Anderson House, Bergamo, Italy

The scene is set the stage is lit and the pantomime begins. Enter onstage the villain Peter Frederick Anderson (P.F.A) a language school owner and a very unpleasant man according to the script.

As I went looking for my (by now very dirty) spade in the toolshed I started humming that tune from the film "The Italian Job" (you know the original great one not the useless sequel) what was it called...............? Oh yes! "The Self Preservation Society". What a great soundtrack if The Anderson House pantomime ever made it to the big screen.

These days the Inspector gets the distinct impression that The TEFL Blacklist is a Blacklist Preservation Society as so many threads are pulled from so many sites he has to save them for his discerning readers to view. Bring back good old fashioned shredding, as at least you knew where you stood.

Anyway I digress. Back to the panto........

I could point you to the links but as they will probably be made to disappear I cordially invite you to sit back, open up a bottle of fermented Yak's milk, belch freely and read what this very naughty language school owner has got up to recently . I'll just cut and paste the various allegations

(exit from stage, The extremely dashing, Inspector Mchammered of the Lard bellowing "betcha he did it")



The Plot

Posted on Saint Dave's. Last year there were financial problems at Anderson House. As a result, promised bonuses were apparently not paid to some staff (others did receive theirs). The problem, which, let's face it, is not unique was quite poorly handled by the owner. He insulted some teachers, apparently threatened others, and generally pissed most teachers off by several mindlessly vindictive acts (for example - telling one teacher he would be evaluated in the last week of his contract - then not showing up for the evaluation (twice)!). There was talk of legal action by some teachers at the end of the term. One other senior staff member (non-instructional) quit abruptly. The Director of Studies supposedly found out he was being released when someone pointed out an ad for his job on the internet.
For this year, contracts have been changed (lower salaries; bonuses based on the school's financial situation, etc.) so that a similar situation will presumably be avoided. But for several of those who worked at Anderson House last year, there is a justifiable residue of bitterness.

The Final Act

We have reached the limit of the overdraft allowance, we haven't paid the tax for June and July. Sorry, I'm not joking: we really are broke.
Peter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Da: Nick Bailey [mailto:nick@thetravellingturtle.com]
Inviato: mercoledì 2 agosto 2006 2.53
A: p.anderson@andersonhouse.it
Oggetto: "I want my baby to be remembered" - as what?

Dear Peter,

It would be a shame for AH if your clients learn about the way your employees feel about you breaking your contract with them. I don't believe that you have insufficient funds to pay us the money that you are legally binded to pay us - and even if you do, the overdraft allowance for a s.r.l. would provide you with more than enough capital for you to meet your financial commitments to us.

Lets not make this messy,

Nick

Hi xxx,

How are you? I hope all's well.

Please forward this to your classmates as I don't have their email addresses, as well as your superiors. This link reflects the views of the teachers at Anderson House this year and I feel that the clients of the organisation I represented should understand our views.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=436729#436729

Good luck with everything,

Nick

(Note by The Inspector. Don't waste your time trying to find that link. Saint Dave, the Directors' Darling pulled it. I bet his mum used to spank him for breaking his toys)

Bergamo House – Staff appraisals form by disgruntled

Bergamo House – Staff appraisals form

We would appreciate your comments regarding your experiences working with us this year. If you could please take the time to complete the following questionnaire it may aid us in providing a more pleasurable experience for our future “project workers”, as strangely very few of you seem to be interested in continuing on with us at Bergamo House.

Paying attention to the needs of our employees may have the previously unforeseen consequence of our “project workers” providing a more satisfactory service to our clients which, in turn, could well allow us to proceed with our primary objective - the expansion of The Empire;

1. Do you think that P.F.A. will actually take the time to read this?
a) Yes
b) NO
c) It depends on whether he’s taken his pills.
d) It depends on which pills he’s taken.

2. Should P.F.A. actually take the time to read this, do you think he will…

a) try to act upon the feedback he has been provided with.
b) consider himself far too superior to accept the advice of others and dismiss it accordingly.
c) try to think of another object on which to attach his name (cars – done!, bins – done! Sign in the toilet – done!)

3. Should P.F.A. actually try to act upon the feedback he has been provided with, do you think he will…

a) endeavour to provide his ‘project workers’ with improved working conditions.
b) rant to himself quietly because he really has no idea how to do his job.
c) take another pill.

4. How would you describe P.F.A.’s rapport with you and your fellow “project workers”?

a) Warm, friendly and full of concern about your daily lives.
b) He couldn’t give a shit ‘cos The Empire is more important.
c) It depends on whether he’s taken his pills.
d) It depends on which pills he’s taken.

5. How have you enjoyed your time at Bergamo House?

a) It’s the best TEFL job I’ve had!
b) Fucking awful!
c) It depends on whether he’d taken his pills.
d) It depends on which pills he’d taken.

6. How many “project workers” have resigned from Bergamo House as a result of P.F.A. not listening to their concerns?

a) None
b) At least one a month
c) Can’t remember ‘cos I’ve started taking pills too!

7. Would you ask P.F.A. for a letter of reference?

a) Of course, he’s a model character whose opinion I respect more than my mother’s.
b) WHAT?
c) It depends on whether he’s taken his pills.
d) It depends on which pills he’s taken.

8. Imagine P.F.A. offered you a contract that paid €5000 a month for 20 contact hours a week, would you accept it?

a) Of course, the man has honour and I’d love to work for him again!
b) Yeah right! If I’d wanted to earn big cash by working for a crook, then I’d be working as a lawyer for Shell with much less stress.
c) I’d ask his doctor if he’d changed his pills and how long he was going to be on them for.

9. How much attention and forethought do you think goes into providing the “project workers” with a comfortable timetable?

a) My timetable has been perfect – no complaints at all.
b) About as much as when I played ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ for the first time at my fifth birthday party.
c) It depends on how high I was on P.F.A.’s list of most hated “project workers”.

Thank you for taking the time to read this questionnaire. However, as you anticipated in your answers to questions (1) and (2) we really don’t give a toss about your welfare and will continue to act like the wankers we are until we really do go bankrupt.

Da: Nick Bailey [mailto:nick@thetravellingturtle.com]
Inviato: lunedì 17 luglio 2006 13.29
A: pander@bergamohouse.it
Oggetto: 13. END OF CONTRACT CONDITIONS


Dear Peter,

I am writing to you further to receiving my payment following the end of my contract with Bergamo House. I would like to thank you for the prompt transfer of my salary for June 2006. However, I have not yet received the bonus for completion of my contract. The criteria for eligibility for this bonus is stated very clearly in the contract i.e.

13. END OF CONTRACT CONDITIONS
13.1 Upon fulfilment and completion of the contract (February 1st, 2006 to June 30th, 2006) the teacher will receive a bonus of maximum €400,00 should the following conditions below be fulfilled:

€100,00 for punctuality and not one single complaint for being late. If the delay is caused by circumstances beyond the control of the teacher, it will not be considered.

€100,00 for absolute adherence to the dress code (see Appendix 1).

€100,00 for impeccable register keeping and admin work.

€100,00 for not having missed one single working day voluntarily, that is, not showing up or not finding appropriate cover for lessons in case of absence.

For these conditions to be fulfilled, the teacher should have zero non-conformity forms regarding the above descriptions.

