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Wonder · Joined: 29 Jun 2003 Posts: 109

Just wondering if anyone else saw the front page of the China Post on Wednesday, Nov. 12?

There is a box ad in the top right-hand corner that features a picture of one Canadian teacher and one Finnish teacher, and it also has both of their passport numbers above the photos. The ad is placed by Spontaneous Language School and it says it has terminated the employ of both these teachers.

The ad also says you should not be deceived by them.

As a relative newbie to Taiwan (and Canadian), I find this a tad distressing. Anybody know what these teachers could have done to deserve such treatment? Does this kind of thing happen often?

Aristotle · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1388 Location: Taiwan

I caught the same ad on the back page of the Taipei Times.
If anyone can put me in contact with these two I would like to put together a libel suit against Spontaneous Language School for them.
A.
[email protected]

brian · Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 299

I recall that this happened once before, but I can�t recall whether it was the same school or not.

Last time, the teacher had done a runner and the school was basically asking people to contact the police if they saw her. At the time the school (whose number was also printed in the ad) incurred the wrath of many angry foreign teachers.

From memory, someone eventually spoke with the school about the matter and found out that they had published the information as they had understood that this was their responsibility as the visa sponsor, something about fulfilling government requirements and ensuring that they weren�t held legally responsible for the teacher who was no longer working for them. This notification may occur in Chinese newspapers all the time, but as this most recent one was in an English publication it came to our attention. In the best case scenario this was the intention of the school that placed this ad, and one can call their decision to place the ad misguided.

However the fact that they have mentioned that others (presumably other schools) not deal with these teachers, it certainly looks as if the ad was placed in spite. If so the school should be ashamed of themselves, and boycotted, but I am not so sure any liable has been committed.

The paper that accepted the paid advertisement should also be criticized for their willingness to accept the ad as it is. I realize that they are a commercial operation, but surely they have some moral obligation to ensure that the information contained within their publication doesn�t unfairly disadvantage anyone.

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

A few of my coworkers and I had a discussion about this ad today. I noticed with interest the line that went something like: we are not responsible for anything they did outside of the school. This line is highly suggestive (but short on specifics) of what may have occurred. If the ad is to be believed, it sounds like the teachers did something serious outside of working hours that may seriously damage the company's reputation. We can only speculate what that might have been. The school took out a front page ad as damage control, if the teachers are legitimately wrong. If the teachers are not guilty of something extremely serious such as child molestation or drug smuggling, then I side with Aristotle; it's clearly a smear campaign and quite libelous. If it's just a case of firing someone for the ususal reasons, it's way over the top and a disgustingly unethical attempt to destroy soemone's reputation and employment chances. Really, that would be taking things to a whole new low. I'm suspending my judgement until I find out more. But I really want to find out the rest of the story...

Wonder · Joined: 29 Jun 2003 Posts: 109

Front page ads of this nature, placed above the newspaper's banner, are very expensive and are highly effective. If nothing else, the ad has ruined the teachers and placed controversy on the school.

That being said, I suggest the school knew exactly what it was doing, especially when you consider the ad is rare. The Chinese don't spend that kind of money without serious consideration.

If you have seen the ad, you will notice the ad says "do not be deceived by them." If they are using the word in the proper definition, it could be that they lied about their qualifications. But considering they went as far as putting an ad in the paper, they could have took the school for some cash and then did a runner.

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

I also noticed the ad was still on the front page of today's edition.