pay), not honouring the contract of employment, forcing staff in to unpaid overtime- 20 hours a week at unsociable times, (9pm to 1 am 4 nights a week), Threatening to kill the agent for not replacing foreign teachers, and lying about everything they say and do, ie about replacing me, about my pay, about my notice, about the agent. They use abuse, intimidation and harrassement as a means of controlling staff and students.The school is supposed to have 5 teachers, but they only have 2, and have sought replacements, 3 koreans and one foreigner for 4 months, the educational board will be interested in the set up and running of the place, no fire safety escape, etc on 4th floor, There is only one english/korean teacher not 4 working there (from Dec 30 currently I am still there hoping for some kind of payment). If there is any justice this place should be closed like yesterday.

Previously at the same place 2 months earlier...

This place is unbelievable... I have been in Kwak's english school in Hwawon for 4 months, but I am at my limit. The boss, a 150 kg woman with shaved head (to make herself more intimidating?) and psychotic temperament, normally takes her anger out on objects, the photocopier, scissors (flying-thrown), doors, (glass one's being broken by her slamming the door), and a good healthy fight with her husband every week in the hagwon. They live there, so there is no peace, her niece and daughter who also live there are receiving therapy, (no surprise).

The place is supposed to have 4 korean teachers and one foreigner, the last foreigner did a runner, the other 3 korean teachers quit their contracts, and we can't get replacements, surprise, surprise! She the boss, expects cover for missing teachers and 4 hours overtime as and when without pay or a thankyou. Apart from her constant complaining and changing lesson plans every day on what to teach and clean the place, she is then screaming that another method/style should be adopted to teach, which will change by the next lesson again. She has also started hallucinating... I got her 5 year old daughter to talk an english conversation for 30 mins, even though she is stressed, the boss(mum) screams at her if she shows a trace of disinterest or wants to play, and screams at me for teaching art? (we talk, read books, sing and practice telephone talk- but all this effort be lost soon). She tried to force me into a change. Current situation, the hagwon are terrorizing the agent recourse to police?, All agents here refuse to replace or send a foreign teacher here, I wish to leave, but they want to keep me until they find a replacement, that they cannot, they wish to withhold my pay due to unnegotiable expenses- think of a sum and retain it? I am stressed out and am awaiting recourse to Labour Law (currently given up all hope 2 months later, law takes more time and money, they are not paying me so I need to go)

Subject: Child-U in Yeosu

Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:01:04 +0000

Hey Jon,

I wanted to warn people not to work at Child-U in Yeosu. Here's my story:

I worked for 5 months at a hogwan called, Child-U, in Yeosu, South Korea. The recruiting agency said that my shift would be 3-9, Mon-Fri. and that my apartment was a 5-minute walk from school, which were appealing to me. However, when my school director, May, and her sister, Lydia, picked me up at the airport, May told me that I started every day at noon. Soon I became very tired from the long shift (12-9:30, with only one hour of breaks in total). I told May at least 3 times over several months that I found the schedule too tiring, and asked if she could change it; she told me that there was nothing that she could do. This also happened to the other foreign teacher, Maaike, who started 1 month before me. She was also offered a 3-9 shift and ended up working 2-10.

I finally e-mailed my recruiter and asked her why she had posted my job hours as 3-9. She said that it was May who filled in all of the details. When I confronted May, she initially said that when she posted Maaike's and my jobs at the same time, she wasn't sure who would work 12-9:30, so she just posted the "regular" work hours on both of our job postings. Interestingly, not one of the 7 teachers even works 3-9 (the others work between 2-10), so I don't know where she gets this "regular" work shift. She later admitted to me that sometimes she has to hide certain details in order to attract foreign teachers. I told her that I felt tricked; I would never have taken the job if I had known what the real hours were.

Also, the 5-min walk from my apartment to school was really 40-min. In the winter we had to spend a lot of money taking taxis home from school. When I asked May about the apartment location, she gave me an excuse that she hasn't been to the apartment a lot (even though a few weeks before she had told Maaike and I that she used to hang out at the apartment often) so she didn't realize that it was more than a 5-min walk.

As for the school, it has about 300 students and is totally disorganized. The classrooms were also very tiny and overcrowded.

On my last night at work (I was flying out the next day) Lydia told me that they were deducting money from my final pay to cover the plane ticket to fly me to Korea as well as the recruiter's fee. After a 3-hour argument with May and Lydia, May and I agreed that she and I would split the difference for the plane ticket and the recruiter's fee, which gave me about $200 more. However, when they wired the money to my bank in Canada, it was short several hundred dollars (even with the exchange rate, it was too low). I e-mailed May over a month and a half ago asking for her to send a copy of the wire, but she hasn't, probably because she knows that I'll find out that they cheated me.

One of the Korean teachers that has been working there for 2 years had even told me how May had cheated previous teachers on their pay and how she and Lydia were liars about so many things. During our fight, I told May how I was warned that she and Lydia were liars and cheaters. During that time I even noticed that May was beginning to change things that she had previously told me or just denied them.

Also, our contracts state that we would get medical insurance 4 weeks after we began working, but we never did. I asked several times for it as I had gotten really sick from all of the pollution (Yeosu has over 100 chemical plants). The teacher that I replaced told me that she had asked for it for a year and never received it. When I confronted May, she said that they had submitted the paper work, but that the insurance company was taking its time. Whatever.

Unwilling to be taken advantage of anymore, Maaike and I finally ended up quitting after 5 months of working at that hell-hole. Although May and Lydia seem pretty nice and friendly on the surface, I came to realize that they are both two-faced liars who don't admit any wrongdoing. I wouldn't recommend ANYONE to work at their hagwan.

Thanks for having a website like this.

Subject: Jung Chul English, Dangsan Campus

Date: Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 01:22:00

Hey Jon,

Thanks for running this site. Hope this post is of some help to someone.

This is a warning for anyone considering working at Jung Chul English in Dangsan, Seoul.

In their first few months of operation Jung Chul Dangsan is a hogwan that has given more than its fair share of headaches to a number of ESL teachers who have had the misfortune of being involved with it.

There you will find the typical pretty scams that most lousy hogwans are guilty of. Unwillingness to pay for health insurance, not paying into a pension fund, refusing to return degrees, and counting days that the employee is contractually not required to work as payed working holidays are some of the lesser hassels one will have to deal with at Jung Chul Dangsan.

What sets them apart from the multitute of second-rate hogwans is their complete lack of respect for anyone who they are involved with and the management's tendency to impose petty scare tactics to create a submissive staff . There are a number of practices done there that make the Jung Chul teaching experience one that should definitely be avoided.

The classroom atmosphere is tense to say the least. There are cameras in every classroom and they are at some point being watched by a dictatorial director who feels it is her duty to criticise everything that she sees. The expectations on class dicipline are unreasonably high. They are especially high (ironically) for the kindergarden classes in which the teachers are always under close surveillance. If there is any speaking or movement (as 6 year olds are prone to do) in the class that the director doesn't approve of she has no problem with barging into the class and berating the teacher infront of the students. Any thoughts that teaching (and learning) should be fun are quickly extinguished in the Jung Chul environment.

Another serious problem with the management is their refusal to support, or even attempt to understand, their teachers in any way. If a class' enrollment should drop or if there should be a compliant about a teacher from a parent the school's immediate response will always be to blame the teacher. Without consulting the teacher about the situation they will explain that the owners are very angry that the teacher's poor teaching skills are costing them so much money. This will be followed by insults about the teacher's ability to run a class and threats that if the teacher does not improve they will be fired very quickly. This seems to be a standard practice at Jung Chul Dangsan.

It seems as though the school tries to keep their teachers in a perpetual state of fear. Should a situation arise where a mistake is made by a teacher, there is a problem with a miscommunication, or if an unforeseeable personal emergency causes some undesireable result in the eyes of management they will always find a way to leverage that against the teacher. If a minor conflict should arise and they have the choice to either resolve it in a professional, constructive manner or to blow things out of proportion with petty juvenile spitefulness they will always apply the latter. They will try to use the conflict to intimidate the teacher into altering their contract and presure the teacher into signing a form waiving their employee rights. They seem to do whatever they can to keep the teachers in an unstable and insecure state.

All in all Jung Chul Dangsan is a bottom-of-the-barrel hogwan that is best avoided. The managment team, J___ (owner), S____ (his wife), and H____ (director) are as unsavoury a group of people you could ever meet. They clearly believe in managment through coercion and intimidation. They will take any chance they can get to show their employees who's boss. What they create is an extremely hostile and stressful enviornment that insures anyone's stay will be a very tumultuous (and most likely a short) one. Don't be thrown off by their hollow smiles and professional demeanor. These three are some of the pettiest pseudo tyrants that you could ever find in Korea. You would be doing yourself a big favour by not having anything to do with them or their school. Decent people should never have to deal with people like these. In the school's first 7 months of operation they have managed to lose their first 5 foreign teachers. Their turnover rate for Korean staff is almost as high. Their record speaks for itself.

Subject: International Foreign Language Institute Iksan City

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004

Dear Jon,

I am glad that you are providing this service.

I would like to report that International Foriegn Language Institute is one of the biggest Hagwons in Iksan, around 600-750 students roughly. It is a cookie cutter factory of English that uses the parents willingness to only look at how many foriegn teachers it employs to determine its ability to teach English. It ignores the needs of the children for a clean and fun environment in favor of all out mayhem in the halls and scare tactics in the classrooms. My temperament was not agreeable to this climate, although I will say it "may be for some" and I worry about those who do enjoy this mode of teaching.

The owner and his "wife with pants" are extremely slick and know exactly what to say and when to say it. They do provide some good things which makes their stories and tactics sellable to Korean ethics and Canadians right out of college, but if you are non of the above you better have a perfect understanding of teaching English to survive because they will run you ragged with the tightest and wildest student schedule available. If you are skilled you can have small classes with higher level students, but if not look out for your behind because there will be a student trying to poke his fingers up there.

As for the treament of teachers generally is good, but if he doesn't like you all his attention will be focused on you and you will have smart little degrading comments from the owners. One teacher I roomated with was from Canada although he looked Asian. He fell into the category of green and pacifistic. This school wasn't a good match for him, but he tried. After two months employment the owner wasn't satisfied with his try and decided to fire him and gave him a month to either go home or find another situation, whereupon he found the latter. In the meantime the owner was running short of teachers and asked him to stay longer even though he had fired him. He proceeded to explain to him that he might as well stay for awhile because he wouldn't be able to find another Hagwon to accept him, because he looked too Asian. Well that may be all true, but it is nothing but intimidation. I explained that it is completely a matter of finding a suitable open minded school for him and he will be much happier than with the above mentioned situation.

I am smaller school now myself and the last I heard my roommate was too. We shall see how things turn out. I will try to keep you posted.

Cheers,

Subject: SLP Kangnam

Date: September 8, 2004

Hello, this is in regards to SLP Kangnam.

Jxxxx, the supervisor at SLP possibly one of the most incompetent and unprofessional supervisors I have ever met. Her English is questionable, we have preschool students who can speak better English then her. Also the only work she is ever see doing is threatening to fire teachers who she doesn't like (She has a "hate list") and spreading rumors about teachers on the "firing list". Through intimidation she successfully has 20 teachers coming in on Saturdays to prepare for classes.

The workload at this school is huge, add the constant threat of being fired and you have a very stressful and unpleasant working environment. The only way to avoid being on her "hate list" is by "kissing arse" or sleeping with one of the counter teachers, the owner or the Headteacher.

If you are a prospective teacher be warned! The school will only allow you to speak to certain foreign teachers. The foreign teachers WILL lie to you and tell you how great the school is.

Yes the school does pay you on time. But the workload is more then most other Hagwons, the atmosphere is tense, there are untrustworthy teachers at the school who report back on other teachers i.e those teachers they deem as not doing enough work or people they just don't like.

If you don't conform you will constantly have "complaints" most of which are not backed-up with proof, become isolated and be threatened with firing for petty reasons. The foreigners at this school are mostly female,young, naive,and inexperienced and easily intimidated. They will not support you if you are fired! They are looking out for themselves.

Mon, 30 Aug 2004

I'm blacklisting the below academy

Academy: EWHA:

Place: Jeju-Do, Shin-Jeju

Director: Ms.Kxx

Reason: Consent lies and mood swings. She fired two teaches just before their contracts finished.

Subject: AEON

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 15:46:49

Dear Jon,

I've just returned from Japan after just 2 months with AEON. My message for prospective teachers interested in AEON is 'don't bother'. AEON is purely a money making organisation. They care little about the students or the teachers. They're not too bothered about the standard of your lessons as long as you are never late and no students complain. If you are late for a training meeting (for whatever reason) or if a student complains your life will be hell. You will be observed constantly and hyper-critically (irrespective of how good the lesson is). You also need a fair bit of luck. My co-worker 'gaijin' teacher had one 'advanced' ('Talking Point' # ) class a week with two students. Both were practically native speakers. It was a doddle. I had two 'advanced' classes. In both classes the students were basically pre- intermediate level at best. Impossible. It's in AEON's interests to get students doing higher level classes. It generates more revenue. If you are recruited in the States/ UK / Canada... chances are you'll end up in some far flung remote part of the archipelago. Forget it.

Regards,

Steve Wallis

# P.S The AEON coursebooks are rubbish - completely dull and ridden with inauthentic drivel.

Subject: Kid's College, Daejeon

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 18:04:30 +0000

Please post this on your sites, as I feel a responsibility to warn potential teachers.

Kid's College Daejeon: this hakwon is evil. In existence for less than 10 months, Mrs. IXXXX HXXXX and EXXXXX BXXXXX have managed to lose every teacher (all 5) within the last two months, with the exception of a spineless henchman/head teacher (JXXX XXXXXX). One teacher was fired, his apartment guarded by our bus drivers and a Korean soldier and threatened with deportation for no other reason than his engagement to a lovely Korean girl. Another teacher was so ostracized in the workplace, including the famous "discommunicated" tactic (aka, weigook doesn't exist), that she felt as though it would behoove all involved parties to submit their 45 day resignation notice as per the contract, at which point she was promptly fired. We have had many midnight runs, and the two recruitment firms used for the six of us have refused further business from Kid's College Daejeon. The Daejeon franchise has also become a scar to the Kid's College name that the main branch won't assist in recruitment, either. In fact, the atmosphere became so hostile that each teacher (except for XXXX) finally resigned, only to be fired. And stranded. And denied final pay. And our deposit on housing (400,000 won) was denied and nickel and dimed if even offered!

Additionally, the contract was not honored in several ways. Holidays, contracted working hours, healthcare, housing, sick days... you name it, we were screwed. I was the first foreign teacher for Kid's College Daejeon, and I admit that I was naive. A few things struck me as odd initially, but perhaps due to cultural differences, like resigning three different contracts, being forced to go to church (advertisement) and despite violent food poisoning, being locked in the school sick room (barely large enough for a child...luckily, a Korean teacher risked her job and snuck me home). We also all worked illegally for the first three months of our contracts.

Things went from bad to worse, as work weeks promised in the contract at the average 28 teaching hours soon grew to 12 hours per day while being shifted (and shafted!) to three different hakwons. Any type of break is at their discretion (if we were lucky enough to get out of the classroom) and the children were left unsupervised during breaks, so many times reenterence into the classroom meant blood, grafitti, missing children (one kindergartener actually made it down the elevator to the ground floor of our building!) and angry Korean helpers.

Speaking with friends who worked nearby in Dunsan-dong revealed the reputation of the Hong/ Bang alliance, as well as Korean acquantances and friends. It wasn't until this last month that they revealed thier truly horrible nature in total, as they stole a teacher's original diploma (with the help of XXXX, the head teacher), another's Alien Registration Card, and entered my domicile searching to see if I had packed and if I was preparing to make a midnight run. My last conversation with Eunice Bang, superviser, was a heated discussion related to her translation skills (she likes to throw in a few jesupsas and ship pals when translating foreign speech to the English deficient Mrs. Hong, despite the subject matter...shocking as it may be, I am not joking!) as well as her direct lying on several accounts. She was screaming, throwing things, slamming her fists on her desk which was just feet away from classes in session, and threatening me with physical violence. Surprisingly, I was fired, and even though I was facing the loss of nearly a months salary, I didn't return but left my apartment immediatley, as I value my physical well being above financial incentive. And I was also concerned that they would do as they had to my coworkers and take my ARC card or my passport or diploma.

In sum, DO NOT GO NEAR XXXXX XXXX OR XXXXXX XXXX OR XXXXXXX XXXXXX...unless you like getting treated like weigook worthlessness, having zero percent of your contract honored, and receiving the full illegal treatment.

Despite the nightmarish, illegal, harsh working conditions, I LOVED my stay in Korea (10 months) and am planning on returning after a few month holiday. Please understand that these complaints are in no way intended to dissuade anyone from teaching in Korea, as it is fantastic! However, this is one hakwon you would be advised to stay clear of!!!!

Subject: REI Andong, Korea

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 03:48:07 -0700 (PDT)

June 23, 2004

the cast:

The Director of REI-Andong, Mr.Kxx, a.k.a. Monster (his own nickname choice) The recruiter, MXXXX, mXXXX@teachexchange.com

The victim and 1st teacher: Monty Ahmad, from Toronto, Canada

I apologize to my peers for not having posted this earlier.

The storyline: Monster broke into my home and stole all my savings, 3 million won.

How do I know: Deductive reasoning via Means, Motive and Access, and as well he confessed.

The details:He kept asking me where I keep my money since he didnt make me a Koean ID, I couldnt open a bank account. I told him trustingly that its in my tux jacket in my bedroom. He next day was payday, he paid me and while I was teaching, he robbed me.

How do I know it was Mr.KXX aka Monster because:

1.Nobody else knew where I lived, it was my 100 days in Korea. I didnt know anybody.Only he knew where I lived.

2.There were expensive items everywhere, laptop computer, digital camera, watches etc, nothing was touched expect the tux jacket in my bedroom, nothing was overturned like the bed or other clothes.Therefore, the thief knew where and what he wanted.

3.He was broke. He kept asking me to lend him money, and then asked me to ask my mom for 50 million won. Earlier that day, we stopped at a gas station and all his credit cards(3) were declined.

4.Then at the end of the evening he told me if I had lent him the money this wouldnt have happened. More to the story.

I told my recruiter, MXXXX, and the regional director, EXXX KXX. EXXX said, what can we do, forget about it.

Steve, the 2nd teacher was fired on his 11th month, so he wouldnt have to pay his bonus and airfare.

Mark, the 3rd teacher was ripped off 5 to 6 million won.

Bill, the next was teacher was at the short changed 2 to 3 million won last time I spoke to him.

Dont be the next teacher victim.

Subject: Kidsland, Dongnimun

Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004

I just want to say that this school is owned by a racist, petty and incredibly vindictive man. In the past six months they have gone through 5 foreign teachers, two of whom they screwed out of a lot of money (see the entry below).

This is bad school, run by bad people. Unless you feel like paying to work in Korea, I would go elsewhere.

Subject: EMI, Ulsan, Korea

Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004

Hi Jon,

Here is my speil, thanks for adding it to your site:

EMI, Ulsan, Korea

This school is terribly disorganised as there is no cirriculum. The director, Mrs XXX is a complete and utter psycho. During my time at EMI I saw her physically fight the Hagwon director next door, twice. She treats her Korean teachers very poorly and once attempted to throw a chair at a teacher who quit and wanted all the pay she was owed. Foreign staff fare a little better but she is prone to making wild judgements about her teachers based on her imagination ie. a teacher is late one day so he must be an alcoholic, or a teacher yawns at school so she must be up late drinking/dancing the night away. While she tends to pay on time, overtime can be a hard fought battle. Her mood changes with the wind which generally makes for very difficult working conditions. While I managed to stay a year out of sheer stubborness I would not recommend this hagwon if you want to fully enjoy your time in Korea.

Subject: Jung Chul English Junior at the Anchon campus in Jeongja-dong

Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004

Hi Jon,

Unfortunately, I don't have a good story to tell but I want others to know about this woman so that maybe they can avoid my fate...

I worked at Jung Chul English Junior at the Anchon campus in Jeongja-dong, Bundang. It's a big, pink tiled, free-standing building. The director's name is LXX XXXXX XX. She also runs a separate kindergarden out of that building.

The director was nothing but smiles until things went wrong. I started working there, as well as another fellow Canadian about three months ago. My visa was fine but my co-worker needed to do a visa run. The school took so long in getting the papers organized that when they eventually did go, my co-worker had passed her 90 days and was deported. We kept on reminding the school about the need to speed the process up, but nothing was done until it was too late. Immigration gave my co-worker a fine, but the school said it would pay it since it was their fault. On the day my co-worker was leaving to go back home, the director got one of Korean teachers to tell my co-worker that the fine would be deducted from her final month's pay. Not only that, but she also had to pay her own airfare home.

Immigration closed down this particular branch of Jung Chul. We found out on Thurs that the school was closing down and my last day of work was the very next day so the director did not honour the 2-weeks notice stated in the contract. Not only this, but I received a not from her yesterday (Tues.) telling me I had to leave my apartment that night. I had a meeting with her this morning and had to listen to verbal abuse. She was basically telling me that it was my fault as well as my co-worker's and that we had to pay for it.

I have a feeling that she will re-open the school under a different name and try to recruit foreign teachers. I also understand that she is looking for teachers to work in her kindergarden. I would like people to be aware of this dishonest person and her school. I hope that no one else has to go through what I went through with her.

Thanks for your time,

Subject: Woosong Universit/Woosong Language Institute

Date: Mon, 31 May 2004

Fortunately, I discovered that this school does not contract in good faith, BEFORE RISKING AN INVESTMENT OF CASH, TIME AND TRAVEL.

WOOSONG UNIVERSITY/Woosong Language Institute, Daejon/Taejon, South Korea. Recommend serious educators not consider teaching/working for this school under ANY set of circumstances.

My experience in Korea has never included DISHONEST/UNSCRUPULOUS school administrations --- until my dealings with the above-mentioned. I was interviewed, tendered a WRITTEN JOB OFFER, which I accepted. I was sent a SIGNED CONTRACT, but when I began to ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT: high turnover, housing, unclear covenants in the contract body, etc, the next email I received stated "there are no positions at this time." This answers why there is high turnover and why this institution WILL NEVER ATTRACT QUALITY PROFESSIONALS TO ITS CAMPUS. My advice: DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE REVOLVING DOOR; STAY AWAY FROM WOOSONG UNIVERSITY AND ITS AFFILIATES.

I will be glad to provide additional information.

David Martin, valpoxxxxxx@yahoo.com

Subject: English Friends in Guil (Seoul)

Date: Wed, 12 May 2004

I have a friend that works there. New owners are driving the school into the ground. The teachers are now working from in the morning (10) until night (around 7). The new owners love paperwork, and ask for more. No overtime is given for the paperwork, and they are careful to only schedule no overtime. My friend says that they teach about 30 hours a week, but have at least 20 hours doing paperwork tasks.

Their advice--run!

Subject: Child -U school Yeom Chung dong, Seoul (Blacklist)

Date: Tue, 04 May 2004

Basically working at this school is ok. Infact its a good school to work at for 11 months.

However after 11 months expect to be given your 30 days notice, I'm the second teacher it's happened to, and no teacher has successfully been paid for their airticket or severence pay.

Just a warning.

And Response:

Subject: Child -U school Yeom Chung dong, Seoul (Blacklist)

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:22:22 -0800 (PST)

Child U of Yeom Chung dong, Seoul should NOT be on the blacklist. I believe it is a good school. I worked with the teachers that got fired on the 11th month. They weren't teaching at all, just having the kids color in books. I did get my severance and airfare as promised. Please add my letter to your website so others will know that this is not a bad school if you actually put in an effort to teacher. The director is very fair and generous, in fact.

thanks,

Subject: English Friend's Academy

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 21:51:22 +0530

I taught at English Friend's Academy in from November 1999 to March 2000 when I ran away. The school advertised under false pretenses. They were not honest about their teaching hours (36 50-minute classes per week though we all thought that one 50-minute class counted for one hour). The management was nice but heavy handed. The situation got so bad that the teachers revolted, signed a petition and honestly tried to work with the administration to make things better. This was met with threats and no changes. I ran away without them canceling my visa for that school, and soon after most of the teachers left that school but remained in Seoul.

Subject: 21st Century Language Institute in Suwon

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004

Hello Jon:

I taught at the 21st Century Language Institute in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, S. Korea from Oct . 2002 to OCt. 2003. I was a hard worker and flexible always for my employer. At different points during the year I heard all of my North American colleagues complain for various reasons...everyone of them talked about leaving (their were usually 4 or 5 of us). My own problem came at the end having served admirably when I was told to work longer and basically through translation and a ganging of Manager, Head Teacher, and Owner.....was given a choice between severance pay and airfare home...I paid my own way home...AGAINST my contract. And now walk around North America with a chip on my shoulder against the Institute owned by the WXXX family. We had no medical insurance ever offered us...

Subject: Hansol Language Institute (Kids Herald and Worldkids)

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004

Hi Jon,

The Hansol Language Institute, which also advertises under the names of Kids Herald and Worldkids, requires their teachers to work at other institutes, under additional contracts, the income of course paid into the treachers account then demanded by the school as "this is not your money it's the schools." This institute can hold this threat over any teacher who agrees to work outside the institute under these "additional" contracts, as it is all "illegal" work and the teacher can be fined and deported for doing so, if caught by immigration.

I on the other hand, was legally endorsed to work for another institution, immigration endorse my passport and work permit, but the school still demanded the income. I sought legal advise from the Prosecutors Office in Seoul and was told that the income was mine and the school cannot demand anything from me. It's was called "extortion". I was a victom of extortion and, because I went to the authorities, was then black mailed (they held my airline ticket and refused to hand it over) so that I could not proceed until I'd left the country.

Working legally isn't always going to prevent you from getting stung by the hogwan. In this instance the actions of the hogwan were supported by the International Head teacher, a foreigner who should have known better.

Please keep my personal details annon as this is being followed up through legal channels.

Subject: Hamilton School

Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004

Dear Jon,

On april 14th you recieved at letter from a teacher who used to work for Hamilton school here in Seoul. All of what the author says is true. Although we are employed at public elementary schools were are officially property of Mr XXX and his wretched company Hamilton Language Centre OR Korea Campus Group - and at the whim of him and his awful wife whom we all affectionately call "Dragon Lady".

Just recently 4 of us were improperly, paid late or not at all. And it was literally a Battle Royale attempting to get our money.

The classes are terribly disorganized. We did not recieve books for a month and although we were promised a max of 20 kids.. most of us are teaching WAYYYY more than that. In addition, although promised, most schools were not provided with a Korean- speaking coworker or co-ordinator to communicate with the Korean speakers and ourselves.

We have all had the problem of Mr Lee and his crazy wife attempting to take our passports from us. And at one point a teacher had her passport picked up at immigration without permission or reciept. Some how, through connections and palm-greasing, these people were able to pick up her reciept and hold it for 6 days without her knowledge. Immigration was obviously alarmed and she was informed to call the police. She has since been threatened because of apparent problems and warnings from immigration since then. Most of us do not have health care yet.

We do not have completed or signed copies of our contract - they have only been filled out by us with the rest of the information blank. We were forced to recieve humiliating physicals - of which we have not seen the results.

These people call us at all hours of the day - weekends, early morning.. they expect us to jump when they ask. And do not take "no" well at all. I personally have been threatened with firing and "punishment" for not co-operating with things such as handing over my passport or coming in and doing things on weekends.

And worse - others have been treated even worse. Recently, one teacher from Australia was dumped in an awful apartment not unlike my own - but he was left there for 3 days with no heat or blankets. Eventually he contracted pneumonia and was unable to work. But because our "paperwork" for healthcare has not been done, he had difficulty seeing a doctor or communicating his problem to the office. The office does not answer the phone and does not have an english speaker available at most times - we appear to lose staff on an alarmingly quick basis. Our poor sick aussie was fired and sent home ill... apparently a lesson to us all.