I acknowledge the fact that I received non-conformity forms regarding my admin work as well as the occasion when I overslept, though please note that I was working a timetable which did not provide me with the 11 hours rest between finishing work and starting again the following day which is required by European law. However, I did not receive any non-conformity forms regarding my dress code or my punctuality and therefore should qualify for the €100 bonus for these two conditions.

I have appreciated your fairness and support throughout my period of employment and trust that you will be able to help me resolve this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Bailey

(entrance on stage, that old TEFL tease, Inspector Mchammered of the Lard muttering incoherently to himself - after having unwisely drunk a litre of ferneted Yak's milk - "string the bugger up!")

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

The Headmaster's Study

Once upon a time, in the Land of the Rising Bum, there lived a flatulent frog. He liked nothing better than to boast a bit about how nice he was, but really he was a bit of a bully boss who had the amazing ability to speak through his bottom.

If this naughty frog ever dares threaten Inspector McHammered of the Lard again, the magical thread woven on the web about his expoits (and now safely archived) and telling all sorts of tales about him will instantly reappear with a quick wave of my wand and I'll have no option but to cane him in front of the whole school.

Be warned and keep well away from The Tefl Blacklist Monsieur/Mr. Jean-Guy and keep out of trouble in Japan .

Stick to watching your Black Adder videos, it's safer.

Sandy has been forced into early retirement and has absolutely NO control over this blog. I will however immediately and without warning repost the entire thread (you blackmailed him into removing) about your school, if I ever hear from (or about) you again.

P.S. The thread for the moment is still in Google's cache so if you do a google search for "Jean-Guy Japan" you'll find it in "Cached" at about number 25. The cache will soon enough disappear though and you will be out on parole.

I personally doubt you'll be able to resist annoying me (unfortunately for you "annoying me" includes any attempt to contact me) so I think the chances of the posting reappearing are quite high.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Stupid Language School Names

Just a bit of harmless fun about silly names for schools. Einstein where are you? Come back all is forgiven. There are quite a few language school owners who should have taken advice on what is regarded as a funny, daft, stupid or simply downright ridiculous name for their school. I'd take a good second look at any school that had a silly name. For starters and in no particular order of stupidity we have this month on Saint Sperling's money machine:

1. Cactus TEFL (for silly pricks?)
2. British Hills, Fukishima Japan (you may well need to head for them - the hills that is)
3. Native Tongue, Ibague Colombia (perhaps a local delicacy)
4. Sunflower Language School, Taiwan (perhaps the owner's a bit slippery)
5. Reach To Teach, Taiwan (unable to reach the owner on pay day?)
6. Face to Face English, (er not exactly as they are looking for online teachers so it'll be more like Screen to Screen)
7. Apollo Education and Training, (IH) Vietnam (because so many teachers get the rocket)
8. Jump Start Language School, (because the school car is always breaking down)
9. DD Dragon English School, Taiwan (the boss is a bit fiercesome)
10. Canterbury English, Madrid Spain (that's a new accent on me. What's wrong with Essex English or Chav's English. Ain't good ennuf for yer?)
11. Wing Inc. Chiba Japan (you may well need to do a runner)
12. Safe Passage, Guatemala City Guatemala (you may need a bit of protection)
13. Spring Pond Cultural Group, Taipei County, Taiwan (English for scuba divers after all you never know when you'll need it underwater)
14. EF Bogor, Indonesia (reminds me of Thomas Crapper who apparently invented the bog. It does have a certain ring to it)
15. ABC PLUS, Nagoya, Japan (for remedial businessmen). Perhaps the Headmaster can help out (whoops, was told not to mention the Headmaster or Sandy will get a right good spanking)
    

That's just for starters. I'm sure Sandy would agree that a prize of a litre of fermented Yak's milk should be sent to the winning entry.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Cicero H Parks

CICERO H PARKS

R.I.P

Dear Mr Parks,
I appreciate the fact that you are pushing up the daisies now makes it rather hard for you to communicate with the Inspector but truth be told a lot of EFL school owners are just as difficult to get in touch with.
If however you contact the Inspector from beyond the grave with fresh information regarding your namesake, I'll have a quick word with the big boss of that great EFL school in the sky and get your plot upgraded.


"The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth."
Cicero

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

TEFL

TEFL Jobs? Nasty experience if you don't do your research properly. Don't fall for the glossy brochure or web site or slick sales patter. Avoid having a nightmare and do a quick check on The TEFL Blacklist which is a free non for profit blog designed to warn the unsuspecting but well-meaning teacher of bad schools and may just save you time money and a rotten time far from home, being treated badly.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Cactus TEFL

Check this bunch of people out! Want to waste your money on a TEFL certificate that's worthless ? One of the biggest unmentioned scams is of course ripping off teachers for either a "delicious" (their word) TEFL qualification that magically will transform you into a teacher without ever having had to teach a class or in some "super delicious cases" without ever even having had to meet your instructor.

Or would you rather chuck a ton of your hard earned money down the pan for a so called proper TEFL course which is exhorbitantly expensive especially when you'll probably end up getting paid peanuts in your new career (?).

Sound like a good investment? Not to me it doesn't.

This outfit couldn't care less what you waste your money on as long as they get their hands on their grubby little commission.

Why should this seem so strange in the rip off world of TEFL where teachers not only often get shafted in the job but if not careful will also get shafted before.

The TEFL certificate scam is one of the worst ones ever and they will get away with it as long as the cash registers keep on ringing.

The Cactus Teachers website (as they also misleadingly call themselves}, even have the cheek to say that they work in affiliation with the Education Guardian and use its logo to buy (?) themselves some credibility, apparently just because some expert (?) called Richard Bradford initially posted an article on the Guardian website offering advice to any teacher (sucker) who was daft enough not to see through his cheap marketing ploy and now you'll find that lots of seemingly impartial, informative articles are written by a very helpful person by the name of XXXXXXX* advising you on TEFL and especially where to spend (waste?) your money on courses.

Guess what she does for a living. Yup dead right, she's "Head of Cactus TEFL" and if you look at the online version of the Guardian there's a neat little Cactus TEFL search button by the side of each article she writes, to help you spend your money. Who pays who? My guess is they pay the Guardian for a hidden and totally plausible and subtle form of advertising/marketing, not that you'd notice. It looks suspiciously like a paid hidden endorsement designed to push up the sales of their advertised TEFL courses for which they get paid the commission I mentioned.

Anyone who knows how the Google rankings operate will also realise that this is why they rank so highly for such search terms as TEFL and TEFL COURSES etc. etc. It's a clever way of manipulating the Google search engine results. Try it yourself, just do a Google search for TEFL and see how near to the online Education Guardian's position they rank. One naturally imagines that they rank highly because they are important. No no no my dear, perish the thought! They rank highly NOT because they are important BUT because they have in effect paid for a link, a practice Google naturally frowns upon and if notified blacklists sites for, yes you've got it.....trying to artificially manipulate the search engine rankings. Phew.... I feel a denunciation to Google coming on and must wipe my brow in shock horror.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard considers this to be underhand and devious and as a consequence they've been blacklisted for being sneaky. Shame on The Guardian also for betraying the trust that innocent teachers place in the objectivity of their articles and indulging in a little link selling on the side.

