Korean Job Discussion Forums

[atomjuice2]

This school is looking for a teacher now. I used to work there about 3 years ago. The owner took my passport, refused to return it, never paid on time, made me and another teacher move to a new apartment on Christmas Eve, lied about everything. Her name is Mrs. Yu ( the director )...we used to call her Mrs. Yu-sless. Anyway, I waited a long time ( with detailed records and photos of the schools that were really bad in the past ) to warn people of this place. Do not work for ELC in Yangsan if you are looking for a school!! If you need more detailed information, I'd be more than happy to share my photos and all I know about the 'school'.

[Roch]

Please post the photos here.

Thanks!!

[atomjuice2]

How do I post a photo here?[/img]

[timetotravel]

i have two friends who worked there this year from sept until just after christmas....they were not paid on time and experienced all sorts of problems with this school.

they came home one day to the school changing the locks on their apartment and then the school wouldnt give them a release so they had to leave korea.

apparently this school has a lot of judgements against it but nothing is being done....

[bassexpander]

To post a photo here, you have to have it hosted on a service, such as www.photobucket.com , for example. Once you have uploaded an account to photobucket, you just have to copy the URL (address) and paste it here. Only when you paste it here, the address must start with [img] and end with [/img] , including the [].

You can get those by pressing the Img button above where you type your post. With photobucket, anyway, you can copy/paste the full URL line and [img] text as a complete line anyway -- gives you the option several ways, actually.

[ds_fan]

though im in my hagwon, cant say im overly pleased, but could be worse, thanks for posting that. i was offered a school which was blaclisted on daves forum and another site, the recruiter was saying they only choose the best schools, he provides a great service etc. i sent him the links and said no way was i working for them. Feel wick about those who end up being tricked into working for scumbags like that. If directors act like that it might be an idea to set fire to their hagwon about 5 minutes before you leave

[elliemk]

Let me add another name to the list of screwed over teachers at this school. Mine. I'm leaving Korea tomorrow. I'm being cheated out of $2,000 by this school. She's deducting for my visa run to Japan, apartment "management fees" of 100,000 Won per month for four months, the cost of moving me from Ulsan to Yangsan four months ago, etc. The school moved me to a smaller apartment last Wednesday. At that time they said they wanted to give me a going away party next Friday. (I was scheduled to leave late July because of family reasons).

She told me she would take the airfare out of my June paycheck. Thursday afternoon she comes in and says that I have to pay cash for the airfare because they wouldn't take her credit card. I said, (in an annoyed tone), "You told me you would take it out of my salary. I don't have enough money to pay the airfare now." She gets mad and walks out. I got upset and went outside with the vice-director. I told him it was wrong for her to do this. I wound up missing one class. I had missed a few other classes due to a variety of reasons (like my brother dying and me being upset - and also being sick - maybe five classes in the last four months).

He tells me to go home for the rest of the day, that the director is mad at me for missing this class. That night, they call me in for a meeting and give me a paper with all the things they are deducting, tell me I have to be out of my apartment by Sunday night (they extended it to Tuesday morning on Friday), and that I'm not to work on Friday.

There is a possibility they may give me 500,000 out of the 2,000,000 they owe me. I'll find out tomorrow morning. I'm praying they will.

Meanwhile, I feel sorry for anyone that takes this job. The whole time I was there (four months), they kept telling me the kids loved me, they were very happy with my work, etc., etc.

What goes around comes around. I hope to heck it comes back around to her soon.

[Imrahil]

[atomjuice2]

I handed her my passport for 'immigration processing'...she kept it for eight months...I never had somebody take my passport before and refuse to return it. I never even thought about it when I gave it to her. I usually assume the best about eveyone until proven otherwise. Needless to say, that is something you cannot assume here. Live and learn...I've never done that again.

[atomjuice2]

Actually, when she finally did return it, I was informed by immigration that I had to leave Korea because she put me out status...I went to China for two years...had a great experience there. They blamed me even though they were informed within 2 months ( before things got way out of hand ) that she had illegally taken my passport. Both the useless Korean staffed Canadian Embassy in Seoul and the Labour Board knew the situation ( as well as immigration ), but would take absolutely no action against her or the school.At the time, we figured she was hauling in about 40 000 000 won a month over her expenses....she had every office around her in her pocket, or in fear. That is all we ( the other foreign teacher ) could imagine.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Imrahil]

[ChinaBoy]

[PaperTiger]

[WoBW]

Never give your passport to your boss. They don't need it. If they insist they need it for 'immigration processing' that's BS. If they continue to insist, call their bluff by offering to go with them to immigration to do this 'processing', so that you can keep hold of your passport. Somehow I think that suddenly they will 'check' with immigration and find out that it isn't necessary after all.

On a slightly different note, when I started at my current school (transferring my visa from a hagwon) they asked for my original diploma. This was after I had shown the original to them at the interview and given them a copy. I simply said no.