I worked for Media Kids for a full semester, a semester that almost killed me.
http://www.mediakids-edu.com/

I am 27 years old, in excellent health, and graduated with a Masters degree 2 years ago from a prestigious private university. I was sent to Media Kids by my TEFL Certification company Oxford Seminars. Media Kids requested that I come to Thailand at the beginning of April and that they would have a place for me to stay near the school that I had been chosen for, approximately 1 hour North of Bangkok.

I arrived around April 4th expecting someone to meet me at the airport. After numerous calls it was clear that someone had 'forgotten.' I checked into a hotel near the BTS Skytrain and waited, and waited. I called Media Kids twice per day asking about the apartment near the school I was signed up for and the only message I received was 'come find our office'. Being unsure about this new country that I found myself in I was hesitant to set off in search of an office without any help.

After 10 days (!!!) on April 14th their foreign recruiter Eric, the person who had promised I would 'have a place to stay upon arrival' talked to me and told me that the school I was placed at had canceled, but that they already had another school for me and if I just waited in Bangkok a few more days his Apartment scout would get me a place to stay.

Another entire week passes with me calling twice a day only to be told, 'the apartment scouts are doing their best'. Eric is a really nice Canadian guy and I really want to believe that his people were lying to him. Finally, 3 days before I am supposed to begin teaching I am called and told to get in a taxi and they will give the taxi directions. The taxi takes me an hour North East to a sad looking office building down an alley. I get out and for 10 minutes search in and out of different offices (the office does NOT say Media Kids on the Window) and finally through luck of the draw step inside the Media Kids office.

I am feeling very alone and confused. Why did it take 20 days to find me a place to stay? Eric and his staff are all at lunch when I arrive so I wait around half an hour. When Eric arrives he tells me his assistant will take me to the apartment, 1 hour south of Bangkok in Samut Sakhon.

On the way to Samut Sakhon I try to converse in a friendly manner with Eric's assistant Pi to discover why it has taken so long to find an apartment. He doesn't seem to want to speak with me and outright ignores me! He continues speaking in Thai with his friend whom he brought along while I sit in the back. After about 90 minutes of this I begin to feel like I am being kidnapped and wonder where they are taking me. They refuse to answer any of my questions or even respond to me so I say, "You either tell me what is going on or I am calling the Tourist Police and am going to jump out of the car and run for it."

He looks back at me annoyed, and finally, speaking English VERY WELL tells me we will arrive in Samut Sakhon in about 20 minutes and he is sorry about the traffic. I feel foolish so I don't speak until we arrive at the school. (http://www.sksc.ac.th/kingsk/index.html)

We arrive at a school with Thai children wearing school uniforms. The fields and buildings look very worn and I ask him, "Are these High School students? They look like Middle Schoolers." Pi confirms that they are High School students then he goes to meet with the Director of the school. The clothes I am wearing are dirty and wrinkled from the long trip and I am NOT ready to meet with the Director, but we meet with him anyway.

We all three get back into the car and I assume we are going to the Apartment. After 20 DAYS (!!!) of waiting I assume we are going to the apartment. INSTEAD Pi pulls out a list of places and we begin going from building to building. For some reason, each place we go to is either closed or full. I am dumbfounded. It has been 20 days and they have not even bothered to call in advance to see if the apartments we are visiting have Vacancies, then Pi runs out of places to visit. There are none left on the list. We return to the school and Director tells us about two places he recommends (I later find out this is a method the schools use to keep tabs on the teachers.). One is a Filthy run down apartment building that resembles Low-Income Project Housing and the other is a converted Office Building, and neither have hot water.

Now I am not a picky person, but I still want and need the basics afforded me by my contract and promised to me before I arrived in the country. A clean apartment with AC and Hot Water. I'm not asking for High Speed DSL or Marble Floors, just AC and Hot Water! It is 40C/100F during the day.