Check it out. You'll find I'm right and it could well be argued that Cactus TEFL are master con artists. And the teachers? Well Cactus TEFL considers them just like turkeys taking advice on where to spend Christmas.

Prime candidates for the first shyster award of 2007. Cactus TEFL.

* XXXXXXX R.I.P

I noticed on the web the following information which amazingly wasn't available on the Cactus TEFL Website, but I spotted it by chance on doing a search for the lady in question. The Inspector offers his deepest condolences and has felt it appropriate to remove all mention of her from the TEFL Blacklist.

"It is with deep sorrow that Cactus announces the tragic death of XXXXXXX, who passed away in hospital on Tuesday 22nd May following a road traffic accident in Cordoba, Spain. "

By the way who is this young lady whose picture is still on your website in an advertising context? Richard Bradford, I know you're a total plonker but please do answer. This is genuinely one of the rare situations where the Inspector would like to be demonstrated to be wrong. Please do tell the readers that this is not the person mentioned above and that any similarity is purely coincidental.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!!

The TEFL Blacklist is now under new management...
It is with deep regret that we have to announce that the previous Editor has announced his retirement from The TEFL BLACKLIST. It is however business as usual with a few minor changes to improve the security of the site and preserve the freedom of speech. The basic principles of ousting the shysters will naturally remain.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

ASTA Kids Club in Incheon, Korea

Another place for the wolves. This place seems to have caused countless teachers a miserable time and to be run by sadists.
Seems to be a place to avoid. Now's your chance to put the boot in.

I've received a posting asking me WHY it's so bad.

It took me two minutes to trawl this from the web. Each paragraph delineates a different quote. The Inspector is McKnackered!

The crap western "management" tried to put me on probation because I was seen talking to other teachers outside of school, and had been seen with a guy who did a runner (he was braver than me).

In the end I wasn't allowed to walk the streets with other westerners - how can they dictate friggin BS like that.

If that miserable MF Marc comes back to Korea, I would pay someone to do him over - wouldn't lower myself to touch scum like that.

WORST school in Korea, on the upside I think I am now at the best school!

Marc learned well from Rick. That guy had one heck of a mean streak.

As for the small gu thing, when I arrived, Kid's Club was the only hogwon in the district, and we the only teachers (12 at the time). Two years later, hogwons had sprouted like weeds within a 1 km radius.

Yeah, Greg got here in 2000. A pervert if ever there was one.

Did I mention the cameras in the classrooms?! Sheer intimidation. I suppose they waned to document that we were being "cruel and unusual" to the poor kids.
Mr Jong is one of the most evil persons Ii have ever encountered. Mr Park is a Lackey, and therefore to be pitied, but he is on the level of a concentration camp guard - guilty as h*ll.
What an evil place LCI/ASTA Kids Club is.
Funny thing is, what with lectures about "you are in Korea, you must follow Korean customs," I hate Korea and Koreans. Good PR for you Korean patriots... You are all lying, deceitful pieces of s*it, judging by your actions.
Totally despicable...

"You're in Korea, you must follow Korean customs." and "You need to speak more American English."

I just nodded my head. "Whatever," I thought, and did my own thing. Teaching, ignoring Rick, and only using the American accent to teach phonics. (I found it easier using the US accent to teach these kids phonics/reading than the Aussie/Brit one)

One of the funny things is that they use mostly Aus/NZ books, which introduce all sorts of contextualized/limited vocabulary.
Oh, my Lord, I love slagging this "school."
I still have dreams sometimes... When I wake up, it is hard to describe the euphoria I feel when I remember I'm no longer in Korea, slaving away for those b*stards.
I wish I were a believer, so I could picture Jongie and Parkie in hell...
This hagwon WILL go down, I swear.

When I got there in 1999 I was asked to teach in an American accent (i'm an Aussie). It wasn't too bad of a place when I started, but when I left in 2001 I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.

"Sit nicely!"
Once, when I was teaching Kindly, I was told to show "extra attention and love" to a little girl who was new in class. Nice.
They're still telling Ozers to do an American accent - pathetic.


Why didn't/don't one of you make a helpful call to the Incheon police about Rick and his habits.

The crap western "management" tried to put me on probation because I was seen talking to other teachers outside of school, and had been seen with a guy who did a runner (he was braver than me).

In the end I wasn't allowed to walk the streets with other westerners - how can they dictate friggin BS like that.

If that miserable MF Marc comes back to Korea, I would pay someone to do him over - wouldn't lower myself to touch scum like that.

WORST school in Korea, on the upside I think I am now at the best school!


Jung was absolutely livid when one of the female teachers got married (this was back in the 90's)- made her life hell after that (she got married to a Korean, too, so you'd think he'd be more likely to back off). He has very serious control issues.

Was that Janelle?


Yeah- I saw her in 2001. She was pregnant with her second baby by then.

Tracy should be leaving soon, or is already gone, if she sticks to her plans. Now that Marky is gone, the school will be hard up for "management." My bet is on Betti staying on to be head *****.

Here's even more reasons to avoid the arsehole of Korea, ASTA LCI Kid's Club in Dongchoon Dong, Incheon.

Everything written about this atrocious hagwon is true. It really is the rectum of Korea, headed by two sly directors and a bunch of incompetent western twits on a power trip.

Kid's Club parades as a professional "school" to lure teachers into a contract, lying and misleading them on work hours among other things.
We're an Australian couple that just finished our stint in hell.
Here's common practice at Kid's Club:

1. Big Brother: two cameras scrutinise teachers' every move in the classroom to find something pathetic to blast them about.
Kid's Club operates on fear and control. The directors choose their "whipping boy" (or couple) to pick on, hauling them over the coals for anything and everything, as well as serving them the worst possible schedule each month.
On two ridiculous occasions they threatened to fire us - one was for being sick. As evil Jung told teachers, "It is selfish to be sick".

2. Rosters: while the contract says 120 hours a month, in reality teachers work more than 34 hours a week because of how the calendar dates fall in line with their pay day. Also, public holidays free up more hours to work, as 120 hours can be squeezed into 19 days, not 20 days, for example.

3. Suck it up: there is no avenue for legitimate complaints. As we discovered, it's simply fodder for them to pick on you more. We were foolish enough to believe The Witch, (name removed), when she told us we'd finish at 6pm if we worked morning kindergarten. After approaching The Twits (western mgt) about it, we were basically told to suck it up, "that's the way things work in Korea" and "it's all about team work". What crap.
From then on (a fortnight into our contract) we were the naughty ones for complaining and treated accordingly.

4.Western managers: what a joke. The Koreans like to bestow the honour of being a manager on any power-hungry idiot in need of a quick confidence boost.
{name removed), now departed, are/were the Head Twits, bending over daily for the directors. Tracy is a hard-nosed lying tramp and Marc is some kind of schizophrenic with shrivelled balls.
(name removed)(only loser Aussies try to sound American, and in the process mis-pronounce their own name) are hypocritical lackeys. At first they enjoyed dobbing others in for not towing the Kid's Club line, now they're shouting "poor me!"
(name removed) should go back to being a taxi driver in Canada. (name removed) has some serious issues, most notably intelligence ("Why is the snow on the road black?"). She quite enjoys shovelling *beep* on others - even her own friends - if it boosts her pathetic flailing self-esteem just a tiny bit.
Suck it up girls. May you forever extend your contracts and rot in the Kid's Club prison.


