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[MotherHen101]

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Ahil English School, South Korea, Ulsan, Dong-Gu, Nammok.
By:ANET

Ahil English School, South Korea, Ulsan, Dong-Gu, Nammok.
The following is written in the public interest of the ESL community. If I can spare at least one teacher the misery these people caused me, this effort will have been worthwhile.
For native English teachers, South Korea offers wonderful opportunities, especially in Seoul, Daegu and Busan. This is not the case with Ahil English School in Ulsan.
According to Immigration Law, English Academy owners have a duty to help their foreign teachers who get sick. There are provisions for this in the employment contracts of reputable Academies. Ahil�s contract is silent about this responsibility because the president will let you die on her premises. If you are hospitalized, Ahil will fire you while you are in the hospital. Ahil has been before Korean authorities for this, but powerful friends got them off.
According to Korean Labor laws, reputable employers wishing to dismiss an employee will give that employee proper notice, that is 30 days or payment in lieu of notice. Through a crooked system, Ahil bought the right to fire foreign teachers without any written warning or written notice.
Before I got involved, Ahil�s president was telling new teachers that foreigners had no right to enrollment in the pension and medical insurance plans.
The 10 vacation days allowed must be taken when the Academy closes. There is no other vacation time. Compare that with what reputable English Academies offer before you sign up.
Ahil has been known to shortchange foreign teachers on the last pay. You will have to get the balance owing through the Ulsan Labor Office.
Attached is a photo of Ahil. It�s the yellow building. In spite of its new bright yellow color, it is still the same old moldy, cockroach infested nest.
Contrary to what their ads would have you believe, it is not on the coast and there is no view of the sea. In fact, it is on a busy city street. This street is also a well traveled major bus route.
This is a highly industrial part of Ulsan and there is pollution from the factories and from the steady stream of industrial trucks barreling by, blowing their horns as early as 6:00 a.m. The closest beach, about a 12 minute bus ride away, is a rocky shore.
Accommodation at Ahil is on the 5th floor of the school. It�s right above heavy traffic and there is frequent construction in the neighborhood. Ahil�s accommodation is below standards relative to what reputable Academies offer.
Reputable Academies supply clean, bug free, well furnished apartments with real refrigerators.
Reputable Academies supply cell phones whereas Ahil does not. This may seem trivial, but bear in mind that, for foreigners, cell phones are expensive and hard to buy legally in Korea, yet they are the main means of communication. If you take the wrong bus, get lost and cannot understand anyone, you will soon understand the need for a cell phone. Your boss will get very irritated if you cannot be reached.
The ANONYMOUS recommendation on the Korean Green List is over 3 years old. I believed it and agreed to work at Ahil. I paid dearly for it. Trust me: these days at least, that Green List recommendation does not hold true. Think about it; the people playing it up on the Internet are recruiters working on commission.
Ahil has been posting impressive recommendations from the same 3 or 4 previous teachers for the last 4 years. Teachers who recruit stand to gain by promoting the Academy they recruit for. Ahil employs, on average, every 5 to 7 months and they ruthlessly pursue and silence anyone who reports a bad experience with them. In fact, this posting is considered by their friends in the Ulsan Administration criminal defamation because offenders are allowed to offend and victims have no right to protect the ESL community by publicly reporting the offenses. In the 3 miserable months I dealt with Ahil, I was one of 5 native teachers who worked there for just a few months and for whom Ahil was a bad experience. Before and after that, I worked in wonderful Academies.
Among the many native English teachers Ahil employs, there are always a few who can be bought and when paid enough money, they sell out other teachers.
Don�t be fooled by Ahil�s ads and dated recommendations.