Another teacher recently came home to find all of his stuff in the hall of his apartment building. Long story short, our beloved leader had decided to fire a teacher and kick him out of his house --- unfortunately it was the wrong teacher. This one lost some expensive personal belongings. We are still waiting to see what happens there. BUT no appologizies were issued.

Staff with Korean wives are often threatened as well - apparently because of the fact that their wives are able to communicate to the non-english speaking managers we work for. They are regularily threatened of being fired for such behaviour. Recently, one of the wives who was there to help translate our pay dispute was told to go home and stay in the kitchen - this was said by the evil dragon lady wife herself.

Many people have quit in the last little bit and I know that many have been fired. I also know that immigration is starting to catch on about them picking up passports illegally. Also, the public schools themselves are starting to find out about the shared bank accounts that they think they are paying us with... however it is becoming incredably obvious to us all that we are simply laundering money for these bastards.

To be honest, this is a dangerous and dodgy school. These people are clearly running an operation that is not "proper". We are nervous about them and simply they cannot be trusted. But we are also very very aware that soon they will be found out by immigration or by the public schools. And if that does not happen, I suspect that numerous teachers will be taking them to the labour board soon.

Please DO not sign a contract with this school - most of us are trying to get out. I would love to tell you more - but obviously I fear being fired - and as a result there is no way in the world that I would actually be paid before coming home and finding my belongings in the hall. However, we are plotting our escape and subsiquent vengence!

Subject: Hamiliton College and/ or Korea Campus

Date: Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004

Dear Jon,

I am writing to ask teachers considering Hamiliton College and/ or Korea Campus group to reconsider. Think very carefully before you sign a contract with Mr. XXX

I have been teaching in Korea for three years, and have lived and worked in seven different countries. I have never seen anything so dodgy or shady as this guy. He should be in prison, but instead he makes a great living farming English teachers.

All the teachers in this school were duped and lied to when signing the contracts. Be very careful when dealing with this guy.

He runs a government contract to provide english teachers to Korean public schools.

1. Although he claims the teacher will live and work in good areas of town (naming them specifically) teachers never work where they were promised and they all live in tiny, cramped dorm style apartements in a really dodgy area of town.

2. Most teachers commute over an hour to work one way.

3. he holds teachers documents and passports.

4. he has a 'friend' at immigration who helps him keep track of teachers, who releases documents to him with out teachers permission, who helps him get around Korean laws.

5. he has run other simmilar buisnesses in the past, but got in so much legal hot water that he picked up and ran, leaving many teachers hanging.

6. he won't pay teachers unless they create a joint bank account with him, the teachers have no access to the records of these accounts.

7. Teachers are often sent to three of more schools in a week to 'teach' more than 30 students in a class, with no materials or curriculam.

8. He has numerous different names for his business, these are the two most common. But teachers have contracts with 5 different names on them These are just a few examples, I want to avoid specifics because I hope to return to Korea, but am afraid of retribution by him.

Subject: EWHA ALS (American Language School) in Mansu Dong, Incheon.

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004

Avoid working for EWHA ALS (American Language School) in Mansu Dong, Incheon. The owner, Mr. Axxxxxx, is very difficult to get along with. So far only one person has successfully finished a one year contract with this hogwan. Most teachers leave before one year because of problems with the owner. Although the contract that foreign teachers sign states that the employee will receive 15 days of vacation, the owner of the school has tried to get around this by saying that weekends count as vacation time. Foreign teachers are expected to do a lot of work outside of teaching. Foreign teachers are supposed to make and grade exams each term (there are six terms in a year). They are also expected to call each of their students when they're at home and have a conversation in English. During the intensive periods (twice a year and each period lasts a month) foreign teachers are expected to teach 9 classes most days and there is no overtime or bonus given for extra hours worked (despite what the contract says).

Subject: REI, Andong

Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004

hi,

i just wanted to let you know about REI andong; i was working there on a non-contract basis for two months. i had considered signing a contract with the owner, kxx yxxx hxx, but after reading the following post from a former REI employee mark robinson on www.eslcafe.com, i decided against signing away a year of my life.

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:1073739122-75333.txt

i left the job because i was justifiably concerned with whether or not i'd start getting paid after i signed on, as he was paying me in full but not paying any of the other 5 teachers who worked there. the korean employees would bow their heads and then go home crying because they hadn't been paid for two months. the man's own brother worked there and got paid 40,000\ here, 30,000\ there. the other foreigner working there, who was under contract, was owed upwards of 2 million, and was getting 120,000\ here, 200,000\ there, not to mention footing the bill for repairs for the director's house, his apartment and the school - to the tune of 125,000 \, all because he couldn't read hangeul.

i was living in the director's house. he promised me an apartment and then told me once i'd moved in that he'd find me an apartment after i signed a contract... it smelled fishy as hell. so i left the day after payday. got paid in full and bailed on the guy.

later i found out he is telling people i didn't leave, i was actually fired for hitting a student. he has crossed a line and made an enemy now... so i'm telling everyone about him. he did the same to mark robinson, who can vouch for my story. i'll give you his email address upon request.

he currently has a teacher who has quasi-legal status. the man plans to work this american until he has a new teacher signed on, then kick the kid out with no pay. all i can say is i hope that anyone answering ads from andong reads this first.

please stay away!!!

sean

Subject: Kukje (Gukje) Language Institute in Suwon City

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004

I am writing to recommend an Kukje (Gukje) Language Institute in Suwon City for your Gray and Black Lists. I arrived here 2 months ago from the US. I realize that I am most likely still under going culture shock. I am trying to be objective and here is my story. Some background info on me... I'm a female 30 years old with a Psych. degree and TEFEL certified with 1 years teaching experience.

I arrived at Incheon Airport at 10pm and driven an hour and a half to my studio apartment. It was a Thursday night and I was to report to the school the following morning at 8:30am. No problem I thought I'll be ok even though I had just flown 18 hours. The first few weeks went by and I still hadn't met with the director. He was out of the country. Ok I thought I"ll just manage with advice from the other teachers.......Bad idea....all I heard were complaints and negatives comments about the school and Korea. I was told that the director will try to make me work illegally for him at other companies. I don't want to be in any type of illegalities in my own county let alone a foreign one. I do realize that the teachers telling me these complaints were under going their own culture shock. But they do stem from the truth. I decided to just keep working my job and wait until I spoke to director.

When he finally got back into town. I met him very briefly in not a true meeting just a short intro and hellos. He told me about a company job he wanted me to work. I let him know right away that I did not want to work illegally and get in to immigration troubles. He looked me strangely and asked "who told me it was illegal?" I just said some of the other teachers. Then he assured me it was not illegal. When I told the other teachers this they said "he's a liar ...get used to it." At this point I was very nervous and scared. I went to the company jobs but in the meantime I asked around for advice on the legalities. This and the long split shift hours and my culture shock began to ware on me. I came in late twice to my 7:40am class. (only by 5mins) The class doesn't show up until 7:50am. But I was technically late because I clocked in at 7:45am. I can own that. I had to ask the director for a loan that would be taken from my first pay check because I arrived in the middle of the month and was only paid for 2 days of work so far. He didn't like that I asked for a loan but he did give it to me. At this point I still had not received a refrigerator for my apartment. So I could not keep groceries in my place. All of these things are somewhat small but they add up to the frustration of moving to a new country.

Anyway he asked me how things were going and I made the mistake of telling him my concerns about the legalities of working off site and that I still needed a refrigerator. I also let him know that I had caught a cold of some sort. The next day he called me into his office and said "I think you are not happy here. You have been late for class and students complain about you. I think you are homesick and I will release you from you contract so you can go home." I asked him to tell me about the complaints so I can correct them for the future. He said "no he could not discuss it." All this was put on me right before I was to teach my last two classes of the day. Plus my cold was at the worst part. I just sat there stunned and tears came to my eyes. He asked my why I would cry and said I should teach the rest of my classes until the end of the month and leave my apartment at the end of the month. So here I am in Korea with no job and completely culture shocked. If you plan on teaching here make sure you can handle being treated like complete trash or you will hate it and don't be obvious about your complaints. This director is deducting the airfare ticket from my trip here from my last pay check.

I feel abused and confused.

I still haven't decided what to do now.

Subject: Michigan Language Academy in Suwon

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004

Greetings:

I am sending this message you and another blacklist site about Michigan Language Academy in Suwon. XXX XXX XXX, the director, will look for any and every excuse to not pay you if you work for him. He's not violent, but he's certainly not honest either! He makes up student complaints and tries to use these bogus complaints as an excuse to cut your classes and in turn your salary, as happened to me. He has been extremely uncooperative with the Ministry of Labor, after I spoke to them about my problems getting paid.

He will also try to lay guilt trips upon you about how the school is running out of money to try to get you to accept a lower-paying contract, despite the fact that he makes frequent pleasure trips to the United States. He fed me a sob story about how he would have to sell his apartment. I stood my ground and forbid him from changing my contract. He got vindictive and cut all my classes and pay in retaliation.

Furthermore, he's a liar. As demonstrated by his cooking up bogus complaints, he will lie to and about you. He suggested training for me after my probation period. I accepted the offer, but then he changed his mind and decided to give up on me. A colleague later told me that Mr. XXX told him that I refused to be trained!

And just because Mr. XXX is not violent doesn't mean he won't intimidate you. He does so verbally, threatening to sue you if you decide to bail. He also threatens to call Immigration to keep you from leaving Korea, even though exit bans are reserved for felonies, such as punching this scumbag in the face, which I felt like doing on many occasions but fortunately never did. Ironically, he's more willing to pay his lawyers and travel agents than his teachers.

I would urge anyone considering working in Korea to read the Korean Labor Standards Act. Also, always make sure you have a copy of your contract. If your employer refuses to give you a copy, go to your local Immigration office and request a copy from them. They will have a copy. And above all, read the blacklists!

And the response:

Subject: Michigan Language Academy (MLA)

DATE: Thu, 16 Sep 2004

Dear Jon,

Congrats on your effort to help people have a good experience in Korea. I know I have. I'm on my fifth stay.

I'm writing because the place I'm working at -- Michigan Language Academy (MLA) -- has a write up on your blacklist side that I don't think it deserves, and I would like to either get the story removed, or put something in on the greenlist side to offset it.

If you are interested, here are some more details on the MLA story:

I've worked with the director of MLA on each of my stays in Korea. He's been fair and good to work with. (If he wasn't good to work with, I wouldn't keep coming back to work with him.)

When the teacher got to Korea and started working, the director found this person could neither manage people nor run computers. The "revised contract" the teacher complains about in his story was a last ditch effort on the part of the director to keep him on board just as a teacher.

But, by then the teacher had developed a sour attitude, and the attitude affected his classroom work -- his students were dropping out. (something he mentions in his story)

I'm familiar with this story because I was hired as this teacher's replacement as Academic Director; I've had to clean up his mess.

So, I don't think MLA is a good choice for blacklisting. If you'd like to see more about MLA, check out our web site at http://www.mlakorea.com.

Now, here's a piece for your greenlist side:

Dear Jon,

I'd like to tell you about my super experience teaching at Michigan Language Academy in Suwon, Korea. The academy is in Young tong- dong, a prosperous "new town" suburb on Suwon's east side.

Here I have been working with older elementary school and middle school students for six months now, and I'm amazed at how enjoyable they are!

I've taught in Korea and in the US, and historically I've taught adult students, not children. I've taught adults because I like my students to be polite and respectful.

What I have found is that my Korean students here, even though they are young, are very polite and respectuful, and very enthusiastic as well! It's a super combination!

It's given me a whole new outlook on teaching, and I hope others who come to Korea are having as interesting and satisfying an experience as I am.

Keep up the good work on your site,

Roger

And the response:

Subject: Re: Michigan Language Academy in Suwon, rebuttal of response

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005

Dear Jon:

I have recently found the response to my posting sent by Roger Xxxxx, who is actually a close business associate of Kxx Xxx Xxx. As I expected, the posting is completely wrong on many points.

The teacher that wrote up this complaint signed on to work at MLA as an Academic Director. He was hired to manage teachers and run computers. He understood this when he was applying and interviewing, but lied about his qualifications in these areas. When the teacher got to Korea and started working, the director found this person could neither manage people nor run computers.

First of all, I did not lie about my qualifications at all. I have a Master's Degree in teaching with TEFL certification granted by the State of California, and I built the computer I'm writing this on, which is running Windows NT 4.0. There were actually two academic directors, the other one being a native Korean, and this other director was given the real managing power over the teachers. My 'academic directorship' was just a token title designed to lure unsuspecting teachers into a bad situation under false pretext and broken promises.

Rxxxxxx has never met me and thus has no grounds to assess my performance or to attack me. Apparently, he is strictly going on what Kxx told him.

The 'revised contract' the teacher complains about in his story was a last ditch effort on the part of the director to keep him on board just as a teacher.

The academic director before me, who was a teacher when I was there, warned me about the game that Kxx plays with new teachers, namely fabricating complaints and financial troubles as an excuse to cut the teacher's pay after the fact. I'm surprised he didn't try the same with Roger.

But, by then the teacher had developed a sour attitude, and the attitude affected his classroom work -- his students were dropping out. (something he mentions in his story).

My 'sour attitude' was a natural human response to being overworked, underpaid, insulted to my face, threatened, lied to and lied about day after day. All of the teachers there when I was there, all of whom have now moved on, had the same "sour attitude" that I had. Kx's arrogance was the common cause of our 'sour attitudes.' The students were actually dropping out because Kxx raised the tuition too high.

I'm familiar with this story because I was hired as this teacher's replacement as Academic Director; I've had to clean up his mess.

The mess that Roger had to clean up was that of the native Korean academic director, not mine. Having had no real power, I had no opportunity to make a mess.

In short, Michigan Language Academy belongs on the blacklist right where it is.

****

For information about protecting your rights as a worker in Korea, contact the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions at +82-2-2636-0165 or visit the KCTU website at www.kctu.org.

Subject: SBSi Kids English School in Yatop, Kyunnggi-do

Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004

This is in regards to a previous posting that I put on this web site regarding SBSi Kids School in Yatop. The school was sold towards the end of March. The new owners took over the running of the school during my last week of employment and apparently the old director no longer has anything to do with the school. This is most likely a good thing since the previous owner was a completely dishonest man. Despite the school being sold and the new owners taking over I was not given what was owed to me. I was given one month's salary but no bonus and no air ticket. The Korean teacher I worked with at that school still has not been paid and has filed a complaint with the labor board. The bus drivers that worked at the school during my time also have not gotten the money that is owed to them and I believe they too are trying to get their money through the labor board. However, I must be clear that there is new ownership at the school and the new owners have demanded that I write this as they are having problems getting teachers to come and work at this school. My opinion and situation have not changed but my opinion of the school stands.

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004

Hello,

I just want to put out a warning to teachers who may be approached through a recruiter to teach at SBSi Kids English School in Yatop, Kyunnggi-do. The director seems very kind at first but does not pay his teachers. He will allow them to work for the month and then on pay day simply say "I have no money". This is true for the Korean staff since July of last year and for the foreign teachers since January of this year. Labor Board is currently investigating the director Mr. XXXX and his business practices and I am certain he will be shut down soon. However, in the mean time he is continuing to bring new teachers here. Beware!

Subject:Kyungnam University in Masan

Date: 10 Mar 2004

Jon,

Please post this on your site so that others need no suffer.

I recently finished a year at Kyungnam University in Masan. I am not sad I left. Not at all. Not one iota.

The problem at Kyungnam is not that they do not pay well. In fact, the pay and hours are par for the course. The accommodations are also not bad.

The problem is that you are treated like disposable waygook trash. Teaching? Nobody gives a shit if you teach anything to anybody. The secret at Kyungnam is stroking the boss's ego. We will call him "Mr Stay."

Mr Stay has a good gig. He is not qualified to do any job in Korea buy by some kind of savant miracle, he speaks English reasonably well. He is not a teacher and knows nothing about teaching. Thus, he is the head of the English Education Institution. Stay has a great business; the contract says you will get paid for airfare. Stay gets that money and puts it in his pocket. If you complain about that, you will not get a second contract.

Stay is "in charge" of dealing with the foreign teachers' problems. Have one? Don't hold your breath waiting for it to be fixed. Stay could care less.

Kyungnam is a degree mill. If you have money, you are in. The secret to success at Kyungnam is keeping your mouth shut and sucking up to Stay. Kyungnam students are all taxi driver material. Ever walk into a room with 40 kids and have them all ignore you? Welcome to Kyungnam.

Stay is quite clever in his little way. He has a head teacher who is over 50 and unemployable in his home country. The head of the institute classes is a fifty something closet gay, also unemployable. If you have a problem, do not see either of them. They are interested in only one thing...making themselves as much money as they can. Since they write their own schedules, they get the best hours and classes.

Have a problem at Kyungnam? Better keep it to yourself. No heat? Get a blanket. No phone? Use a pay phone. Just never complain.

But is Korea really worth W2.0m a month and a dorm room? You have to ask yourself this:

At my age, is the money I make in Korea worth the crap I have to take all the time?

My answer was "no."

Subject: E-ton Language School also known as Jung IL Future Academy, in Mokpo

Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004

I would like to post a warning about a shady hagwon called E-ton Language School also known as Jung IL Future Academy, in Mokpo, South Korea..

I would like to warn prospective teachers away from this school and I wish that someone had warned me. They are not on any blacklist I have checked and they should be. I am sending copies of this warning to every blacklist site I can find.

I began working for this outfit last July. I was provided with a tiny "officetel" basically in the middle of a construction site. Every morning I am awakened by jackhammers and bulldozers. This construction is still in progress. The construction of the officetel itself is questionable; fixtures tend to fell apart when touched, the loose windows ensure a plentiful supply of insect visitors in the warmer months, the toilet backs up on a regular basis and there appears to be a brisk trade in prostitution going on, judging from the number of prostitutes I encounter in the halls and elevator. But this is all relatively minor and I was willing to overlook it.

Just as for eight months I overlooked the rampant disorganization and chaos of the place; the canceled classes and textbook switches that I was never informed of in advance, the fact that the students were not grouped according to ability so that there were beginner level students in advanced classes and vice versa, and so much more. It was annoying but I could live with it.

I was even able to put behind me the fact that they tried to get out of paying the 50% of the medical insurance stipulated in the contract and the fact that a member of management screamed at me when I insisted that they honour the terms of the contract.

What I was not able to overlook however, is the fact that one day, eight months into the contract, I was summoned to the director's lair and informed that my full time hours were being reduced to 13.5 hours per week and that my salary would be reduced accordingly. Well, this "conversation" (director's word for it) disintegrated rapidly into verbal abuse from them. I was deeply shaken and had to keep taking deep breaths to remain calm, knowing that a display of anger on my part would only worsen the situation. I was getting the strong impression that they wanted me gone, but had no basis to fire me. I had after all, done an exemplary job for them, which they had told me several times in the past, and had gone the extra mile, taking on additional tasks without being asked. I told them that my letter of resignation would be on their desk the following day.

I have had a chance to check around and I spoke to another hagwon owner in town (a friend's boss) and he told me that E-ton Language School is notorious among the local hagwon owners for mistreating and cheating its teachers, both foreign AND Korean. With foreign teachers, it is apparently a pattern for them to oust a teacher, either by firing them or by forcing them to quit as they did with me before the end of the contract in order to avoid paying the end of contract severance. With the Korean teachers, they get rid of them by one means or another after the first year to avoid giving them pay rises. In my eight months there, I have seen five Korean teachers quit. Two more of them confided to me that they are about to give notice. I am the only foreign teacher there and have learned that my predecessors lasted eleven and four months respectively.

The guy behind all the skulduggery is an unsavory looking guy, who looks as if he should be wearing a sharkskin suit and living in the penthouse of a Las Vegas casino hotel. He has a pockmarked face, a hooked nose, permed gelled hair, a prominent and flashy diamond ring and he speaks in this whispery voice. He has an air of menace to him. His hired goon (and I use the term advisedly, as you will see) does his dirty work for him. He calls himself - and I am NOT making this up - Goonie. This clown is a pathological and serial liar. Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth, both large matters and small, turns out to be a lie. He seems to lie the way other people breathe. He made it clear early on that he hates foreigners - we are a necessary evil as far as he is concerned, and he hasn't the time of day for us. Unfortunately though, he is the only one at the school who can speak English well enough to communicate and so we are forced to deal with him, which is like dealing with a slippery eel; a lying slippery eel. He is an oily little weasel who will make your life there hell.

Let me sum this up by issuing a strong warning against working at this hagwon. They will cheat you, rip you off, treat you like dirt, break their contractual obligations and generally make your life hell. They presently have a notice on Dave's ESL Cafe for a teacher (to replace me) and I wince when I think of a new and fresh unsuspecting victim going through what I and others have endured. I wish someone had blacklisted them before so that I could have been warned off. But they aren't blacklisted - YET - so I am taking it upon myself to do it. Trust me on this: avoid E-ton Language School in Mokpo like the plague - It IS the plague.

Please do not use my real name. I prefer to be kept anonymous. Thank you.

Subject: Kyoyon Academy (a.k.a. Kyoyon Language Institute or CES Language Institute)

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004

I'm writing to let everyone who is interested know that the school that my husband and I were working for, called Kyoyon Academy (a.k.a. Kyoyon Language Institute or CES Language Institute) is absolutely terrible. The location of the school(s) are Incheon areas called Ka Jwa, Ka Jung, and Shin Hyun all near each other.

The whole ordeal for us began when we arrived in Korea. We were met by two representatives of our school which we thought was called CES Language Institute, located in Bupyeong, Incheon. When we arrived at the apartment the school was providing for us, it was in a really run down area, in a back alley, with stray dog and cats running around. When we asked if we were in Bupyeong, of course they said no. They had provided us with two single beds pushed together, all bedding was for singles, the TV didn't work, and we had no telephone, which remained the case for our entire three month stay at the school.

Later that day they also told us that we would not be working at the school together, but that we would be at two seperate schools owned by the same boss. They left us alone for the weekend and then brought us to one of the schools on Monday where we had a meeting with one of the head people and a supervisor. We reviewed the contract we had signed in Canada with them and confronted them with the discrepancies, but they explained that the school was actually a branch of CES and it's name was Kyoyon Academy, our apartment would be changed when the lease was up or if they could find new tenenants earlier, the double bed would be provided, TV fixed, phone given to us ASAP, etc. Everything they promised either didn't happen at all, or did after us begging them for a month and a half straight. We ended up getting a broken cell phone, a TV that wouldn't show all of the cable channels that we were paying for (had installed) and the apartment got extremely cold, the pipes in the floor busted flooding the apartment underneith ours, which the neighbors continually hounded us about, until and after the super had it "fixed". On top of this, the boss decided to deduct a few days pay from us and when we complained he kept putting off the answer as to whether or not he would pay us the money. Then, during the vacation our water stopped working all together and when we asked people from our school to help, they did nothing, so we had to stay with friends. When we returned to our apartment we discovered that our gas had run out for the millionth time (our gas for the stove, heating and hot water came in big gas tanks that we had to order when ever we ran out, which was about every two weeks). We quit shortly after that.

The schools themselves (which ended up to be three) were run fairly smoothly by the teachers there, as long as the boss didn't interfer. The students were as good as any kids and my husband and I really enjoyed teaching them. We both had to teach at the third school once a week, and this one was new, and not run professionally. We had no books to teach with because the boss didn't want to bother the parents with the cost of another English book for the foreign teacher's class. The teachers also had to buy all their own teaching materials, and were required to work on Saturdays to make up for the holiday. We refused to work the Saturday hours. He had actually said once ( through translation, because he didn't speak a word of English) that he hated English. When we were in negotions for the letter of release he said that he just didn't want us to teach in Korea ever again. He really didn't care at all about our well being while we were working there, even though he had gotten tons of pleasant reviews from the students themselves about us. This man is some one who noone should have to come in contact with.

Another warning, this school uses the recruiting company OMEGA Consulting, a recruiter by the name of DXXXX, who provided us with absolutely no help, and was going to find the school more teachers after we left and who had recruited the teachers previous to us who had also quit after about four months.

Hope this helps anyone who comes in contact with this school.

Subject: Seoul English Insitute, Goedok Dong Seoul

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004

I taught for this school for 2 years. It started out good, but then the school lost students during my 2nd year, and the owner didn't pay the same over-time rate she paid me a couple of times before. I had my words with her on that, of which she denied what she used to paid me at first. And, she get's away with not paying severance pay, and Korean Pension,too. Both of them are national laws in Korea...of which I didn't realize that until after I left the school. It's in the works for me to get the money due to me.

Subject: SLP SUWON (YOUNGTON BRANCH)

Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004

SLP is a chain of about 15 hogwans and its branches are over-represented on your list! However I and I think most teachers think that the different branches have different cultures - so although I knew many branches were listed, I took a gamble when I went because my prospecitve school wasn't.

My SLP is one of two branches in Suwon (a city 45 mins from Seoul). It is in an area called Youngton (spellings vary but this is the most common). I think the clearest location would be SLP SUWON (YOUNGTON BRANCH).

SLP was a good school to work for until it started to lose pupils. This happened a whole bunch of new Hogwans opened in the local area (many cheaper).

The response to the loss of pupils was to make the work environment more and more uncomfortable over a period of two months and this ended in the scariest meeting ever....

Teacher after teacher were named (this done all in Korean with live translation from a crying Korean teacher), their faults and their punishments.

The outcome?

1 A British teacher who had been outstanding for 10 1/2 months was fired.

2 A Korean teacher was busted from full time to half time.

3 An American teacher was fined 400,000 Won ($400 approx.)

4 Our head teacher (Korean) was disciplined.

The American teacher was fined $400 for not writing all his lesson plans that week. Why hadnt he written them? Because he had volunteered to cover for another sick teacher and so hadnt had time.

The British teacher was fired for lateness (just not true), having her lesson plans on her desk and not in its special holder (the plans were written) and watching a video with a class (a normal practice).

The director refused to speak to the British girl after firing her and would give her none of the ESSENTIAL information you need when you have been fired in Korea.

He also refused to speak to our head teacher - so none of us could get any information about our futures.

The British teacher, after two weeks of worry over a lack of information contacted the Korean labor board for guidance as to her rights... On her second to last day the director finally agreed to see her. When she said she had spoken to the Labor board he said because of this she would get no flight home, no notice period pay and no letter of release (effectively making it impossible for her to get another job in Korea).

Even if there was a real reason for all the above (other than SLP saving many millions of Won) our contracts state that a verbal warning and two written warnings must be given before punishment. No warnings of any kind were given to these teachers. Mainly because they were working hard for SLP!

We were a happy, hard working team. The atmosphere now seems to be all about paranoia and fear with no one feeling secure about their severance pay or even just keeping their jobs.

There are many good schools in Korea but I would really advise against this one.

Subject: KALMA LANGUAGE SCHOOL [KLS] DAEJON

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004

Dear Jon

I'm writing to you to lodge my experiences of working with a school in the south korean city of Daejon. The school's name is Kalma Language School or KLS as it's known. I've been working at this establishment for six months now and at the end of last month felt so pushed into a corner that i had to give notice of my resignation.

I had a disagreement with the director who accused me of spreading rubbish out side the school, which was completely unfounded. The director of the school Mr Kang preceded to hammer on the door of my apartment at 7am and scream at me in korean being physically hostile grabbing my arm. I was rather angry about this as you can imagine and called him a daft little man and requested he leave. The next day I was invited to his office and apologized for the scene, in my eyes all was left to rest and that was the end of the story.