If you're offered a contract at this disgraceful attempt at an educational institution, run for the hills! Staff are treated like excrement on the directors' well-polished shoes and once you're trapped it's difficult to escape.

Working there sounds like fun. The only reason they can push you around is that they control your visa and your apartment. I wonder what it would be like to just go work there out of simple challenge on an F2 or F5 with your own place. What could they do to control you? Fire you? Smile Approaching this as a challenge that would be something id expect to happen anyway, so no skin off my nose.

Sit Nicely!
I struggle to find words to describe "Mr" Jong/Jung"
Except for EVIL EVIL EVIL
This pathetic excuse for a school WILL go down, if not the 1/3 MES will take care of it... Don't ask.why
When I left, I left my apartment in an absolutely fetid state - it was the only payback I could get at the time...

For the record. I would like to state that most of the guys on the Incheon Iceholes are a great bunch of lads. I just received a PM from one of the goalies on the team and I realise that I worded things in a way that. That may have offended many of the players that read this board.
When I was referring to the "useless goalies" I actually meant a "Dummy Goalie" which is a peice of foam rubber in place of an absent goalie.

I was actually referring to the lack of cohesion on the team. Many guys with a lot of skill refuse to pass the puck in practice and in games that do not matter so they can score goals. They are still nice guys. Skill wise, I am not in a position to criticise, as I said before, I am nothing special as a hockey player.
Personally, I on;y have serious issues with two players on the team. I am sure we all know by now who one of them is.

So, if any of you Iceholes(with two notable exceptions), are reading. Sorry boys! And keep your stick on the ice!

Riverboy- good story. I know some other guys that used to play hockey with him. They said he was an asshat and everyone laughed at him, but they never told me any stories- I was a bit disappointed about that^^. Amazing he made captain, being the jerk that he was (is). Anyway, consider yourself lucky you didn't work there!!

Didn't know he cruised at Gecko's. Good thing I don't hang out there in the evening, then.

You know, I bet the director's seen this thread and is just livid (I was forbidden to access this website while I was at work- no prob, cuz I just went down the street one of the many PC Bangs!). Har har~

Yeah, I have a personal grudge against the guy. I really shouldn't have acted like that, but I don't like being talked down to by anyone, and the way they suspended me.... two freaking months for a two minute penalty!!!
The Gyopo President of the hockey team is your classic little man who will do anything to make himself feel important. He was the guy behind the suspension, but he used the individual we are talking about to do his dirty work. He was all to glad, but he did it on the phone and I was guilty without being allowed to explain myself. It really was a black eye for the team as lots of guys lost a lot of respect for those guys and a few don't even go anymore.
I hate to stay so bitter, but I would like to meet the president and the former supervisor, square off with both of them and give them both a good old fashioned a$$ whoopin. That would make me feel better!
Man do I ever have issues lol

At the infamous LCI/ASTA Kids' Club in Dongchoon-Dong, Incheon, I had 3 (count 'em) THREE different apartments, all of which sucked. I'd forgotten about this. When I first arrived, I spent I think 2 days in one apartment, because they didn't want the departing teacher, into whose 3 bdrm I was supposed to live, to infect me with his "bad" attitude. Should have known right then and there, but that's another story. Then I had a decent bedroom with an en suite bathroom for a month, but pretty much had to move into the infamous closet room, which had been abandoned by a runner and was filthy... This room had a bed and a wardrobe, because that was all that would fit in it... And this was in August... OMG it was miserable. Then I got a single, which was a hole. Bathroom opened onto the hallway and was freezing cold all Winter...
Ugh, another Kids Club memory... make it go away!

Beware the old Canadian "head teacher" is back at LCI Kids Club, Yeonsu-Gu, not sure what his aim is this time - to torment the other teachers, or fire a few of them.

If you wanna last 12 months working 125 hours a month for 2.0 million, start kissing his arse or bald head!

I met some newbies who work there the other day, very nice girls, who were already having reservations (I didn't find out till later where they worked) - I wish them good luck and smooth sailing.

Which one? The tall one starting with M, the pregnant one starting with G or the Dalek who was in the hockey team, starting with R?

I met some newbies who work there the other day, very nice girls, who were already having reservations (I didn't find out till later where they worked) - I wish them good luck and smooth sailing.


My school is in the next building over. Considering that we're looking for a teacher, maybe I should go over there and start recruiting them.

This is the Veterans of ASTA Clubhouse, this thread. And it's kinda fun to peek in and hear you guys telling your war stories and comparing battle scars. Though I'm just eavesdropping here, I have to say it's depressing that these rotten outfits just never seem to go belly up, implode, get busted for something... They just carry on as nasty as they wanna be, racking up more veterans as the years go on. How can businesses this vile survive for so long?


Well, well, well... It's been about one year to the DAY that I set off on a plane to Korea. Who knew three months later, I'd be starting a thread that would carry on for almost a year? Gotta say I'm pretty happy about the success of this thread, although it's not my preferred method of keeping in touch with old friends. And I realize that I'm going off topic here, but I don't post a lot, so I hope you'll excuse the "breach in protocol".

Since this is about the one year anniversary of my departing (and subsequent return three months later) to Korea, I thought I'd I'd mark the occasion with another warning to any noobs out there who are thinking of working overseas. If you are contacted IN ANY WAY by ANYBODY about working at this school, please, please, PLEASE keep looking. There are a lot of great places to work in Korea, and LCI/ASTA Kids Club is NOT one of them.

That being said, it was a good lot of fun to read how people feel about this school and the people who work there. I am, of course, referring to the "administration". Was it a horrific, trying, life-defining, grueling, "forced-labour" experience? Indeed it was. How did I make it through those three months, you ask? Great friends, trips into Seoul with my good friend, travelx, Friday night poker (W and C, you still got my chips?), and coffee and the PC Bang every night with my good friend, BadPegge.

Was it the worst experience of my life? Quite possibly, and yet it's strange how the best memories sometimes come out of the worst experiences. So, in the spirit of the festive season, there are many things I would like to raise a glass to.

1) Leaving town with 400 bucks from my last paycheque, only to pass through Japan to go riding in Nozawa Onsen. If there's anybody from that school (and again, I'm refering to the "administrators"), that's where I went, and I gotta say, after putting up with your crap for three months, I don't think I would have ever fully appreciated the FANTASTIC Japanese hospitality.

2) W and C, who put up with you for a full YEAR, and are now reaping their benefits traveling around Southeastern Asia. You put up with a lot of crap, and if you ask me, you're living proof that Karma exists. And just so you know, W and C, I am GREEN with envy. GREEN.

3) My good friend, and fellow Canadian D McD, who I've spent many a bus ride back from Seoul, coming back from the Rocky Mountain Tavern. May your new baby be blessed. You're currently tied for 4th in our hockey pool, and I'm stuck near the basement...

4) My two good, good friends, travelex and Bad Pegge. They may sound a little bitter, but for good cause. What I put up with for 3 months, they put up with for 3-4 times as long. Without the two of you, I wouldn't even have made it as long as I did.