Ahil English School, Korea, Ulsan, Dong-Gu, Nammok.
By:ANET

The following is posted in the public interest of the ESL community. I don't want this to happen to another teacher.
I had reservations about working at Ahil, but then I saw an ANONYMOUS recommendation on the Korean Green List. In the absence of any warning, I let this recommendation influence me. On June 15, 2007 I moved from a great Academy to Ahil.
What happened after that should never happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time.
From July 2 to July 17, while living and working at Ahil, I quickly became very sick. I complained about excruciating pain, but in the interest of the School, I continued to teach every day.
Due to communication problems, I could not get a hospital bed. So, between July 9 and July 16, I repeatedly asked Ahil's president, my guarantor, to get me hospitalized. She refused to help me. In those two weeks, I lost 9 kilograms (20 lbs).
On July 17, thanks to my necessary, but much condemned emotional outburst, I finally got a hospital bed. By then, I was on the verge of kidney failure, I had nerve and blood vessel damage in all my limbs, and I was severely anemic. Due to Ahil�s negligence, I was dying.
While I lay in the hospital, Ahil�s president secretly fired me without any communication, any warning or any notice. She ignored my 12-month contract and my commitment to get back to work as soon as possible.
On July 27, doctors diagnosed me with a potentially fatal auto-immune illness. I borrowed a cell phone and tried to reach Ahil�s president, but she was on vacation. The school was closed. Once diagnosed, I was immediately treated and, by the Grace of God, the illness was quickly thrown into remission.
Discharged from the hospital on August 3, I reported for work on August 6, medicated, but quite able to do my job. Ahil�s president advised that I had been fired, that she had signed a 12-month contract with my replacement and that I had better vacate the apartment by August 21 or else.
Until then, I was proud of my speedy recovery. She crushed my motivation.
In the days that followed, I produced a doctor's certificate, attesting that I was fit to work and live a normal life. It was ignored. By its wrongful dismissal, Ahil forced me to find another job and apartment.
I signed a contract with a new School on August 20. My new employer was told by Immigration to get from Ahil a Letter of Release. Ahil had no reason NOT to give this Release Letter since Ahil had fired me in July while I was in the hospital. This release letter was not addressed to me. It was not a termination notice.
Then, Ahil short paid my salary. I had to appeal to the Ulsan Labor Office. They were effective in getting me the money Ahil owed me, but they could not handle the wrongful dismissal or breach of contract. They referred me to the Busan Labor Relations Commission. The Commission�s agents jerked me around until I was out of time, and then told me the BLRC was set-up to help Koreans, not foreigners. They did acknowledge, however that Ahil�s brutal action was in fact, �unfair firing�, an illegal practice.
From September 2007 to April 2009, I worked every day, five days a week without any illness or time off. This was documented by Academy directors and health care professionals.
I tried for almost one year to resolve this dispute with Ahil privately, the Korean way. The president responded with threats, lies, defamation and slander.
Her threats led me to retain the services of a lawyer. In mid-July, he filed a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal and infliction of emotional distress.
In October, 2008, the Ulsan Criminal Prosecutor�s office called me to a meeting on the pretense that they had questions about a complaint I had filed against Ahil�s bully who had publicly defamed me. When I arrived, Ahil�s president and an interpreter from her husband�s employer were present. For hours, they and the Prosecutor discussed the civil lawsuit. I refused to discuss anything other than the criminal charge, because the criminal prosecutor's office is not the appropriate forum to argue civil lawsuits. They pressured me to settle everything in the absence of my lawyer. Ahil�s president wanted money from me. I suggested they go through my lawyer since I didn't know Korean laws and remedies. They became very aggressive. They made me sign a document written in Korean. The interpreter never reviewed it but insisted I sign it. It�s easy to say, �Never sign something you cannot read,� at the best of times. However, in this Prosecutor�s office, I was alone, I was not free to refuse to sign. Knowing they could have had me jailed, fired or deported, I signed while writing above my signature, �I cannot read Korean�.
In December, 2008, at the request of the Ulsan Prosecutor's office, the Dong-Gu Police Department called me to a meeting. When I arrived, Ahil�s president and the same interpreter from her husband�s employer attended. The entire line of questioning related to my civil lawsuit against Ahil. The director made several false comments. When asked if I agreed with her, I said "the defendant is not being truthful". I answered all other questions with, "No comment, the matter is ongoing in civil court". At the end, the police officer concluded there was no hope for a settlement between the parties in the civil lawsuit. A few days later, the Prosecutor�s office sent me back to the police station for fingerprinting. My refusal to drop the civil suit and pay off Ahil, would lead to the fabrication of a retaliatory criminal charge against me.
