Hi,

Recently, in Changwon, a teacher at TOPIA ENGLISH ZONE gave his 1 month notice, and requested a post-dated release letter so that he could find a new job starting as soon as he finished his current one. He was unhappy with the director, Mr Kim, and his nasty wife, Mrs Yoo, who ran the hakwon as if it were a prison for teachers. During 'working hours', 8 hours a day, teachers CANNOT leave the hakwon, not even to go home (2 minutes away) and eat, not to go out and eat...at the hakwon, internet use was not allowed, socializing frowned upon, no reading the newspaper...when you werent in class you were at their beck and call to do other work- NONE OF IT OVERTIME.

MR KIM flat out refused to sign the teacher's release letter. The teacher threatened to quit there and then...his request being reasonable, as if the director signed a release letter stating the last day of work as one month ahead, the teacher couldnt get a new visa till then! Mr kim refused to sign, simply out of spite, and the teacher walked out.
The following working day, the teacher arrived to collect his pay. Mr Kim ignored him, and 3 hours later he finally got paid. At that point, once he had his money in his hands, he handed them the release letter and ordered Mr Kim to sign, OR-
- the teacher would PICKET the hakwon, with a placard in Korean stating the hakwon mistreats foriegn teachers, embarrassing mr kim and possibly costing him students
- the teacher also had a copy of the students' phone numbers, and he told mr kim he would be contacting their parents to tellthem mr kim was a rotten korean who persecutes vulnerable foreign teachers (the teacher speaks Korean)
- the teacherinformed Mr kim he would conduct an aggressive internet campaign to warn ALL jobseekers on DOZENS of ESL boards not to work at his school, blacklist all agents dealing with his school, etc(HOWEVER, due to potential lawsuits, the teacher hasnt said one single bad thing about TOPIA. I have, though....i.e., chorongee2000 aka as 'jow blow')

Kim refused to sign.
The teacher walked into every classroom, excused himself, and told students in Korean 'I am leaving today...kids, this hakwon is a bad bad place...the director does bad things to foreign teachers...study here and you are helping a bad korean person..', then proceeded to the teachers room where he yelled and screamed and swore at kim to sign, before Kim ran like a weasel and hid in his office.
The next day the teacher appeared with a sign inf front of the hakwon, as students came and left. The director called the police- BTW, it is NOT a crime to demonstrate in front of a hakwon- but the police asked him not to do it again...). Then, come wednesday, Kim had gotten word of the internet campaign against him. His agent, a guy who sends teachers to hakwons without checking them out in any way shape or form, was TOMMY KIM, busan, aka as 'native119'. Tommy Kim sent me (joe blow, that is) threatening emails, and, when informed they would be forwarded to over 100 prospective teachers, claimed he no longer represented TOPIA, and never addressed the accusations laid against him- ie not even initiating contact with current teachers nor advising the hakwon to drop MANY outright ILLEGAL clauses in the contract.
Yo. Tommy. You have been TERMINATED.
Then, the day after the cops came, the foreign teacher went to the hakwon provided housing to retrieve a few remaining items. MR KIM had changed the locks! The police informed the teacher that was ILLEGAL, a chargeable OFFENCE (tresspassing without teacher's permission), and
to inform them if the hakwon owner had done so...well, the teacher was back picketing the hakwon, with a nice big sign in Korean stating:
TOPIA DIRECTOR MISTREATS THEN DEPORTS TEACHERS
TOPIA DIRECTOR CHANGED THE LOCKS ON MY HOUSE AND STOLE MY THINGS
GIVE ME BACK MY BELONGINGS!!!
The manager came out and told him 'OK, we will sign your release letter!!'. The teacher went and got the letter signed and stamped by a humiliated and beaten foe. The director got his wife to do the honours...she claimed he was sick in bed from stress, but I learned he was hiding as he was too ashamed to sign in front of the teacher. It's a good thing, because he would have had the letter held to his face and have been laughed at! The directors wife, who had been nasty and mean till then (it was she who snarled 'dont sign! dont sign!' to the director when the teacher had originally given him a post-dated release letter) was now a much gentler creature, and asked the teacher NOT to call the police (they were SCARED), and to hand over the students numbers (they were terrified of the teacher calling parents and destroying their reputation and possibly causing a significant number to drop out). Well, the teacher assured them he wouldnt call the parents- though he wasnt handing over a single THING- nor call the cops. Then, with signed letter in hand and a big fat smile on his face, he was escorted to his former place where he picked up a few odds and ends and left.

TOPIA ENGLISH ZONE Changwon is a rotten school.
I WILL TRACK DOWN ALL AGENTS DEALING WITH THIS PLACE, AND MASS EMAIL PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS WARNING THEM NOT TO DEAL WITH SCUM WHO REPRESENT SCUM SCHOOLS.

SO- REMEMBER- DONT TAKE ANY CRAP-