It was about a week or so latter on friday i had an unsuccessful pay review. I was called into the office after my evaluation and given a typed report. The reasons for not giving me this tiny amount of cash extra a month were as follows, 1. Your board marker was to squeaky, 2.Your tape player was substandard [College provided and complaint lodged two weeks earlier] 3. Your attitude to upper management require rethinking. It was then that i calmly gave my feed back about how i felt about this situation and the meeting was sharply concluded by management. The monday after that weekend i was called into the office and told that i would be given a month to rectify my attitude and substandard teaching practices or i would be fired.

One week later i was informed that my morning classes were not going to be paid any longer a clear breach of contract that effectively means i lost over 100 pounds sterling monthly. I gave notice of my resignation by letter that day.

Upon handing in my letter of resignation the school has been trying to make my life incredibly difficult, scheduling meetings for just myself every other day, giving me cover schedules with long hours that other teachers don't have and other such petty matters.

They informed me that they would be keeping 300,000 won from my pay check to cover "cleaning expenses" this was outside my contract. To rub it in even more they'd already taken a sum of 300,000 in the form of a deposit from my first months pay.

Another main breach of contract then occurred, a memo was given out that outlined a series of fines that would be enforced ranging from 15,000 won to 52,000 won. Not mentioned in any contract and the teachers at the school were not even asked to sign another contract.

I've been an ESL and business teacher working abroad for the last two years in china and korea feel i've been treated awfully by this particular institution who have a flagrant disregard for employees rights. I've since taken this matter up with the Korean labor board and a full inquiry is underway by both them and the immigration department.

Yours Faithfully

D.I.Brown

Did i forget to mention the racist member of korean staff and generally hostile vibe in the staff room?

May i add that barring the work i've had a wonderful life in korea and that i don't wish this statement to reflect negatively on a great country. Onwards to Germany and a well paid job! :)

And a reply:

Subject: Kalma Language School

Date: 17 May 2005

I was doing a google search to find any information on my old hagwon and I was disappointed to find they had been undeservingly black listed. I worked for KLS from 10-02 to 12-03 and I always found them to be fair to me and all six of us foreign teachers. I liked teaching there so much, in fact, I extended my contract for 2 months and the director was very helpful in that process. According to Korean foreign labor law, severance equals the number of years works times ending month salary. When I left, I was given a higher severance, one-sixth more, because he added the extra 2 months (1/6 year.) We were all given raises every six months and severance was paid a few weeks after leaving. Our deposits, the 300,000 won "cleaning fee," were returned in 4-6 weeks after leaving, once our final bills were paid.

Subject: CERTO hagwon in Hayang, outside Daegu

Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004

I would like to make an addition. This is about a hagwon named CERTO hagwon in Hayang, a town outside of Daegu.

The manager's name is Mr. XXX and his good friend recruited me over from Canada. They fired me after two months of work with five days notice, and then charged me rent and utilities after they fired me.

Also, they didn't pay up my last month's salary, my salary was late almost every pay day, and the management was generally chaotic and dishonest.

Could you put this on your blacklist. I really appreciate it. Currently, I'm trying to collect compensation from them for my Visa trip to Japan (since I had to fork that out from my own pocket) and trying to collect my last month's salary. However, they refuse to do it so I have no choice but to put them onto blacklists over the Web.

Thanks for your help.

Subject: Institute in Geum Chon

Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2004

Hi Jon,

Working in Korea is potentially threatening to your health and welfare. During my two- month stay at ESL (English Second Language) Institute in Geum Chon ending on December 31th 2003, I was defrauded of 5.1 million won in lost wages and airfare, due to the criminal and immoral practices of one of employment agent by the name of SXXXXXXXX XXX from FT Union, and one school director by the name of XXXXX X. XXXX. In Korea there are schools and agents that should be blacklisted, but regrettably, there are ones that also should be prosecuted and jailed.

After the first month, I was expecting two million won in salary, but Xxxxx, without warning or comment, paid 1.8 million won. I told her to meet her salary obligations, and she responded my stating that I she would pay the remainder of the salary at the end of the month. However, on the day I was to be paid the remainder of my first months contract, I was fired and told to leave immediately. The director had already hired a new teacher who was coming from abroad to teach at the end of the week. She had for three weeks been planning to fire me, and then not pay me. Therefore, what she meant to say was at the end of the month, I will fire you and not pay you.

Upon being fired and told that no salary or reimbursements would be paid, I was told to get out of my apartment, regardless of the fact that I had no means of acquiring further employment in Korea. My director had lost or refused to return my transcripts and without them, my only option was to return to Canada. Therefore, for three weeks my director had conspired to defraud me out of my full months salary, plus the remaining portion of my last months check. She contacted the agent from FT Union, to find another teacher and when the new teacher was ready to teach, she fired me and left me for dead. Her fraud amounted to 2.2 million won in lost wages, .9 million won for a trip back to Canada, and thirty days notice pay at 2.0 million won. The total damages amounts to 5.1 million won.

Both my director and my agent conspired for the purpose of making a profit. I had not been informed of any workplace infraction, nor had there been any mention of any impropriety on my part. There was no written warnings or verbal statements that my actions had violated the contract or were suitable for immediate termination. My director and my agent willfully conspired to defraud for purpose of monetary gain.

My life is not over, but my life in Korea is over. My image of Korea has changed for the worse, and I regret that I had to leave friends behind. What has occurred include, gross violations of the law and a complete disregard for basic human dignity. My words are both meant to educate and those who wish to teach in Korea and to detract those that might teach for XXXXX XXXX or use the employment services of FT Union.

If you can provide any assistance or if you would like additional information, you can contact me at andyoakxxxxxx@hotmail.com.

Andy Oakden

Subject: Kidsland in Dongnimmun

Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004

Dear Sir,

I was just fired from a school that I need to be reported. The school name is Kidsland in Dongnimmun. About a month ago the foreign teachers decided to go to the gym down stairs during our 2 hour lunch break. I basically told him since I was the longest most experienced teacher in the school that includes the Korean teachers that He can't tell us what we can and can not do in our free time as long is not working out side the school. He got angry and I got upset but keep my cool.. He said that I am not his boss and so he is breaking the law he doesn't care. We must do what every wants because he is our boss. I told him that this is not true... he must uphold to the Korean laws.

Well.... his wife said to me that I getting 30days notice. I said that is fine since my contract ended in less then 30 days... anyway.

November 21 he asked me to resign a contract but for less money I told him I could not this... On November 24 he offered me a new contract for the exact same amount of the last contract. I told him that I would have to call my wife about this. My wife said fine ok if I wanted so I told him ok... and I cancelled all my job interviews that I had lined up. Then he changed his mind.... Well today he reoffered me a new contract. This time I told him NO he can't play games with me this is not how you do business. He said, that I would work until the 15th and I said yes... I told him I would need airfare back home and my bonus and he said that since he fired me that he would not have to give me these things and that I was fired... I when upstairs visualy upset.... and my co-teachers wanted to know why. I told them.. at this time.. my boss came into the class and was angry saying this was my business and I had no right to tell other teachers...

He told me to get the F@ck out and I had to leave... now I am not sure what I have to do...

other then go to lawyers...

some of the bad points of working at this school...

1. the owner... he is controlling and doesn't want to listen to reason..

2. teachers are paid 2.3 sure but have to pay for their own housing.. so minus 400,000won for rent. also you have to buy all your furniture.

3. When you get to Korea their is no one to help you... Other foreign teachers are the only people there for you....

4. You must work from 8:50am to 7:00pm you get a lunch break but you don't get to do what you want..

5. You have a gym downstairs which is a plus.... but you are not allow to go to that one since he has already fired 2 teachers for going down there...

6. Teachers houses have problem with heaters and broken doors.. And he is refusing or just to lazy to do anything about it...

7. In the winter the class rooms are very cold and even though the teachers and children are complainting about it... he doesn't do anything about it... Showing you he really doesn't care about other people.

++++ Update Jan 5th +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well I have an update about Kidsland in Dongnimmun... well it's over.... I have gone to the labor board and i have just found out that My employer can cheat me out of 19 months of severance pay...

I was due over 4 million won plus a month salary but.... all I got was 980,000 won. They fired me 20 days before the end of my contract... He even tried to make me pay for the electric and gas bill for the month of December even though I was no longer living in his apartment...

I'm writing this not just because I am mad... I still could go to court to over turn this... but the cost would be greater than the money I would make...in the law suit...

so I have decided to drop the case.

PLEASE TEACHERS KEEP THIS IN MIND... If he can do this to a teacher with a 98% approval rating by the parents of the students he teaches... had almost 2 years loyal teaching experience with them.... only was sick one day in two years... and the only time I took anytime off was for the birth of my child... They can do this to you also...

There are toooo many good school out there to be take the chance with this one...

Subject: Pupyong wonderland

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003

Hi Jon,

I just found your site and I must commend you for taking the initiative to help warn prospective teahers from taking positons in wonderland especially the Pupyong branch in Incheon.

Last year I took a position there because a friend of mine had worked there for a year, he was relativey happy and I decided to take the plunge and go to Korea. Well I can say that there were very positive experiences at first. I enjoy teaching and quickly became quite adept at my profession. Wonderland is run by non english speaking Koreans, or at least very poorly speaking Koreans who implement a less than adequat cirriculum. Teachers spend a lot of wasted time doing tasks which essentially are there for Looks and not function.

Beware "Volunteer" aspects of the contract. Essentially, it say that you are to work for no pay at the employers discretion and yes it is enforced with monthly phone conversations with students and monthly family day and several other tasks with no financial reimbursment.

My real problem with this particular Hogwan however, is what happend to me last year. In April, I was eight months into my contract looking forward for my bonus and return airfare, the school had its negative points, but I was not going to turn down my bonus untill my mother was stricken with Cancer, it was terminal, and after unsuccesfull chemo, she took a stroke and was on her last legs. I simply had to return to her(Koreans pride themselves on family but as you will see, it is often not the case when it comes to foreigners).

I left on reasonably good terms and they wished me the best. My mother passed away soon after, I was the executor of her will and it took me several months to complete her wishes. Once I did so, I returned to Korea looking for work. My friend who was still working there, told me I could stay with him as the apartment they provided had an extra room. So I landed with the hopes of eventually trying to get a post at a university.

When I arrived my friend told me how they had a new director and that working conditions had really deteriorated and that they were working more and more hours and given more and more meaningless tasks. At the same time, his mother was also sick with cancer and would not likeely see another Christmas. His father emailed him one day and told him that his mother was not eating. He went to the new director and gave his one month notice after working there for three years and putting up with more than any other teacher there.

They fired him. And to further impose discipline, kicked me out of the apartment and refused to give me a reccomendation to any other institutions. I would like to say that I was never late or did not miss a class. When I left, several of my students were crying. The reason given was that "it was not company policy" to give a recommendation after a breach of contract. Although it is no where stated in the cherished Wonderland contract. They would not even speak with me and when I stoped by, the new supervisor Frank, was very rude. I asked him why they could not even say I was a good worker(which they all agreed I was) or say that I had to break my contract because of my mothers Cancer. He said things such as,"What's your problem?" And, "you just don't get it. Do you?"

I obviously did not "get it" because I do not get such ruthless acts of revenge. I had an interview which went very well. They called Wonderland and asked for a recommendation which the Wong ji nam refused and at the same time, refused to explain why he would not give one.

This place is now a living hell according to the foreign teachers I have talked to. I would advise any one who is thinking of working there, to stay away. They even fired my friends Korean girlfriend two weeks after he went back to Canada. Who, was by far the best Korean teacher there.

Subject: Choi Younee School Kumi Korea

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003

Dear Jon:

The major problems were the following:

1) simply no reliable transportation to get around the the different corporations to teach. The public buses were unpredictable, the Choi Younee School bus was trying everything not be pick up teachers. The driver also drank heavily after 5 p.m. on most days. Many times I was forced to walk in the blazing sun, hitch to the school because the Choi Younee bus never came at all. The van service provide my trip at a company from 1200am to 130am was on time, perfect and a great guy. The rest of the whole day was totally crazy with the other bus driver.

2) The director took out about $120.00 each month from your paycheck, in case you try to "run off" as she said.

3) The women teachers were crushed 4 into an apartment which only meant for 2 teachers. They make artificial walls. The male teachers were forced to have korean male staff live with them in tiny quarters with only 1 bathroom.

4) unpaid for cancelled lessons. Meaning even if you went all the way to the corporation, sat in the guard house or classroom for an hour, you were not paid anything. All cancellations were unpaid. In my case it was about $1800 US dollars lost wages. The director got paid in full for all the cancellations, just decided to multiply her profits and not pay the teachers anything.

5) The schedule was completely mad Mon to Friday: 630-730 a.m.

730-830 a.m.

1200-130 p.m.

230-330 p.m.

600-900 p.m. This does not count all the time traveling to 3 corporations away from the school.

6) The first month when I arrived, I was only given 1 class a day and paid only for 1 class the first 4 weeks. It was both isolating and expensive not to be paid anything that was close to the contract. Then the second month and this complete schedule from hell.

7) When I contacted the teacher by email and telephone that I was to replace, she lied completely about the situation at the school. Her 2 year contract started to end and all the money the director withheld from her -last months wages, monthly reduction for 24 months in case she fled would be used to forced her to lie to whoever replaced her. After this teacher was paid in full and safely out of the country was when my new found fellow teachers told me the full truth about Choi Younee.

Positive:

The Director, as scatterbrained as she was, never yelled at anybody which was very nice. She treated everyone like idiots both korean and foreign, but keep professional while doing it. She would even order people when they could raise their chopsticks while eating, when to talk, when to shutup like we were all dogs and cats. This was within reason. I can't say this is any kind of violation even though it was horribly insulting.

Conclusion:

This school is really something else, most teachers are just too afraid to say anything because it may hurt their friends left behind finishing up their contracts. I know at least 5 teachers that broke their contract and fled. Considering they have only 5 foreign teachers at any time, this is a lot.

Subject: Ewha American Language School in Daegu

Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2003

Dear Jon,

Ewha American Language School in Daegu is a sweatshop run by a Nazi. Upon arrival of the new teachers from Canada, they were informed that they would have to work Saturdays essentially breaking their contract. The teachers refused and were never paid for their return trip or given letters of release. In fact, the new principal, a witched named "MS." Xx, wanted to know who the new school's principal was where they were going farther south, so as to fanagle a deal as a middle man.

She also mercillessly screamed at the head Korean teacher until she cried. Ms. Xx raised her hand as if to hit her. Ms. Xx told her to go in the office with her and close the door. The head teacher refused to close the door. Ms. Xx said the head teacher had mental problems and tried to get her to go down on her knees and pray to God for help.

The entire Korean teaching staff was fired and then asked to work there again when the next batch quit.

The old group of teachers and head teacher were far superior to any that came after and were smart enough not to work there again.

The other group of Canadians were not paid their end of contract bonuses of course and I quit before my year was up because she also yelled at me one too many times for problems she created being the mentally ill Christian control freak that she is despite her education in psychology she claims to posess.

We worked overtime and weren't paid for that. And we had to call all of our students once a month, who could often not be reached, for an extra hour every night. God help those who didn't meet their quota.

Students were crammed into the classrooms and scared shitless of the principal.

The building is a severe fire hazard with no fire escape like the rest of Korea and almost a dozen gas canisters in storage without a fire wall in a closet in one of the classrooms!

We were required to be there for mandtory meetings 2x a week which were primarily in Korean anyway. Since there was no 2-waycommuniction, a memo would have been better.

She embarassed herself at a meeting with many of the parents by having the parents parrot back to her, pop psychology and positive thinking affirmations in a blatant attempt to brainwash them. More than 75 students didn't come to school anymore the very next day, and she had the nerve to blame the teachers. Hello?

We had to make a shit load of tests every session using mostly 1 computer with only last minutes notice to her exacting standards which were not communicated in advance. We made all our tests at least twice, if not more.

To say that the atmosphere there is miserable would be an understatement.

I left naturally and because she yelled at me one too many times for problems she created being the mentally ill manipulative Christian control freak that she is despite her education in psychology she claims to posess and be an expert on. NOT!!!

She supposedly used to be a teacher of Korean. She probably lost that job and their family had to do something for money e.g. open a Hagwon. Her husband is the owner.

She also did not send teachers to Japan who needed their work Visas in her desperate attempt to save money while managing their business into the ground.

Working there is like a giant black cloud had permanently blocked out the sun with an S.S. officer standing on your neck in jackboots.

If I have eliminated the last milliliter of whatever chemical in your brain made you think about working at Ewha American Language School in Daegu, Good.

Subject: English Spectrum

Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003

Don't use English Spectrum . They are using this website to turn in recruiters and teachers to immigration for a fee . Immigration once worked with hogwons to bust part time teachers and recruiters but now many websites are doing it . English Spectrum get's one million won for every teacher they turn into Immigration . It's a much more lucrative business than just charging hogwons and recruiters to post messages .

My friend is in Canada right now . ****** one of the owners of English Spectrum is not to be trusted . He is helping immigration . He is the African American male you see on the main page of the website . His thug image is true to his real character .

Subject: Little America - Daejon

Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:27:40 +0000

Dear Jon:

Thanks for running this service. I taught in Korea in 1996 (Kwangju) and had a nice time. When I came back I began to recruit and have been doing so ever since. One of my clients has gone sour on me however and I feel the need to black-list them based on remarks made about the teachers I have hired for them. In the past they were wonderful to their teachers and had no problems. Then, when the recession hit, they wanted to hire two teachers. Here is where it gets interesting. They were awesome, as always, right through the hiring process then, once the teachers were in Korea, they cut off all contact. They did not pay me for my services and I am very fearful they will fire these two young teachers in the 11th month of their contract before their bonus is due. The teachers are still working at the school but they have been changing their hours, Korean teachers have been leaving left, right and centre and I KNOW they will not be paid in full for their service. This post is meant to encourage other teachers to STAY AWAY from LITTLE AMERICA in Daejon. Head office, who have always been fair, now have no control over their franchise schools and once that control is gone you may as well be working at a "Mom and Pops" school in nowheredong, Korea. PLEASE avoid LITTLE AMERICA as you will get burned.

Suject: Andong, Oh-sung-sik

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:19:19

Last year I worked for an SLP that became GDA- it has two schools. It has cameras in all the rooms, elevators, etc. & microphones. The administrative workload is huge & they constantly change their forms etc. so many of us spent 6 days a week there since Sat was for prepping for classes, etc. & completing their lesson plans & incredible report cards that required grading the students on about 30+ points & then 4 long paragraphs paraphrasing those grades. Many teachers skipped but those that worked all those hours because they wanted to continue ESL teaching found that the school blacklists all ex-teachers. they do pay on time & the Seocheo-Ku area is safe though highly polluted and a strain for many, expecially asthmatics. The US agent lied-you cannot get your us meds in Korea, they aren't the same, you can't have your computers shipped to you unless you want to pay an 80% import tax on them as if they are new & Korean computers are $2,000 & up.

I now am working in Andong for a school called Oh-sung-sik but it will be changing its name soon. I was told I would be 5 minutes walk from work-it is a 20 min taxi drive, they sent me a contract but refused to make me legal until they realized after a month that I would leave. Their intent was to have the teacher illegal & talk them into depositing payment back into their bank accounts "for safe keeping". I didn't agree to either.

I was told I would be paid for overtime. I worked overtime without being paid for 2 months-then told them that I wouldn't anymore so I have been washing in cold water for a month. I am a 54 year old vegetarian female-I have been attacked by drunks & beaten twice while a plethora of Korean towns people just watched. I was told I was just a foreigner so what should I expect. Avoid small towns and schools where you are the only teacher. I was told this is a stable school. I am the only foreign teacher. When I got here there were about 12 students. They expected the arrival of a foreign teacher to magically increase their rolls. It is about 30 but probably needs to be at 100.

Subject: Evan Moor in Suncheon City, Jellonamdo

Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003

My wife and I chose to end our one-year contract, with EVAN-MOOR SCHOOL

(Yu-Shim-Cheon building), after six months. Those six months working at Evan-Moor were horrible! The current director, Cxxx XXXX XXX (Mr Cxxx) is an extremely dishonest person. He disregarded our contracts and pocketed our tax. My wife and I were completely worn down from having to stand up for ourselves everyday. We had to persistently fight to get our apartment furnished (as in the contract), to get paid on time and to be taxed at the right rate. The school is in serious financial trouble, which Mr Cxxx blames on his foreign teachers. He also has an anger management problem and is unable to have a rational discussion. We wish we never met him, as he single-handedly ruined our experience of Korea. Dont be fooled by the recruiters, the free gym membership is NOT worth the trouble of working for Mr Cxxx.

Subject: Daehak (Hamilton) Language Centre

Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 02:06:03 +1100 (EST)

Dear Jon,

I arrived in Korea (Incheon) on a chilly April morning, 2003. Having flown for seemingly endless miles, but excited by the upcoming adventure, the high of the journey from the airport soon took the low road. The car pulled up by my first and sinking impression - a towering apartment block, cement cracked, teetering on the brink of maintaining its erection. There in my "comfortable" "clean" and "modern" studio apartment, as per my contract, I found myself perched over a cracked toilet seat hovering above the caked scum and tell-tale signs of recent passage. The stench of the 1/4 inch thick mould covering the bathroom tiles filled the air. My very first purchase was two bottles of heavy-duty bleach (shaken, but not stirred). Welcome to the Republic of South Korea.

This high-point of the journey didn't last long. Moves were underfoot by the Director of the Hagwon from Hell. The unfolding drama included non-payment of salary; non payment of medical insurance; deductions from salary for utilities but non-payment of such; electricity being disconnected; being visited twice at night by fist-wielding thugs demanding the known whereabouts of the Director; overnight relocation of the Hagwon to an undisclosed location someplace in the bowels of Seoul etc. Suffice to say I left Korea with no notice, no pay, no ticket and no inclination of ever returning or arguing any point in favour of its geographical or political existence.

A visit to the Korean Labor Office, accompanied by a translator, was to no avail. The gum-chewing dismissive desk- jockey was seemingly more concerned with his decision to pass wind to the left or right.

My point is sadly this. All the while of my stay I taught in public schools directly under the noses of professional, university qualified Korean teachers and principals, some of whom where education in Canada and the USA. They frequently and favourably commended me for my efforts in and out of the class room. But despite my friendship with them, notwithstanding that they knew of each and every crime and misdemeanour being perpetrated against me by the Director, they said nothing. They did nothing. It was the "Korean way", no less.

To all Koreans I say this: "Bad things can only happen when good people do nothing!"

Subject: KIDS HERALD SCHOOL in CHEONAN-SHI

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 22:51:27 -0700

KIDS HERALD SCHOOL IN CHEONAN

Hi there everyone....my battle with the labor board and my school just ended so here is the full story:

I was working for KIDS HERALD SCHOOL in CHEONAN-SHI for over 9 months when the owners called me into their office and told me I was fired....that's it, no notice, no plane ticket home, no severance pay. They said I had to leave the country and move out of my apartment in 5 days. My contract says they needed to give me 2 month's notice in case of firing and they said, "We don't care, we're breaking your contract, other foreigners have broken contracts on us."

I went back that night with a Korean and a Canadian friend and requested in writing the details of the firing, dates, when they would pay me my last month's salary, even why I was fired...etc...etc. They refused to give me anything in writing.

The firing basically came down to having one too many foreign teachers for the amount of students and I was the closest to finishing my contract as well as the one with the weakest relationship with them. I will admit, I was no super-teacher BUT I was never sick, never late, never drunk, always was prompt with paperwork, did all the little field trips and stuff and was generally well-liked by the kids and the parents. The said numerous small things I was doing wrong (the main one being too much bingo) and I offered to change all of it but they said it was too late.

To add more fuel to the fire when I went to immigration a couple days later to sort out my visa status I was told my school told immigration that I quit. This was only the beginning of their downard spiral of lies.

So I've already covered the whole labor board/immigration thing in another post (what to do if you get fired) but I ended up getting one million won and a plane ticket home, which I'm generally satisfied with. Not as much as they owe me, but the main thing is that I'm now free from that horrible place and these people are out of my life forever (well hopefully!). It sure felt good at the labor board today to say to the owner... "lies, lies,lies...how can you live with yourself?" It was also good times to count the money she gave me very slowly and carefully saying, "I don't trust you." Also, phoning Air Canada to make sure the ticket wasn't cancelled somehow and making her wait was enjoyable. Very enjoyable indeed :-). Asking the labor board man what would happen if she somehow cancelled my plane ticket was funny too, she was squirming with embarassment. It's highly recommended for all you people out there that get screwed by your hagwon.

So the moral of this story is to NEVER WORK AT KIDS HERALD SCHOOL IN CHEONAN. It's all bad news...for further bad news about this place feel free to send me a private message and I'll give you my email. I don't want this post to get too nasty so I'll restrain myself!

If you are considering working there, please read the contract very carefully....there's a few shady things in there. Oh wait...not that they honor the contract anyway! They seem like nice people initially...in fact I even liked them for about the first 3 months but then their impressive facade will start to crumble. Please save yourself some grief...there's better places to work.

Subject: Direct English, Jongno branch in Seoul

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 20:45:00 -0500

Dear Jon,

Your site seems to be an appropriate place to share my extremely negative experience working at Direct English, Jongno branch in Seoul. I was inspired to write about it after having read a post on your site written by a couple who very accurately described their nightmare working for this huge and utterly dysfunctional corporation. Previously I thought it best to just move on, which I have successfully and happily done, and not contribute any more to the enormous amount of disturbing accounts of working in Korean hagwons available on the various ESL websites. I feel however, that if I can offer some backup to the story provided by this couple, that I might prevent some potentially unfortunate soul from accepting a job at Direct English.

Initially I thought my experience was unique, and a direct result of the nazi style manager working there (and still working there) at the time. Apparently I am not alone, nor was my experience limited to my branch.

I worked there for four months, after which time I thought I would loose my mind, and so opting for the healthier choice, I quit. This was not met with enthusiasm or even a reasonable response by the management, and head office team at PAGODA in Gangnam. Although I gave them the 45 days notice required in my contract they immediately informed me that they would be withholding a month and a half's salary and would not return it to me unless I found someone to take over my lease on the apartment they had provided. Having stupidly signed for a year I was responsible for the remaining 8 months of rent. Either I had to find a new tenant or come up with the 5 million won key money and continue renting it myself at 500,000 won a month! I couldn't find anyone to take it over, which in retrospect is not surprising, because only an ignorant foreigner such as myself would be stupid enough to live in such a shithole for that kind of money. Since I was planning on staying in Korea, I reluctantly ended up providing the key money and am still living in the same apartment until the end of February.

I guess it's my own fault for having signed a lease, but I never expected them to respond so coldly and severely. This was really just the last straw. What really made the experience unbearable were the split shifts, the disappointing reality that the salary is not what they promise it will be and the absolute disregard by management towards your health. Once when I was so dreadfully sick with a cold that I could hardly talk anymore, and told them that I needed to go home, they responded by telling me that I was acting unprofessionally because I hadn't taken better care of my health, and was thinking about myself before the business or the students. This was after 5 days of suffering through my classes until I just couldn't do it anymore. Fucking assholes!

Anyways, that's enough, I've said my piece and I could go on, but hopefully this will get the point across. Don't work for Direct English.

I will never work in a hagwon again,

Scarred.

Subject: American School

Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:01:18 EST

Jon,

Please submit this horrible experience before someone makes a costly decision.

Thank you,

James

Upon my arrival in Korea, I was informed about the quality of program at American School. I was told it was a quality institution of which made great strides towards excellence. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Education took a "back seat" to monetary greed and personal gain. This place is highly disorganized, a fictitious insurance plan, mandatory overtime, lies of limited funds, are just a few of the illegal activities of which are a recurring theme at American School. The place can best be defined as a toxic waste dump. Needless to say, this worthless operation has undergone several different names within the last two years and numerous teachers have left. Whenever there's a problem that needs to be addressed, it's like doing an Abbott and Costello routine.