I tell Pi that none of the places he has shown me are acceptable and I cannot BELIEVE that in 20 DAYS they have not found the CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED type of apartment. He looks annoyed and I am more angry than I can ever remember being. He tells me that it's either one of these two places or nothing. I cannot believe what is happening. Media Kids has jerked me around for 20 days, I've spent a fortune on a hotel in Bangkok and now I find out that he is refusing to find me an apartment with AC and Hot Water.

I accept the Apartment with AC because it's the same apartment the Director lives in and the building manager tells me I won't be able to move in for another week! That is COMPLETELY unacceptable because I start working at the school in 3 days! I thought he was going to take me straight to the apartment, drop me off, and then leave. Instead....it's this crazy circus! I literally am so angry I think I am going crazy. Spots are dancing in front of my eyes. I have never been treated so unprofessionally and I have no idea how to handle it. (Two weeks after living in the town I find enormous houses for rent at the same price they are charging us for our tiny apartments and later learn that our placement is part of a housing scam)

I call Eric and once again he placates me. "Well, you've been staying in the hotel 20 days. What's another 3?" I force logic to cool my anger and just tell Pi to take me to the BTS somewhere. He actually looks put-out and calls Eric to see if he has to do it. Like I am inconveniencing him by asking him to drop me somewhere along the enormously long BTS. He actually has the balls to ask Eric if he can just LEAVE ME in Samut Sakhon! I hear Eric on the other side of the phone tell him forcefully, "*sigh* PI! Just take him wherever he wants to go. We need to at least do that for him!" It makes me feel like Eric is not in control of the situation at all. That he is just doing his best to make me happy despite everything. (Later I find out that Media Kids simply refused to pay for the apartment early despite Eric telling them over and over that he promised me. The owner of the company told Eric, “YOU promised him, not Media Kids.” Eric tried to explain to the owner that he promised me as a recruiter for Media Kids and that meant that Media Kids promised me.)

I go see a movie at one of Bangkok’s 5 Star cinemas. The comfortable leather couches and ice cold AC cool my frayed nerves and unwind my tension. I return to my hotel and then move into the apartment 3 days later. At this point I am completely out of money. I have spent 23 days at a Bangkok hotel living off of my savings when I expected to be picked up at the airport and taken straight to my hotel. I ask for an advance of half my salary and am DENIED. (WHAT!? After all this? There must be some mistake.) I call Eric and he has to arrange for me to have a personal meeting with the 2nd in command of the company to get my Salary Advance. Finally I get a $120 advance on my $1,000 salary.

Fast forward 3 months; one foreign teacher has quit and the school and Media Kids are at each other’s throats about some sort of contract negotiation. The school is taking it out on the Foreign Teachers. We are not aloud to go inside the Teacher’s Lounge or other places on campus NO FOREIGNERS ALOUD. (That’s right, SEGREGATION.) The computer lab teacher turns the Internet Off when we arrive or ‘suddenly’ has a meeting and we have to leave so she can lock the door.

Some of the teachers are really nice and really care about their students but, there are two female Department Leaders that are at each other throats, one comes into the English department regularly to yell at the other in Thai. During one afternoon period 10 students get into a brawl. I lock the door and watch as a female student picks up a 2x4 and begins hitting boys. Knives are pulled…it is insane.

The foreign teachers suddenly and mysteriously all start getting sick. Trouble breathing swelling joints, muscle pain. The Irish Foreign teacher calls Media Kids and asks what is going on? Why we are all getting sick. He looks STUNNED by what they are saying to him. He puts it on speaker phone and I hear, “Why do you make up stories? Why are you such a liar?” We look at each other in disbelief. I am coughing so much my muscles are sore just from the coughing and he is having an allergic reaction so badly he cannot wear rings or a watch. The Irish teacher shakes his head and says, “I didn’t hear that last part?” The Media Kids staff member repeats himself, “I SAID. WHY-ARE-YOU-SUCH-A-LIAR?” The Irish teacher just shakes his head and says, “I’ll call you back.” He then turns to me and says, “What are we going to do about this? My doctor says something here is making me sick and our company Insurance should cover this, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to cooperate.”