It's been a long hard road, but we're all in better places, now. And what's better, none of us will ever, ever have to deal with the mofos that run that place. To LCI/ASTA Kids Club, and it's Korean administration, I hope the earth opens up and swallows you up. Parky, if you're reading this, you have a couple of great kids, please don't subject them to that crap curriculum. To the Canadian cockroach, you don't control anybody or anything. You're not even a man. Sit down, shut up, and let the rest of the adults do the talking. To the Canadian cow, and the Australian dumbass, you're both ugly, fat, mean-spirited people who are as dirty on the inside as you are on the outside. You'll never get married, and you'll die miserable and alone. To D McD, haven't talked to you in a bit, but I'll drop you a line soon. Oil are going all the way this year, with or without Prongs. To travelex, miss you HEAPS. David Gray makes me nostalgic. To Bad Pegge, it's called EMAIL. Use it. Miss you, buddy. To W and C, I know you're having a blast in Asia. I know I've had a blast reading about it. Travel safe and happy.

In the spirit of the season, let's raise a glass. Cheers to good friends, good times, and good memories. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas, including all those people in the room I don't know, but excluding, of course, all the aforementioned people. In fact, you LCI/ASTA folk can disregard all the good feelings altogether. Your coal will be arriving post-haste. Better get your stockings out, lest Santa have no other place to stick it except up your POOPER.




Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Dave's ESL Cafe

Is dear old Dave Sperling as respectable as he would have us believe? He seems to post hundreds of jobs with little regard for any form of quality control. How many of you poor shafted teflers have been posted to god-forsaken schools worked to death while old Dave pockets the advertising revenue?

Do let us know the juicy details so other poor suckers can avoid the places.

WIKIPEDIA the objective and free online internet encyclopedia have two articles about Saint Dave:
1. A Wikipedia search on "ESLCAFE" reveals the following little gem .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eslcafe

Remember this isn't the nasty old blacklister up to mischief, this is a totally objective analysis so you can't say you haven't been warned. Don't believe me? Look it up yourself.

Criticisms Dave's ESL Cafe has come under fire in South Korea as well as other locations for placing the interests of schools that advertise on the website over the interests of teachers, even in cases where the schools had displayed a history of chronic teacher abuse.

As far as the forums are concerned, periods of relative peace are usually short-lived as the members' personalities will flare up and create flaming wars. This results in extremely heavy handed moderating, which only fans the flames.

Examples of heavy handed moderating include the deletion of threads that are critical of the website, mention any other competing ESL websites, the thread that lead to the establishment of this wikipedia article, and any others that the moderators deem unacceptable.

Some of the long time posters on the forum will ridicule and insult newcomers, or even lie about their experiences to make themselves appear more grandiose in the eyes of forum members.

While there is good information to be found on the website, it is important to always remember that Dave's ESL Cafe is primarily a profit oriented business.

2. A Wikipedia search on "DAVE'S ESL CAFE" informs us that: "Dave's ESL Cafe is a privately owned job search engine for English as a Second Language (ESL) jobs around the world. Hosted in California by Dave Sperling, it was one of the first job boards for overseas English teaching jobs to be created. Revenue is derived from advertising from small and medium-sized private language schools, mostly in Asia.

While, local employment offices for positions in one's home country are subject to adhering to local labor laws and other laws, overseas jobs posted on Dave's ESL Cafe are not. Therefore, quite often, fraudulent businesses advertise teaching positions which do not comply with labor laws even in the host country.

For example, by law, it is mandatory in Japan that an employee be enrolled into the Japanese government's health care and pension plan (shakai hoken); however, since it is an overseas job, a Californian Internet job board has no fear of being sued for advertising a job that violates Japanese law. Therefore, advertisers can misrepresent job conditions such as pay, holidays, health insurance etc....

Although this Internet job board does provide a forum to discuss jobs, advertisers may demand posts critical of their particular school to be censored or completely deleted. Moderators of the forums are not required to have any experience or training in labor issues, and often are unaware of labor law standards.

Similar Internet job boards exist for ESL jobs which have similar censorious behavior such as GaijinPot and the tesljb-l listserv."

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Inlingua Naples, Italy

To get the ball going I'll throw a few schools to the wolves.
I've read so much negative stuff about this place over the years I'm sure some of the more experienced battle scarred veterans of the TEFL world can enlighten the readers of this blog as to what the reality of the place is like. I personally have never read a single good word written about the place. Anyone care to enlighten us?

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Call for Papers

Well, it's a call for anything, really. Fact is, I haven't received notification of any grotty EFL outfits who deserve the TEFL Blacklist treatment over the past few weeks, and that's just got to be wrong!

So, please get yourselves together and send me your alarming stories of barmy bosses, crackpot colleagues and demon Directors. I'll be waiting to hear from you!

Shane Schools / Saxoncourt Recruitment

How could I have possibly forgotten about Shane and Saxoncourt, the definitive global Tefl Cowboys?! Here are a selection of comments about them from other websites and blacklists. Got that bargepole ready? You'll certainly need it!

To the left you have a genuine TEFL cowboy. Paul Mitchell of Shane Schools and now Marketing Manager for Saxoncourt Recruitment in London. How much misery has this smarmy self-opinionated twit caused to countless teachers? Here's how he describes himself on the Saxoncourt Recruitment website:

Hello,

I’m Paul and I work for Saxoncourt (recruitment) in our central London school. Having worked for Shane English Schools in Japan for two years and with Saxoncourt for six, I have been lucky to have been involved in some major changes – mostly good, occasionally not so god but always interesting. Having spent four years responsible for recruiting what seems like a million teachers for Shane in japan I am now charged with the duty of marketing Saxoncourt’s operations in the UK – raising our profile with other TT colleges and EFL teachers throughout the world.

I am looking forward to working with StaR members throughout the world and am sure that we can establish Saxoncourt as the first choice for prospective and experienced EFL teachers.

Paul

The Inspector senses a half-admission in the phrase "occasionally not so god" Interesting that he says god instead of good (a freudian slip no doubt). No Paul you are not God even though you may be lording it over your long-suffering "millions of teachers", oh and Paul, considering that you are suposed to be an EFL school manager don't you think someone should have told you that "japan" is wrong. It should have a capital letter, you know one of those BIG letters to make it "Japan". Sloppy - but isn't that the hallmark of Shane and Saxoncourt which of course are one and the same thing?

So the Headmaster will have to keep you in detention and write out fifty times. My name is Paul Mitchell and I dunno me grammur but I'm gonna lern.

Now down to the nitty gritty..............

There is a lot of negative stuff on the net about Shane. None of it is wrong, but some is inaccurate. Let me rectify these inaccuracies.

People are leaving Shane in droves, and they are experiencing problems recruiting new staff. This is mainly due to the multitude of illegal practices the company carries out and acts of intimidation that have become common knowledge via the internet and word of mouth in Japan.

For example if you are sick they charge you a day and a half’s pay (people have been forced to leave due to this and incur huge debts), and pay the cover teacher half a day’s pay (if they are lucky).

The healthcare is also a total scam, and gives kickbacks to Shane. They are expensive and reserve the right not to pay out. If they do, it takes months, and goes through so many NZ bank accounts, which all charge a handling fee, you are lucky to get 75% back. The Japanese national scheme costs less for your first year than Global healthcare does for two months and it's not impossible to get off of it once you are on, contrary to Shane’s mantra.