The spineless slug behind this evil empire is Mr. S**, a self-proclaimed Kim Jung Il. He rules indiscriminately with an iron fist searching for his next prey. The first month he will arbitrarily steal one-weeks worth of wages, steal through a corrupt insurance plan, inflate utility bills and then pocket the rest; moreover, if you're a female, plan on being sexually harassed. Sadly, a former employee, who later became pregnant, was forced to have an abortion or be fired. This man works impulsively, and when he's done destroying you, he will brag to his peers. He has his hands involved in every form of illegal activity throughout Korea, but more importantly, he views westerners as dispensable with absolutely no rights whatsoever.

His partner in crime is David J*** a self-righteous quack whose only ambition in life is to download all the biblical jargon the Internet has to offer. He spent eight years in Australia studying English, however, when there's an issue with a teacher, he mysteriously becomes incoherent. On payday he pulls his usual Houdini act and can never be found. This place is a horrible nightmare driven by broken promises and never ending lies. David J*** has been a hogwan whore for about a year now. He's cerebrally challenged and refers to himself as a servant of God. I have asked him several times how he can look at himself in the mirror; however, he believes it's okay to lie, cheat, commit adultery, steal, mislead etc. One time I was looking at him wondering what he was thinking, and then it hit me, "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat." "Okay Bullwhinkle."

One more spineless slug needs to be recognized in the infamous hall of shame. You guessed it, the recruiter. And this honor goes to no other than Chris R*******. A man with absolutely no integrity who sits around screening his calls all day because he knows he's burned a lot of bridges. This man would sell his own mother just to score another trick. Shames on you Chris-get a real job! Please don't make the same horrible mistake I did.

And the response

Hi Jon,

I am writing in regards to the posting made by "James" in 2003 regarding American School in Cheongju. Currently this school is listed on the blacklist.

My girlfriend and I just returned from Korea after teaching at American School for 19 months. While we were there we found everyone to be very pleasant, and our situation was definitely a far cry from what James has written in his description of the school.

In fact, while in Korea, I asked a few of the Korean teachers what they thought of James and they wrote him off as a flake who would show up drunk to work, and unhappy that the manager reprimanded him for showing up hungover and late.

Then one day he failed to show up for work. It turns out he returned to his hometown in America. Then, later that week he called the school, from America, and demanded the pay he was due!

Needless to say the school wasn't going to wire this man money after he pulled a runner, leaving the school in a precarious position.

In any case my girlfriend and I both found the school to be more than a agreeable place to work, and have actually recommended it as a place to work to some of our friends.

I would ask that you take down James' posting as it is nothing more than an angry employee attempting to slander a good school.

Subject: o.s.s. English club, Shin Jeju, Jeju City

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:18:59 +0900

I've been working for Oh Sung Sik English Club in Shin Jeju, Jeju City for the past 8 months and it has been an incredibly tense working environment. I have to fight constantly with my directer over basic contractual agreements. I am now fighting for my last pay cheque. I strongly urge you to NOT work at this school. She is now looking for a new foreign teacher so beware. You have now been warned! Thank-you

Subject: MLS (My Language School)

Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003

I was surprised to see that Oe Dae made the blacklist. I had a short 1 month contract at the one in Jaeson-dong in Busan and know a girl who works at the one near Busan University of Education and she loves it. All the English teachers at the one I worked at had no complaints and felt lucky to be at a decent school.

On the other hand, stay away from MLS (My Language School) formerly known as Miraero in Daeyeon Dong, Busan. The apartments are great and there was never a problem with salary being paid on time, plane tickets etc. but they try to pull and have pulled fast ones everywhere. Because its an adult school, classes run between 6:40am-10pm but they make up weird schedules so you can have a smattering of classes all day whereas at Pagoda, they have split schedules but at least the schedule makes some sort of sense. Not worth the hassle or even the good apartments. There are better more reputable adult schools if teaching kids is not your bag.

Subject: Evan Moor in Suji, Yong In,

Date: September 28, 2003

Hi Jon,

This intuitute is Evan Moor in Suji, Yong In, 2 minutes away from Pizza Hut at the top of the hill in the Hanguk OUegook Oh Hak dang building. Just to mention that the second floor and 6th floor people are in opposition to him and are very very nice.

A month and a half ago it was bought out by a new guy "Mr. K*********" Beside the fact that he dies his hair orange at 45 years of age, the rumours that he was a dishonest man didn't influence one teacher and he decided to stay. One day later he fired that teacher because he said he didnt like him. He complained that the 2 days notice wasn't fair even though he had given no reason for firing him so he gave the teacher a month to test him (this is 6 months into the teacher's contract without a single complaint and happy students). As this is going on we are hearing from everyone that he is bad news. Also in the meantime we are seeing him walk in every day with two huge muscular bodyguards. Then one day he tells us that he is part of the mafia. SELF CONFESSED. The same day one of the teachers in his other institutes gets beaten up (a female) by him and one of his men for asking for her 2 month late pay. The next day he threatens to kill teachers at the school if they say anything about his business (conerning the mafia). This is a children's institute. At the end of the month he, having made a sizeable profit from the students in his 'summer camp', yet paid NO ONE, not even a cent. Every one of his staff remains unpaid. He has since been evasive and no one can contact him. He has taken all the money, presumable paid his body guards and God knows what he's done wit the rest of it. He threatens to kill anyone who interferes and he and his men have beaten up a lady and he has sent his men after other teachers who have fled the country for fear of their lives. He tricks the foreign teachers into thinking they will get housing etc and they end up with sleeping on a blanketless, sheetless, nothingless hard cold floor, like I did, with about 2 or 3 people per room in his apartment and nothing else. He has told sources that he is bankrupt and my concern is not only for me and the teachers but also for the bus drivers who have families and children and have not received a cent, yet they have to pay for the bus petrol and gas as well. It's really a nightmare and no one can do anything about it. I hope that his constistant recruiting of unsuspecting foreigners is stopped by this posting. All other things aside, his management skills are pathetic and he is very unreliable. At times students (in his one class a week) wait for an hour and a half for him.

One teacher went to collect his money and he , on two occasions, beat him up quite severely, with his body guard. THe teacher has been sent to hospital. The violence included being thrown to the ground and kicked in the chest. Attempts were also made to slash his throat with smashed glass. The whole case has been taken to the public prosecutors office and an investigations have begun. In the mean time, the owner K**** continues his run of violence by not paying all new teachers who finally flea for their lives. He has not said one honest thing and uses violence and his mafia body guards to get himself out of trouble. Now all appropriate authorities have been advised and all procedings to imprison him are underway.

Please heed my warning, some teachers didn't when i first warned them and are out on the street with nothing but fear for their lives. One has been hospitalised in September 2003

Subject: Oh Sung Sik English Club, Youngtong, Suwon

Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003

Hi Jon,

Love the website - very helpful.

Please see the following complaints from myself and my co-worker. We are both Canadians (and long-time friends) working at the Oh Sung Sik English Club in Youngtong neighbourhood in Suwon.

Here's my story.

I was hired to teach Elementary and Middle school students from 2-8 Monday to Friday. When I arrived I was informed that my first two weeks of work would be unpaid training. Then I was told that would teach Kindergarten in the morning (10-12) and then elementary and middle school students from 2 or 3 until 7. When I complained that was not what was negotiated (verbally - doh!) I was promised a Korean-speaking assistant for the kindy classes. This assistant never materialized. Then I was to get the assistant director's help. Any empty promise as she was never around. Then it was waiting for text books, etc. etc.

At the same time I was expected to be present for the kindy lunch break and help feed them and clean up after they had tossed thier kimchi under the table. All this was all unpaid time.

After four months of this I found a job at a univeristy. I requested a release letter. They refused this request and I had to decline the uni post. During this time the wajagnim cut off the internet, cut off our phonecards, yelled and screamed at us. This lasted about 1 week. Note that they did not hire a recruiter to find me and I offered to pay back the airfare so that they would not be out of pocket. I even provided them with an English teacher who could step in and fill my position.

Finally, during the intensive summer program I asked to be paid my overtime. About 4 hours per week. They refused because it was too expensive. One week later my co-worker refused to re-sign her contract because they changed the language to read 1 hour = 60 minutes. Now, the employer has told me that my contract (which reads 30 classroom hours per week maximum before overtime) means 30 hours (not classes). He informed me in a letter that if I want to persue the matter I will have to sue him and pay 50% of all costs and if I lose then I pay 100% of all costs.

I will be making a full report to the Labour Board. All this and I am only 1 week away from the 6 month mark in my contract.

My Co-Worker

Here's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I have been working for Oh Sung Sik in Youngtong for eleven months. It is a new school and I have gone through the growing pains with the director and other staff. Our original contracts were not worded very well and there was ambiguity over the number of hours versus the number of classes to be worked every week. The teachers chose to intepret the contract in this way: the normal class length is 50 minutes, therefore a classroom hour is 50 minutes. The director prefers to intepret the language that a classroom hour equals 60 minutes, therefore the teachers can be required to work seven classes per day, or 140 per month, before qualifying for overtime. I verbally agreed back in May to extend my contract and because of my good relationship with the director and was not concerned when I had not signed any papers. On August 4th, three weeks before the expiration of my original contract, I was presented with a revised version of my contract that explicitly states a classroom hour is 60 minutes and the monthly expectation is 120 hours (or 140 classes). I flatly refused the contract based solely on that new language. I now have three weeks to clear out and figure out what the hell I'm going to do now, not to mention fight for my last month's pay, severance, plane ticket and W500,000 deposit.

I think this new contract is really bad news for teachers and absolutely would not recommend that anyone who is not a hyper-human speed freak consider working for OSS club in Youngtong, Suwon. In addition, the other foreign teacher was hired under a lack of information, so when she arrived she was expected to teach kindergarten and do a daily split shift, not to mention lack of resources for kindie, an empty promise of an in-class assistant, and a slightly wacky Korean co-worker. She was very unhappy with her working conditions and after futile conferences with the director she gave the hagwon her 30-day notice. In the meantime she found a much better job at a university. We soon learned of the vengeful potential of the director's husband, Mr. Kxx. He freaked on us, cut off our internet access, and threatened to fire me too. Once the dust settled, and we could talk rationally, it became clear that because of a directors' association agreement, they will never give release letters to foreign teachers. Her options were to stay or leave Korea for the duration of her contract. She chose to stay, but we are getting more and more convinced that it may not have been the right decision.

The director seems to be really pumped up the on the idea of trust, loyalty and integrity, but here are a couple of incidents where I was lied to: I was twice promised severence, even though it wasn't written into my contract and then the promises were recinded unilaterally by my director. I later learned that severance is a matter of law, not preference on the part of employers. After refusing the contract, my director told me that I had to have a plane ticket out of Korea the day my visa expired and was pressing me to book a ticket. I disagreed, having read information to the contrary on popular ESL websites. (and with the shock of two days notice to leave the country, I was feeling in no way prepared to book a flight) I confirmed with Immigration that I could in fact easily apply for a 30-day tourist visa near the time that my work visa expired. I gave her the information and after conferring with her husband she confessed that he lied to her when he insisted that I leave the country. She added that he basically doesn't like me because I challenged his authority by not re-signing the contract and he no longer wants me around.

There's my two cents, hope it saves you more than that!

Subject: SBSi Kids in Pusan

Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003

SBSi Kids in Pusan

My partner and I worked here. Our main complaints centred on the delayed and non-payment of money owed, something which we are still trying to remedy, and which the boss maintains he will not pay. These are wages and our deposit, and no reason is offered except that he doesn't want to.

We handed in 30 days notice, as we agreed with the supervisor, Paul, who hired us and was then fired himself in an explosion of chair throwing and threats of violence. Our decision was because the bosss behaviour had become so unacceptable. The tirade was as inevitable as it was unnecessary. We were told we should leave immediately, would face reduced wages and were not paid for the month we had already worked. We tried to be reasonable and let him blow off steam, worked through our period of notice, and on our last day, the one on which it had been agreed we would receive all money owed, he changed his mind. The last note was an insistence we l leave the apartment a day earlier than we had discussed, and when we were firm that this was unacceptable we were actually told we would be charged for it. Not included here are fictional taxes charged, no payment of pension or the income tax that we had to pay, the non-provision of health insurance for the majority of our time there. My partner and I have both taught in Korea before, and are very aware of the differences that can be anticipated. This goes well beyond that. Should this letter not deter any interested parties from going to the school, do not count on any money before it is in your account, regard deposits, taxes etc. as money lost, and when you decide to leave the school, do a midnight run.

Subject: Brighton Junior English School

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:54:18 +0100

Hi Jon

Please please please please black list this school. I have just returned from Korea after working in this school for three months, and it nearly killed me. Brighton Junior English School, 2nd Floor Brighton Ville, 717-5, 2 Dong, Sangrok-gu, Ansan-Si.

The owners of the school own the building where the school is and the accomodation is in the same building. They consequently walk in and out of our apartments when they wish, even when your in the shower and some employees didnt even have doors on their bathrooms. They do not adhere to their contract, making us work more hours (10 a day) and force us to attend meetings outside work at the weekends. When I was unexpectedly admitted to hospital i was blackmailed to work the same day i left hospital. They didnt have my medical insurance so I had to go under a fellow employees details, which is illegal. they also don't pay our national pension which is illegal. Since being discharged from hospital I was sick of the treatment the employees of the school were subjected to, so i followed my contract and gave 45 days notice. thay then ignored my resignation, blackmailed me, threatened me, and told lies over and over again to make me afraid of contacting immigration. They then accused me of hitting the children i taught and then after all that they pleaded with me to stay!!! I went to the labor office when my resignation was ignored but they didnt turn up to the appointment, and i have contacted a lawyer, as i told my school i was leaving anyway. They refused to pay me for my last months work, so i was left in Korea with no money and no accommodation, so luckily i had friends i could stay with and i came home to the UK. I want to warn anyone from working in this school as it was hell on earth and the people who run the school are pure evil and our supervisor - Sue- was the anti-christ himself!! I wouldn't wish this school on my worse enemy.

Please blacklist this school! if you need anymore info please let me know.

Subject: CASTLE LANGUAGE SCHOOL

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:42:59 +1000

I have got to say that i had both good and bad experiences in Korea. I saved a large sum of money ($10,000AUS)....but at a cost. My employer was not great to work for...the boss was a mean old lady (we called her the dragon lady). I worked for CASTLE LANGUAGE SCHOOL in Daegu, Korea - please put it on the black list. I worked there for 6 months - and that was enough! I paid my own airfare in return for a shorter contract (6 months).

My apartment was comfrotanble....BUT obviously unsafe - as i was straggled and assaulted in the worst possible way - on my second last night in korea. For all women who go to korea to teach english - i suggest that you have SHARED accomodation - and make sure that you are adament on getting that. I almost lost my life in korea ... and am very lucky to be alive to this very day. I spent my final day in korea at a police office, and it was dreadful.

:) KC

Gold Coast, Australia

Please keep my full name anonymous, as i would prefer it that way!

Subject: Kim Lin's Kids English

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003

I am alerting you to the necessity to blacklist the Kim Lin's Kids English school in Suwon. The director is Kxxxxxxxxx and her husband. I won a case of unfair dismissal from this school with the Ministry of Labour in South Korea. However, the ruling was to reinstate my job with backpay which was impractical considering the treatment I received at this school. My collegue is now involved in a case with the Ministry of Labour for unfair dismissal and physical abuse from the director's husband. I urge all foreigners to avoid this school. It is possible to have a fabulous experience in South Korea, but not at this school.

Kind regards,

Subject: ECC DAECHI

Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003

Hi Jon,

I think you have a great website and it will definitely benefit others. Please post this message on your blacklist. Thank you

DO NOT WORK AT ECC DAECHI! There are about 110 ECC schools in Korea, under the corporation of YBM. I don't know about the rest of the schools, but ECC Daechi in Seoul is horrible.

First, the contract which is produced by YBM is poorly worded and therefore has created many miscommunications. Be very careful when reading contracts.

The problem I had was getting cheated out of my sick pay and bonus which totaled 400,000 won. Because I had another teacher cover a few classes while my parents were in town, Mr. Sxxxxxx, the director considered those sick days. I had previously asked the supervisor if having another teacher cover a few classes would be okay and she said that was fine. The hours I missed were deducted from my salary. I had no idea that these would be considered sick days and I would lose my sick day pay and bonus.

Unfortunately I had already told the director I would CONSIDER staying two days longer because two of the foreign teachers were arriving later than planned. When the director told me he would not pay the sick days and bonus, I told him I was unable to stay any longer. However, in the meantime, he had cancelled my ticket and arranged for me to fly out two days later. He said he tried to get my reservation back, but could not confirm the information. He was of no help and he gave me conflicting information when I questioned him. He then told me to go ahead and go to the airport as scheduled. I thought he was trying to scare me into believing I didn't have a reservation so I would work two more days.

Well my reservation had been cancelled and there was nothing United Airlines or the travel agent could do to help me. There was a seat available in business class, but that meant more money. The travel agent phoned the director and we had a heated conversation with him ranting and raving and yelling at me. He absolutely refused to pay for a seat in business class and I was left stranded at the airport.

Besides my personal dilemma, the school is disgustingly filthy. The classrooms are in shambles with holes in the walls, torn wallpaper, writing and swear words on the walls and tables and floors that look like they have never been swept or cleaned. ECC Daechi is definitely not a good environment for children or teachers.

Subject: Oe Dae Institure in Ilsan

Date: Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003

i was recruited to work for a hagwan in korea by the name of Oe Dae Institure in Ilsan. Although there is a bigger Institute called Oe Dae, which may or may not have a good reputation, this Oe Dae that i will describe has nothing to do with the other one but just uses the name.

Upon talking to my recruitor i was told that the school was a good one and that i would have my own room in a shared apt. and that i would be teaching middle and high school students. Upon arriving, i found out that i had to share a one bedroom apt. with another teacher and i was promptly placed within the kindergarten and elementary classroom. Before leaving to korea, i made it perfectly clear that i did not want to teach small children and they made every assurance that i woudn't have to.

Well, i figured i would just try it anyway. Everything was fine for about two weeks until the Korean teacher who sat next to me began complaining that she smelled alcohol on my person. The truth is, the night before I had gone out with co-workers and had a few beers. Well, i was made to endure an hour of interrogations and questions like, where were you, how much did you drink, did you think of the consequences etc... I felt like garbage. The Korean teacher had children in that kindergarten and when they weren't in class, they were allowed to sit at my computer and play games. God forbid that I would need the computer to prepare for classes.

In addition to this, my Korean supervisor acted more like my mother than my boss. She would insist on prying into my private life with questions like, where did you go this weekend? who were you with? where is the place you went? etc. She was such a disgusting person. I still get queezy when i think of her. She used to do a stupid little dance while she said hello to you in Korean. It's amazing how stupid lonely and ugly korean women can be at times.

Well, one guy quit his job but not before he borrowed 700,000 won from the director. He then left in the middle of the night for Taiwan. Since his apt. was then vacant they wanted me to move into his apt. His apt. is with three women who work at the school and i have a korean girlfriend. I tried to explain this to them but all they would say is, "I'ts okay". But i said that it wasnt' and i quit. Upon quitting i had to pay back the airfair and recruiter's fee in order to obtain my diploma and release letter. Because they had fraudulently switched the name of the school on my visa, because the wife and husband both own different schools, the immigration had a problem. In order to avoid a heavy fine, the director's wife told immigration that she fired me, even though i had to type out a resignation letter. Now I have an excellent job teaching adult business people for a reputable school called Pagoda. I'm very happy now and my girlfriend and I can go on with our lives.

Oh yeah, after i left, the Korean teacher who had such a problem with my excessive drinking was arrested for dui just a week after i quit. ha ha ha

Subject: Brainy English School, Youngju

Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 02:28:06 -0400

Hi Jon. Just wanted to send you the name of my school, which is very bad. It's in Youngju, South Korea, and the name of the academy is Brainy English School, run by K*********. (They sent me to the airport without a bonus or my last months pay, but with a ticket in hand, which hadn't been paid either! I didn't discover this until I arrived at the airport.)

Subject: SLP Ilsan/ Hong Jae Hwa

Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 23:26:32 +1200

A word of warning about this school.

My problem is not big by hogwan standards but I am posting it for general information and will blacklist the school and continue to broadcast their failings until they cough up. Why ? Because I have given them every chance to be reasonable and they have failed. And when we let hogwans get away with it even on a moderate scale they will continue to make life difficult for other people. And in the power imbalance between hogwan/employee the internet is an equaliser that should be used.

I resigned from this school about two years ago after seven months cos of breach of contract by the school. A family member died and I was entitled to emergency leave to attend the funeral. Rather than doing their best to help me they made my leave conditional upon paying a W1,000,000 bond to the school (in breach of my contract, cos emergency leave was unconditional) which at the time almost made it impossible for me to attend the funeral in New Zealand. I was dissatisfied with this so when I returned I gave them the required 2 months notice in my contract. (Unlike three other dissatisfied teachers who did the midnight run during my time there.)

When I finished at this hogwan they took W300,000 out of my last pay to cover any outstanding bills and then pay the balance to me. Well, I settled all my apartment bills with my roomate before I left and left my room in immaculate condition. All that had to be paid was one cellphone bill by Director Hong Jae Hwa, probably about W 50,000.

But that was the last I saw of my W300,000 and Hong Jae Hwa. Hong Jae Hwa gave me the standard run around after I left. I call him, he promises to pay the money owing into my account asap, I wait, nothing happens. I Repeat this process half a dozen times over the next few months and he stops answering my phone calls and doesn't return my messages. When I do catch him out by phoning from a different number I get the same promise followed by failure to pay, again.

I tried calling him at SLP Ilsan. But he wasn't there because he was working at another SLP hogwan, though still a Director at SLP Ilsan. So I visited SLP Ilsan twice but on both ocassions he wasn't there, the other directors couldn't speak english, and the academic supervisor refused to translate. Instead she fobbed me off, telling me to phone Hong Jae Hwa because she said only he knew about my money. So I telephoned him again and he didn't answer or return my messages.....

Of course the school cancelled my visa when I finished and Mr Hong may have been hoping I would just leave and he could pocket my cash. Well, I came back and got a good job at a great school.

I was going to put it down to experience, not a bad option depending on circumstances, but since decided why should I let them keep my hard earned cash ?

So I e-mailed the school a week ago, sent a follow up e-mail, and they didn't answer. Telephoned and new owner denies any responsibility to pay me..So that's my experience and given their continued failure to pay me I would have to recommend against working there.

(Note: There are three responses to this post -- Jon)

Subject: St. Paul Academy, Daegu

Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 05:35:51

Hello there -

I am one of a number of teachers who has been cheated by Kxxxxxxxxxx at St. Paul Academy in Daegu since it opened in 2001. K**** plays fast and loose with contracts, but follows them to the letter when it comes to his employees' behavior. Every teacher who has finished a contract at St. Paul Academy has been cheated in some way by Kxx. He deducted 1.2 million won from my final pay for another teacher's expenses. He even itemized it on my paycheck as expenses for the plane ticket and utilities for another teacher who had been smart and done a midnight runner. This was after his repeated promises to honor our agreement and give me my pay in full on my last day of work. Kxx then promised to reimburse me for half of the salary withheld after I left via wire transfer. Of course, he hadn't three months later, so I made a phone call to him, at which point he stammered out a list of fabricated contract violations on my part (this guy has a lot of nerve) and said I had no recourse. I know better, and am now pursuing this through an attorney in Korea.

In another case, Kxxxxx refused to honor the contractually-guaranteed promise of return airfare at the end of the 12 month contract. He reneged at the last minute, leaving the teacher to find his own way back to North America. With two other teachers, he refused to pay them their one-month bonus salary unless they agreed to work three extra weeks, unpaid.

Kxx has also been known to hire teachers without work visas, loading them with hours and paying them salaries as low as 1.5 million per month for over 30 classroom hours. He talks from both sides of his mouth, praising a teacher in person and holding meetings behind the teacher's back undermining his or her teaching methods. This school should be avoided at all costs - it isn't apparent until too late that K*****'s business methods are devious and underhanded.

If you have any more questions regarding the truth about St. Paul Academy, don't hesitate to send me an email.

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And for the first response:

Subject: St. Paul Blacklist

Date: Mon, 26 May 2003

Hi Jon,

I'm a regular checker of your site and I noticed today something which really bugged me. My school had been blacklisted. I feel, I don't know. Awful is the word. I'm wondering if it is possible to make a comment, or reply to the post, as I feel that it was unfairly laid at the door of my school, which I would say goes out of it's way to be reputable.

The person who is complaining chose to leave his contract early, and was penalized according to the terms of his contract. He was aware of this at the time. His reason for leaving the school turned out to be false, and the "smart teacher" he refered to happened to be his girlfriend, who ran out on Korea, then returned a few days before he left.

I've been working at St. Paul for a year now. K** has gone out of his way for his employee's. He takes he staff out for dinner and drinks on a weekly basis. We are invited to family functions but not forced to go. He has organized several sight seeing tours that would have been impossible to manage, where we could have fun together as a group and build bonds and a stronger working relationship. He has helped myself and other teachers when we were sick or needed to get medical attention. On two occasions he sent teachers home when they were too sick to work, rather than forcing them to teach. When I first got to Korea I had very little money and for four months in a row K***** happily advanced money on my salary, when not outright paying for things I need without asking for compensation.

I work very hard and on at least two occasions he has given me an on the spot bonus because he feels I deserve it. Not an advance, just free money for me because of the work I do. I can't imagine many directors in Korea who would do that. K** tells me to go home and sleep, or to take it easy, he has never forced me to work harder. I find that admirable and repsectable.

He provides clean and livable apartments and any time I have requested matience he has helped immediatly. He is open and willing to help. He speaks wonderful English (not perfect but not bad by any means) and is honest about all of the arrangments he has made with teachers. You don't have to take my word, you can contact all of the teachers who have finished a contract with St. Paul and I am sure they will agree. I shall provide emails, and ask each of them to send in a word about St. Paul.

St. Paul, unlike many of the Hogwons here, is actually interested in Education. The school does not make obscene money, and there are times when we barely scrap by but K**** stands by his the standards that he has set to provide a quality english education to our students. The curriculm has a good structure, and he provides new teachers with almost two weeks of training and class observation before they have their first class. The observation is paid.

K****, like all Korean Directors, has his faults, but I feel that truly the pro's outway all the cons. I agreed to stay for a second year long before my first contract expired I was so comfortable with K**** and the school environment.

We are currently at the point were the teachers who are finishing contracts on time are being replaced. I can only imagine that this blacklisting (three months after the teacher left) was done to spite us in our search for new teachers for the upcoming year. The job market is difficult enough right now with the North Korea situation and SARS and I feel that blacklisting really could do serious harm to a school that is my home.

I believe strongly that every person is entitled to there opinion and everyone has the right to complain, loudly protest, and even degrade the job that they had and quit, or even that they had and liked. I don't begrudge the departing teacher that. However I feel that, considering the situtation, I would like to promote a serious dialouge for teachers who might be convinced to turn down St. Paul because of one persons opinion. So, for what it is worth, there is mine.

Yours

http://www.saradevil.com

mmm....the sounds of beethoven...the smell of desire.....

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And yet another response:

Date: Wed, 28 May 2003

Hello Jon,

I was recently informed that a former colleague submitted a letter condemning the school that he was working for, St. Paul Academy. I being the one that hired this teacher, felt it was necessary to clarify some of his comments. He stated that two teachers were forced to stay an extra three weeks without pay, if they ever wanted to be paid. I was one of those two teachers, and my friend and I AGREED with the director to stay on for an extra two weeks, so that we could help this teacher and his girlfriend get comfortable with their new surroundings. We even went so far as moving into a hotel, so that they could begin their new lives in our old apartments. We tried to introduce them to the school, how it runs, class structure, etc, with little or no attention paid. We were never thanked by this pair, and felt pretty frustrated at the fact that we CHOSE to stay on to help these ungrateful and rather selfish individuals. I do not know what happened after I left, nor do I care to, and of course with many hogwan director, there will be problems and major frustrations, coming from cultural differences and at times, ethical choices, but I was always paid on time, and had a decent roof over my head. Hope this helps with a more balanced outlook.