Neither of us has the money to cover the expenses, that’s why we both signed up for the Media Kids Insurance. There is nothing we can do, we just keep working. Thursday evening of that week I cannot breathe, my throat is closing up and I am afraid I am going to die. I call one of the young Thai teachers and she has her sister take me to the hospital. The Thai doctor listens to my chest and tells me that my lungs have filled to 30% with fluid and that if I had gone to sleep I might not have woken up. He puts me on a breathing machine for 3 hours that mixes oxygen with medicine. The doctor tells me that there is an illegal toxic waste dump that has just been uncovered at a construction site Samut Sakhon. Heavy Metals such as Mercury are seeping into the rivers and evaporating into the air causing hundreds of cases of reactions ranging from headaches and exhaustion to severe allergic reactions such as myself and the Irish teacher’s. He also says it has been in all the Thai papers but that it is banned in the English press because it would hurt Thailand’s image as a tourist destination.

It is near the end of the month and the bill amounts to 1/3 of my paycheck. The Thai teacher’s sister loans me the money. I am too weak to return to my apartment, so I sleep on her floor. She gives me a blanket and a pillow it is a warm comfortable night. I call Media Kids in the morning and tell them I have been in the hospital the previous night and will not be able to make it to work in time. The Media Kids staff person accepts the message and hangs up. After 20 minutes I am then called by a staff member accusing me of lying about being in the Hospital and that I am just taking Friday off. I respond, “I have a hospital bill with a time and date to prove where I was. Both myself and the Irish teacher are very ill from a toxic waste site that YOU ARE aware of because it is in all the Thai Newspapers. What are you trying to pull here?” Suddenly the Media Kids staff member changes his tone and agrees complete and asks me to fax the receipts for insurance purposes.

Later in the day while I am resting I receive a call from an older British woman. “I regret to inform you that your services are no longer needed at this company.” I am surprised. I respond, “So you’re telling me that because I took ONE SICK DAY of which I have 10 per semester after having never arrived late even ONE time to a SINGLE class Media Kids is throwing in the towel?” She is very surprised…”Well, no, I don’t make any decisions. They just hired me to call people and gave me a list. I don’t know any details.” I respond, “Ok, well I have a contract and unless I am in breach of that contract Media Kids is responsible to complete the contract with me.” She says, “Ok, but…contracts aren’t worth anything in Thailand. They don’t ever honor contracts. It’s just a piece of paper they use to control you…I’m really sorry about all this. I think the company has really screwed you.” Again I am really surprised! “Thank you for being honest with me…”

I get a call from my Media Kids supervisor. She tells me I can stay in the apartment for one week and that the company will pay the electric bill. I pack my bags and am getting ready to head for the airport. As I am leaving the Building Owner comes out and starts yelling at me in Thai. I call my supervisor and a different staff member picks up. It’s the staff member who told myself and the Irishman that we are liars. He tells me, “Your supervisor is no longer with the company. I can hear the building owner, hand him the phone.” The building owner wants to know who is going to pay for the last utility bill? The Media Kids staff member says, “Give him $500. He says you owe him money for the electric.” I respond, “No, my supervisor said Media Kids was going to take care of that.” The Media Staff member begins speaking rapidly in Thai to someone then says, “Why are you such a liar? Why do you constantly lie? Just give him $500 and then get out of my country.” Again I am dumbfounded with anger and I am in DISBELIEF about how they are treating me. I say into the phone, “I am leaving. I am not giving him any money and if he tries to touch me he will regret it.” I have trained in martial arts my entire life and anger is surging through me in such a force as I have never known. The building manager stares at me and backs away to the door of his office. I am literally shaking with rage. All the Thai people nearby who can see me are staring at me with wide eyes and I can only imagine what I look like. I get into the taxi and leave for the airport…