I came across your website through Dave's ESL
cafe. I checked out the school I use to work for -
Little America. I worked at the head school in
Manyongdong (sp) Taejon. The listing said that Little
America use to have a bad reputation but you'd heard
nothing lately. Well you decide. This is what I
posted on Dave's ESL cafe:
Avoid Taejon Little America at all costs!!
Posted By: Burnt
Date: Thursday, 20 September 2001, at 12:31 p.m.
The head office/school is in Manyondong (sp)
Taejon. The man who owns the Little America name is in
charge of this school. He is the most manipulative,
childish, and dishonest person I have ever come
across. Besides my own experiences w/him (which
included him throwing a chunk of papers at my head),
many others have had horrible encounters w/him. One
poor guy was there for three weeks before going to a
different school. He lived in a cruddy basement
apartment w/no heat and no lights in late winter/early
spring. The boss kept 500 000 won from this guy for
"bills"!! He is extremely tight w/money and will lie
and cheat so he doesn't have to pay. This is getting
too long so I won't go into the other examples.
This hagwon is in charge of recruiting for the other
Little America schools. Many of the other Little
America school owners are furious w/the boss because
he promised to provide English teachers, training for
the Korean teachers, supplies, etc., which he can't
do. He is desperate for teachers right now and w/good
reason - no one wants to work for him. The Korean
teachers have an extremely high turnover rate. Many
leave because they think he is crazy. The boss is
notorious among other hagwons, English teachers, and
Korean teachers.
Now I kept my posting short but there is a lot more
that happened there. Stuff like the boss using "his"
key to go into people's apartments all the time to
"check" on the apartment (at one point he tried to
come in while I was sleeping - no knocking, wouldn't
answer when I asked who it was thank goodness I had
the bolt on). He would brag about his connections to
the ?Korean mob?, he took pride in refusing to abide
by contracts, etc. Anyways like I said there is a lot
more to tell from the English teachers and the Korean
teachers. Please let me know if you need more
information. I don't want people to have a horrible
time. I made some wonderful friends in Korea and
found it a great place. I would like to make sure
people are informed about Little America, especially
now that they are desperate and telling a lot of lies
to get people to come. Thank you. Please let me know
what I can do.
Katie 10/01