Sincerely,

An annoyed man

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And a third response:

Hello Jon. I am a new voice to this discussion. Although I am extremely reluctant to get involved, I feel it is necessary to correct some of the information about my former school that was posted on this list.

I do feel that the person who wrote in on the first post about St. Paul was treated unfairly. He should have been paid what he earned. However, the reasons he gave for his departure from the school were not actually true, and when this was found out, the director withheld money from his pay. This employee gave the required amount of time for vacating his contract, he never really needed any reasons, so he should have been paid in full.

I was a teacher who left prematurely a few weeks after this person did. I left because I had a serious ongoing medical emergency that needed attention and I was fearful of further treatment by Korean doctors. I left without telling anyone because a.) I made the choice and left the same day and b.) I was afraid if I did tell my school, they might prevent me from leaving or make it difficult because of what happened to the above person. I personally feel very guilty for leaving in the way I did as I was always treated fairly by Mr. K**** and St. Paul.

I came to Korea with a different school than St. Paul. If anyone wants to talk about nightmares, this was one of the biggest. I was paid the 1.5 million won (actually 1.46) by this former school. I am hesitant to even name this school as I was violently assaulted by the director of that previous school on the street (which has affected me even to this day) and also my family was threatened over email. I took the job at St. Paul's that the other teacher's girlfriend vacated. I was offered the typical starting salary by Mr. K**** at the time of 1.8. I was annoyed at the time, as I knew the other teachers made more, and working for St. Paul is more like working for a regular school, not fake babysitting. But, because I was so grateful to Mr. K****** for rescuing me, I did not tell him about my previous teaching experience or haggle over my salary. I also knew that he was offering my previous employer A LOT of money to get me out of my situation. I know if I would have had the balls at the time, I could have gotten higher pay, but I'm ashamed to admit that Korea had taken the balls outta me from the first day.

During my time at St. Paul, I discovered a few things about St. Paul in comparison to other hogwans. It was cleaner and had far better resources than other schools. It was run professionally and you are required to do quite a bit of prep. Mr. K*** will actually handle your discipline problems for you. This is NOT reality in most Korean hogwons. My first hogwon, I was locked into a classroom with 30 kids the day after I arrived and sent to live in a premium roach infested hovel. Our accommodations with St. Paul were clean and average older studio apartments. The pay for the teachers, apart from me, was definitely above average. We always got paid on time. If you needed anything, like a pay advance or help with transportation or language, Mr. K**** was more than willing. In the beginning, I got pay advances for 3 months in a row until I caught up. He actually translated my list of symptoms for my medical problem for me and even offered to take me to Seoul when I needed to see a specialist. He also took us out regularly (and paid) and invited us to functions with his family. We went to his daughter's first birthday party with his whole family at the best hotel in Daegu. He also offered to help find my fiance a job when his school started to go down the toilet. I think he is a Korean businessman and behaved accordingly, but he treated us FAR better than any of the hogwan directors I had come across or heard of.

One of the things I took a lot of pride in, was that St. Paul is actually concerned with education. This is not the case in most hogwons. They are very selective about the teachers they employ and the curriculum they are developing. But, hogwans are businesses above all, and they are there to make money. This school is also a business. This is how the hogwan system in Korea works.

Again, I don't really want to get involved as I no longer live in Korea, but I wrote this letter not only because some of the things mentioned about my former school weren't exactly correct, but for a more important reason. This was actually a GREAT school to work for. If you decide to teach English in Korea, which I DON"T recommend, and you decide to eliminate St. Paul from your choices because of that letter, you may get stuck with another choice, which could be a BAD one. Like I first did and many others often do, you could find yourself in a nightmare.

Subject: Jung Chul Interlab in Bugae, Seoul

Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 19:31:09 -0700

I am (or was) a teacher at this school - Jung Chul Interlab in Bugae, Seoul. I got this job through an agency and at the end of my first month, discovered I hadn't been paid. I called the agency, who told me that the school hadn't paid so they couldn't pay me. Well, after much arguing the agency gave me the money but then said that I had to get the rest out of the school myself as the owner of the school wasn't answering calls or e-mails.

I called the owner (Mrs Lee) who told me that I didn't want to work at her school anymore so she wasn't going to pay me. First of all, I never said anything about not working at her school anymore, so I don't know where she got that information from. And anyway, even if I had said that, what about money she owed me for work that I had already done??

I have yet to see any money from this school. She owes me about 700,000 won and although it's not much I know that this is an ongoing problem.

They also have another school downstairs from the Jung Chul the teacher that was working there disappeared overnight. I'm not sure what happened but I know they wanted to get rid of him because they asked me if I would take his job!

They employ all kinds of underhand tactics like this so unless you like to teach english for free I would not recommend this school.

JUNG CHUL INTERLAB, Bugae, Seoul and their associate school located downstairs.

Subject: ..maple leaf college

Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003

Greetings Jon,

I best write to you about this Hagwon in Namcheon-do, Busan, South Korea. The name of the School is Maple Leaf College. While I was there:

Things started-off relatively fine or tolerable, but then it started to become sour after about 3 months.

The first day I arrived the director didn't even know that I did. I had to call from the airport to let him know. I waited, then his associate came and drove me to the hogwan and I had to attend a staff meeting. I was dead tired, flying-in from Canada. To top it off, I had to sleep at the director's home, because one teacher didn't leave the apartment yet. Anyway, a few days turned into two weeks. Finally, the teacher left and then I moved into the apartment. The apartment was small, dirty and coachroach-ridden.

After a few months of teaching; a difficult process due to great disorganization. I was given word by a female American teacher that she was spied on during her teaching sessions. I was given bits and pieces of advice from teachers already present. I knew then that I may be in for trouble.

Soon the staff meetings started to become lectures on the 'dos and don'ts' on working there. The director even admitted that he was 'greedy' and wanted to make more money. It was only later, that I realized he would act on this aspect with regard.

I noticed that my contract was slightly different then the rest of the teachers. My severance pay was higher then some of teachers and this brought great surprise to the foreign staff. Some teachers told me that they were lied to about several things, apartment conditions, schedules etc.

The hagwon was losing a few students and this was seen (by the director) as a direct result of the foreign teachers.

After three months, I was ask to have a meeting with the director himself. His wife was present, which made no sense, since she couldn't understand or speak a word of english. At times she paraded-around the school like a gestapo looking for the slightest reason to complain. This is the topper. During the meeting I was told by the director that some of the parents (of the students) saw me and complained that I didn't 'look' like a teacher. He said that these same parents saw me shopping at 'mega mart' and I wasn't dressed according to their tastes. He also stated that he would see me walking outside, alone, during my free time and thought this was bizarre. He even went as far as saying that all the teachers hated me and that's why I walked alone. He continuely remarked about my private life. I finally said that was none of his business and had nothing to do with my work. He digressed, almost searching for cause. He said that he didn't like the way that I worked with the children. He saw my friendliness with the kids as perverted or sexual, when there were no such complaints or proof. I was outraged. He gave me only two weeks notice and I had to quickly look for another job.

I thought it best to forget about the 'good fight' and focus my efforts toward positive and productive means. Get this. The director offered to give me a letter of recommendation, before I left. HE EVEN WANTED TO GO OUT DRINKING WITH ME!! Please, steer clear away from this Hogwan.

If you have any further questions Jon, let me know.

Thanks,

Subject: The Red Bank Institue--Chonan, Korea

Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003

The following comes after working in Korea as an English teacher, and recognizing that the people of Korea (may I add not all ) but perhaps most need a lesson in apporiate business etiquette. People planning on working here must know that some people here purposely use the excuse of"cultural differences" to justify not following a contract.

My story begins with the usual scenario of an employer not wanting to fully comply with the contract we had agreed upon. Unfortunately, I've found out that "The Red Bank Institute, in Chonan" has a history of regularly losing their employees because of non-compliance on their behalf. This hag won has failed to pay for my medical insurance, and currently they are advertising that they do offer such coverage.. .Let me tell you, THEY DON'T! The owner has dismissed me because I refused to work without insurance, and furthermore, use a Korean teachers health card, which she had forced me to do the first time I was sick. If this is illegal in Canada, I'm sure it is here.

In the past she fired my co-worker, and failed to give him a release letter. Now she is forced to re-hire him and has put him up in a small shack behind her house. She even goes as far as taxing me, and the other teachers there, while we know that she keeps the money without claiming it, because she refuses to give us an official receipt from the Korean government. Apparently, the Korean teachers that have worked there can't even claim their taxes because she keeps the money instead of paying it to the government. This owner cannot be trusted. She will claim that everything is a "cultural difference," meanwhile she just clearly lacks professionalism, and the ability to be honest, and truthful. A definite disappointment, because the staff and children are great, I will truly miss them, but all the hassles and lies in this school is not worth my time.

Subject: Direct English (a subsidiary of Pagoda)

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 00:01:30

Dear Prospective English teacher,

Please don't make the same mistake we did! The following is an essay about why you shouldn't work for Direct English (a subsidiary of Pagoda).

Last November my boyfriend and I were looking for teaching positions in Korea. Being veteran teachers from children's academies we thought the job search would be a snap. Much to our chagrin, finding employment wasn't that easy, especially for my boyfriend who is from New Zealand. After about a month of searching we started to feel desperate so we decided to sign with a company named Direct English. We were so overjoyed to find a position for both of us that we didn't do the necessary research. Shame on us! DON'T LET THESE PEOPLE FOOL YOU TOO!

Here's a list of the problems we've encountered during the first four months of our employment with Direct English:

1) False Promises: The Direct English recruiter made promises to us regarding our salaries, our schedules, and possible employment with Direct English branches in other countries (specifically England). These promises can most aptly be described as bald-faced LIES. For instance, the recruiter said that our salaries would be around 2.3 or 2.4 million won. The pay structure is so complicated I won't get into it here but what he failed to fully explain was that the minimum salary is 1.8 million won. If your branch isn't doing well that month you will certainly not be making anywhere near 2.4 million won. In fact, to make that much money would mean that you were working overtime.

Secondly, on the basis that we would be given a block shift (8 hours of working time scheduled from 7-3, 1:30-9:30) in a maximum of 4-5 months, we agreed to take a split shift for a short amount of time(scheduled working hours are from 7-11AM and 5:30-9:30PM during a split shift). But alas, 4 months have come and gone and only one of us has a block shift. Who knows when the next block shift will be alotted to us. Management doesn't seem to care if we're overworked, exhausted or ill.

Finally, since we are interested in living in the UK after this year we were interested in transferring from a Direct English in Korea to a branch in the UK (which we were told was indeed possible). The recruiter conveniently left out the bit about there not being a Direct English School in the UK. Corporate headquarters are located there, but there's no actual school.

2) The training we were given for this school is a joke. They sit you in front of a computer for three days and make you watch videos correlating to the course material. No outside advice or comment is given on how to teach the lessons. Later they will complain that you are unprepared. In addition, a teacher is not given their own set of course books. This results in the teachers running from room to room to look for a certain book. There are also NO TEACHER'S GUIDES.

3)Vacation/Sick Days: There is no such thing as paid vacation at this school. They try to make up for this by giving you 4 weeks of unpaid vacation. What they don't tell you is that you are responsible for finding a substitute for your own classes. This makes it very difficult to take a vacation. Nobody wants to cover a colleague's classes because it means a 13-14 hour working day. They also fail to mention that it is in VIOLATION OF THE LABOR LAWS to deny an employee vacation time or sick days. Oh, and just try and call in sick - they will threaten and coerce you into coming to work, saying "what can I do, you must come into work, there is no one to cover!"

4) The housing plan : Direct English will provide you with 5 million won key money (deposit) and a housing allowance of 150,000 won. You (with the assistance of a housing manager) will select an apartment. Sounds like an okay deal right? Believe me, 150,000 won/month will get you nothing but a shack in Seoul. Therefore you will have to pay additional rent (out of your already meager salary) if you want to get any kind of decent housing. And, out of the kindness of their hearts, Direct English will provide you with a bed, a fridge, a washer and a gas range -

THAT'S IT! You must buy all other needed furnishings (chairs, bookshelves, closet, chest of drawers, etc....) yourself. And forget about them helping you maintain the appliances they give you. For instance, our second month in the apartment our refrigerator broke (too bad we had just bought groceries in the amount of 100,000Won). We waited over a week for a new refrigerator which meant we had to eat out at every meal.

5) Health insurance : Well, we've been waiting for 4 months and we still haven't received any information about our health insurance plans, even though we've asked more than once. Thank god we haven't gotten SARS!

6) Flight payment : If you are seeking employment while already in Korea, Direct English does not reimburse your flight costs. They will fly you to Japan to sort the visa out, but you are responsible for paying for the visa and all extraneous costs during your trip (approximately $100). They also do not provide return airfare to your country of origin.

7) High Turnover Rate among teachers and desk staff : In the 4 months that I've worked at Direct English, two Korean tutors have quit with little or no notice, 1 native tutor was fired (probably because he complained a little too loudly about the above procedures), and the desk staff changes from week to week. This proves to be an unstable environment for both the staff and the students, causing a high dropout rate among students, translating into less pay for the teachers.

8) Obvious favoritism :If you complain about anything at this school (even if it is a valid complaint) it will mean that they will schedule less classes for you and you will make less money. The prejudice is so glaring that you'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to notice that while you are making 1.8/won/month, another teacher is making 2.5/won/month. There is no attempt to equalize teachers schedules. If they don't like you they just freeze you out.

In short, we were blind-sided by a recruiter promising options and great opportunities. Direct English is just like every other corporate franchise English school. They use you to make more money, and they couldn't care less about you as a teacher or as a person.

Subject: FSL Cheongju

Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:49:47

Hi, my name is Sebastian and I worked at FSL (Fantastic Story Book) in Cheongju. The Hakwon is poorly managed, the manager, Robert Wxxxxxx, and the owner, Mr. Sxxxxx, are not honest people. They never paid me in full for my one-way tkt to Korea, even though it was stated in the contract they should. They also offered a very small and dirty apartment, with old furnitures, located in the heart of the red-light district. When I said I was going to leave, they threated to sue me, my wife, and my relatives. I also heard from other teachers that FSL Cheongju was the worst Hakwon in that city, and now, unfortunatelly too late, I know they are right. So, if you want to be harrassed, threatened, and not paid, FSL Cheongju is the place for you.

Thank you,

-Sebastian

Subject: Ding Ding Dang, Daegu

Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003

Ding Ding Dang in Daegu violated my contract from the day that I arrived, in April 2002. I was placed with 2 roommates, even thoughht my contract states that should have only one. My complaints were ignored.

After a teacher ran away in mid-September, I was required to work overtime. At least now I had only1 roomate. I was paid for this, but was so exhausted that I was chronically sick. I warned my director that I was thinking of leaving also. I also complained that my heat didn't work, but this was ignored also. She promised that things would be better soon. Help did not arrive until January.

I recieved a Health Insurance card in Novemember, but should have had that from the beginning.

After 2 months of freezing, our heat was fixed and help arrived the first week in January.

A new supervisor took over in January. We had a minor disagreement, when I declined her request to collect a 5,000 won contribution from all the teachers. Suddenly, she told me that she hated me and I was assigned "telephone teaching" of 103 students per week. Many of them were not in my current classes, and I complained that therefore it was not part of "administrative duites related to classroom duties.

My very last week of work was a nightmare. On Monday night, by supervisor came to my apartment, looked around, and said that it had to be clean by noon or they'd charge me for a cleaning person, and a plumber because the sink drain was slow. She also threatened to cancel my plane reservation and prevent me from recieving the funds that I contributed to Korean National pension.

I convinced the director that I needed more time, and she agreed to check apartment at noon on Thursday. She did not come at noon, while I was there. Both my supervisor were rude and insulting my last few weeks, and I thought that the tension and animosity would end when she saw my glowingly clean apartment.

After my very last class, I asked for my plane ticket home. My supervisor still wanted to check that I'd washed the bedding provided, so that it would be ready for my replacement.

At 10 p.m., she came but still refused to give me my ticket. She said that we wanted to get my keys. I offered the keys, but she said that I couldn't have the ticket until I was leaving.

I'd done everything that she asked. She stubbornly refused. She said that she was staying until I left in the morning. I asked my roomate whether she'd invited the spervisor to spend the night, and she said "No." The supervisor called me dirty, ugly and stupid in front of most of my former co-workers.

They had a party at my house to celebrate my leaving, with beer bought the the director, and I wasn't invited.

I got my ticket and left at 5 a.m., noticing a trace of vomit in my bathroom

Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003

Subject: Kwandong University, Kangneung

Hello,

This is to warn about Kwandong University in Kangneung. Depite massive personal abuse at this school I suffered at the hands of the Korean director of the English program and the foreign coordinator I will stick to the cogent facts that prospective teachers may want to know. This school has had a near 100% turnover rate for the last ten years at least. They ripped me and other teachers off for at least $1000 each in overtime pay in the last year alone. I taught 30 hours a week managing over 600 students each semester. The administrative staff is non-supportive at best and beligerent at worst. The housing (a dorm) often lacked hot water and sometimes the water went out completely. My requests for repair were ignored and only answered after repeated attempts. Class sizes were at average around 45 students with some as high as 70. Severence pay was not given on time as were other pay(overtime/monthly). At least one teacher quit mid-semester last year because of the contract violations. As one of the lowest ranked universities in Korea student motivation is nil. Though they are instituting reforms I am quite sure various abuses will continue as the same management is still in place. This information can be independently verified by other ex-teachers who quickly exited to greener pastures. To be avoided would be an understatement about this school.

Subject: General Warning:

Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003

To All considering teaching in Korea; please be aware that once you arrive you are an instant advertising tool to increase the schools profit margin. The schools use foreigners as a tax break, school Directors believe in ownership so you are considered a piece of property.

Also the school will charge you a tax that they do not pay to the government it is subsidized and the school does not pay an actual tax it is fraudulent. The schools will use, abuse, and totally funk you over in any way possible all for cash.

The schools in Korea are fueled by greed and all contracts have special clauses in them and will NEVER hold up in a Court of Law in your favor, because it is not written in Korean, that is a separate contract that you will never see, sign, or understand and Koreans use American attorney's against you because they ONLY work for the Educational Institutions will not find an attorney here in Korea before your money runs out or they find a way to deport you at your own expense.

I love many Korean people because they all suffer the same abuse from their own employers but what can they do they have large families to support and they exist in a CATCH 22. The schools will maintain power trips over all employees Korean and Foreigners, and I have yet to meet a Canadian, American, or any Native English who has received a full severance and a plane ticket home.

The only people who survive are ultra shady back stabbers who enjoy working for free. The school directors all seem nice and even some of the foreigners seem nice until after about one to two months afterwards. Most people here are fleeing from some kind of serious issue or want to travel, save money, and see the world.

So I would like to say that all schools should be considered as a Black Listed school. The schools do not care about teaching an actual accepted academic program. IT IS ALL FOR MONEY! Not one school in Korea would pass an American or Canadian Educational School Board License.

If you took out all of the foreigners of Korea truthfully speaking Korea's economy would sustain a blow. Last item on the board, you will never ever win a legal battle in Korea if you are a foreigner, you are not Korean so therefore you do not exist. Human Rights was recognized in Korea within the last decade.

Dear Jon, Subject: English Friends Academy Ilsan

Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003

I wasn't going to do this but thought why should they get away with treating English and Korean teachers so shabbily. I recently returned from a year teaching in a hell hole of a school ruled by a total bitch of a director. I must warn all my fellow comrades out there that this is a place to stay away from.

The head of the school Mrs C is an evil and unpleasent person who is very close to having a mental illness. She loves nothing better then making you the subject of her frequent mood swings. She treats the teachers like dirt and is so fake that it makes you want to be physically Ill. I survived 12 months in this environment because I am loyal but if you are shown this school run away.

The finances of the school are something to be desired as it is a lucky day when you actually get paid on your payday. Of course there is never any communication why the money is later just that it is late. I cannot stress that the teachers and the kids you teach are great and that you always have a positive experience with them.

The way the school is organised is very "fly by the seat of your pants", as they always change philosophy of teaching and your duties. Usually without telling you these new ideas or responsibilities just expecting you to know. The head teacher is an ass as he has no communication skills, no organisational ability and his command of English leaves something to be desired. He is basically a yes man who gives no voice to the teachers just to Mrs C.

This school would be a great place to work except for the headcase in Mrs C and the lapdog of the head teacher, they really are evil and stupid people and I can't stree enough how bad they are.

Regards

Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 10:46:36 +0900

Subject: Hallym University in Chuncheon, Thanks.

ALERT:

I need to give the heads up on the events that have happened to me the last few weeks with Hallym University in Chuncheon. Hopefully this will keep qualified people from wasting their time and money as I did. The position was advertised on Daves ESL as 15 hours a week, 2,335,000 won a month and 40,000 for the time teaching during the vacations, and severance pay.

I talk to them several times and interviewed. Things where fine, I verified the salary and conditions before accepting and at the interview. I had not gone to the first round but told them I was busy. They called and asked me to come to another time they set up a couple of weeks later. They even said they would pay for the trip. ( I am still waiting for that.)

Anyway I checked on the other factors to make sure as well, such as severance again, national pension and health insurance, they indicated that everything was indeed going to be included as required by Korean Law.

Well to make it easy and for you to make your own decision, I would like to paste the contract they sent me, which when I asked them to include the above mentioned and to correct the amounts they refused and instead withdrew their offer.

I apologize for the poor formatting, but that is how it was sent to me, only worse, I actually deleted many blank spaces. I have been here for three years and just want people to know they should NOT sign something like this. None of the legal requirements are included, such as the severance and pension, etc. Not even to get into the fact that what the advertisement said was different and also what they told me on the phone and when I interviewed. Of course you can and take your chances as well. (They did indicate that you would be teaching 18 to 21 as well. Paid at the overtime rate of 15,000 won/hour)

BEWARE:

Subject: General Advice

Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 01:55:46 -0600

This experience in Korea, seems to be Universal, though I have met people who love it. The one thing that anyone entering into any other country needs to realize is that it is a totally different culture. Research it. The business to these people is super important.

I spent a year teaching in Seoul, and found that yeah, there are some unfair changes that may occur, but I never had anything happen without notice or discussion. THere was always a discussion and some compromise. When going to Korea, think about why you are doing it, for how long and how flexible you can be. Saying no is okay, just be sure it isn't your only answer. THe students can really be rewarding, and discipline isn't always something that parents can control, not to mention it isn't always mean. It is something that Korean parents like to think they have control over, but hey, you have to teach them. Just do it in a constructive manner.

It is probably one of the hardest experiences spending a year in another country, but it has some great rewards. Koreans can be very hospitable, but just watch your back and stick up for your self, and communicate with your employer. They aren't all bad. Research the school, the area and the people you will be working for. :) Good luck!

Subject: BIT ENGLISH SCHOOL

Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 01:55:02 -0500

Dear Jon,

Please do not include my name in any way, but I have been working for a new school (aug.2002) named, BIT ENGLISH SCHOOL. It's a hogwan in Nammok (dong-gu), Ulsan City, South Korea. Until recently my experience was okay, despite the consistently cold temperature in my school and apt. Even though my contract stated that I got 6 sick days, when it came down to actually needing to use them, all hell broke loose. I was ordered to come in to work regardless of the state of my health, and my director showed zero concern about my health in general. This really upset me as I am a human being - not a robot. He also showed no understanding or empathy about how I felt as a foreign teacher in a different culture on the opposite side of the world. I know for a fact that he is more concerned about his business, than the well-being of his foreign employee, who he supposedly needs so much. Unfortunately for me, I was his first ever foreign employee, and it clearly showed by the way he treated me. I have now quit my job and am returning to Canada because I refuse to work for someone who demonstrates such an obvious disregard for not only my feelings but for my rights (as outlined in my contract) as well. I honestly feel that I gave that school everything that I possibly could, time, effort, supplies. It's just too bad that after all of the "positive" feedback I received form not only parents and employees but the director himself as well, that it has all come down to this.

Thank you for your time, and I hope this email helps to deter someone who would have the misfortune of going through the same bull *$#* as I did.

yours truly,

Subject: Sarah Han International English School

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002

Dear Jon,

Okay where do I start? I have just come back from the Chun Chon Labor Office where I lodged a complaint against my previous employee, SARAH HAN INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH SCHOOL, myong - dong in Chun Chon, Kangwon province. I advise anyone being offered employment in this school to look elsewhere. She is a stupid little woman who lies and cheats and is physically abusive. Today she tried to push me out of a classroom in front of preschool children.

Of course it is all over severence pay and other labor standard act breaches. This is the second time I have been ripped off by a Korean hagwon owner ( Yes I know, I should have learnt the first time.) But at least the other guy was honest enough to let me know he was dodgy. This woman is meant to be a Christian, but sees no problem with repeatedly making promises she has no intention of keeping and then breaking her word.

It pains me greatly to be the sucker, as I have had so many wonderful experiences here, and I did actually enjoy teaching. My students were wonderful, well behaved, quick learners who made the teaching process rewarding. Many of my friends, including my husband, have had positive experiences here, and I know of at least three people who have re- signed. I guess the only way to safe guard yourself is to get everything in writing, get multiple copies of all agreements, never agree to anything verbally, READ THE KOREAN LABOR STANDARDS ACT BEFORE YOU SIGN A CONTRACT AND MAKE SURE YOUR CONTRACT COMPLIES, IF IT DOESN'T, DON'T SIGN!!!!!!!!

Obviously I can't stress this enough.

Thankyou for your web site, I wish I knew of it before...

Subject: High Society

Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 04:25:36 -0500

Hi Jon...please add this to your blacklist ASAP...I don't want anyone else getting screwed! The High Society hagwan in Iksan, Korea.....used to be called the World Children's English School but has recently changed names in hopes of dissipating a terrible reputation due to terrible management!!!

Please make sure this one gets posted! It's (the hagwan) worth missing !!!

thanks,

Subject: Megaton Schools Ulsan

Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 13:58:48 +0000

Stay away from this expanding franchise. They ride you like a slave and stick you in crummy apartments. The chubby owner can't speak English and can't pay on time and his girlfriend is very demanding and controlling. When you do get your pay, it's preceded by a condescending lecture about your poor performance. The worst part is that they constantly ask you to teach extra classes but never offer extra pay. And they almost always ask you at dinner parties in front of everyone. Also, you're not aloud to discipline the students in any way because they are rich kids...classes are always chaotic. Take my advice. All of the schools in their Ulsan chain are the same.

Subject: good hogwan!

Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002

My husband and I are very distressed to read about such horrific stories. We believe them because we've talked to a handful of harrassed teachers. I feel compelled to say that there are good hogwans and good directors and we're fortunate enough to be working for one, for those of you who are considering teaching. Prospective teachers have to be so cautious and, like Jon said, you need/MUST to talk to the foreigners presently working at the hogwan under consideration. Our director cares for us and takes good care of us. She has bestowed so many "gifts" on our family and has taken good care of us. The hogwan suffers from some typical cultural flaws, disorganization and uncleanliness, but nothing that we can't endure. We chalk it up to the "Korean way". When we request to turn up the heat, she cooperates (they tolerate cold better than we do) easily. And although she is a few days late paying our salary, when asked when she's going to pay it, she promises to do it within the day and she's good to her word.