Later, the fabricated evidence was rejected and I was acquitted.
I reported the meddling of the criminal Prosecutor's office in the civil lawsuit to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in Seoul. The Commission simply passed the complaints on to the Supreme Prosecutor who advised the Ulsan Prosecutor's office. The Ulsan Prosecutor�s office retaliated by sending false statements passed off as mine to Ahil's lawyer. This interference was highly prejudicial to my civil case.
In mid-February 2009, I received the copy of a damaging document written to the Court by Ahil's lawyer claiming I had said things I have NEVER SAID. The lies were from the statement written by the criminal prosecutor passed off as mine. I got a copy of this statement and, with the help of an independent translator, I wrote a rebuttal of the prosecutor�s lies. I submitted this rebuttal to the Court. I believe it was ignored. I believe the evidence from medical experts was also ignored.
My civil lawsuit was a strong case. In violation of Korean Immigration Law, Ahil�s president, my guarantor, denied me prompt access to medical care for a life threatening illness. When I finally did get to the hospital Ahil�s president, in violation of Korean civil law, fired me without any communication, without the agreed warning, without any written notice of termination, in total disregard for our 12-month agreement.
The defense lawyer�s case was based on the facts that I am over 50, that I got sick, and that I worship God, not men, therefore I was �not worth protecting�. Notwithstanding Ahil�s unlawful behavior, that defense was well accepted by Ulsan authorities. When I was cross-examined, the defense and the Court wasted a great deal of time on my refusal to buy into the Ulsan practice of forced match-making and arranged marriages with young girls from underdeveloped countries. They were insulted when I stated, �I came here to teach�.
Then, having played up the bias against me, Ahil�s lawyer claimed that I had agreed to be fired when I transmitted the release letter from one School to the other for delivery to Immigration. The defense lawyer claimed that was in fact the termination notice. The people of the Court were too ignorant of the ESL industry to know the difference between a Notice of Termination and a Release Letter.
I couldn�t read the Civil Court�s decision. My lawyer strongly advised that I appeal it. A Korean woman from the Court told me that a Court Clerk was paid to write the judgment in Ahil�s favor, that judges merely validated it. I believe this because I know that bribery is rampant in Ulsan.
Shortly after I told everyone that I would appeal this decision from hell, my lawyer sent me an email warning that the Prosecutor�s office was filing a second fabricated indictment against me with the Criminal Court. I never saw this indictment. I knew that, if it existed, I would never get a fair trial in Korea. I knew that an appeal of the civil suit in that biased environment would be a waste of funds.
On March 31, 2009, my doctor advised that prolonged stress from my dispute with Ahil could cause me to relapse. It was time to go where I could get health care at a lower price, in a cleaner environment, in a language I could understand. I had extended my contract with a good Academy beyond its 12-months but I didn�t HAVE to be there. Staying just because the dispute was unfinished was not reason enough, especially since the ESL community didn�t care. So, I stopped caring. Fed up with Ulsan corruption and pollution, I left the country.
In God�s plan, we each have our mission. Mine was to give Ulsan the message that anyone can quickly recover from a serious illness to become a productive and reliable employee. By the Grace of God, I proved it twice. Sudden serious illness is no grounds for instant dismissal. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
On April 6, my lawyer advised me that I was being charged with criminal defamation for agreeing with an internet posting and asking teachers to contact me privately for details. The lawyers from both parties said there was no precedent. They were hoping to set one on my back, at my expense. I had better things to do.
Had Ahil gotten me prompt medical care when I asked for it, now I would not have permanent damage to my kidneys, my right foot and my left hand. In spite of Ahil and their powerful friends, I feel fine and I lead a normal life. Their ruthless determination to destroy an employee�s life because she spent 10 working days in the hospital is unjustified.
With the support of powerful friends, Ahil bought, for the Ulsan workplace,
1.the right to fire employees over a sudden illness without warning or written notice,
2.the right to fire employees for being in the hospital, and
3.the right to falsely incriminate foreign teachers who try to spare other foreign teachers the hell they experienced at the hands of ruthless employers.
The above is not typically Korean. It�s not a cultural problem. It�s an Ulsan workplace problem. You may face it if you get sick while working at Ahil English School in Nammok.