You must work 13 extra days a year unpaid. Days off are rarely consecutive. Unpaid leave must be applied for three months in advance, with no guarantee of getting it. They do not pay all travel expenses as promised. When you arrive, you are charged highly inflated prices for apartments, bedding etc. You must then pay back the money used as a deposit within three months, so you are held to financial ransom for a quarter of your first year.

They also demand that you have a telephone and are contactable at all times, yet won't install a phone or sponsor you for a phone to be installed. They send bad references when you leave and show you a false copy. They tell future employers that they are considering taking legal action against you for leaving to scare them out of hiring you. They ask for two months notice to leave. This is illegal. The law says that you must give two weeks, unless your contract states otherwise; then one month is the maximum. If a national holiday falls on pay day, you get your money after the holiday.

They sell themselves as a 'British' English school, yet use American language texts. They lie to students to get them to buy the same book for their children twice and keep them in the same class with no prospect of progressing. They only use their own home made texts which are terrible and full of errors. Students are put into any available, level class to maintain targets.

There are many teachers that have been with Shane for around 8 to 10 years, but they came here when the economy was good, and their pay hasn't changed since then, and they couldn't earn that money elsewhere. People trying to start unions have not had their contracts renewed.

In a recent typhoon which killed 7 people, teachers were forced to stay in the schools and not allowed to go home early even though most students cancelled and the train lines shut down. Contracts state you will get an hour for lunch yet the reception staff are told to only allot you 45 minutes. Students are told lies about why you leave the company. Japanese receptionists are paid less than they are in a local hamburger shop.

I could go on longer but I'll leave it for your good selves to double check all of this. Try www.efl-law.com/japan or www.ewaosaka.org, or call the Tokyo Bar Association on 03 3581 1511 to have a contract checked by a Japanese solicitor with a translator for free. Other than that, come here and get a job in a state school.

James, ripoffbuster@hotmail.com, Tokyo,

______________________________________________________________________________________________

I recently left Shane after working for them in Japan for abour 15 months. I have to agree that they should be avoided at all costs. The vast majority of Shane teachers are deeply unhappy in their jobs, and at the time that I made my departure, teachers were leaving in their droves to work for other language schools. Morale is kept deliberately low by removing holidays at the last minute, unfair distribution of cover days teachers are required to work, and frequent impositions on teachers´ free time by requiring them to teach additional hours for very little, and sometimes no additional reward.

Accommodation is very, very small and poorly furnished and they charge roughly twice the market value for it, thereby making a profit from their teachers accommodation needs. Most other schools subsidise teacher accommodation.

Attitudes to their teachers vary. Some DOSs are fine, but central management at Shane HQ seem to regard teachers as property rather than people. Shane provide virtually no professional support. As far as I am aware (and I did make enquiries) none of the DOSs has more than a CELTA, which means that if you wanted to undertake a DELTA you would be in trouble, as there is most likely no one within the company who will be able to act as your mentor (a requirement for anyone wishing to undertake a DELTA by distance study).

And if you find yourself in any kind of trouble, you can expect absolutely no assistance from the company. Their only concern is that you turn up for work, regardless of what calamity may have befallen you. I certainly wouldn´t recommend Shane as a first teaching job. It really offers no potential for professional development and in the majority of cases seems to put people off the teaching profession. Just about everyone leaves with a fairly bitter taste in their mouth, and I would suggest that any postings to the contrary are certainly written and posted by Shane management, or DOSs, under instructions from head office.

A bad company to work for. Very disappointing.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I left Shane after my home was flooded in a typhoon. I lost quite literally everything I owned, including my home, my clothes and eight months of work for an MA in Applied Linguistics.

So, having nowhere to live and no possessions other than the clothes I wore to work that day, my partner and I decided to leave our jobs and move to her home town in the west of Japan, where we would at least have a roof over our heads and some assistance from her family in straightening ourselves out.

My DoS was very sympathetic and understood the necessity to leave the company without serving a period of notice. Unfortunately the Principal of Shane English Schools did not share his compassion and proceeded to chastise me as if I were a badly behaved child. This just two days after I had lost everything.

I am 37 years old and I spent the ten years prior to my employment with Shane working as a journalist at a number of newsrooms in Moscow and London. Newsrooms can be aggressive and highly competitive working environments, but I never experienced such intransigence and insensitivity in any of those where I worked.

Of course, the day to day experience of working for Shane is not so extreme, the Japanese staff are generally very helpful and in most schools there exists a co-operative and amiable working relationship between school managers and teachers. However, senior management seem to consistently demonstrate a quite staggeringly complete disregard for the well being of teachers, which must inevitably affect the way teachers perform in the classroom. This, combined with the lack of resources (schools have no photocopiers or internet access, and you are restricted to using Shane´s own texts for all but upper intermediate and advanced classes) alongside the absence of potential for professional development and the inadequate and overpriced accommodation I outlined in my previous posting, means that the majority of Shane teachers are permanently demoralized and unhappy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I worked for SHANE English School in Chiba, then Tokyo in 2004/05. Fresh from doing a Cert Trinity TESOL it was my first (real) teaching job. I had been on the JET programme in Fukuoka for one year in 99/00.

I found SHANE good in that it was able to be fully-arranged outside Japan, in fact, by the English language school that hosted the Trinity course. Also, they meet new teachers at the airport, which is more than my present school in Prague did. However, finding your way from A to B on the subway is virtually impossible for the fresh teacher arriving at Narita Airport, and taxis impossibly expensive, unlike Prague.

I soon came to see SHANE as a post-cert training organisation, rather than a serious education provider. Scheduling was rather higgledy-piggledy, sometimes up to 10 different classes in the 6-hour teaching period. Chiba is traditionally a district hard to recruit to, meaning many days like this - rushed.

I will briefly speak about the three different DOS's I had, before briefing you on the financial shenanigans.

The first DOS was great, professional to a fault, empathetic despite the sometimes impossible task of assigning staff to back-breaking contact hours, and a good sense of humour. However, she up and left suddenly when her district was merged for cost cutting reasons, delivering two districts into the hands of a merciless SHANE warrior.

This fellow was well suited to wielding a stick, had no real social skills to persuade teachers to work the endless standby and cover days required for a short-staffed district, dismissed a teacher with great prejudice who had only been in the country two weeks for not being able to teach to the required standard (usually a DOS would take a personal interest to coach, you would think...) then allocated him four weeks of continuous cover while he completed the final month's employment! Eyesbrows were raised amongst many of us teachers at the logic of this.

Finally, at the end of 12 months in Chiba, I managed a transfer to the West Tokyo district. This district had a much better DOS and even scheduling. You will see some postings on this site on how the quality of Shane DOS can affect your stay, bear it in mind.

This is not meant to be a diatribe against Chiba district. It is just that I had such different experiences in the three districts I worked in. After merging, a few problems popped up with the salary payments. Outlines as follows:

1. Sometimes the extra 'standby' hours I worked were not included in the monthly salary calculations.
2. Three times the 5,000 yen 'cover' day bonus was not included at the end of the three month calculation period. Today, I am told teachers on new contracts don't even get this. Be prepared to work on your day off for free, with the real chance of not receiving one pence for your effort.
3. When I moved out of the SHANE apartment, the staff took out double the amount for final power and gas bills. I ended up having to catch a train to collect the refund (not reimbursed despite requests) as the two district admin offices' payroll systems couldn't, or wouldn't talk to each other...

