Job Discussion Forums

[Joachim]

You know the type.......especially if you're in Asia....

There are some women like this, and some gay people, but they are usually older divorced heterosexual men who use ESL teaching as a means to getting the correct residence visa and pocket money, spend every spare moment at the girly bars, are completely rude and disrespecful to western women and will hit on any cute office staff, local teachers, even older students.... Are totally uninterested in making friends with, or hanging out with their colleagues

Have you had negative working experieces with these people also?

I remember, when I was Indonesia one man came ot join our team as the DOS after I had already been at the school for seven months. Within two weeks he'd been fired (and beleive me, NOBODY got fired from this school) for coming on to students, telling 14 year olds they were sexy, smoking in class and feeling up and propositioning a married, pregnant muslim local teacher.

And don't get me started on some of the misfits I came across in Thailand...

[gugelhupf]

I find it quite scary that that adults can teach EFL to classes of kids in developing countries without any kind of police check from their native land. In the UK I had to undergo police vetting just to deliver two lectures to a FE college class of 17 year olds. In SE Asia I could teach under-age girls 1-1 behind closed doors without any formality.

I'd urge overseas schools recruiting 1st job TESOL/CELTA graduates to request a police check from candidates. This is certainly available for UK applicants, although it does cost money - maybe course providers could organise this as part of the qualification?

[Guest]

I do not think there are as many here in China than in say, the Philippines - where is it very evident.

Funny I was only thinking about this today, as I do a lot of hanging around school gates (the local primary school - not my school) to see what the latest craze is with the kids so that I can buy it for the Orphans to take the next Sunday. If I were a man, I would have to think twice about hanging around the school!

I think a lot of the child sex goes on in India, the Philippines, and the very poor countries。

[nolefan]

as far as messing around with children, That type of behavior is definitely disgusting and immoral, but I don't think a criminal report would solve things at all. Most of these folks don't even look twice at your degree, much less what a report says about you.
I think better measures should be set up at schools to make sure this type of behavior does not occur. and if it does, then the local authorities should be apt to deal with it according to local laws....

On the other hands, if those guys are down here and messing with adults, then that is their own problem. My mom always said it takes two to tango and she is right.
besides the "wrong or right" arguments, anytime somebody is buying something, there will be somebody selling it.....end of the story

[foster]

I believe that any job that involves teaching of any aged children (0 to 1 should have criminal background checks.

[lajzar]

Last week I had the weird experience of a 12 year old girl coming on to me. I am really glad I won't be teaching her from next month.

[Stephen Jones]

Please don't dream of suggesting background checks.
They are simply a nightmarish layer of bureacracy that protect nobody but will cause immense hardship.
In the UK the police will not do a background check if you have not lived in the country for the whole three years (which pretty well covers most experienced EFL teachers). When I applied to an agency for supply work they insisted I got "antecendentes penales" from Spain -they did accept that the fact I still had bott hands and feet was sufficient proof I had not broken any laws in Saudi :) The woman at the Spanish Embassy told me they had recieves orders from Madrid not to process any more since the number of applications had gone up from half-a-dozen a year to half-a-dozen daily, and they suspected some kind of scam. Her comment was "Why should the Spanish authorities suffer because of the British governments hysteria">
Anti-terrorism brings a whole new slew of incoveniences. At present Canadian job seekers in KSA need a police clearnace from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, including a fingerprint check. The fingerprint check takes a minimum of five months accordiing to the RCMP, so people who have given up ther previous job suddenly find themselves unemployed with a six month wait and hungry children to feed.
Now there is no way that terrorism is countered by bankrupting Canadian EFL teachers and causing hardship to their families. Nor is children's safety enhanced by having tens of thousands of them roaming the streets because they have been told there is no schooling as the background check for their teachers was held up somewhere in New Dehli where the sub-contractor hired by the Government to do them had sent them off to, But under the guise of protecting children or countering terrorism any idiocy goes.

[Lynn]

Yes, I knew one of these guys. He thought he could add me to his bed notch.

I saw two of my male coleagues on a Saturday afternoon. I has planned to have a little "me time", but they invited me for drinks. I thought, "ah, what the hell. I shoould socialize more with my fellow ESL teachers." So, I went and we had a good time. Then we decided to go to one of the men's apartment's for coffee. Since I was enjoying myself and realized how good it felt to speak English at a regular speed, I went along, too.

We got there and continued our in depth discussion about life and ESL teaching, blah, blah, blah. One man, "Bob", touched the logo on my shorts. I said,"don't do that" quite directly. The other guy saw and shook his head at his friend. Well, the other guy went to the bathroom and Bob made his move on me.

I ran as fast as I could outa there until I lost my breath. I finally got to my car and drove home. I should have known better, because part of the discussion we had that night was Bob telling us how easily he can have one-night stands with Japanese women. Scary!

[ls650]

[Gordon]

This isn't teaching related, but I'm currently on holidays in the Philippines. I am shocked and disgusted at how many dirty old men are with girls here. It is a sex holiday around here for many of them. I thought Thailand was bad... One guy told me a sob story of how his "girlfriend" left him the other day. He is 68, she is 24. I hope she took some of his dough first.

[foster]

Must admit that the scene in Thailand of old, old men with young girls creaped me out as well. I hope no one takes money!! That sounds like prostitution.

I wish the men had more class and the women more common sense.

