UnNamed

I am not sure that, from a blacklisting perspective,
my complaints warrant a blacklist effort especially in
comparison with some of the much larger issues on
Dave's. But, I have been sufficiently harrassed and
endured enough slave-like treatment that I would like
to warn prospective teachers. Here are the issues:

* Way less than acceptable acclimatization to my job
and area when I first arrived. Kangnung is one of
those places where no one speaks English, everything
is in Korean, and the people are very rude. For one
month (until a new teacher from the U.S. arrived), no
one at my hakwon helped me in any way to find out
about restaurants or what to eat. All I knew was
bibim bap from the plane and I ate that for one month
having realized that no one was going to care enough
to help me. This type of treatment is a general
outline of how Western teachers are viewed at the
hakwon, i.e. basically as slaves with no regard for
their needs.

* Split shifts - 7:00 in the morning with the night
shift ending at 10:30p.m. This was totally
unacceptable to me and somehow I got the director to
cancel my morning class by saying that I would not be
able to stand up to this schedule and would eventually
have to leave. But, my co-worker was not as lucky as
me and has been performing this schedule since
February. I am almost sure that, after I leave, the
new teachers will be asked to do this split shift once
again. It is a pattern that has existed for five
years except my morning class being cancelled.

* Unacceptable housing in that the two-person
apartment is really only meant for one person. There
is no living area, just two teeny bedrooms and a
kitchen. This has also been going on for five years
and I have been the first I know of to complain. I
live in this apartment with my male co-worker because
there was no way I was living with a Mormon woman who
arrived in July. Before July, I had this apt. to
myself just due to luck. The person who was replaced
by this Mormon woman was a Korean girl who was being
passed off as an American native speaker because she
had spent a few months at a language institute in the
U.S. So, the director was lying to the students about
the true identity of this Korean girl and finally the
Korean girl left the hakwon. Then, I had to share my
apartment with either a male co-worker who was an
understanding friend or a Mormon woman (no way).

* The Saturday schedule which, for the first two
months began at 2:00 p.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m. and
after two months, began at 2:00 p.m. and ended at 6:30
p.m. and has continued as such since. Even though I
knew that I had to work on Saturday, my recruiter told
me that all Koreans work on Saturday and that I would
find this at any job. I, unfortunately, did not know
about Dave's before I came, so I really was
unprepared. I thought that Saturday hours would be in
the morning allowing the rest of Saturday and Sunday
for some kind of travelling. I learned after I got
here that BCM is the only hakwon in Kangnung that hass
Saturday classes and I would like the future teachers
here to at least know what the situation is before
they sign up. The Saturday schedule is a real
hindrance in regard to travelling.

As far as money goes, I have never been cheated except
out of a raise for four months. My recruiter arranged
for a raise to be put in place after two successful
months which never came about until my sixth month
after I pressed for it.

The general atmosphere of the hakwon is highly
unfriendly and unpleasant and, in the past five years,
there have been ongoing problems with the foreign
teachers - two of whom I personally spoke with - and
quite a few who broke contracts early in addition to a
couple who, not too long ago, did a "midnight run". I
would have left myself if I knew how to maneuver it
and if I felt that my knowledge was sufficient to take
me to Seoul.

I have communicated my complaints to my director and
have tried to take a constructive attitude so as not
to sever relations too early on in my contract. But,
now that I am in the home stretch, I would like to
make some of these things known on the blacklist if
you deem it appropriate. Also, the educational
structure of the hakwon is extremely confining due to
the exclusive reliance upon textbooks for curriculum.
There is no deviation from the textbook and any
creative activity which detracts from covering pages
in the book is looked upon as a lack of diligence.

Thank you very much for your interest on Dave's.

Sincerely,

Nerina Kagan