ECC Ansan

Just out of Seoul.

    Dear Greg John (John Greg?),
                                           I got your e-mail address from Dave's ESL Cafe and I would like to write to you concerning my experiences at YBM.  It's true, the pay was always as promised and on time, but I've had too many other problems with them and would like to warn others.
   To start with, I came to Korea and began working at ECC Ansan, a branch 
of YBM.  The owner told me the best way to adjust to jet lag was by working, 
so I had to go to orientation the day I landed.  I was given 2 days (6
classes) to observe before I began teaching.  About 7 months into my 
contract, I was told I'd get a roommate and my boss needed to check my apt. 
to be sure the extra room was cleaned. He took the spare key and went into 
the apt. while I was teaching. I know he went into my bedroom and into my 
closet.  He moved around my personal clothes, he opened my diary, photo 
albums, and bank books.  I demanded the spare key back and told his wife 
about it. She apologized and asked me to "just forget this."  She excused it 
by saying that men his age think he is the sky and woman is the ground and 
this was nothing.  But she promised to talk to him about it.  Throughout the 
next 5 months he tried repeatedly to get the spare key back, but I would not 
give it to him.  At that time I also called the Academic Director at YBM 
headquarters, "Susan," and explained my situation, but her only reply was, " 
Well, ECC Ansan is a privately-owned franchise, there's really nothing we 
can do."  I pressed this, but she never gave any more help.  Two weeks
before I left that contract, the owners wife told him what I'd said about 
his being in my bedroom and moving around the bras and underwear in my
drawer and as she later told me, "He swore before God that he did not do 
this thing." And she asked me to "prove it." Of course by that time, I was 
disillusioned and didn't really expect anything.  I do know, however, that 
other foreigners working there have had similar complaints and after I left, 
two teachers immediatly quit their contracts, one after 3 months, and one 
after 1 month.
  I then signed onto work at YEC, a branch of YBM located behind the big ELS 
building in Chongro-3-g (see under YEC).
   The point of all this is that YBM does not provide any kind of complaint 
center for it's employees simply because YBM doesn't care.  No matter what 
your problem, they will find a way not to deal with it.  YBM exists to make 
money for the tottering old Min Young-Bin (hence the name "YBM") and his 
close friends, like Mr. Yoon, often to the detriment of it's employees and 
students. I paid \200,000 a month in utilities at the Officetel I lived in, 
in the middle of summer.  Don't even ask what it was in winter.  The company 
knows this is extremely difficult for employees already making only 1.35 a 
month, but when we asked to switch to a non-housing contract, the answer is 
always "no."  If it isn't in your contract, don't even ask.  In short, I 
have never been treated so badly, so blatently, by such openly smug people.   There's far better out there than YBM. Pagoda, for example.
   Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.

                                    -Daniele Carey