Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inkoreaforgood]

Edit: made a mistake, a crap article. Good for a laugh though, even if it is at my expense




http://www.lifeinkorea.org/writing/read.php3?readnum=126&page=0&pagecount=0&search=&searchsel=&sec=2

Law and Order 2004.06.30

Law and Order: EnfCorp Style


By Jean Briesbois
For Korean Version


They��re the language institute owner's latest weapon in the war against contract-breaking English as a Second Language teachers. They do everything from pre-employment background checks to round the clock surveillance. Sound a little too Orwellian for your liking? Tough luck. Welcome to the future of ESL contract enforcement in Korea.

It's 3 AM on a chilly February morning in Seoul. I am sitting in the front seat of a non-descript late model black Hyundai Grandeur parked in full view of a similarly non-descript concrete south-eastern Seoul apartment complex. My companion for the evening is Lee Ha-neul, a hard-nosed 43-year-old former soldier who has been peering through a night vision monocular at an apartment on the sixth floor without so much as a break for the past two hours.

��He'll open his balcony curtains soon,�� Lee states with an air of confidence that I find slightly disconcerting.

Already making mental comparisons between Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger��s Terminator character, I must confess to being more than a little surprised as the curtains are pulled back.

��How did you know?�� I ask.

��Men are creatures of habit and this man is no different to any other,�� Lee replies.

As I take a moment to reflect upon this cryptic statement, Lee passes me his night vision monocular and begins to film the dimly lit apartment window using a digital vision viewer that boasts one of the most expensive looking zoom lenses that I have ever seen.

My curiosity piqued, I quickly suppress any objections that I may harbour concerning voyeurism and lift the night vision monocular to my eye. What I see before me is an unshaven, paunchy thirty-something foreign male quickly moving about his apartment in a manner that would suggest he was readying himself for a long vacation — perhaps a permanent one.

��Perfect,�� Lee says sounding awfully pleased with himself. ��He's packing up. I've got him. He's getting ready to leave, maybe not tonight, but definitely in the next day or so.��

Lee continues to film the hapless fugitive-to-be for another thirty minutes before deciding to call it an evening.

��Time to go,�� Lee says. ��I have to download this footage and have it to my client by 7:30 AM.��

��Why?�� I ask, curious as to his urgency.

��Because our client will need to take appropriate measures to deal with this situation before it becomes too difficult,�� he explains in a slightly irritated tone.

��Oh,�� I exclaim, wondering to myself just exactly what appropriate measures means in this business.

As we weave our way through the maze of parked cars in the apartment blocks' car park, Lee stops to chat with an elderly security guard. After a few minutes of animated discussion, he passes a thick white envelope to the friendly looking gentleman and we're on our way.

What I have just witnessed is simply another day of business as usual for the language institute owner's newest best friend: Enforcement Corporation.

EnfCorp is a small firm consisting of three directors and thirty-four employees. The brainchild of Jung Joo-chan — a former English institute franchisee who was driven into bankruptcy by a combination of the IMF crisis and a runaway teaching staff — EnfCorp maintains offices in Seoul and Pusan and is looking to expand into the Daegu and Jinju markets early next year.

At present there are three other outfits that offer similar services to EnfCorp in Korea, but with an unstable economy and a plummeting won, Jung is confident that there will be more than enough work to keep his employees fully occupied.

Jung contends that if he had been able to engage the services of a firm similar to EnfCorp in 1997, he could have ridden out the financial storm and avoided bankruptcy.

��During the IMF crisis I wasn't ready for the way that my foreign teachers deserted my business and Korea,�� he explains. ��I believe that foreigners who come to Korea for employment must fulfill their obligations and behave in a manner which is expected of them by Korean society.��

Jung states that foreigners have a very poor reputation in the ESL industry when it comes to doing the right thing.

��All I want is to make foreigners behave in an honourable way and not ruin small businesses; this is mine [sic] and EnfCorp's goal,�� he says.

What EnfCorp represents is the future of ESL contract enforcement on the peninsula. EnfCorp not only runs thorough pre-employment background checks on institute and university applicants, they also conduct 24-hour surveillance of employees who are deemed a flight risk, and upon request from the client, frustrate an employee's efforts to leave Korea.

By taking the unpleasantness of monitoring an employee who has become problematic off the institute owner's hands, EnfCorp claims to improve the efficiency of a business, allowing the ��management and ownership to remain focused on the task of providing high quality language tuition.

With a staff consisting of ex-servicemen, former immigration officials and retired subway employees, EnfCorp knows exactly what it takes to encourage a delinquent teacher to honour their contract, or at the very least, pay an amount of compensation which allows both parties to go their separate ways.

But it isn't always beer and skittles for EnfCorp in their quest to bring ESL drifters to heel. On several occasions, their harried quarries have lodged complaints with local police, consular missions, and embassies. Usually this results in the EnfCorp operative changing tactics or backing off until the situation has cooled down. EnfCorp does not give up on a case until instructed to by the client.

One of EnfCorp's most notable victories of 2002 was its successful tender for a contract with the Immigration Department to assist in the identification of private teachers ��who are working without employment authorisation.��


Choi Joon-ho, a silver-haired retired subway stationmaster who is responsible for managing this part of EnfCorp's business says, ��I have a staff of four subway corporation retirees who watch the more popular stations every day."

According to Choi, suspects are photographed and their destinations carefully noted.

A dossier is compiled over a one-month period and then referred to an Immigration Case Officer who decides whether to proceed with an investigation.

��We have an excellent success rate; no one ever suspects the old person hanging around the subway station,�� he says.

So what does the future hold for EnfCorp?

Park Duk-bae, the company's Harvard-educated Business Development Manager, envisions a day in the not-so-distant future when EnfCorp will be able to manage the Korean government's contract for employment visa authorization and enforcement.

��Outsourcing is the way of the future,�� he says. ��With our history of hands-on industry experience, I believe that we are perfectly positioned to move into this field. It is a logical extension for our business,�� he says.

Another product that EnfCorp plans on developing is a foreign degree and qualification verification service. Park believes that the Korean ESL industry is awash with useless Master��s and TESOL qualifications.

��Many of these degrees can be purchased over the internet or with one year's study,�� he says. ��They are absolute garbage and do not qualify the holder, in my eyes, to be a suitable teacher of English for Korean students.��

It seems like the boys down at EnfCorp have some very big ideas about how the Korean ESL industry should be reformed. As with all things in life, change is necessary and inevitable. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if the framed portrait of Big Brother that adorns the wall of Mr. Park's reception area is not a sign of things to come.


Jean Brisbois is working on a book in Pusan.

This is his first piece for ��DDD��. He can be contacted at [email protected]

[prosodic]

You should check your sources before quoting an entire article.

EnfCorp is a hoax and an old one at that.

It's not even a good hoax. I mean, think about it. Do you know any hagwon owners who would be willing to shell out the dough needed for twenty-four hour surveilance?

Look at the following:
http://seeingeye.blogs.com/news/2003/09/it_said_bizarre.html

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=23008

[inkoreaforgood]

oops, seems you are right. I assumed the article was current because of the date at the top of the page. Thanks for pointing that out. Sorry guys.

[prosodic]

here's another link discussing the hoax.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=23008