Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hotpants]

Got in on this a few days later, but what I wanted to say was that I think it's funny how on the one side we brandish and hoo-ha any hogwan owner who even so much as denies a teacher a lunchtime, but that at the same time, we find it unacceptable to expose any bad teachers.

I think that posting certain details such as whether the teacher 'frequented Japanese clubs' is arguably unrelated to the individuals ability to teach and therefore unnecessary, but that posting a teacher who 'fondles children', for example, could be important in trying to prevent potentially tragic situations in Korean schools. Among my teaching jobs, I have only ever once been asked for a reference, and yet, I was allowed to be unsupervised with very young children for most of my contracts. Imagine how easy it would be for any paedophile to enter this system. There's already been several high profile scandals in Thailand. It may only be a matter of time before it happens in Korea if it hasn't happened already.

I think there is a critical loophole in the English teaching system in that teachers are not vetted enough. There needs to be a way for employers to access potential serious abusers of the trust inherent in teaching contracts perhaps through a central database which should be located with immigration.

As someone else already pointed out, that there are 'only' a handful of teachers on the list compared to the number of slurs against school owners goes in teachers' favors.

[Milwaukiedave]

[dogbert]

[rocklee]

I think its fair to blacklist teachers but it has to be for a very very good reason (like physical or sexual abuse, mentally ill or something drastic).

It is the recruiter's responsibility to recruit people who are mentally sound and has the ability to teach in the first place. Candidates do the interviews, the tests and so on to get the job. Recruiters are getting big money for every teacher that they recruit. If the schools want to blame someone blame the recruiters for not doing their job.

At the same token, schools already blacklisted should be linked to the same list so that people can see both side of the story.

I've just changed school in the middle of my contract because my first school was so incompetent. I was also ripped off in the process. Sometimes, teachers are at the mercy of the recruiters and schools. Some teachers may go as far as doing midnight runs or fighting back due to situations unfavourable to them. These businesses don't care and life goes on because they are making so much money.

PS. Do a yahoo search of the word "incompetent" and check out the first search result, quite humurous!

[Milwaukiedave]

Ok, so they appearently haven't removed all the passport numbers. At this point I doubt they will.

[MinneasotaGirl]

So, I checked out the teacher blacklist, to find myself there. Funny, as I have never had the opportunity to teach in Korea yet, I am on a Korean English teacher blacklist.

The school which posted our names, was very sketchy and asked us to work without our visa for up to 5 weeks, possibly longer. I told them that we were very uncomfortable with this and we wanted to go to Japan right away, once we reached Korea, to obtain our E-2's and make everything legal. They told us they wouldn't be able to send us right away, because they needed teachers NOW. And the recruiters promised that we would be sent to get our visas eventually, the recruiter also said, it was no big deal to work without a visa for a few weeks, and that he had worked without a visa for a few months! I felt weird about the entire thing, and wondered why they needed teachers, so dang bad... someone had done a runner, I am sure of it. So, since we NEVER SIGNED A CONTRACT, I said sorry.... NO DEAL.

The recruiter then tried to blackmail us, by saying it was too late, they had already sent our documents to immigration, (the recruiter had our documents, but not signed contracts). They said that we would never work in Korea and they would blacklist us, unless we took the jobs. I asked how the %$#@ could they send our stuff to immigration without our confirmation and SIGNED contracts. The recruiter said that a signed contract made no difference, and that it was only between the director of the school and the employee. Additionally, they threatened us further by saying they had already purchased plane tickets (which we were unaware of,) and they would sue us for the compensation for them. I couldn't believe this, as I was under the impression that we were still in negotiations, and we NEVER committed to teaching there.

So, now they have blacklisted us as teachers, despite the fact that we never did anything wrong. What it comes down to it, I was not comfortable being asked to break the law. I knew that once we were in Korea, they could keep pushing back our dates to go and get our visas. We would have no security, as we would be working illegally, and they wouldn't even have to pay us.

Anyway, we found another job and an exceptional recruiter, who went to immigration, told our story and saw the FORGED CONTRACTS from the sketchy school. We are lucky, as immigration believed us, and everything, hopefully, has been sorted out. But, we have to wait to leave for another month and we have dealt with terrible stress and frustration.

I am not willing to state the name of school or recruiter, until I know that everything has been sorted out and we have our E-2 visas in our passports. I don't feel like dealing with anymore crap.

I just wanted to share my story, moral being, NEVER GIVE YOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS TO A RECRUITER. Apparently, contracts (signed or not) mean very little.

[Cheonmunka]

Minnessota, Do you still have someone there to help you with this? That website is contactable to get that name cleared.
Seems like the website is treading on glass in this case. Forged documents are quite serious.
In fact, I think I'm going to write a letter to the admin right now.

[own_king]

[Thumbnail Postermonkey]

I gotta agree with the king on this one - this website is nothing more than another in a long list of the racist, egocentric doings of a group of people in a country that has got to be one of the most racist in the modern world. I am not on the list and I highly doubt I'd be put on such a list - but if I ever find myself on any list on the Net like the one we're talking about, I'd find a way to sue.

Y'know, I was thinking - Japan and (egad!) Thailand is looking fairly good right about now - F2 or no F2.

[SpedEd]

I noticed the first agency (Gateway to Korea) I dealt with posted on there. Needless to say I was placed in a doozy of a school. Oh, how naive I was...

[antoniothegreat]

In my opinion, the basic idea they have here is great. I am tired of being labeled and judged because of two reasons: some Koreans are very paranoid and judgemental, and some English teachers help create the appearance that we are all perverts, money hungry, lazy basturds.

So, most of us here have nothing to hide, and do nothing create or maintain this bad image. In my opinion, maybe this is a start of koreans learning to check before they hire a teacher. This can help keep all the bad teachers that do enforce the negative image out of Korea.

Obviously maybe those people didn't deserve to be blacklisted, but maybe they did. and if that means 20 less psycho English teachers are in Korea, that is a lot less crazy stuff for Koreans to see and think we are all like that.

and of course, passport numbers is going a bit far, but i can see the reason, people might have similar names, or birthdays, but no one has the same PP number. heck, i think after three years my school still doesnt know my full name. out of the maybe 20 meetings and open classes where i was given a badge, they misspelled my name 15 times. If I were to blacklisted, I really doubt they could put my right name on there.

[bosintang]