Their ways are far from ours, but they are a country recovering from war and inner turmoil brought about from a history of suffering and corruption. We are sympathetic for those suffering from abuse; had we known read some of these stories prior to our arrival I doubt we would have come. I want those contemplating a stint in Korea to know that you must be cautious and guarded, but know that it's possible to find a very caring director who's running a reputable institute.

We are employed with Oh sung-sik English Club (it's a well known chain) and have not seen their name on the blacklist yet. The founder, Oh sung-sik, lived in the states for many years beforing establishing his chain. Perhaps he was influenced by the American way to run a business. I'm only guessing though.

Subject: Catholic University of Korea Songsim Campus Bucheon

Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 16:40:28

For those people looking for information on the Catholic University of Korea. I would not recommend working at Catholic University in Bucheon, Songsim campus. I have been in Korea for three years, and this has been the worse I have been treated. I have heard of a lot worse, but unless you are ready to engage in ass kissing activities and take all the crap, then dont go here. No respect is shown to the professors at all. No requests are considered. We are kicked off the tennis courts by other professors, yelled at by the security if we go out running and our request for a printer was refused. Just to name a few. It is painfully obvious that we are considered dirt.

The teacher who addressed these issues has been fired. He made no demands, just suggestions and concerns. So while the pay is better then some, and their has been no serious trouble for anyone who wishes to kiss ass. If you want a nice place to work, this is not it. One other thing, the director supposedly has a Ph.D. From Shelbourne University, If you do a little research on the place you will quickly discover it is one of those places you receive the spam from which offers degrees for about $969.00 to anyone. So ask yourself if you want to work for people like this? I dont, and will leave as soon as I find a new place to go.

Subject: United Language School in Sunhwa-Dong

Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002

Unfortunately with much regret I would like to submit only one of the three United Language School in Sunhwa-Dong for the black list. The director Hui Soo Jey, stole my last paycheck, then lied and fabricated lie after lie in order to gain support for not paying me. He didn't even pay the Korean teachers. I ended up quiting. But I do like Korea and Koreans. So I am sad that this man acted in this manner.

Steve

Subject: Oedae Language School

Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002

Dear Jon

I know of a school that really needs to be blacklisted. It is Oedae Language School in Daechi-dong, Seoul. I have just been fired from there, 3 months before completion of my contract. And I am the 7th consecutive teacher to be fired before their contracts are finished. Since this location opened up about 2 years ago they have fired EVERYONE of their teachers before the contracts are finshed. People need to warned to stay well clear of these assholes.

Subject: Black List Yes Schools

Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 09:43:26

When applying through the internet for a position, myself and my partner sent a photo.

The school replied and said they didn't hire 'black' teachers.

We replyed and told them about equal opportunities based on ability.

This is the reply (From Yes Schools):

Get over it. This is Korea, not New Zealand. Things don't work the same way here so if you can't deal with that, stay home.

Subject: Cherry Creek School in Suwon

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002

Avoid Cherry Creek School in Suwon.

They have had a high staff turnover. Some teachers have lasted one or two weeks.

Air tickets have been asked to be returned, and they don't pay wages in the first week as its called staff training. Video cameras watch you. Lots of unnecessary paper work. Some salaries are bad, and teachers are judged on outward appearances.Many hirings and firings!

Subject: Namseoul University in Seonghwan-eup, Choongnam Province

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002

Please post in your website.

Namseoul University in Seonghwan-eup, Choongnam Province is a place to avoid at all costs. The students are very unruly and often display potential violent behavior towards the teachers. The Korean professors who teach English think they are all highly intelligent people, because they have degrees in linguistics and phonetics. They have no idea how to use the language for anything, which really speaks for their level of intelligence and understanding of English usage.

The president of the university has questionable morals. You do not want to have anything to do with him or any other staff members.

The police in Seonghwan-eup are corrupt. If you become involved in a police matter, most likely it will be a very bad experience. This is probably true for most of the Choongnam Provincial Police.

These people are also very racist. They use racist words in public, which I believe speaks for what kind of people they really are.

If you take a posting at this school, you are placing yourself in great risk.

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 08:06:39 +0100 (BST)

Subject: YES YOUNGDO

School : YES YOUNGDO

Location: Pyeongchon Dong, Anyang City, Korea (and elsewhere)

Although Yes Youngdo English school offers an attractive holiday of 6 weeks, it is only a little comfort for all the unpaid report writing hours, abuse, and camera spying you are not aware of when you sign.

The managers Jonathan Hxx and BJ treat us like cattle and we are getting fired left right and centre, for little reason. We are all walking on egg shells here.

I know this school has become black listed, which doesn't surprise me. A new rule is brought into action every week. The latest is that compulsory blood tests are to be taken from every teacher once a month, and teachers have been told to "stop posting messages on Daves". The school viciously protects its reputation and will fire you at the drop of a hat, if they feel you are giving off a negative vibe.

Avoid this school at all costs. They will be wonderful until you sign. Don't make the same mistake as me.

THERE IS GROWING SUSPICION THAT THIS SCHOOL IS PAYING TO HAVE MESSAGES ON DAVE'S ESL FORUM REMOVED, THEREBY BYPASSING DISCOURAGEMENT FROM CURRENT TEACHERS AND DOING ALL IT CAN TO PRESERVE ITS IMAGE. BEWARE.

Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 05:54:23 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: Koje College, Geojedo, Gyeongsangnamdo

Dear Jon,

Please post this message on your website for the benefit of other potential victims at the school I used to teach at.

I am a former teacher at Koje College, in Geoje Island (South Gyeongsang Province) . I recently finished my contract there, and am now far away from there and feeling safe again. But I feel obligated to inform others about some recent incidents there.

The school has not only refused to pay my severance pay, but they are also telling me that I owe them money for staying in the dormitory, among other things (although housing is provided according to my contract as well as immigration sponsorship laws as well as Korean labor law). This school has made it very difficult for me to find additional work in Korea. The director is a habitual liar and a very disturbed individual. I would advise any prospective teacher to look elsewhere for a teaching position.

The director saw to it that my pay was withheld on more than one occasion during my stint at the school. He refused to recognize Korean labor law by not allowing me to quit my job there, despite my giving adequate notice, and despite having had another prospective teacher on hand to take my place, thereby causing problems for that teacher as well as myself. He attempted to have me evicted from the dormitory in which I was lodging, again blatantly disregarding Korean labor laws and immigration sponsorship laws which ensure that a school must provide accomodation along with proper remuneration for foreign hirelings, rather than tossing them out on the street when they are no longer held to be useful or instrumental for lucrative gain.

Therefore, be advised that Koje College is not a particularly comfortable or amenable locus in which to work, let alone one in which to function or develop as a professional EFL conversation instructor.

Not a nice place. Stay away from it.

Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002

Subject: Put Masan/Kimhae Hyundai Tranlation Acadamy....

Dear Jon,

Put MASAN/KIMHAE Hyundai translation hawgon on your black list.

To save readers time with all the woes I encountered I just want to say that no one got paid on time. What more do you need?

Thanks for providing this website..

Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 19:47:58 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: OXFORD Language Institute, Sasang Gu, Pusan

This is related to Oxford language Institute in Sasang Gu, Pusan near Home Plus Shopping center. The owners name is jane. She doesnt have a clue about owning or operating a Hogwan. I took that job in an emergency, I needed a job immediately. What a mistake. All I heard is yelling and screaming, children and teachers are freezing in the cold because she doesnt turn the heat on to save money in the coldest days even. She cocnstantly yells and screams and makes the teacher go and hand out papers in front of public schools to advertise. Anyway after having one too many altercations with her, I gave her a months notice to quit. I had a horrible experience, she hired an illegal worker after me and there was an illegal teacher working there for 3 months before me. She is simply nuts and she beats the crap out of little students after freeezing them in sub zero temperatures in the classroom. As a matter of fact I am thinking BOUT GOING THERE WITH A POLICE OFFICER AND TAKING HER TO COURT FOR HARRASMENT.

Alan

Date: Sept 2, 2002

Subject: EPIK

Hi, I just stumbled on your web sight and saw the Korea-bashing and needed to add to it. I was a 1997 victim of the EPIK program. I was lied to in the United States about the position and all of the details. The fact that the U.S. government allows people to recruit from Korean consulates is pretty sick. I was put in a shack in a small town and told to sleep with the lights and TV on because homeless people were used to climbing in the screenless windows every night. I also had no running water. My contract said I would be in a large city housed with another foreigner. I was supposed to be "team-teaching" in a junior highschool. The only problem was that not one teacher spoke English in the town. I was expected to teach at all four schools in the town and also teach the teachers English. When I tried to change the situation it got worse. I met with the supervisor and he lied to me and had hoped that stringing me along that I would capitulate. When he became physical one afternoon I knew I was in over my head. That was the day when he tried to get my passport to "make copies" for his office. I told him I would return after lunch with it and I never did. I strung him along for a few days by telephone trying to negotiate a new deal but he continued to put me off for another day. He kept promising to send me to a place called, "Boen" (maybe?) but it was always another day. I gave him one last chance and when he failed I told him I would be in his office on Monday (this was a Saturday) and I would give him my passport. I left Korea on Sunday and escaped to Japan and have been here for 5 years now. I have many more deatils about my time there but I must be going. If you are at all interested in anything more I would be happy to tell you. Thanks, Keith

Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002

Subject: MIT Language Institute, Boeun, Chungbuk.

Hi Jon

Another one for the list. MIT Language Institute formerly trading as SEL Language Institute in Boeun, Chungbuk. Our director fired us with five days notice with no reason and was really difficult about severence and air tickets. Also expected overtime without pay and spies on 'her' teachers. The Korean teachers beat and verbally abuse the students. Sick days and holidays were also forbidden.3 out of the past 4 sets of teachers have left early - AVOID -

Thanks

Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002

Subject: Cambridge Language School in Jeongeup

Dear Jon,

Avoid Cambridge Language School in Jeongeup. The director doesn't provide health insurance. I had to share a house with a convicted felon, and he wouldn't tell me what he went to prison "many times" for! The school has the worst behavior in the city. However, good materials are provided. AVOID.

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 06:02:27

Subject: Dong-gu Castle Language School in Taegu.

Just want to tell you about Dong-gu Castle Language School in Taegu. It's probably not the worst school on this list, but I had enough problems with them to strongly caution anyone who is considering working there.

Firstly, and not surprisingly, a very high turnover rate both in Korean and Foriegn teachers. I was there nine months, and when I left only one teacher had been there longer than me. The entire staff rotated several times. I can think of seven different foreign teachers in as many months, and god knows how many Korean teachers. At one point some kids went through three of four teachers in a month.

I received nothing the contract promised, with the exception of monthly payment which they were generally pretty good about. When I enquired about my health insurance I was told it was only for car accidents, and I had to pretend to be a Mr.. K**. Granted a lot of people in Korea are named Mr.. K**, but I still don't think I'd pass for one. I gave them plenty of notice for my vacation: three weeks to be precise. This is much more notice than they gave me before assigning me a new class, which was typically about five minutes before said class started. They of course told me I couldn't take the vacation specified in my contract. When I said that others teachers in the past had taken vacations, I was told the rules had changed. Then they told me I could go on vacation if I'd accept a pay cut. There's the matter of airfare and severance, but I'll get to that later. They didn't do this to me personally, but they did to another foreign teacher. They wrote up a new contract and then signed her name to it. They also told another foreign teacher to lie, and say she was my girlfriend if immigration came around.

When I'd been there about nine months they took me aside and said I'd taken too many sick days (4 out of 10 in 9 months, 2 months of which I had pneumonia and bronchitis). Then they asked me to quit, but said they wanted me to stay another month until they found a replacement. Later that week they tell me they've found a replacement, and to be out of my apartment in four days. Naturally no airfare or severance. Just to make things fun I'm broke, and there's nowhere to stay because it's the middle of the World Cup. Another Castle school did the same thing to one of their foreign teachers at nine months also.

Those are most of the facts that I can remember, although I've certainly forgotten things. The rest is just my opinion, which happened to be the same as a lot of other people who passed through. The director of the school Mrs.. KXXX is an unpleasant person to say the least. When a new teacher arrives you can almost set your watch by the amount of time it takes for them to go from cheerful and enthusiastic to the picture of pure misery. Koreans generally describe her at that point as "not nice." She is two faced. Sounds like a judgment, but it's the most accurate description I can think of. Had Korean witnesses from time to time. Hopefully you won't meet her. I could tell you about being the only foreign teacher there and being sick with pneumonia, and being told I wasn't working hard enough, but I think it would be redundant.

Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 01:48:16 -0400

Subject: (SLP) Sogang Language Program Institute, Hwajeong-Dong, Dukyang-Ku, koyang-city

I wanted to report on (SLP) Sogang Language Program Institute, Hwajeong-Dong, Dukyang-Ku, koyang-city.

I don't even know where to begin. They don't pay sick time nor training days properly. They invent bills that don't exist on your pay. At best they always pay severence more than 3 months late only after you beg for it on the phone. If they don't like you, the school won't pay you at all. Best of all, the president has been in jail for assaulting a teacher with whom he had a relationship.

I could go on. Lack of vacation pay (as is guaranteed in the contract), abusive treatment (screaming at teachers in front of students without cause), and a generally poor work environment with a constant turnover of korean and foreign teachers (as high as 5 teachers leaving in 4 days). And, as is normal, the management will make up anything on the phone to get you to come to the school, lying about your pay, living conditions and whatever you are interested in.

Even the contract they handed me once i arrived was different than the one they faxed me in at home (minor details like salary were "accidently" significantly lower).

Stay far away from this school.

The only benefit is that the other teachers you work with are exceptionally nice people. But of course, they won't be around for long.

normally mellow bob

Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 09:42:47 +0300

Subject: LCI Kids Club, Daegu (Susung-gu branch)

Hello, I am currently a teacher at LCI Kids Club, Daegu (Susung-gu branch). My relationship with Kids Club and my employers has been one of persistent frustration and abuse. My employers (the Kxxxx) not only commit tax fraud, but where threatening when confronted about the difference between the tax taken out of my paycheck and that which was written down on the official tax form. They only refunded part of my income tax after I gave them a friend's income tax receipt that he had received with his tax refund from another hagwon franchise. A month later most, but not all, of my 2001 income tax was returned with the exact same tax form I had given them, except my name instead of my friends was inserted. Thus, proving that they do not file taxes officially and had been pocketing my overcharged tax money. They do not provide me with medical insurance (although they did give me an old medical insurance policy form with no date and no official name on it when I first started), and when questioned they said that i shouldnt complain because I was actually benefiting from not ever having to pay for medical insurance. And I am now experiencing more difficulties with my employers regarding tickets home and travel dates.

I have read many mixed reviews of teachers experiences with the LCI kids club franchise on Dave's ESL, but nothing is mixed about my opinion of the LCI KIds Club Daegu,Susung-gu hagwon. AVOID it like the plague. Aside from the poor teaching materials, lack of english-speaking staff, excess paperwork and preparation required, the Kxxxx are abusive, swindlers who will try every trick in the book to make money off of you and keep you quiet. They are disrespectful, unaccommodating, and constantly act under the notion that you owe them (time, money) for your employment opportunity, I can provide more information if necessary, but I hope this at least provides a case for avoidance of the Kxxxx and a blacklist of their Daegu, Susung-gu hagwon. Thankyou very much,

Wed, 15 May 2002

Subject: Many Schools:

The following list is made up of institutes or schools who have had repeated complaints by native teachers for sundry reasons. In certain cases I am personally familiar with the mentioned organization but for the vast majority I am not. This list will not be posted as being unable to ascertain the veracity of the complaints firsthand, it would be unfair of me to publicly say the claims are true. This list is intended only to advise interested parties that the mentioned institutions bear an exceptionally close look before associating with them:

1) "LIKE"---everywhere. 2) Kyonggi University, 3) Kids college-"babysitting", 4) Wonderland-"babysitting, 5) Chinhae Foreign Language Institute, 6) Top schools-everywhere, 7) Choi Younhee Language School, 8) Global-many locations, 9) Namhae college, 11) Best, 12) Sisa, 13) Seattle Language Academy, 14) Mido---personal experience--avoid entirely. 15) Manpower-personal experience-avoid entirely, 16) Anam Language School, 17) Honam University, 18) ECC, EMI, Youngin Junior College, 20) Kyung?Hee University, 21) sorry about numeration but there are always changes and I just don't have the time to make corrections. YBM, 23) Yonsei University, 24) ODEAE-personal experience-bad everywhere from the word go, 25) World Vision, 26) MRI, 27) EWHA, 28) English World, 29) HBS consulting. 30) Woosung. 31) EMI- Ulsan, MRI., 32) Mr Kang, Dong?Hwan the director of the Sogang Language Program has been charged with the rape of a native speaker. Enough said?, 33) English Friends, 35) Global in Kwang Yang city dosen't pay severence, 36)?Woo Song is a lie, they are associated with a university but thats a scam. They want to work your Nixon off and make money. I am not knocking working your Nixon off and making?money but they need to be upfront with you. 37)?Pup-yong Global. By the way, the city of Puhang is considered by Koreans to be the armpit of their country. I went to look around before accepting a job. It is a pit in all ways and not worth a year of your life for 2-3 times the normal salary. I was recently upbraided for mentioning a chain name and not diferentiating between schools which are associated with that chain the point is folks, these affiliated schools use a chain name for advertising purposes. The affiiates can be good or rotten. Do not let the number of schools affiliated with a chain sway you. In fact, the larger the chain the more possibility of rotten apples in the company barrel. You are much more expendable too. Some of the chains are having their reputations tarnished by a few of their schools. Here are a few that I know are chains: Ding Ding Dang, BCM. Wonderland, CYLS, Global, World, Like, Kid's College, Yale, Pagoda, ECC, Little Campus, English 20-20, YBM, TOP. Write to me at any time for more info. Itta. 38) Kwak, 39)kukje, Remember, your contract in Korea isn't worth yesterdays trash. They will never respect your rights no matter what. You are a foreign devil and don't forget it. Your job in Korea depends on an intimate contact, an instinct that you and your employer will be compatible. Trust your gut feeling and get your bum on the net so that you are not "raped by a Hakwon director". Regretfully, some of my list was lost but here as always. Here are some additions: B&B Consulting, Kwanak ECC near Naksongdae station, EOS in Suwon, EMI in Ulsan, Choi Youn Hee Language School. Before you commit, send me your contract. I'm a friend. The Great Language Institute, Global Education and Culture Center. To the best of my knowledge ECO is also ODEAE. Avoid like the plague, nothing but bad news about these creatures. Also,Sungsa or Seo Taegu ECC. A new report is that Pagoda is now on the skids. EWHA is hiding behind the new name of Princeton Academy. They are bad news. Hawon University, EOS-Suwon, ELS-Taegu all have bad reports. Pretty depressing. I do know of good schools. Avoid S.O.T in Seoul , Howon University, Jxxx Kxxx in Shillim, Ja Sung in Uijongbu, Olympic Wonderland in Kangdong-gu, Yonsei University has a rotten rep. Wonderland in Ilsan. Latest word is to avoid ALL Wonderlands. United Language Schools, Day by Day Language Institute, Oregon Language Institute-Taegu, Acaemy of Foreign Languages Institute in Kimhae,Korea Education Media (KEM), English Friends Academy, Dongseo University in Pusan, YBM/SISA. I realize that there are repeats in this list but I don't edit it so the repeated ones will really get the readers attention. Taewoo phonglish in Sungsoo, Chonan University, Kyungpook National University in Taegu, Sisa in Kangnung, and sochon, Kyunghee university, Seoul Ed. Dev. Looks like a bad scene but there are a minority of reputable schools. I think that you should choose another country but the Korean women are really beautiful. Avoid Wondweland in Uijongbu,

Date: Tue, 14 May 2002

Subject: Global education and Culture center, Suwon

Hello Jon.

My name is Casey,and I would like you to add a school to your list.It is called Global education and Culture center.It is located in Suwon South Korea.The reason I want this school added is because of the following reasons.First the pays

I was promised 2,000,000\ before I arrived only to have them chamge it too 1,600,000 when I arrived.they also informed me that the pay day was on the 18th of every month for the prevouus month.so I would not be getting paid until the second month.This turned out to be not true it in fact was actually the third month.When i asked for an advance i was told that the school was having money problems.this was true because i was there for 6 months and never got paid on time or in full.There is also the problem with the apt.I was told that i would have my own place,once again when I arrived I was asked to live with my boss until the apt was ready.I lived with him and his family the whole time I was there.I never had any privacy and was treated like a 10 year old.If you want to enjoy your time in korea do not go and work for this school you will regreat it.

Date: Mon, 13 May 2002

Subject: Swaton Language School for Kids (franchise school)

Dear Jon,

Please post this message ASAP.

Swaton Language School for Kids is a franchise school in Korea. They are ran by Ixxxxxx and Jungxxx. So stay away from those names as well. Swaton in CheongJu should be avoided at all costs. This school has only been open for 5 months and they have already lost 4 teachers, one being Korean. I just pulled a midnight run because I (and the other teachers) were not paid the full salary. I was told this was because their business isn't doing that good right now. Is that my fault? I have a contract, but that doesn't matter to the owners. The owners thought that they would get rich quick. But for any business it takes time to make money. Furthermore, there is no health insurance and pension. They just decided to start taking out taxes this past month, and back taxed all of us. I know that this money isn't going to the proper place either.

My coworkers and I have been lied to, cheated to and treated with absolutly no respect. The 30 hours have turned into 60 hours with all the extra work. Everyday it's something new. Phone tests, open class with parents, come in on saturdays, monthly reports, weekly reports, daily reports and so much more. I really feel sorry for the Korean teachers there too. They are stuck there and have no choice to say no or do anything about the bad treatment.

I just want this to be posted to save other foreigners from a big headache and problems. No one deserves to be treated the way that myself and other teachers there are being treated.

The only good thing that I can say about the school is the housing is nice. I would rather live on the streets though than be treated the way that I had been treated.

Thank you for posting this message.

PS now I am back in Thailand working for my old boss and I am happy.

Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 22:57:38 +0900

Subject: Haba playschool of Jeju Island

Please place Haba playschool of Jeju Island on the blacklist.

The directors do not speak English but they certainly yell very loudly. The first months' pay from Haba was 10 days late. And now my second months pay has been refused. I went to Mr. Joxxx, the director of Haba, and asked for my salary which was already a week late. Instead of an explanation or apology for his tardiness he became very angry and said only, "Go home." Now, with the help of some Korean friends, I am fighting for my money.

Besides the money issue, the director and his wife are very unpleasant people to work for. And if that's not enough to dissuade you, how about teaching English to a one year old baby.

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 23:36:56 +0900

Subject: Jung Chul in the Kangnam Station district

Jon,

My names Aaron Cha and I want you to black list Jung Chul in the Kangnam Station district.The owner black listed me and cancelled my visa so I haven't been able to get a job since.I've suffered for over six months.

I quit Jung Cul because they didn't want to pay all my rent.My contract stated that housing would be covered by the Institute.

If you have any questions please Email me at Aaronxxxxxxx@Hotmail.com

Yours Truly,

Aaron Charpxxxxxxxx

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 16:07:12 +1300

Subject: JungChul Academy in Ilsan

HI, Just wanting to blacklist JungChul Academy in Ilsan. When I first began there everyone was very nice. However there is no curriculum in place, complaints from parents about everything under the sun, the boss had to be badgered to pay on time. You were always being told you were doing something wrong. The bosses could not speak english which is crap and the translator always translated things wrong. They were always trying to come up with some new bright idea like phone conversations, comments and trying to blame someone for complaints.

Subject: Cherry Creek School/Kids School Kwangmyung

Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2002

Hi Jon,

I just felt it was necessary to inform you about some of the goings on at this hogwon:

- altering of contracts;

- no payment of enforced over-time and sleepovers;

- half pay for "training" period (no training takes place - training period determined by them);

- seizing of plane tickets and sometimes passports;

- firing without due cause simply because they don't like you and failing to pay for work or return ticket home (this did not happen to me, but another employee);

- enforced accomodationbond and security deposit taken from salary without informing you of this (not in contract);

- firing of employees just before their contract is completed so as to avoid paying the bonus.

In addition there are the usual things such as no teaching program at all, no resources, continual lying (to you and parents), constant classroom observation, and taking gifts given by parents (in particular monet at Christmas and Chusok). They also frequently enter your accomodation... This place is bad news.

Thanks,

Darcie

And the response

Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002

This letter was posted and 95% of them are not true. How do I know? I used to work there.

For altering of contract, there was none. There were some changes made and they have always asked before things were decided.

No payment enforced? they had many different teachers and all of them had different contracts. The one who wrote this must have 40hpw contract and any over time was given for fact and is recorded and reported to the government. Yes, half payment was given but they have informed that it will be so for the durration of 1month for this person's contract. seizing of plane tickets? depending on how the wording goes I guess.. but yes hakwon kept the ticket but it was given back to the person when the person left and you can ask the teacher who did get his back. The person who wrote this didn't had the tickets kept by the hakwon. sezing of the passport was never done. only person the hakwon fired was an australian male who was hitting children. think of it, if your child was being hit, would you like to have that teacher kept at the class for your child? As for accomdationbond.. it's legal to keep a security deposit. Because the person who wrote this left before the contr! act was over and didn't say anything to the school and just disappealed to their own country, the children had to suffer.

And as for firing the employees.. the married couple who left without saying that they will end the contract.. is not considered firing. They left without any notification after 11month. As for the male from the couple, didn't wanted to work. Yes, there is no teaching program such as text books, but different resource to use. constant classroom obervations.. were notified to teachers that it will be done. taking gifts given by parents... money was never and as for gifts given, they shared with teachers and have told teachers who brought them in. entering accomodation is notified. When there is something to be fix that was said by the teacher and with the permittion(teacher had to give the key to hakwon personal) was only time when place was entered. And as for name Darcie, there was no such person named worked at this place. I am not saying that ! this place is god given place. but the person who wrote this is lying to their teeth. This is a fact from a real person who worked at CCS KwangMyung. There was a married couple who worked there. They were both loved by the children and the female teacher has put lots of effort into her children.

She even made class plans and all the things for her husband because he didn't want to teach but liked the pay. She was teaching preschool and husband didn't have his preschool class at the time. When hakwon asked him to teach the class after few months into their contract, they left without notification. They didn't pay for the bills. Hakwon didn't enforced international suit while I have suggested to do so. I have been getting less payment then those teachers, and had to do double the work. I know the details of what was going on until I have left that place. What I really like to point out is that, don't put up a such lying letters just to satify yourself. Because of! the persons like above, the teachers who actually work there is getting blamed. The people who have passed by that hakwon and still teaching there are great people. Now Darcie, you have wrote things of bad side that you have made up (most of them), why don't you put up a letter about you working out of the hakwon, teaching private? What about accepting money from one of the student's mom? How do I know this? that mother called me and asked me to accept money. I have told that person I will not and it will cost me my job, but she said that you did. She wasn't only one who said that. Anyhow. the wife did do great work. If any hakwon wants to hire this woman, she is great teacher but as for the husband? if you want a person who would put effort into it then you can hire him too. Wish she had chance to say bye to those children....

Thank you for reading my scrambled letter. Kandy

Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002

Subject: Kyungnam University, Masan

Dear Jon,

A warning to all job applicants:

I had an interview for an English teaching position at Kyungnam University, Masan on November 11th, 2001. On December 5th, 2001, I received the following email from the interviewer:

"This email is to notify you of an official offer of a teaching position here at Kyungnam University. I would appreciate it if you could give me an "official" response via email, and then I will submitt all of your paperwork to the hiring committee for the preperation of your contract and sponsorship."

I duly accepted the offer and my email was acknowledged as having been received.

Being confident as to the solidity of this message I declined two further interviews at other institutions and waited patiently for a contract to arrive, which I presumed would be nearer to my start date of March 1st, 2002.