So yes, you should be careful to check salary payments and keep utility receipts. When mistakes occur at Shane, it generally seem to be at your disadvantage.

SHANE was a punch-drunk, cash rooting, commercially-charging bull. The money supply screwed down extremely tight, and the fat little man has a truly gasp-worthy array of tactics to get teachers into working like little trojans for low pay.


Posted by Geetus on St. Dave's and saved by The Inspector before the thread is shredded.

_______________________________________________________________

Inspector McHammered of the Lard

1. The Index
   
2. Most Recent
   
3. Nominate a School for Blacklisting

Deleted

Bell Thailand Centre - TJAS, Bangkok

Hi Sandy

A posting for your page if you want it -

Bell Thailand Centre - Thai-Japanese Association School

I'd like to tell you about the situation at the TJAS Bell Centre in Bangkok. Warning fellow Thailand TEFLERS - the pay at Bell TJAS may be reasonable and the conditions appealing but DON'T APPLY.

I want to make it clear that this posting has nothing to do with the school itself - it's really well run, the Japanese staff are terrific and the kids are cool. However, the Bell Language Centre within the school is a different story.

Mainly the issue is with the centre manager, who is, for want of a better word, a bully. He has so far driven EIGHT conscientious, well-qualified and experienced teachers out of the place. These former staff members even formed their own INTERNET SUPPORT GROUP on Yahoo for people who had to suffer under him. Almost every single staff member who has left in the past 18 months has been a member of this group - that's a nearly a 100% staff dissatisfaction rating.

The main issues with this manager are -

1. Holding “staff votes” for the appearance of democracy and then vetoing staff voting decisions, for instance on choice of course books etc.

2. Blatant favouritism shown to his "inner circle", despite the highly unprofessional behaviour of members of this coterie, including unexplained absences from work due to drug overdoses.

3. Turning a blind eye to staff members being bullied by members of his inner circle, despite requests for help from the bullied party. This eventually led to the victim of bullying having to leave the job.

4. Observing staff lessons without a notice period.

5. Refusing to do sickness cover (one of his management duties), instead placing the pressure for absentee cover on busy colleagues.

6. Treating PGCE qualified teachers, some with years of teaching and management experience, as if they are17 year old Gap Year TEFLRS who aren’t capable of making informed professional decisions about anything. No coincidence that most of his staff are better qualified than him – could it be insecurity at work on his part?

7. A complete refusal to hold staff meetings or allow any staff members to raise issues and concerns which are troubling them.

8. Inventing meaningless, irrtaional tasks which prevent teachers from planning lessons.

9. A policy of targeting members of staff who disagree with his policies and bullying them out of their jobs by making their work lives a misery.

10. Refusing to communicate verbally with staff members, insisting that people with desks a stone's throw away communicate with him via email.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but gives an overview of what's going on down there.

No doubt you’ll get a couple of replies from members of the “inner circle” to this post, singing the praises of TJAS and the manager. They’ll also focus mainly on positive attributes of the school itself (which are not in question), rather than responding to the issues raised about the Bell centre.

Then they’ll peddle some cod New Age baloney, accusing the eight unhappy former staff members of "being bitter", of "having a bad attitude" and suggest that we "move on" with our lives. Funny how all eight of us performed well in our jobs, observations and reviews and were hired by Bell in the first place. They have a right to disagree with us I suppose, but it’s because we have moved on that we're now all able to have a laugh about our experiences there. It wasn't funny at the time though....

Cheers Sandy

Duke of TEFL

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Angloschool, Potenza, Italy

Another candidate for the blacklist - Prof. Larry Adeyanju, of Angloschool (also sometimes known as Anglomagic, magicang, magic trips, etc.) Potenza, Basilicata, Italy

I don't really know where to start with this guy. I worked at the school for two months, which in hindsight was a rather regrettable decision!! When I arrived I found that the reason the previous teacher had left was because the boss of the school had slapped her, pushed her to the ground, and grabbed hold of her when she tried to run away. This was witnessed by another teacher (who told me these details). She tried to go to the police about it but wasn't taken seriously, because another member of the Italian staff who also witnessed it contradicted her statement, as he didn't want to end up losing his job. I would just like to emphasise that the boss is a 6ft tall, 50-year-old heavily built man, and the girl he hit was 21 - and this was her first experience of working abroad.

When I arrived, having been promised 25 teaching hours a week, I found that I had been timetabled 38 hours (some of these involved 2 hours travelling time from the actual school). I objected to this immediately, threatened to leave unless it was reduced etc. So I finally got my 25 hours a week, but the boss refused to give me the standard contract, saying he was going to draw up another contract since I was so 'unaccomodating' (he is very fond of this word). This contract was ridiculous and I refused to sign it. Not that it would have been much good anyway, because it was a misspelt badly written imprecise paragraph, with just the owner's signature and the teacher's signature at the bottom. So I never got a contract, none of the teachers ever got their permesso di soggiorno, and we believed that there was no tax being paid on our behalf.

The next thing is that, unsurprisingly, we were almost never paid on time. Usually we would get half of our (measly) pay a week or two weeks late, and the rest just before our next pay day. In order to get the money we would have to ask for it repeatedly. My colleague, who had worked a lot of overtime and was continually reassured that she would be paid, left owed 1500 euros. At the end, the boss said she was lying about her hours and she could not possibly have worked that much overtime.

His personal manner is really unpleasant. He is manipulative and tries to blame his teachers for everything that goes wrong (despite the fact that it is usually due to his appalling management style and trying to suck up to important local people). He treats the students really badly, the school has no resources to speak of, except old useless textbooks, and there are never any CDs or tapes accompanying these, so the students can never do listening comprehension. He only employs young women and likes to see a picture before you arrive, to make sure you are sufficiently attractive. We found ourselves going to work dressed like nuns because if there was the slightest suggestion of cleavage, his eyes would not move from your chest! He actually gave out the phone number of another teacher to a friend of his who then sent flowers and champagne, and when this didn't work, threatening text messages. He also left threatening notes on the computer restricting our internet use to 5 minutes.

My conclusion was that this man is mentally ill. I really cannot explain his manner, his lies and his obsession with money any other way. He is like a cartoon villain, he's widely disliked in the town where the school is, and nobody we met was surprised by the things that were happening. The bottom line is DON'T WORK FOR HIM!!

_______________________________________________________________

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

1. The Index
   
2. Most Recent
   
3. Nominate a School for Blacklisting

Kramar's School of English, Slovakia

Hi Sandy,

I stumbled across your blog and how I wish I'd seen it, or something similar, this time last year.

I'd like to nominate for your blacklist, Kramar's School of English, in Zlate Moravce, Slovakia. Boris Kramar owner/director and all round nasty piece of work.

Hindsight being 20/20, I can see almost everything the man said to me, prior to arriving in Slovakia was a lie. I learned that lying is his primary idiom about everything.

The "flat" that he advertises as part of the teacher's benefits, could only generously be called a bed-sit. It is located in the basement of his mother-in-law's house one block from the school. Because of the proximity, there is no way to escape the man at the end of the work day or on the weekends.

He "provides" a cell phone, which he then uses to phone all hours of the day and night giving orders about all manner of things. He then expects the teacher to pay the cell bill that he runs up. He has telephones in every classroom and interupts classes to give instructions about minutia to all the teachers.