[James_T_Kirk]

Frankly, I could care less if some old divorced guy pays young Asian women for sex (assuming she is of legal age). What I really find amazing is that the only reason some of these guys travel halfway around the world for is just sex. For example, I went to Cambodia for a vacation in January. While in Phnom Penh, I met many "sex tourists" that hadn't visited Angkor Wat, the Royal Palace, the National Museum, etc. When they weren't off having sex, I guess they were either sleeping in or sitting around drinking beer. Uh, can't they sleep and drink at home without traveling halfway around the world? Listen, I enjoy sleeping and beer just as much as the next guy, but how can you visit Cambodia without visiting Angkor Wat!? Visiting the temples of Angkor was one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had, and these other guys totally missed it! What a waste.

[foster]

Two articles in the SCMP today...one about sex offenders being outted by the media and another about a ESL teacher up on sex charges.

I have no idea why people would travel to an exotic location to have sex with children or locals. I personal use travel to sightsee and chill out. If a vaction fling happens with someone of consenting age (preferable close to my own age), hey it happens. I don't go hunting for it.



http://world.scmp.com/worldnews/ZZZ0WUVATPD.html

Robert Enochs was starting to turn his life around last autumn. He had moved out of his car and in with his girlfriend, and they were engaged. He landed a job driving a tow truck.
Then the local paper in Muncie, Indiana, ran photographs of him and 62 other sex offenders on the front page.

The harassing telephone calls began. Within a few days, Mr Enochs, 33, lost his job. His fianc�e stayed with him, but the convicted child molester otherwise found himself a pariah in his community once more.

"When I saw my picture in the paper, I was more upset and mad, than anything else," said Mr Enochs, who served two years behind bars for molesting a relative and has been out of prison for a decade. "What happened in the past, leave in the past, don't bring it up."

At least five of the 63 Muncie-area men and women pictured in the Star Press on February 15 have lost their jobs, some of them because they had not revealed their past to their employers, said sheriff's deputy Steve Case.

What the newspaper did has divided Muncie, an industrial city of 66,000 people, and stirred debate among journalists.

Other papers in the country have run photos of sex offenders. But the Star Press may have gone further than most, devoting half of the front page of an edition to the photos. It also listed the offenders' crimes along with their home addresses.

The information on the 60 men and three women was drawn from Indiana's sex offender registry, established in 1994 to give people a way of learning whether neighbours, coaches and others in their midst are released rapists or child molesters. Those identified by the newspaper had been on the state registry for anywhere from a few months to nearly 10 years.

"I would like to see you publish this information at least once a month on the front page," one reader wrote. "Great job," said another.

Others were outraged. Some compared the photos with public stockades and "scarlet-letter" treatment. Another warned that printing the offenders' addresses could open them to retaliation.

"You paint the least offender with the stigma of the worst. You weaken relationships, you jeopardise trust and you can ruin people's lives," one letter writer said.

The newspaper's executive editor, Evan Miller, said the paper had realised that some of the 63 could suffer, but "we made a decision that the information was more valuable than the potential for fallout".


[size=18]Alleged paedophile teacher is extradited to the US
International police co-operation led to capture of suspect at Shenzhen border [/size]

http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZ9DUVATPD.html

PETER MICHAEL


An American teacher wanted on child sex charges and on the run from the FBI has been arrested by Hong Kong authorities and extradited to face trial. He was detained trying to cross the border into the mainland.
Tristian Scott Hamilton, 32, fled the US on July 3 after being charged with two counts of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.


"The only part I regret about this is not being there to see the look on this man's face in Hong Kong when he thought he was home free," said one US prosecutor involved with the case.

Authorities traced his whereabouts after discovering he had applied for a work visa to teach English on the mainland. Officials said he was captured at the border while trying to slip into Shenzhen.

It is understood the fugitive thought he could escape prosecution because of the lack of a formal extradition treaty between the US and the mainland.

Outlining the details of the case for the first time yesterday, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Department of Justice said Hamilton was arrested on January 15 under the Agreement for Surrender of Fugitive Offenders in force between the US and Hong Kong governments.

"When he appeared in court on January 16, he indicated his consent to return to the US," the spokeswoman said. "The US then sent us the formal request for surrender and Hamilton was committed by consent to custody to await the chief executive's decision on his surrender. The chief executive later ordered his surrender and he was surrendered on March 12 under the escort of US marshals."

At a news conference in the US last Friday, Carmen Adams, special agent in charge of the FBI's Birmingham field office, announced Hamilton's extradition and referred to the international co-operation which led to the capture of the alleged paedophile.

Birmingham police chief Annetta Nunn said: "They may leave the city limits. They may leave the state. But by us working together, we will be able to get them no matter where they may go."

Charles Singletary, a police officer and member of the FBI's violent crimes/fugitive taskforce, is credited with locating Hamilton.

Jefferson county district attorney David Barber said it took extra effort to extradite Hamilton.

Authorities believe the seriousness of the charges Hamilton is facing and co-operation among international law-enforcement agencies helped bring about the extradition. Interpol, the US Department of Justice's office of international affairs, and State Department and FBI attaches in Beijing and Hong Kong were involved.

Authorities revealed few details of Hamilton's case, saying only there was one victim. Police would not say if the child was male or female.

Hamilton could face up to life in prison if convicted.

[Slim Pickens]

X

[khmerhit]

Dear mr Slim,

So--- you want to go to Cambodia, eh? Fine decision.

Fly to Bangkok and then fly to Siem Reap to see Angkor. Alternatively, go overland by taxi ($15 or so) and see the splendid countryside.

Checkout Gordon sharpless Tales of Asia-- at www.talesofasia.com.

Better yet, forget the holiday, stay and teach! It's like China w/o the hassle.

all the very grooviest

khmerhit
cambodia