On February 18th, I telephoned the University and was told that the man who had offered me the job was no longer in charge and had returned to the U.S. I was also told, "there is no job for you here". No apology was offered and no explanation as to why I had not been informed of this.

Yours sincerely

Martin

Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 20:32:51 +1100 (EST)

Subject: Sejong Hogwon in Yang Sun City 30 minutes from Busan

Dear Sir Madam,

I am a New Zealander and I have had quite a bad experience teaching English in Korea.And in particular I would like to list Sejong Hogwon in Yang Sun City 30 minets from Busan.At the start of {2001} was lied to right from the beginning back in NZ.I was told that I would get my own single private apartment.Just before I went there,I was asked if I would like to live at the directors apartment for two weeks as a cultural experience.

Well the cultural experience turned into three months during this time,I had to live with his whole family,his mother his wife and his children.I had no freedom privacy or individuality.During this time I frequently asked him to provide the promised apartment,which was also stipulated in my contract.After all this he said that there was an apartment.It was just down the road and he told me to take a look at it, and tell him what I thought.

The apartment was an absolute dump.It was a dirty little hut that had no bathroom no furniture or anything in it.The toliet was was a small shed about ten meters from the hut.It was a long drop toliet which had no flush system.It was dirty filthy and disgusting.So I told him my opinion about the hut etc.After this he told me that he couldn't afford a decent apartment and asked me if I could stay with his fairly for the rest of the contract.

I told him that I could not do what he wanted.After that I arranged a good cheap apartment through some other English teachers that I knew in the area.He did not agree to this.His excuse to me was that it was to far from the school.But I found out that he said that he did not want to invest that much money in a teacher.So I quit that job but he would not give me a letter of release until I paid him 500,000 won. I'm pretty sure it's illegal under Korean law to charge for a letter of release.

The director there has no excuses as his English is excellent.He spent five years in Australia during that time he achieved a university education.He understands the western cultural value system of privacy, feedom and individuality very well. But he couldn't care less about western people and their culture. And in my case he just wanted me to live with him and his family,so that he could manipulate control and monitor me,as well as geting free English lessons.On the outside he seems like a very nice caring and considerate man.But on the inside he is full of lies deviousness and dishonesty he couldn't care about you or your cultural values or making your stay in Korea a good experience.He only sees you as a business proposition and his aim is to save and make as much money as he can.

As far as my teaching experience at the school is concerned. My time table was continually changed and I was continually shunted into different classrooms in the school.So I was unable to get into a good teaching rythum or routine.I ended up sharing the computer room with one of the Korean computer teachers.I didn't like this as this room largely consisted of glass doors and windows were everybody could peer in.And often the other children would disturb the classes which I found extreamly frustrating and annoying.So be warned and beware do not work at Sejong Hogwon,Yang San city thirty minets from Busan.The director {owner} of the school is nothing but a lier.

Last but not least I went through an agent named sally k*** formally of Gold Valley.She said that if anything went wrong,that she would help and that she was my friend. I went to her for help during my time at the school.But she didn't help and when I quit I asked her for to help me get another job.Her excuses were that the company didn't help anyone that didn't finish their contract.And that her only responsibility was to introduce me to the school.And her last excuse was that she wouldn't help me because I had a British accent and the schools that she recruited for wanted a teacher with an American or Canadain accent.

Also she only gave the school a two month guarantee on the recruiting fee.So she made sure that if their were any problems she could just take her money and run.All this amounted to the fact that she washed her hands off me.I'm not sure who she works for now or if she is still in the teacher recuirting business.As the www.goldvalley.co.kr web site doesn't seem to exist anymore.But I would like to list her as well.

The reason I am telling you about my experiences of the above school and recruiting company is that recently.I was offered another job in Yang San City and I told the experience to the prospective school.She rang Sejong Hogwan and the director told more lies about me.So I am not putting up with these kind of lies any more.I'm going to put this school on as many Internet blacklists as I can. And I am going to register the school at all the English speaking embassies and consulates in Korea.Hope to hear from you soon.

Subject: Kid's Herald in Pyungchon, Anyang Korea

I would caution anyone who wants to work for Kid's Herald in Pyungchon, Anyang Korea. The Korean head teacher is a racist b*tch and she hates the sight of foreigners. You will get no respect and you will have no self esteem left after you finish working here. The Korean teachers constantly misunderstand what is being said and they bring their version of the info. to the boss who doesn't ask us foreigners about our version of what happened. The hate toward the foreign teachers just builds and builds. They are all racist and they hate working with foreigners. They never tell us anything in advance and threaten with lawsuits and so on.

Subject: DECEIT DISHONOUR AND DISAPPOINTMENT

Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 20:20:32 -0400

Dear Jon,

Through the telling of our experience, this message serves the purpose of warning people interested in teaching in Korean hogwans, or more specifically, of warning those foreign or Korean people interested in working at Andong Wonderland, Ltd.--one specific school under the national company of the greater Wonderland, one of the most significant and apparently reputable such businesses in the market.

The Wonderland Language Institutes, the first of which I believe was opened in 1994, have at last count 91 different schools located throughout Korea. While it is said that the company is of good standing, several recruitment agencies have admitted that some of these are not recommendable, and even some have been black-listed, so to speak. To these the name of ANDONG WONDERLAND should be added.

Our reason for stating is a harsh dissatisfaction with our employer, Mr. W*, under whom Nadia and I worked from November of 2000 to November of 2001.

Our main concern regards the severence pay which he has NEVER PAID, the total amount of which was around 2,600,00 won (approx. 3100 $can). We were told that this amount would be paid before we left, but on our last night, the date was pucched to the end of November. After that, it was pushed to the end of December--a LIE which he fabricated in order to protect his own-self image. Then, the date was pushed to January 15th, which has since passed. Note that we have called and written many times, but all to no avail.

This has angered us significantly. This money was crutial to our return; but not only that, it is our money, for which we had worked quite hard. This 3000-odd dollars is STOLEN MONEY PUT INTO THE BOSS'S POCKETS.

Not once have we been difficult, and often we have shown great tolerence before his INCOMPETENCE both as a employer and as a decent human being. THERE IS NO HONOUR BEHIND THIS MAN, Mr. W*.

Our RETURN TICKETS themselves took much obstinate demanding and verification on our part, as always the awaited date of departure was pushed beyond the completion of our contract. After a year in a foreign country, we did not need to experience such STRESS during a period which should have been joyous.

Also, Nadia, Kirsten (another teacher at the time) and myself had worked four months of intensive over-time. This, we had agreed upon when we were first warned about the prospect, was only supposed to last one month at the most--but as always LIES and FABRICATIONS were used as devices of MANIPULATION, playing with our naive trust in a man which supposedly--and should have--treated us with respect.

It also comes to mind that Mr. W* was taken into court, and found GUILTY of a certain affair which involved him not paying our old head-teacher.

In all, our experience does not paint a pretty picture of the man nor of the school. Thus: AVOID ANDONG WONDERLAND--it makes one think of a monkey-operation founded on deceit and falsities.

Still greater, we wish to call WONDERLAND LANGUAGE SCHOOLS into this as well, for not assuming the responsibility and initiative of verify schools under its name. What good is a bureaucracy is naught favorable comes of it, and no responsible leadership assumed?

To those who have read, we thank you for your interest.

Francois Ouellette

Nadia Robichaud

Subject: RE:YBM SISA YONG O SA /ECC FRANCHISE SCHOOL

Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002

Greetings Jon,

I submitted a warning sometime ago.You had advised me to be more clear. I will try this time.

I want to warn teachers, interested in working in Korea, as well as the recruiters out there about this language institute. The name is commonly known as ECC Eunpyung. It is in the northwest corner of the capital,Seoul. To be clear,I worked for this institute for 4 years. I had seen many teachers both Korean and Native English come ago in that time,as well as 4 academic directors(they are responsible for the performance of the teachers they hire). I have worked with competant directors and as of late some not so competant.

Over four years I gained much responsibility and what I thought was respect. I recruited teachers,trained and assured them that it was a good school. As long as I was there to help everyone. I became the senior teacher and also the assitant to the academic director.

I did not break my contract or leave because of ill treatment. In my time there I watched the changes in the overall ESL industry in Korea. Such as better pay,hours etc.

This ECC institute does not feel it necessary to change with the time.The owner has said and I quote "Teachers need and want my money".Not realizing that teachers don't need or want 'less' money for working more hours than other schools who pay more money for the same hours of work.Also the owner of the school does not take an active part in the business. Over four years of working there I can honestly say that she may visit the office 3 times a month. Not the way to run a school I think.

The academic director I worked closely with during my last contract did not take initiative in improving the work standards of the employees. Not until after I made it aware to the management that teachers would not perform and the quality of teaching would drop if the conditions didnt change. The director also lacked the ability to communicate to both Korean and Foreign Native teachers. Due to her own inabilities and lack of experience. Again the onus falls on the owner who is not interested in proper education but the inflation of her wallet.

The owner states that contract conditions cant change in the middle of a contract. They altered my contract at my request. Therefore the claim is a lie.They can and do change the conditions. They also do not adequately inform new teachers of the duties and responsibilities a teacher has to follow. Yet

another flaw in the academic directors inability to do her job.

Why did I stay so long if its such a bad school? I rose through the ranks there at a quick rate. Gaining extra responsibility all the time.I did the job as assistant director to better help the school and the staff to perform well. I left because I DRAW THE LINE AT HELPING STUPIDITY FLOURISH IN THE WORKPLACE. Especially when management is the source of the stupidity.

Final note. Just BEWARE of this institute. I worked closely with them for a long time trying to give them a good reputation. They did not learn. DO NOT WORK THERE.

Also, a teacher did quit before his contract was complete, he followed certain procedures to split amicably but they refused. So he didnt show work. They contacted and told him he was fired.he said fine. They went to immigration told them he fled. with no notice. untrue there were witnesses to the phone conversation between the teacher and academic teacher. The academic director tries to act tough,she tried with me as well,making idle threats. A lawsuit pending would not look good on an institutes record.Not to mention the defamation of a teacher from his or her employer.

And finally, myself and the teacher mentioned above quit,so did 2 korean teachers. all at the same time. all of us veteran teachers. with experience and the truth at how the institute is poorly managed. i say again DONT WORK for them

thank you,

Subject: Kids Herald School- Kangnam Campus

Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002

Dear Jon,

A word to the wise....if you are planning to make the move to Korea to teach English please beware of the following school and the following people. Kids Herald School- Kangnam Campus which is located in Ilwon-Dong. If you are taking the subway it is on the orange line and you get off at the Daecheong stop. The people running the school are Mr and Mrs. Song who are probably in my oppinion the most vile, snake like, cold and heartless people I have met in my lifetime. I came to Korea in September. The school had only been open for a few weeks when I started and at first all seemed fine. My first night there I went out with the other foreign teachers and they filled me in on the situation so far. In the first week of the school being open the Songs had fired a supervisor and a foreign teacher..I was a little shocked at this information. My first oppinion of the school was good and the Songs went out of their way for me to make sure I was happy and comfortable..but the act didn't last for long..it is just their way of sucking you in..they did it to all of the foreign teachers there. Oh I should also mention the Songs do not speak English which makes life very difficult if there are things you need to discuss.

From my experience in Korea this Kids Herald School is one of the only Hagwons with Korean English teachers working there. There are 4 Korean English teachers who work there..and frankly they can't even string an English sentence together most of the time..so you can imagine the quality of English the students are getting..I have no problem naming the Korean teachers there because if you decide to take a job there you should at least know who to avoid...first off there is W*****...she seems sweet at first but she is a vulture who is working hand in hand with the Songs...don't tell her anything or do anything outside of work with her...because she will tell the Songs everything you do and make up stories about you if she feels like it...she was hanging out with one of the foreign male teachers for awhile and when he didn't respond to her advances she went and told the Songs he had a collection of porn in his apartment and that his girlfriend was a prostitute...all because he wasn't interested in her..let me just say the Songs took the Korean teachers side and the foreign teacher had problems after that...if you are around W***** it is best to speak English very fast so she does not understand what you are saying..because like I mentioned every word you say gets back to the Songs through her.

Next there is C****..most of the male foreigners thinks she is a "hottie" but she is evil and vicious just like W*****..don't let the pretty face fool you..she's hand and hand with the Songs as well and will do anything in her power to screw over a foreign teacher..the other Korean English teachers at the school..will help you..but remember when it comes down to it..they will take the Korean teachers side everytime even if it means screwing you into the ground! The school having Korean English teachers causes more problems than I can explain because this will be a huge posting by the time I am finished anyway...the Korean English teachers were doing placement tests, level tests and they couldn't even speak proper English..so many many students suffered due to their poor judegment and lack of English ability which caused them to drop out of the school. If students leave the foreign teachers get in more trouble than you can imagine...if things go wrong it is definitly your fault as a foreigner..the Koreans make no mistakes!

When the foreign teachers suggested it would be best for them to take care of testing new students and placing students..we were pretty much laughed at...it is a sad fact that the Songs don't give a damn about the education that is being provided to their students and the quality of English..all they care about is the almighty won they are getting for each head that walks off the school bus. This is true of most Korean Hagwons..but I went to Korea because I love kids and care about them and wanted them to learn as much from me as possible...but you can throw that notion out the window when you start working for the Songs. When you walk through the door in the morning for your shift they want you to act like a clown...they expect you to wander through the school looking for them if they aren't around when you come into the school..just to say goodmorning..if you don't..they get really pissy about it..you aren't allowed to leave the school on your breaks...you'd think that would be your own time right?? WRONG...they own you..they even told us..you can't even blink without their permission...next you are NOT allowed to be sick..they tell you that..even though you are allowed sick days in your contract..they won't honor them...oh you can call in sick in the morning and they will act like it is ok..but a few hours later they will be at your apartment knocking on your door to drag you to school..no matter how sick you are..they don't care...they make up bs lines like..oh the parents are calling and complaining that you aren't at school..something they say often..which is not true..I know for a fact..if they are angry with you for something they won't tell you they are..they'll say a parent called in a complaint so you don't get upset with them..99% of the time..this is absolute crap..so don't fall for it..oh yeah..split shifts..and lots of them..also forget over time at this school..they are the only school I have encountered that pay you by the minute not the hour or the class..and even if you keep accurate records of how often you work..if they owe you overtime they will find a way to not pay you....they'll tell you your math is incorrect....or something to that effect. They also claim there is no weekend work involved in your contract with them..haha again BS! and any work you do on the weekend..you don't get paid for..and if you fail to show up..they'll come knocking at your door..it's a proven fact. The Songs are also completely disorganized and it shows in the daily opporations of the school..things are falling apart at the seams at that school...and they take none of the blame..it all rests on the foreign teachers shoulders...and they love to scream and yell at you in Korean..especially Mr Song..and then they get even more angry when you don't understand....they also like to check up on you all the time..forget having your own life...they have the security gaurds in the apartment building watching you..if they find out you are having a party..they'll show up unannounced...not a pleasent experience..they ask you many many questions and want to know indepth details of your life...don't tell them..they'll twist everything to screw you when they can...they've done it..only to the foreigners I should add..the Korean teachers can do whatever they like and live their lives...in their oppinion the foreigners are below them..we even had a supervisor tell us we were low class compaired to the Koreans...next there are the cameras...they watch your every move...when you teach you are always on the tv screens in their office..volume on...and they have no problems walking into your class and yelling at you in Korean in front of your students..we had this happen to one foreign teacher..and she was very embarrassed after the scene the Songs put on..

If that isn't enough information to keep you away from the school..I'll give you some more..they had a foreign teacher who started the day before I did...he was a great teacher and the students loved him..however the Songs did not..he had problems with another hagwon before he started at Kids Herald..and he needed to get a new alien registration card and get some visa information changed..the Songs said no problem..however they didn't get off their lazy asses to take care of it...and in October the laws changed in Korea stating you can not get work visas without a University degree...this teachers had TESOL and College...anyway..two of the other foreign teachers found resumes lying around and I found a visa application form for a new foreign teacher..and we didn't need any new teachers at the time...anyway to make a long story short..they had a teacher working illegally for them for 3 months..and than canned him because they were to lazy to get the proper information that was needed for him to work there..and then after he found out he was out of there..they had the nerve to ask him to work until the new foreign teacher arrived!!! but they wanted him out of his apartment?! and they withheld his pay...well he was smart and did a run...that was the middle of November 2001...things got much much worse at the school after that...they went through another supervisor...so that is 2 supervisors and 2 foreign teachers in the first 3 months of them being open...great for business huh? It got to the point where we all were very very miserable working there...only the students kept our spirits up..it was like working in a prison camp and we were the prisoners...eventually things just got to far out of hand and the Songs were screaming at us every minute of the day...I'm not the type of person who likes to be pushed around....and I just couldn't take it anymore...not even the great friends.wonderful students and fun life I had out of school could keep me there...in mid January of 02 I was called into the Songs office...they told me that I was in trouble for a trip I took the previous weekend to see a friend...how it was any of their business I can't figure out..anyway..they were super pissed off I went and they told me I was fired....I know seems hard to believe...that someone would get fired over that..but it's the honest to goodness truth..then they turned around and told me I owed them like 5 grand!! for what I have no idea...I didn't owe them a cent..they said I could stay in my apartment for the remainder of the week so I could get their money..haha..not a chance..within 10 hrs of being let go I was on a plane out of that country to never have to see the Songs again...I spoke with the 2 foreign teachers left when I got to my final desination outside of Korea..and I was told they were banned from talking to any of my students for fear of them actually telling the kids the truth why I was gone..one girl was physically removed from the kindergarten class where she was telling my students why I had left...the two remaining teachers were also given warnings after I left telling them they could be next...it's a sad place to work with insane bosses...it gets worse with each passing day...and it isn't worth the mental damage you'll do to yourself working there...there are many good schools in Korea...stay away from Kids Herald especially this one..they all have bad reputations...this school being the absolute worst..by the time I had left..they had gone through 3 foreign teachers and 3 supervisors..that should speak for itself....please if you have any respect for yourself..stay the hell away from the Songs and this school....

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 Subject: Beware of Prime Language School in Gumi, S. Korea.

Dear Jon:

I would like to tell you about Prime Language School in Gumi, S. Korea. The owner's name is XX Xxxxxxxxxx XX. He is an awful employer. He fires teachers at the 10th month of their 12 month contracts to avoid paying them severance pay, he often underpays, and sometimes he doesn't pay at all. He also hires illegal teachers and then doesn't pay or underpays them. His word is like the wind, always changing. This guy is the worst hogwan owner in the world. Please warn other teachers to be wary of working there.

Sincerely,

Mike

Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 Subject: ANOTHER FOREIGNER SCREWED BY A HAKWAN OWNER!

Jon,

Here's another story of getting screwed by a hakwan owner:

Eastern Language Academy 26B Sangmo-Dong Kumi, Korea 730-120 054-645-XXXX

I'm in my 10th month of my contract in a small mom and pop hakwan in a small town near Taegu. The place is a little more that one year old and at best is mediocre. I'm the only foreign teacher and they've had nearly a 100% turnover of Korean teachers since I've been here. The hakwan isn't doing too well, several hakwans have opened up this year including one just down the street--this one set up by the assistant mangager and 3 teachers who left and started thier own hakwan. Being a small town, the competition is pretty fierce! A lot of students have come and gone and the recrutiment rate for new students is pretty low.

I came into work today and out of the blue was informed that I have one month (as per our contract)to be out of my apartment. The reason I was given is that "20 students have quit because of me" and "the other teachers don't like me." He can't tell me when or who, just that 20 have quit! A hell of alot more than 20 students have quit recently. The other teachers don't even talk to me, and I don't talk to them, I wouldn't know if they don't like me or not! I know this place isn't doing too well, but of course since I'm the only foreigner, I'm to blame! There is virtually no communication between me and anyone here. I was informed about the winter change of schedule the night before it changed, last summer I was informed about the change by phone an hour before classes started!

The thing is, the hakwan isn't that great and nice shiny new hakwans have opened up nearby. This place after one year, looks like it's 5 years old with torn up furniture as well as the wallpaper hanging off the wall in shreds. I haven't enjoyed it much but I've hung in there since last March. The Chinese New Year holiday is in a month and according to our contract, he has to pay a bonus for this as well as

the fact that he's basically screwing out of my last month bonus pay and the plane ticket. More than US$2000.

He will probably be looking for another teacher soon, so beware of this place!

Jim Wentz

Kumi, Korea

Jan 2002

Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001

Subject: Suwon Wonderland

I was a supervisor here and let me tell you, did it suck! For your readers, I will make a list:

Unfair wages for hours worked. Including teaching, preparation time and phone english conversationm they work an average of 50-60 hours a week including Saturdays.

The boss changes the schedule daily Teachers work without breaks Mysterious deductions in one's wages Having to work with the boss's wife as your superior: conflict of interest if you disagree with her Constant reprimanding of teachers Broken promises by recruiter and owner of the institute Ethics of school and the means by which it is governed False accusations made against teachers without proof Severance pay held

These are the top ten issues that I am aware and was informed of by the owner. Any foreign teacher who makes the decision to go there will regret it!

Paul Chung Ex-supervisor of Suwon Wonderland

Thu, 18 Apr 2002

Hi Jon,

I would like you to please remove as soon as possible, the post about Mokpo Wonderland. Today the school finally paid the amount owing, and from what I've heard from the teachers there, the hogwon has improved. Your site made the management change, they have been unable since its posting to get new teachers. Thanks for all your help.

Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001

Hi Jon,

I worked for Mokpo Wonderland. This school fits the grey list. The place was a nightmare.

In the time I was there I was illegally confined for two months, as punishment. When I rebelled I was threatened, interrogated and told it was kindness they didn't fire me. In the time I was there, I wrote down over two pages of threats.

They almost caused a teacher to have a nervous breakdown, such was the atmosphere. Of the teachers that have worked a year, none have come back. The school refuses to pay me the last months salary owing.

Wonderland gets verbally abusive when asked to honor there commitment. Requesting help from head office goes no where, so one is left with one month worked for free. Although that is not the official story after waiting, writing and going through channels for three months. I don't want any other teacher to go through my experiences, this school belongs on the grey list.

The latest postings on eslcafe write of physical beatings, the place has gotten worse from when I worked there. Help prevent other teachers from seeing the increasing nightmare, thanks.

Maybe other former teachers have written you about Mokpo, they had the same nightmare. The schools website paints a pretty picture, but they used to offer 1.7 to start, its now 1.6, all to save money.

If you have any questions let me know, thanks. Please do not use my name, am unreasonable hopeful about getting that bit of salary.

Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 Dear Jon,

I grabbed a job quickly in Daejeon, and when I spoke to the supervisor she said I could work with older students. When I arrived the Director asked me if I knew how to teach preschoolers and I said no, I think they need Phonics, don't they? He said well just speak slowly to them. He had me work with Preschoolers for 2 months. They were 3 years old western age, and 5 in Korea. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Hawaii. I kept asking the Hagwon-SLP in Daejeon to get the book; One child, Two Languages by Tabor, it tells you how to teach English to preschoolers. Anyways I didn't like working with Preschoolers the Korean way of memorization for 8o minutes, it made the children have behavior problems. Mr. Nxxxx the director said I made a promise, and he would not let me work 3pm to 9 pm. He wouldn't listen to anything I had to say, he kept on budding in and yelling at me, really obnoxious behaivor. I own yu and you will do as I say!! I had to use my Conflict Resolution skills, and finally got him to listen, but of course he wouldn't go my way. He fired me.

Also all the teachers in the lounge were always talking negative. All the foreign teachers. It was not a healthy enviroment to work in. I have my CELTA from Yonsei University and I paid 2 million won for that. I wanted to work with older kids and I told the supervisor that by e-mail, before coming to Daejeon. She said yes.

Also I didn't have a classroom. I had to travel around carrying all my stuff; books etc. Then they let me use other teacher's classes and one male teacher would complain ; Did you take my stick?' Then another teacher thought my kids wrote the F word on his classroom 's desk. Nope ! We studied classroom management at the University of Hawaii and I know how to teach children discipline. I would black list SLP in Daejeon. I had no planning time either. I worked 9:30 am to 12:30 pm for Prschool, then again at 3 pm to 7: 30. Oh, and the pay was too low-1.5 million won.

All the foreign teachers tho were always complaining. Too negative of an atmosphere. Thanks, Jane XXXXXX. Oh, also they lost my degree and my CELTA letter so the University of Hawaii has to get it from California!!!!! Also the books they used; Hi Kids 1 etc. all had bad grammar in them. I used New Headway, because Hi Kids had no goals or objectives.

Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001

Dear Jon,

My apologies that this has taken so long, but I have been busy trying to get a new position in China. But here goes.

I worked in Korea for Washington Language school in 1999/2000. I had many problems at the school, but this is standard for working in Korea. Some are as follows:

1. Given no preparation time. Being told to teach this page as you walk to the class. I did ask for at least 5 minutes so I could prepare, but did not get it.

2. Having the timetable changed when you arrive, so you are not teaching then, but have to wait perhaps an hour.

3. Not given much help with finding the things for living in a foreign country. When the oil ran out, we were left pretty much to ourselves to find out how and where to buy more.

4. The original contract was for 8 months, as I said I could only work until 1/7/00, because of my return air ticket. This was then changed to 12/7/00. This was impossible for me, so I was then told that I did not finish my contract. Consequently, my pay was less and the severence pay was much less.

5. Even being asked to sign forms in Korean without them translating or explaining what it is. This I had great difficulty with and ended up only initialising it and not signing it. They did not seem to know the difference.

These are difficulties that we all might get in Korea, because of language and culture problems. However, I did not expect the following from Washington Language School.

After I left, I applied for a job in China, also teaching English. The people for the Chinese job requested some paper showing that I worked in Korea, like a reference. I asked for something from Washington Language School. This took a long time, but they agreed, provided I write it. So I did. Nothing fancy, just saying I worked there, the hours and the books used. (They were American books used in many schools in Korea.) I sent that to them and waited again. No response.

Using friends in Korea, I eventually found out that they refused to sign it unless I went personnally to Korea and asked for it. Then they would consider it. This was after they had already agreed to sign it. Hence I lost the job in China.

It was such a little thing for the director of Washington Language school to do. But she lied to me and would not do it. Why? I don't really know. My friends think it might have been because the person after me caused problems.

Yours sincerely,

This is what I posted on Dave's ESL cafe. There is a lot more to tell but I tried to keep it short. If you need more information please let me know. Thank you.

Avoid Taejon Little America at all costs!!

Posted By: Burnt

Date: Thursday, 20 September 2001

The head office/school is in Manyondong (sp) Taejon. The man who owns the Little America name is in charge of this school. He is the most manipulative, childish, and dishonest person I have ever come across. Besides my own experiences w/him (which included him throwing a chunk of papers at my head), many others have had horrible encounters w/him. One poor guy was there for three weeks before going to a different school. He lived in a cruddy basement apartment w/no heat and no lights in late winter/early spring. The boss kept 500 000 won from this guy for "bills"!! He is extremely tight w/money and will lie and cheat so he doesn't have to pay. This is getting too long so I won't go into the other examples.

This hagwon is in charge of recruiting for the other Little America schools. Many of the other Little America school owners are furious w/the boss because he promised to provide English teachers, training for the Korean teachers, supplies, etc., which he can't do. He is desperate for teachers right now and w/good reason - no one wants to work for him. The Korean teachers have an extremely high turnover rate. Many leave because they think he is crazy. The boss is notorious among other hagwons, English teachers, and Korean teachers.

He will not pay more than 1.9 million (which is what the teacher w/the most seniority is getting, so chances are 1.8 million). With so many other better paying jobs out there, please take care of yourself and don't go there!!

