In Response To: Re: Is Yakup International legit? (yakup)

While anyone can write anything about anybody and it may or may not be true, I still want to give advice to anyone looking for work teaching. It concerns Yakup International. Suite 2706/ No. 426 Building, Suite 1002, 1106 and 1310/No. 418 Building, Wangjing West Garden, Chaoyang District Beijing (Post Code: 100102) , People's Republic of China

They have a nice flash website and a lot of information about teaching in China. Many of the “laws” they say exist here (such as companies not being allowed to pay for return tickets for teachers, they say only one way is allowed) are not true. There are other bogus rules such as salary caps for teachers imposed by the government and all sorts of other bogus promises for how well you will be treated.

SUCH IS NOT THE CASE!!

The man who runs this organization (or at least says he does) purchased his PhD degree and did not attend the London School of Economics (LSE). This is only the tip of the iceberg of deceit.

They send all their new hires out of Beijing to rural areas where the living conditions are quite frankly terrible. Teachers have reported living with no bathrooms, no hot water (even in winter), limited variety of food, no privacy, terrible sleeping conditions and more! Add to this teaching over 50 students per class, not one other foreigner in the area, no one who speaks English, no access to email, far from transportation (train station, etc.), cell phones that don’t get service and you can see why teachers for this company report feeling isolated, trapped, abandoned and frightened.

Teachers also report things like not being paid on time, not being paid at all, contract conditions being changed and these “wonderful” people at Yakup back in Beijing who were your “good friends” suddenly forget how to speak English and stop answering or returning your phone calls, leaving you in rural China to fend for yourself. What do they care? They already got paid for having “human trafficked” you to your new “home.”

Of course there is responsibility on the part of the applicant for any job and clearly some of them have been beyond naïve in getting sucked in here.

I urge you to read on.

Recently “Dr.” Yakup had a potential new hire female teacher who spoke not one word of Chinese repeat to him over and over again Wo Ai Ni (I love you). He refused to tell her its meaning and while holding her hand, had her repeat it over and over again. He and his Chinese staff thought this was simply hilarious.

This same young lady was originally told her contract period would be for less than a month (summer camp type work) and she would be paid quite well. When she asked to see a copy of the contract, she was told that such a thing only existed online and apparently the friendly folks at Yakup International lacked the resources to print one for her to see. Red Flag Number One.

She was held at an apartment (originally offered for her to stay at, as a gesture of how nice they were) with several Chinese people who never let her out of their sight. They even went so far as to stand watch over her outside the bathroom. On her second night in her new “home” when she asked for more details about her job, she was summoned to another building to “Dr.” Yakup’s office (which also happens to be his personal apartment) where he told her that she would now be expected to work for at least 5 months, possibly a year. Red Flag Number Two.

She got nervous and wanted to contact some family and friends. Despite their flashy website and obvious computer savvy, they could not provide her with internet access or arrange it for her to check her email or send any email. Red Flag Number Three.

Then, the next night, “Dr.” Yakup had her in his “office/bedroom” (now her third night in this increasingly uncomfortable situation) and while holding her hand for an extended period of time, proceeded to tell her that if she ever smoked another cigarette again he would be “very, very angry with you.” This young lady was now scared and really wanted out. When she mentioned that she didn’t want the job (telling him that the reason was now the job had gone from a 3 week summer camp position, to a 5 month full time gig, possibly a year), “Dr.” Yakup told her that she had no choice. He claimed the men coming to get her had already left for Beijing and so there was no debate about it, she HAD to take the job. She would be leaving soon and that was that! Red Flag Number Four.

No contract, no guarantees and no answer as to exactly where she would be going, or for how long.

No access to International Phone calls.

No access to emails.

The only thing she had was a cell phone, but it was not able to make International calls and she was “monitored” on every conversation.

Anytime she tried to get away (even just to “go for a walk around the neighbourhood” as she tried telling them) she had at least one, usually two people who went with her everywhere and kept her from doing what she wanted.