He had not done the paperwork for my work visa and instructed me to tell anyone who asked that I was "observing" his school as a part of a study I was making back home. (as I said, lying is his approach to everything) He is known to withhold salary from his female employees, to the point that they have to chase him down to get even a portion of their pay. I
received 10,000 SKK on the day that I arrived to buy groceries and then never received another cent in the two months before I left. When I left, he had some notion that I owed him money.

I've heard horror stories from others who have had the misfortune to stumble into this place. There is a thread (started by someone else) on teflwatch.com that gives other people's experiences as well. I'm glad to give more details as well.

The town of Zlate Moravce is lovely. Most of the people were absolutely fantastic. But Kramar makes it impossible to deal with the place. If your blog can help one poor unsuspecting English teacher miss the experience I had, you will have done a great thing.

Inspector McHammered of the Lard
FOR THE MOST RECENT POSTING CLICK HERE
FOR BLACKLIST NOMINATIONS CLICK HERE

Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School

I will not go into the lengthy criticisms written by the Washington Post or several Chinese newspapers have to say about this dreadful place and its owners. Perhaps I'll reserve that for a later post. But as for Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School (BNOFLS)...

I would like to urge all foreign teachers looking to work in China's expanding ESL job market to avoid BNOFLS. Use your intelligence and do not get lured by gimmicky advertising campaigns and the slick sales pitch that will promise all sorts of very wonderful things that will never mirror the realities of working here.

Firstly, the Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School group (BNOFLS) is not really a 'school'. It is a corporation with a business strategy, not an educational strategy, that is merely cashing in on a national obsession for learning English. English learning is China's new service industry and BNOFLS has exploited this to the extreme, as evidenced by foreign teachers employed here who are all expected to contribute to a marketing process; mostly as performing puppets to give the impression that their presence is vital for effective English teaching.

The owner of BNOFLS admitted in an interview with the Washington Post that foreign teachers are NOT employed to be teachers or instructors. Actual English teaching is the sole responsibility of English-speaking Chinese instructors in classes separate from yours. They are contracted as instructors, you are not. Any attempt to assume the role of an instructor by, for example introducing teaching skills associated with TEFL/TESOL, is punished. And, Big Brother will know, because he could be watching you from the camera located on the back ceiling of most classrooms.

As 'marketing tools,' all foreign teachers are paraded in front of parents like show pieces during open school days as if integral components vital to their child's learning process. This creates the impression their child is benefitting from instruction from a foreign teacher. So, foreign teachers are not the only ones being fooled by BNOFLS, but also the parents who are taken in by advertising campaigns and sales pitches before handing over extortionate sums of money for an education they believe will give their kids an advantage in the future job market. Foreign teachers are sometimes ordered to engage in bizarre activities, even if this means dressing-up for a public performance, to perpetuate the myth that BNOFLS is a great place to be. There are consequences for foreign teachers who refuse.

Contractual arrangements for foreign teachers are never clearly defined and job descriptions remain shrouded in ambiguity. Foreign teachers who challenge the authority powers of the school or dare to raise awkward questions about the role or purpose job of a foreign teacher are escorted from the premises (by security guards, so I've heard). In short, lessons conducted by a BNOFLS foreign teacher are not an integral part of the daily curriculum as far as the instructors or students are concerned, and exist peripheral to the whole operation. The rulings of several court cases is proof enough that BNOFLS exists only to pirate advance copies of university entrance examinations illegally obtained to sell to students' parents for money. That is, when BNOFLS is not busy 'polishing' exam results to enable its graduates to enter foreign universities; again, in what is a lucrative side business of employing 'gunners' (BNOFLS-appointed examinees who will stand in for the real candidates).

Classroom activities are nothing more than performing a few songs and games. Sounds easy? Well, yes it is... until angry parents confront you demanding why the hell you're not actually teaching anything useful! Groups of frustrated parents find it impossible to accept the fact that foreign teachers are not employed as teachers. They are dumb-struck when they discover foreign teachers are discouraged from using textbooks designed for language-learning purposes in class or employing other resources to add to levels of skill. Singing songs in class is fun, of course, but when repeated twenty times a day, day after day, month after month, this is hardly a productive contribution to the whole language learning process for all students. Attempts to introduce anything that resembles teaching result in disciplinary measures.

Therefore, a foreign teacher with TEFL/TESOL qualification is a waste of time at BNOFLS, perhaps actively discouraged. And what use would it be at schools that routinely falsify exam results to maintain its artificially inflated reputation of high exam results? Then again, it’s absolutely necessary when BNOFLS forces its own students to do eight exams in one day. But if you think eight exams in one day makes for a long working day, think again. Everyday is a long day for foreign teachers putting in twelve-hour days in most cases, as well as some weekends.

With the addition of 'extra-curricular activities,' twelve or eleven-hour days are common, and mandatory, with little or no free time to yourself. Discharging the frustrations of a life that confines all teachers within the perimeter fence of the BNOFLS campus is expressed in a variety of forms; breakdowns, and symptoms of depression or exhaustion are common. In addition to their own duties, mandatory participation is demanded of all foreign teachers in a variety of other activities, such as support roles in other foreign teacher classes everyday, covering sickness leave without additional pay, participation in evening or the occasional weekend class, or participation in pretty much anything else the school can dream up.

As mentioned, foreign teachers do not receive extra pay or other bonuses for these activities, because it is assumed everybody is willing and able to simply give time to the dictates of their job. When finally you are able to leave the campus (usually only at the weekend), a curfew is officially in place and security guards stationed at the main gate keep notes of times foreign teachers enter and leave the campus; especially if this is late at night.

Do not be fooled by oft-cited claims that BNOFLS has a high teacher retention rate. This is not true. Confidential talks with off-duty foreign and Chinese teachers reveal most of them can't wait until the end of the school year when they can leave. The pressure of the workload, living conditions, or living under a regime of ambiguous rules and regulations alone is enough to persuade a huge chunk of foreign and Chinese teachers to leave every year. The dictatorial regime that rules BNOFLS is enough to persuade most they made a big mistake. Only on the weekends when opinions are shared more openly does the truth come out at just how really unhappy all foreign teachers really are.

Lastly, I never worked out why, for a school that is obviously well-funded, the heating, hot water, or the electric is sometimes switched-off by administrators in the dead of winter in a fruitless effort to save money, leaving everyone to wash out of a bucket of cold water from an outside tap. And being woken every morning at 6 by marching band music from loud speakers isn't gonna make me look forward to another day in this lunatic asylum.BNOFLS appears on several internet blacklists. Avoid it like a bad dose of the plague.

PS: I may mention this in a new post, but BNOFLS will also make deductions from the salaries of foreign teachers by way of 'fines' or 'penalties' for breaking any one of a myriad of ambiguous rules and regulations (regardless of whether the administrators can prove a foreign teacher actually broke a rule or not.) This will also occur even if the foreign teacher who finds themselves found 'guilty' of breaking 'rules' can produce proof or evidence of their innocence. Financial penalties are imposed, and justified by BNOFLS, simply on the grounds of rumour or hearsay from the Chinese staff - whose word is gospel as far as the admin is concerned.

_______________________________________________________________

Inspector McHammered of the Lard in Val Ferret, Switzerland

1. The Index
   
2. Most Recent
   
3. Nominate a School for Blacklisting