TEFL in Burma Anyone?

Tefl.com are advertising a TEFL job in Rangoon with the British Council for an immediate start. What more can I say. For once the Inspector is speechless. Now steady on teflers, no queue jumping! It reminds me of the job advertised by Tefl.com in Beirut for International House

International House Beirut
Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

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Murder at IH Kuala Lumpur

Threats of murder at IH Kuala Lumpur. Complaints have been received and the offensive comment has been removed from the "nominate a school for blacklisting" section. Thanks to the readers who tipped the Inspector off. Complaints against a school are one thing. Threats of murder are quite different.

The main IH post can be found by clicking here: International House

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

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Nova Schools Japan

A little birdy has informed your beloved Inspector that Nova Schools in Japan are in trouble. More to come later but a quick Google on "Nova Schools Japan Today" should get you the breaking news.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

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A Death in The Family ?

"I hate to spread rumours, but what else can one do with them?"
Amanda Lear

" Or perhaps the word 'suicide' would be more accurate? No, no - it has to be a case of ... fratricide.
You see, I've done a dirty deed - a deed most foul, by any standards. I've killed off Sandy's World-Wide TEFL Blog. Where once there was, well, another of my 'works in progress', now there is a blissful silence - or rather, a 404 error message.
In fact, all that remains of the old blog is this. But don't worry - Sandy's UK Tefl Blog is displaying no tendencies towards self-annihilation, and fully intends to grow old disgracefully.
What's more, Inspector McHammered of The Lard appears to have resurfaced (just don't ask what he's been up to!) in Korea, of all places. Let's wish him well, and encourage more of his investigatory travellings, eh?"

If true "The Headmaster" who forced Sandy to hand over the keys of the Tefl-Blacklist to your noble sleuth might well, make the nominations for the Blacklist Oscars in time.

Long live The Tefl-Trade Blog.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

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Yang Jeong Academy, in Yongin City, South Korea

Interesting posting.
I've never ever heard a good word from anyone about ESL/EFL teaching in Korea. The Inspector is therefore forced to throw down the gauntlet. Name one good school in South Korea? First prize an EFL course lasting one month with International House Kuala Lumpur, second prize an EFL course lasting two months!

"I nominate Yang Jeong Academy, in Yongin City, South Korea. The director prioritises building new apartments over paying teachers, Korean teachers always get paid late, so they are often understaffed due to them quitting after a month. Foreign teachers have had to battle with him to get their final payments. The glorified secretary (or self-proclaimed assistant manager) is the pettiest Korean i've ever met. She tries to scam you out of money, and when i called her on it, she turned into a silly teenager, got everyone at the academy to ignore me for a few days and made my work as much of a nightmare as she could. As extra punishment, they added free english lessons for her to my timetable, so i would have to come into work early, only for her to not bother showing up. I've heard from previous employees that she has done this every year. She's given a fair bit of control over the foreign teachers, and abuses that whenever she can - she's withheld pay, she's taken money from pay without permission and in breach of contract, she's refused to give vacation - we had to ask her permission for so many things that were already in our contracts. There were numerous occasions when they breached our contract terms and tried to lie and claim we had oral agreements, then tried to make us sign new agreements. They made oral agreements with us, refused to put them in writing, and then denied having ever made them - most of my year spent there was a battle for something.
They tried to send me to teach illegally at a school, and when i asked them if it was legal, they insisted it was and told me they'd check. Thankfully, i had a korean friend who called immigration for me and found out it was completely illegal, which is what the academy were also told, but they still wanted me to go because they didn't want to pay a korean teacher extra to cover the classes. To add to this, the book they wanted me to teach was all in Korean, and i was told to just find a way to teach it. I refused to go as i was illegal, and we'd had several people in the area recently caught for the same thing, and again i spent the rest of the day being shunned by all the teachers, whilst they plotted ways to punish me.
The academy has a reputation in the area for treating foreign teachers badly. I would never work there again - there are so many better places, and it's just too much hassle and pettiness."