She was terrified; feeling trapped and wanted to leave. She had no idea how to contact the police (everyone should know the phone number for the police in any country they visit. So, the young lady then called me (someone she barely knows), frightened and feeling trapped.

While on the phone, I told her to act excited (in a good way) and tell them that a friend from Beijing wanted to come and say goodbye to her before she left Beijing. She did so and waited.

When we arrived, everyone was friendly enough. We greeted the Chinese staff who spoke to us in English and we when they asked where we were going, we simply said we were taking her to have some lunch. They asked why we were taking both her bags and we said we were also going to do some laundry and buy some things to prepare for her trip out of Beijing.

They told us no and began to block our way out of the apartment. They said they would have lunch brought to us. We thanked them for their kind offer, but said we had a special restaurant we wanted to take our friend to before she left Beijing and that we would be back in about two hours after lunch and laundry. They got even more in between us and her, blocking our way and told us now that no one could leave.

I began to get upset and pushed my way past them to take the arm of the now completely terrified young lady and move her out the door. Suddenly the Yakup staff couldn’t speak or understand anymore English and the one lady told her colleagues to call for others to come, saying in Chinese Ta xiang tao pao (She’s trying to escape).

That is when I reminded them that she had no contract, was not obligated in any way to stay and we were leaving now and they needed to get out of our way. Through many loud comments in Chinese about how we had to stay, could not leave, etc. we made our way to the elevator.

Once we were in the elevator, one of the Chinese staff for Yakup International kept pressing the button for the elevator (outside the door) to keep the door from closing, while telling all the other Chinese people already in the elevator that the foreign girl had “my jacket in her bag.” I told them that we were going to call the police and foreign affairs and they needed to let us go. She still blocked our way and kept everyone trapped on the 11 floor by repeatedly pressing the button to keep the door open, while screaming for her colleagues to get others here quickly.

After I stepped out of the elevator and kept her from hitting the button again, allowing my colleagues to evacuate the now almost crying young lady to our vehicle, the Chinese staff from 1106 - Building 418 - Wangjing Garden Apartments, attempted to keep ME from leaving by way of the stairs. I am a large man with no fear and after extracting myself from their lame attempts to physically hold me until others from their company arrived, I went down the stairs. I was punched in the stomach by the lone (quite small and young) Chinese man of their staff, after I broke free from their grasp. I’m sorry that he had his punch returned; since I am quite sure he felt his “gift” a bit more than I felt his.

Hysterically screaming from the top of the stairs in Chinese, their female staff member kept hollering Wo bu zhi dao shen me yi si (I don’t know your meaning).

My meaning was quite clear. We were taking a young lady from an almost hostage-like situation to safety.

There is another and extremely more troubling allegation of a young lady who claims sex was forced on her by “Dr.” Yakup against her will.

I have already contacted the police and the foreign affairs department and encourage anyone else who has had a negative experience with Yakup International to do the same.

There are some postings by others you need to read as well. They young lady I am speaking of found this horrible organization through a website called That's Beijing (www.thatsbj.com) I realize that “That’s Beijing” can not control who places ads on their system (after all, they can simply change their email address and re-register again), I do not fault them in any way for what has happened.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Beware of situations like this, please use some common sense and before you leave Beijing for any job, make sure you know where you are going and when you will be back. Register with your embassy in Beijing, take their phone numbers with you and make sure you know how to use your cell phone to contact the police and call internationally. You can buy phone cards, but often they only work in the city where you have bought them and you may not be able to do this from the country side. Have your family and/or friends call you weekly in such a case to make sure you are safe if you have no other method available to you. In short, be an adult and make sure you are looked after and don’t allow someone else to do this for you.

The time to get out of any situation is back at Red Flag Number One. From a safe distance you can take the time to determine if the warning is serious enough to stay away, or something that can be resolved.