Job Discussion Forums

[benedict]

Recently, I taught a group of two conversational classes at the Success school, U Bataar, Mongolia, for a week. One class was superb but the other had an extremely disruptive student in it, and I had to reprimand him a few times because the other students never stood a chance at talking.

The owner of the school was a woman by the name of Nyamsurin( Surin) and one of our teachers, Jay, stayed in a room in her apartment. On Wednesday morning, Jay told me in total misery that someone had just stolen $1000 from his room. When he had asked Surin about it, she had just shrugged and denied all knowledge of it. Yet, at lunch time, I heard her announce to Jay, that she could now afford the car she wanted. Alarm bells started to ring about the Success school!

Because I had begun to have doubts about Surin and was fearful of not getting my Exit visa later on, by of a test on Thursday, I told Surin that I no longer wished to apply for a $60 , two month visa extension. This also meant that I would not be able to teach the TOEFL class I had been booked for. Note, she was still all charm and smiles with me despite this.

The next morning on Friday, Surin told me that the group that I had taught all week had cancelled and she blamed me for losing her 'business'. Then, she totally turned on me. Gone went the pretty face, as she contorted her face into an ugly monster, as she then horribly abused and sneered at me for five minutes! I guess that, now that I wan't staying around anymore, I was no longer any use to her and she was just tossing me out like trash!

She refused to hand over my passport, even though I had seen it on her desk, and I had to go to my embassy to get it back, though I only received two thirds of my wages.

The schools in Mongolia are well known for using their connections to stop teachers getting an Exit visa (without it you will be fined $300 or worse), then exploiting and blackmailing them etc. The owner of the Success school Surin is typical of this (also she is linked to the Santis school) ,and she is an amoral, ruthless monster ! Beware!

STAY STAY AWAY FROM THE SUCCESS SCHOOL UB MONGOLIA !

[joeyc]

Hey everybody,

I am the "Jay" referred to in the story. My name is actually Joey and I've worked at Success School for 5 months in total.

Benedict, or "Nigel" as we knew him, gives a lopsided, libelous and unfair account of the events which transpired this June.

Let me begin by saying that I did have roughly 10,000 RMB stolen from me this summer. Where it happened is anyone's guess. I never told Nigel that I thought Nyamsuren was in anyway responsible. Furthermore, I know for a fact that Nyamsuren had been planning to buy a car for at least a year and that she had her own means. This is a pathetic attempt at assassinating the character of a woman who is by all accounts fair, trustworthy and an all around good person.

Nigel came to Success School to teach a group of Turkish middle school teachers. They quit Success School because Nigel treated them like the little children he is used to teaching in Cambodia and Vietnam, and not like adults. He failed to establish a good repoire from day one and was not capable of teaching a casual conversation class. His years getting his knuckles rapped by headmasters at private school in England have clearly had an effect on his development as a teacher.

The claims about Nyamsuren holding his passport hostage are patently false and libelous. Nigels passport, along with his salary for the three days of class he tought, was waiting at Success School for him to pick it up, but Nigel never showed up. Nigel bugged out after not showing up to collect his passport and called the British Embassy. Why he did this is anyone's guess.

Nigel recieved his full wages. I know this because I was entrusted with it personally. The wage for the conversation class was 10,000 Tugrik an hour. Nigel "taught" (more like haraunged his poor students) for 9 hours. He received 90,000 Tugrik. I was the one who gave him his passport and salary.

Nigel never liked Mongolia and complained about it from the day he got here. What is suprising is that Nigel, who seemed like an all around good guy, would treat someone so unfairly who only did good things for him. Nyamsuren didn't have to personally take his passport to the immigration office to register him, but she did. Nyamsuren didn't have to give him a second shot at teaching the Turkish students after their first class devolved into a shouting match, but she did.

Nigel - this is pathetic. Grow up and handle your problems face to face like a normal human being instead doing a midnight run the minute life gets difficult. Mongolia isn't that difficult of a country to live in!

I would urge anyone who is in UB to meet Nyamsuren and you will realize she is an extremely nice woman (almost to a fault), who only has good intentions for friends.