[afsjesse]

Dang...... Good for you for getting out of that mess and for sticking up for your rights. Good luck and stay healthy!

[meangradin]

Some quick questions: Where is NammoK? Is it close to Bangeojin? Did you attend Shin-Min Church?

I have lived in Ulsan for many years and can honestly say I do not know what you mean when you refer to this:

[losing_touch]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[

[Liezl]

Stacey Caldwell (January 14th, 2013))

I've been working at Ahil English School (Ulsan) for a year and recently agreed to sign a second contract. Ahil is not in the city, but it is just a bus ride away. Everything we need is in walking distance. Restaurants, take out, coffee shops, grocery stores, hair dressers, etc� are all less than a 4 minute walk away. The bus stop is across the road and it is easy to get a taxi from this street.
The English teachers are provided with accommodation on the top floor of the school. The accommodation is average. We are provided with everything we need. We all have fully furnished rooms and share a laundry. There are occasional maintenance problems, but once the problem is reported, the staff always contacts the repairman quickly. The best thing is that we never need to brave the cold winter mornings to get to school. Work is just a few floors down.
Our boss and secretary are always helpful with every situation. Be it personal or business. Whether I am looking for a dry cleaner, restaurant, website, taxi, a doctor, etc� They always offer help. There is a lovely relationship amongst all the staff here.

[Liezl]

Liezl Snyman (January 14th, 2013)

I am a teacher from South Africa working at Ahil English Language School. To my experience Ahil school has only treated me well.
I and the rest of the foreign teachers of Ahil enjoy teaching here. Overall, the school is good. The director and the Korean teachers are very helpful. Communication is no problem. Whenever we need some help, the director is always willing to do her utmost to see to our needs. (From arrival, throughout contracts, till the day of departure.)
I feel, after working at Ahil for over 3 years, I have the right to say that future teachers wanting to teach in Ulsan should definitely consider teaching here. You will enjoy teaching the students here.
The structure and curriculum of the school is good. We have lots of students who come here to study English. They come here and they stay here for many years because they are happy to study here. Happy management make happy teachers, happy teachers make happy students, happy students make happy parents and this is exactly what we do at Ahil.

[Liezl]

Benjamin Cain (January 14th, 2013)
Hi, my name is Benjamin Cain, and I�m currently working as a teacher in Ahil school of English. The management here is professional, involved and friendly. Our assistant director even took us to a theme park one weekend when she thought we needed it. They have constantly supported the foreigner teachers on both a professional and personal level, sometimes even acting against the school�s best interests. For example, a former teacher missed his connecting flight from Ulsan to Seoul. Our director and her husband drove him to Seoul � a five hour drive- out of the goodness of their hearts. The teachers, too, are supportive and friendly.
Another of the school�s great virtues is stability. Many Haegwons are transient, opening and closing without warning. Ahil has been around for twenty years, and is solid enough to last for another twenty. You will not be left stranded if you come to this school.
The school provides you with an apartment at the top of the school. These are decent places to live. Ahil is in a very convenient location: beautiful mountain walks five minutes away, a great beach within ten minutes, and the central city within forty by bus. There is so much within easy reach.
It�s not too much to say that Ahil made my experience here a pleasure. If you are thinking about working here, I really recommend it. You won�t find many schools better than this.

[SharkDiver]

Sounds almost TOO good to be true - especially for Korea. And I never before heard of a school in Korea willing to act against its own best interests. Perhaps the director has paid someone to write that......or is coercing its employees into writing that.

[coratheexplorer]

[coratheexplorer]

[coratheexplorer]

[ontheway]

OP You have plenty to complain about, however, this is silly:

[ontheway]

[coratheexplorer]