Mon, 10 Sep 2001

Dear Jon,

This is a warning to all teachers who have the desire to work in Pusan. Beware of Sajik Little Campus in Sajik 3-dong, Dongnae-gu 132-9, Pusan. I had worked there for approximately seven months. In that time, the other foreign teacher and I were paid on time about five times between us. No medical insurance was provided. We were afforded very good accomodation; however, the apartment was situated right next to the owners' apartment. We had no privacy. Our apartment was used as storage space for books and a baby grand piano. On more than one occasion my roommate awoke only to see one of the owners standing in our apartment.

The manager of the school was beyond incompetent. She pleaded ignorance about severance pay. She pretended to not know what it was. She didn't know what an E2 visa was (I didn't know if she was playing games or if she was really that ignorant to such things). The school asked me to stay for the remainder of the year. The school had made a good first impression, so I agreed to stay. One stipulation: I would need a few weeks off in the summer to take care of some family matters. I was assured that it would not be a problem. All visa work was to be taken care of while I was gone (it never happened). Upon my return to Korea, on a tourist visa, I was told that I no longer had a job at the institute. One of the managers met with me a gave me the story. He said that the school didn't know if I was returning. Hard to believe considering that I left my materials at the school, my clothing in the apartment, my money in the bank, had a return ticket and had sent them a copy of my degree to get another E2 visa. I told him what action I was going to take, but he tried to tell me that it was of no use to do such a thing. He then offered to pay for me stay at a very expensive hotel and that he had a much better job lined up for me. He was scared of something.

The next day, I went to the school to get my materials. It looked like the manager's world had turned upside down. She put on her best sad face. It was brought to my attention that she would let me work there for 90 days (the required notification before date of dismissal). After 90 days, I would then be released. At that point it would be less than one month short of a year (No severance pay). However, they had breached the contract in so many places, so many times that it would not make any difference. So many illegal doings have taken place.

Also... Beware of a foreigner who works for Little Campus and recruits for them, too. He has lied to other teachers to get them here. This chain of schools has also gained a poor reputation among immigration officials.

Hi again Jon,

Thanks you very much.

I forgot to mention a very vital piece of info though:

***There are two Little Campuses in Sajik dong. The one which I'm referring to is located between Pusan University of Education and the Pusan Sports Complex.***

I'll miss Pusan, too. It is a decent city... Russian sailors, cocky American soldiers, attractive ladies, etc etc etc. Take care.

For more info on Andong, click here.

ANDONG NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

ANDONG, KYOUNGSANBUK-DO

June 2001. Please beware of this Language Center. In the last year 7 teachers have left. and 4 more will be leaving in August, 2001, And 6 more will be leaving in February 2002.

The director has been changed 5 times in 3 years. There is no consistency with what they tell you in the interview and what happens. 1.7 mill and 20 hours sounds ok. But, you will be working 25 hours or more, and the overtime pay is paid months late, if at all.

The pay issue is a ballgame that no one can explain. You lose pay for all holidays and school festivals but are "paid" at the end of the semesters when you make up the time. Four teachers left in Winter 2000 because they got sick and tired of arguing with the office people who have no accounting training. All of them know they are still owed money.

Housing was 10 mins from campus. Now housing is 30 mins. from campus, if you drive, or a bus ride of 45 mins. after you walk 20 mins to the bus stop. Housing has gone from 15 py. to 8 py.

The directors all seem to have the same problem. They lie. The latest one is also violent. He struck a Korean staff member and when the foreign teachers protested, we were informed it was NOT our business. We found out he has a history of violence and has been sued in Korean courts at least once for hitting a female Korean professor causing injury so bad she was hospitalized. He denies this.

This was a wonderful university to work for in 1998. Things have gone from good to bad and are now on the slide to hell.

Thanks.

Dear Adam,

Following our phone discussion I have, as promised, detailed the problems I had with the director Mr XXXX, of Kwaks English Academy in Taegu. My main complaints and the reasons I took the initiative to leave Taegu were as follows.

I arrived on the Thursday ready to start work. As the teacher who was replacing me hadn't yet left there was no accommodation for me. For the first 2 nights I slept in Mr XXXX's daughter's bed while she slept on the couch. Following this, the next 2 nights Mr XXXX placed me in the Hong Kong Inn. Although the room itself was clean and tidy I did not realise I was being placed in cheap accommodation for prostitutes. In the night I was awoken by screaming women and shouting men outside my door. I believed the women to be prostitutes, as when I came home from work on the Saturday evening I was staying there I saw many prostitutes cards with pictures of exposed body parts on the front steps of the inn.

I felt very distressed and was unsure of Mr XXXX's intention for me, as he had also given me 2 videos to watch in my room, one of which was a sex video, with a naked woman on the cover, entitled `One Last Fling'. I also felt afraid with the shouting and screaming outside my door in the middle of the night. In the morning I went for a walk and met a Korean Dr. of English Literature, Dr XXX, Kyu-taek, who confirmed Mr XXXX had placed me in a cheap and dangerous place.

When I got back from my walk in the afternoon Mr XXXX was waiting to take me to my permanent accommodation around the corner in the main street. I told Mr XXXX that to place me in the inn was wrong and the reasons why. He wouldn't answer and instead took me to what was to be my `flat'. I was disgusted to find this was a small dark and dirty room, with the tiniest of spaces for cooking and washing I had ever seen. There were filthy duvets on the bed and rubbish in plastic bags in the cooking area. The previous occupant was a Canadian professor, I only knew by the name of Fred. He was concerned enough about the accommodation to tell me before hand to have a look at it, which I had tried to do when I had visited earlier in the afternoon. However, no one answered the door when I knocked and no one answered any of the other doors I tried on that floor. Fred also told me the room had cockroaches. I complained again to Mr XXXX about my room. He seemed surprised. When I repeated my disgust at my accommodation his reply was that good accommodation was expensive. At that point I decided I had had enough and was not prepared to live in a slum, or allow myself to be placed in any more unsafe situations. I told Mr XXX this and took my luggage out of the building to the main street, where I hailed a cab to take me to the airport. From Mr XXXX's gestures when the cab stopped for me it was apparent he was telling the cab driver to drive away without me. I became very anxious at that point and insisted the cab driver stay. I was even more distressed when I found Mr XXXX had followed me to the airport.

I tried to explain my predicament to airport officials, who didn't appear to understand English. With no one to immediately help me, and feeling threatened by Mr XXXX's presence, I decided the most immediate thing I could do was to leave the country, as I had a return air ticket to take me home. I do not consider I did the wrong thing in such an immediately threatening situation. I didn't know how to use the phones and couldn't find anyone to help me.

I must assume neither you nor William XX of The Chris International Korea Co. Ltd has had much dealing with Mr XXXX to allow me to be put in such a dangerous place as the inn and such an unhygienic living situation. Because I have been so traumatised by this situation I do not intend to return to Korea. I am also seeking all costs from Teach International associated with my travel and teaching materials I purchased that were recommended by your organisation. I have provided copies of the receipts of the same. Your urgent attention is required to this matter. No doubt you will carry out your own `independent' evaluation of the Hong Kong Inn and the proposed permanent accommodation I have described. I would like your assurance that no other person sent to Korea by your company will have to go through this again.

Yours sincerely,

June 5,2001

Dear Jon,

I am responding to the e-mail regarding K**,Mun Su,Director of Easy Foreign Language Institute in Chon-An.

I have known K**,M** ***** for 18 months,in fact ,he was the first Korean I met on my arrival in Korea. I am presently working at Mun Su's Easy Institute in Suwon City. I have been working at Easy for 5 months.

In all the time I have known Mun XX,I have had nothing but good dealings. He has been helpful,generous,understanding,and has been eager to help me with any questions or concerns I have had. I must say I was very surprised when I read the above mentioned e-mail on your "Grey List". I have had no indication whatsoever, of the man described therein.

In my opinion,the author of the slanderous e-mail has given only a one-sided,distorted version of the situation.It is also my opinion that the actual truth has been fogged by the author's desire to exact some sort of revenge.

I think, Jon, that all e-mails you post on your list should be dated and signed by the senders.It is my understanding that the e-mail I have been referring ,is about three years old.It has not been signed by the authors,which indicates to me that the authors are unwilling to stand behind the things they have said. It also casts doubt on the authenticity of the source of the e-mail itself.

In my opinion, that particular e-mail should be regarded as "sour grapes". (perhaps a reference number for each e-mail on your list would be helpful)

Thanks Jon for making available a forum for comments, warnings, advice etc. It serves a good purpose and I hope it continues. Please take into consideration what I have suggested.

Sincerely

And the response:

Subject: Response about Kim, Mun Su-EASY Ins. in Chon-An.

Thu, 07 Jun 2001

Dear Jon,

I'm an Korean-English teacher in Korea. I'd like to response about a bad story for Kim, Mun Su and EASY foreign language institute in Chon-An. Please post my e-mail as soon as you can. Thank you.

I was employed that time and worked with the teachers who posted a bad story on your site so that I know very well about my prior director, Kxxx Mxx Sxx as well as the teachers.

Their name are Kelly XXXXX and Konrad *. XXXXX.

They worked in Chon-An EASY Ins. for 8 months and then ran way all of sudden.

It's a few years ago (I think that it was 1996 ~ 1997), but I still remember when I picked them up at the airport with the director, Kxx Mxx XX and other stories about them.

I remember that Kelly and Konard , they were a couple. The director, Kim, Mun XX treated them with respect always and took care of them like real good friends. But the director, found out that they tutored elementary school students illegally. According to their contract, they can't work privately without the director's permission. I understand that most of foreign teachers in Korea, they came to our country for money.

But when Korean director invite foreign teachers, the director expect to earn enough money with foreign teachers' classes, that's why Korean directors provide airfare and accommodation and so on...... Anyway, the director, Kim, Mun Su didn't report to immigration office that Kelly and Konrad were working illegally in addition, he pretended not to know about that.

It's because the director understood that they came to Korea for money and understood that how difficult to make money in Canada. But the problem was that the teachers changed their behavior in their classes as not energetic , unprofessional and looked tired in front of their students.

This school is for adults basically so that most of students were University students, business people and some secondary school students. Because of their changed behavior , this school started to lose students. And during the school vacation, this school needs to open more classes as like other schools. So the director asked Kelly and Konrad to work for over-time but they refused to.

It was because they already had much enough private classes out of institute so that they couldn't even concentrated in their classes in this institute.

So the director couldn't stand them any longer and told them that they were not supposed to work privately. To get their formal answer, the director asked me to made an " Agreement". It was of course , to protect all, the students, and Kim, Mun XX. Because the teachers already affected this school's business and school students. A few days later, they showed up with a formal letter which is asking the director to pay their salaries in advance. So the director, gave them a whole month salaries without any suspicious. But very next day, we found out that they ran away without any notes. They might be afraid that they would be expelled if the director report to immigration office about their illegal work. Or after they signed "agreement", they were depressed because they can't make money as much as they made.

Who knows their mind!

I just would like to inform all other teachers that not to think only on the teachers's side. If the director, Kim, Mun XX was really violent and mean-spirited as they said, how come they both worked under this director for 8 months? As I remember Kim, Mun Su, he always treated teachers respectfully and he was very reasonable. But the teachers, Kelly and Konard were unprofessional and dishonest until at their last moment in this institute. To tell the truth, the director, Kim, Mun-XX actually, acted violently in front of teachers.

It was because a high school girl showed up with crying and said that the other foreign teacher, Greg abused her sexually. Her mother said that she would sue both him and the teacher, Greg. That's why the director acted violently in front of the teacher, Greg. I wish I could prove earlier about this school and my prior director, Kim, Mun XX.

Anyhow, we heard about it yesterday from my partner in Australia. I'll welcome any teachers' e-mail for asking about the director, Kim, Mun XX. Eddi

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Jon,

Please post this on the blacklist linked to your site.

This is a warning for any teachers thinking of going to Korea.

Do not work at Easy Foreign Language Institute in Ch*onan City. It is owned by BL (British Language) International. The director is Kxxx Mxx Sxx.

Korea can be a great place to visit. It's a beautiful country. The food and the people are fabulous. Korea might be a good place to teach English if you do a lot of research, including reading all "Grey Lists!" beforehand.

We (my wife and I) did our research. We thought we had an okay job at an okay institute in Ch'onan City. We didn't. The first 3 months were okay, the next 3 months were trying and the final 2 months were terrible. It is a poorly organized school with a maniacal director prone to violent mood swings. We left after many months of increasingly unreasonable behaviour on his part.

The catalyst for our departure was an "agreement" he was trying to force us to sign. (If any one is interested in obtaining a copy of this "agreement" we would be happy to oblige; we'll send it by snailmail; contact us through the "Grey List.") The "agreement" blamed us for all his business woes. Kxxx Mxxx XX is an incompetent businessman. He was having problems before we arrived. He does not advertise. He loses students because of his personality problems. He has also lost 5 teachers including us in the last year. Besides having violent mood swings he is also mean-spirited and greedy. He reneged on verbal and written agreements which we made in good faith.

The final straw was his violence towards one of our students. A number of students were upset because he reneged on contracts he made with them. They confronted him (something almost unheard of in Korea, but they did it with respect using all the proper higher forms of speech). He yelled at them and insulted them using the lowest form of speech until one student could no longer bear his rudeness and got up to leave. At this point the director tried to hit the student and only failed to do so because another student stopped him. Once we heard this we felt it would only be a matter of time before he tried to use physical violence to subdue us as well, so we left.

We didn't want to leave. We liked our students and had built a strong network of friends (Korean and foreign) in and around Ch*onan. We tried hard to complete our contract: we had only 4 months remaining, but Mr. Kxxxx made it impossible for us to teach.

He is interested in maintaining the school only for his own financial gain. His employees' and the students' interests are annoyances to which he pays lip service hoping no one will notice his lies and greediness. However, the students did notice and so did we. In the final 3 months that we were at Easy, most of our long-term students confided in us that they were not renewing their contracts. They also told us about the other teachers who were there before us and how they left after only 2 or 3 months of working at Easy. We managed to stay 8 months because there were two of us and together we were able to resist the madness of the situation.

We pity the poor solitary soul who has replaced us. Kxxx Mxxx XX and Easy Foreign Language Institute should be avoided if you want to have a positive experience in Korea.

5/21/01

Hi.

I'll keep this short.

Koreans and Westerners BEWARE!

I like Kumi, it's a decent little city in the center of Korea, but there are a couple hagwons here that deserve some negative attention, and one that deserves to be shut down.

One is the Choi Younhee Academy, which falls in line with most of the standard comments about "bad" hagwons. The owner cheats on teachers' hours, withholds money, changes her mind about what she tells people almost on a daily basis, et cetera. Some people make it through, others don't. Same old same old--caveat emptor. And yes, I have personal experience with this place. I survived, but I don't recommend it to others.

But there's a new place in town, an Ipshi hagwon named CERTO, and the owner Mr.XXXXX goes above and beyond the normal levels of horror stories, to foreigners and Koreans alike. He's a rare form of a$$#@le,like the

villian out of a political intrigue novel.

"My friend" worked for him, and within two months of being there saw 8 people fired, three without any pay and two more with only partial pay. One teacher was told to do a little shady paperwork, and if you live here you know how difficult it is for a young Korean to go against an elder. So this teacher did it, WITH THE BOSS' HELP, i.e. he had a hand in it, too--this was witnessed.

The boss never turned the papers in, but filed them away. When the employee finally decided s/he had had enough of his lies and mis-treatement (constant yelling and changing instructions and sexually harassing ALL female employees), the boss pulled out those illegal papers and sued the ex-employee for forgery and got the person charged as a con. The employee spent a night in jail and is facing some serious trouble. The witness was nullified, and almost jailed along with the other employee.

If you want to work in Kumi, fine, welcome, there're some good people here; but watch which place you choose. And if you're asked to work for the CERTO hagwon, run away screaming. This man is very literally dangerous.

thank you for the space

4/25/01

Hi Jon,

I want to know if I can add a school to your blacklist. I think that it is extremely necessary that this is done to prevent any further damage to English teacher's pride and lives.

The school's name is SISA Foreign Language Institute in Kangnung/Sokcho. The director's name is Jeong Sue Kyung. The school has been operating for the last 6 years. Only 1 teacher has actually finished his contract. His name is Ashley ----. Anyway, all the information that I am presenting is factual and I am not doing this mainly for personal gain, but for prevention. James XXXXXX was a teacher who was fired before I arrived. The director always seems to have a plan so that she can give a reason why she didn't give the bonus at the end. For example, Ashley finished his contract, but he never received his bonus because he missed a few days work and was late a few times. Anyway, in my case there were too many broken promises and it was chaos. I only stayed over a month and I only received have of my money and some of the bus money that I had to pay myself and she said that she would reinburse me on pay day. I would have to spend 15,000 won out of my own pocket to travel from Kangnung to Sokcho. I told her that I couldn't wait until pay day. Then she made me feel like a beggar and ask her almost everyday for bus fair. On top of that, I was working from 7:30am -8:30 at Kangnung school. Then travel on a bus from 9:15 - 10:15. Work at Sokcho from !0:30-3:00pm, then take a bus back to Kangnung and work from 5:30- 9:30pm. So I was basically on the go from 7:30am - 9:30pm.

I was supposed to have my own apartment as promised in my contract. I had to live with an alcoholic and I knew that it was impossible to get my own apartment. The student enrollment was also down so she also suggested that she would not be able to pay the salary in full this month (March 2001). There were so many head games. It was just crazy, this woman hates not only foreigners and wants to exploit them, but she wants to torture them. She is very cunning, and terrific liar; so, I would seriously avoid any contact with this woman. I was in shock not to find this school on the blacklist. I am sure that many teachers beofre me must have somethings to add.

4/21/01

Jon,

I read some of the stories at your blacklist site and have one that you can add to it. It has now been almost three years since my return from hell, but my recent reconstruction surgery to repair the damage I suffered there has caused me to reflect upon my experience. Please use my story but do not include my name or e-mail address.

Thanks

I taught at the JEL Language Institute in Tageu. Compared to some of the bosses I just read about, my boss was actually a very kind and compasionate man. His wife however who seemed to basically be the one in charged was very much in cool contrast to her husband. Our appartment was pretty good too. I suffered the usual minor foreign English teacher inconveniences such as lower pay and more work than my contract had promised and problems with things like health insurance, no sick days and being forced work when I was desperately ill, cold appartment etc. Life as an ESL teacher was nothing close to what I had been promised it would be. I watched my room mates get screwed in various capacities but I didn't really experience the true terror of the Korean experience until a freak accident left me with broken bones in my face. The first hospital that I went to said I probably had broken bones and a concusion but they sent me away because I couldn't pay for catscans. The second hospital that I went to the next day with more money said I was fine. I wasn't fine. I was in excrusiating pain, loosing blood and I knew I had bones broken in my face.

As the days went on I felt continually worse and my bosses forced me to work my regular hours and then some since one coworker had just recently taken off and the rest of us had to pick up the slack. The proverbial midnight run was my only option. My bosses found out about my impending departure and tried to force me to stay with every thinkable tactic from minimizing my problem (There's nothing wrong with you, you're just homesick.)to guilt (You should be ashamed of yourself. Think of all the Korean students who won't have a teacher.) to intimidation (We'll send the police to the airport if you try to leave.) Ultimately they told me one day that they were keeping me at school until I gave them my passport. I said, "Get comfy." I eventually convinced them that I didn't actually have enough money to leave and when they'd finished laughing they told me how lucky I was to have such wonderful bosses who were willing to let me stay and work at half my salary until I had enough money to leave.

Long story short. I went back to my appartment, packed what I could carry, took the next cab to the bus station, and stayed with an aquaintance in Seoul until I could get a flight home. I lost some money from a bank as well which I assume my boss got to first seeing that palm greasing is the Korean way. When I returned home an intern diagnosed me with multiple fractures before I even saw a catscan. Ultimately I was diagnosed with a tripple blow out fracture to my face and extensive nerve damage. The doctors said that I should have went blind in one eye.

I had a lot of positive experiences in my short time in South Korea. The average Korean person was very good to us and I loved my students. Compared to the conditions that some of my friends lived and worked under, I had it good. But when the chips were down and I was in trouble, there was no support and no alternative other than to keep my wits about me and get out of there the best way I could. It was unbelievably scary and difficult.

4/17/01

Here is a new school to add to the blacklist. It is YBM ECC Ilsan. There is no concept of the word compromise. When a teacher leaves before the contract is up they don't think how can we make it better for everyone. They think of ways to stick it to the new teacher such as making the new teacher pay 750,000 Won in deposit. Making the new teacher teach 165 units a month before they are able to get overtime. This is a very bad place to work. The owner is very controlling. He was upset when one of the previous teachers played Santa Claus for students at the karate institute that he attended. The Korean teachers are not allowed to socialize with the foreign teachers. The address is Jang-Hang Bldg 804, Madoo-Dong Ilsan.

Please think twice before you decide to work with this school. In the past four months three teachers have left before their contracts were due. Their record of keeping teachers is very poor. It is a fairly new school about three years old. In that time four teachers have left and they have had only about 12 teachers in that period of time. They have also fired two. One of the teachers only had a month left on her contract. Thank you for your time

4/8/01

Hi there. I just have yet another hogwan for your list. When we came to 21 C E.L.I. (21st Century English Language Institute, or ee-ship-ill-seg-gee-au-hog-wan in Korean) all was well. My husband and I were very happy with everything. We were treated well and got everything that was due to us in the contract. We started in June, 2000. By late June 2000, while trying to coax mosquitoes from their roosting spots in our living room ceiling light, we found a piece of paper written by the last teacher here. He had hidden it in hopes that we'd find it. We did. He warned us to leave, that things would be good at first, but rapidly turn downhill at the end. We stuck on. Needless to say, the mystery teacher was right. In mid-August we asked for Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving (USA) weekend off, which would have been in November. Since my husband and I are the only foreign teachers at this school, we thought it'd be fair to let them know extremely early, and hoped we'd get a response by the beginning of November. We didn't. Two days before Thanksgiving, we pressed again, and the director got angry and shut down the school for that Thursday, but we had to work on Friday. All fine and good. By this time we had been informed that we had to come to Friday morning "workshops" that we wouldn't get paid for.

About January 2001, he wanted everyone to be at work an hour before classes began, ostensibly to prepare, but with no payment. Our secretary left quickly. It was said that she had stomach pains, and was in the hospital, but for a month?!?! Finally, we pressured for the truth. She'd left with no warning.

In March, my husband was sick on a US Air Force base. He has bad asthma and was wheezing a lot, with a high fever. The doctor said we had to stay and wouldn't release him. This was on a Sunday night. I called the director's cohort and told him what was up, and that we couldn't leave for work tomorrow. Then he told us we literally weren't ALLOWED to get sick. When my husband's fever came down, we came back to our town and prepared for work for Tuesday. On Tuesday, they told Brian to stay home because he was still obviously sick. I was given a list of his classes I'd take over and all was well. Later that night, they tried to force me to stay for another class that wasn't on my schedule. I said no and walked out to get home to my husband. On payday for that month, they deducted 180,000 won for his being sick, even though he was in the emergency room on one day and the next day they told him to stay home. However, he's on a monthly salary, so he shouldn't have had that deducted. He hadn't had it deducted before when he had to take a day off. And the director tried to take more off because we hadn't apologized for being out.... What's this? In the USA, we never apologize, because if someone takes over your classes, they are paid for it. Not here, I guess. Then, we found out that the other teachers that helped

to cover his classes weren?t paid for it. Mr. Lxxxxx (the director) pocketed the cash, with no compensation to the Korean teachers who took over the extra classes. He's been late with paychecks, hasn't gotten us new medical cards and won't give us the time off specifically listed in the contracts.

In California, one teaching hour is one class if that class is up to sixty minutes but not over, in length. Here, they try to say that one teaching hour is the same as one hour OF teaching, i.e. your class was 50 minutes, so you only get 50 minutes of pay, not one hour's worth, regardless if you?re stuck at the school for the 10 minute long ?passing period.?.

We were brought to this school by HBS Consulting who had never even visited this institute before and didn't know if we'd have things like linens, dishes, etc You might be careful of HBS, as they don?t appear to ever check the school?s particular situations. It is a very large consulting service based in Seoul. It had been agreed that we'd teach mostly adults, with a couple of children's classes and no split schedules. Well, my husband has a split schedule and we both teach mostly children. He has no adult classes, and I have only one. Really, we aren't teachers, we're walking, talking billboards. That's it.

Korea is a beautiful country all year-round and the people are super-nice, but culturally we're very different. If you are very concerned with manners, don't come to Korea. What's polite in the USA isn't polite in Korea and is in fact very rude, usually. And yes, they do beat bad students with bamboo rods here. We're looking into making the midnight run here soon, and there are rumors of an American-owned institute near Pusan that takes in runaway teachers.... We'll write another letter as soon as something cemented. If we stick on at this school, we'll let you know if we get our severance pay or not, etc, etc, etc. Thanks!

Another dump to add to your list is YOUNG HOON KIM Language institute in Yong-in . ALL of us from Canada left unpaid, screamed at, threatened, thrown in a filthy room,,etc. ...by the director, Mr.Kxxxx. His Canadian associate Jeffrey Craig will lie saying that 'KIm is the greatest' because Craig is fat and lazy and wants more people to show up to take off some of his hours. My experience was horrendous and so was that of us all. STAY HOME> Do not even think about teaching in korea. I can't begin to tell you how much I know about this country. Paul/Toronto

Jon: 2/14/01

One more for your list: Palace Language Center in Inchon.

There's only one complaint, but it's an important one. This company refuses to pay severance.

DON'T BELIEVE the contract or anything they might say or write. It doesn't matter if you complete your contract or not, whether you stay one year or three ... they simply will not pay your year-end severance / bonus.

Now if you are prepared to work 8 hours a day on a terrible split schedule,

and then be cheated out of a month's pay; this might be a good place to work for you. But if you want to work for an honest employer and receive all the money you've earned (and believe me, you have earned it), than my words of advice are these: STAY AWAY!

1/25/01

Jon, I previously emailed regarding posting on your blacklist. You replied that I may submit the posting. Here it is. Please do not include my name.

CHUNGGYE & BUKBU WONDERLAND IN SEOUL - READ THIS FIRST

There is a disparity between what the contract provides and what the school actually provides to foreign teachers. Breach of contract/agreement is not the only deterrent to working at this hagwon. The same man owns both of these hagwons in Northern Seoul. Thus, the staff is somewhat interchangeable. One is in Kirum, Dobong/Tobong-Gu and the other is in Sanggye-Dong, Nowon-Gu. There are other Wonderlands in Seoul and Korea. This pertains specifically to the Wonderlands in Seoul owned by this man, Mr. Kxxxx. Here are only a few of the incidences I came across.

The manager lunged at a female foreign teacher after an argument. He was restrained and dragged away by another man. The rest of the school management witnessed this but never addressed it. The school likes to pay teachers in cash. This means that someone counts out pay for each employee in the school by hand in 10,000 Won notes (approximately equivalent to $10.00 bills). The school refuses to transfer it or deposit it in an account. Obviously, there is a margin for error. On more than 1 occasion a teacher was short-changed. The teacher was accused of miscounting. A foreign teacher returned to the United States for less than a week when her grandmother died. The school deducted the teacher's severance pay because the management did not consider it reasonable for her to stop teaching in order to attend the funeral. (Contract states teacher may leave for such an emergency.) When foreign teachers asked the school to service a broke appliance or problem with the apartment, the management left the apartment and keys unattended with strangers.

The supervisor and owner told foreign teachers they would not have their classes covered if they called in sick. The supervisor also did not believe teachers were sick/unable to teach and told them so; even when someone needed emergency dental treatment. There were shouting matches and calls made to teachers at home throughout the day asking them if there were actually sick. (Contract provides sick days.) More than 1 foreign teacher did not receive the severance and/or housing deposit and/or return plane ticket the school agreed to include as part of the contract/agreement. (Again, contract states amount of seve

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