Jon:
     Thanks for the reply.  I'm happy to say that I will be leaving on
Thursday to teach in the Czech Republic in the city of Brno.  As much as I
hated the woman I worked for in Korea, my stay was very profitable--culturally
and financially.  In fact, because of my stay there I am able to take an
incredibly lower paying job in Brno without the worry of finances to get
back out of the country quickly if I have to.  

     Can you tell me what you know about the seemingly mythical
blacklist of teachers?  I've recently been approached by three Korean
groups and had two of them become somewhat silent.  I don't know if they
are waiting on more info or if my name was placed on a list.  

     As for my story, I will attempt now to give you something to post.  

     In the summer of 95 I found an advertisement in my university
about teaching in Korea.  The company, World Education Center in Pusan,
listed the basic luxuries and duties.  Since I had just recently finished
my M.A., I had some loans to be concerned about and I was intruiged by the
idea of seeing the world.  I don't hold WEC--world education
center--responsible for what happened during my stay in Korea, but I do
advise others to work as hard as possible to not let the excitement of
international employment taint your logic.  Ultimately, the decision to go
was mine, and I should've seen the problems ahead of time.  I will begin
with my initial conversation with whom I believed to be my boss, Mr. Lee.
Amazingly, he called me during normal waking hours in America, but his
accent was fairly strong and he seemed to have scripted out the phone call
before hand.  When I would ask him a question, he would ignore it and
continue talking--about what, I usually couldn't tell (sign 1).  I passed
it off as simple communication difficulties--a very logical and reasonable
assumption.  He called, though, several more times, and the conversations
become more unitelligable.  WEC gave me a serious of instructions that I
had to accomplish before I could get my VISA.  The instructions lacked
some facts that were necessary (sign 2).  I was puzzled why such a company
wouldn't know all the facts considering it was essential to the efficiency
of the group, but I wanted to go.  When I secured my VISA, I was given a
flight reservation number.  It was wrong.  I was given a second one and it
also was wrong--I thought.  I specifically asked to fly from Rochester, NY
to the job.  My flight was booked for only NY city--a 6hr drive.  This
info I found out two days before my flight.  I called WEC and told them
the problem but that I had found a flight from Rochester to NY city.  Over
the phone WEC confirmed that my future employer would compensate me for
the cost of the ticket--this is money I never saw.  

When I finally arrived in Seoul, there was no-one to meet me and I was given
no information as to where to go in the airport for my connecting flight to
Chinju--a very daunting situation considering the language barrier.  I made
to Chinju and was greeted with an arm tug by Mr. Lee.  He immediately began
jerking me around--not too strongly but still obnoxious--and telling me how
bad Canadians are.  During the car ride his wife remained silent--my new
boss--while he told me how lazy and stupid Americans are.  I hadn't been in
the country a few minutes and I thought "this is such a huge mistake."  In
part of our conversation he asked my family history.  I told him mostly
German to which he asked if I could speak the language.  Well, I can't; 
therefore, in his twisted logic, I could not be German at all--however, many
of his countrymen feel the same way about Koreans who are born in America
and live there all their lives (sign 3).  We arrived at his apartment at
10:30 and they gave me some food--bread and milk.  It would've been more
appropriate if it had been water considering the jail sentence I felt I had
begun.  During my first meal he basically said all Canadians are bad and I
was to have no fraternization with any Koreans except him.  Plus I was to
not drink beer except with him.  He asked me if I would teach the next and I
said yes--I felt awkward about saying no and I really wanted to make my
employers happy.  I woke the next day at 5:30 a.m. and was whisked off to my
job.  It is a very dirty and small hole on the second floor of a 5flr
building.  The bathroom smelled and the classrooms had writing on the walls
at child level.  My boss, Kim Oak Jah, gave me a book and sat me down in
front of a class as she sat in the back and staired for a few minutes.  I
had been given absolutely no preperation time.  One of the teachers, a
Canadian, had pity on me and stayed with me to ease the first class.  It
went well enough because all the students were interested in asking me the
standard--not yet so to me--questions they always asks to new teachers.  At
8:30 a.m. the morning shift was over and Lee took me to eat a bizzare
concotion that made my stomach sick later in the day.  In fact, later in the
evening, they forget to help me get food.  I moved my stuff during the day
and was given a little bit of info from a Canadian couple I would be living
with for one week.  The next week I moved in with a Canadian man, a Chinese
man and his wife and two year old daughter.  It shocked me, but in the 6
months I lived with that group, the tension was incredibly low among us.  As
most ex-pat teachers will tell you, even if your job is cool, you almost
always have roommate problems--I didn't.  For the first two weeks Lee, whom
we called captain crazy or just plain old wingnut, persistently harrassed
and request my presence for no reason.  His institute, now called "Yale"
when I last checked, was very near my new home, so it was easy for him to
appear un-announced.  We took a necessary trip to Masan for more necessary
identification.  On the bus he harressed me about my knowledge of some
Spanish.  It was hell.  I was tired and he wouldn't shut-up.  From then on,
I did my best to stay out of my home until he backed off. 

I realize at this point that I could easily write a small book about my
experience, so I will try to give you the reasons why to avoid Kim Oak
Jah, her husband, and making the same mistakes I did.

Mrs. Kim had me working about 30hrs a week for the most part but I was
available to her for over 75.  What I mean is that she could cram my
required 30hrs into any time between 6:30 a.m. till 10:00 p.m. five days a
week, which she liked to do.  I was constantly struggling to get enough
sleep and when I requested simply to not teach the last class if I have to
teach the first or vice versa, she refused to chang my schedule.  She did,
though, change the schedule during the daytime very often.  In fact so
often that she forgot to tell us until after we--the teachers--were
expected to be teaching.  It's a barrel of monkeys to walk into work every
day and having no idea of who you'll be working with or their abilities.
She also like to place students in a class even when the student's
ability was well below the class.  She would ask our opinions and then
ignore them.  Many of the younger students did not want to be there and
were therefore unruly.  She said that she would help us if we needed it,
and I had to request it once.  When she came into the classroom, she
immediately asked the boy I had been angry with if he thought I was a good
teacher.  Let's see, I had been attempting to discipline him for the past
30 minutes, what would he say.  Of course he told I her I sucked.  He was
well aware that if he complained, she would chew me out.  Mrs. Kim also
told me that the problem was he found the class too easy.  Well hello!  So
she informed me that I must teach fast for him yet slow for the rest of
the class.  It's a very interactive class.  It was impossible.  

The institute itself was very cold in the winter and she didn't have enough
heaters--by the way, most Korean heaters are just basically advanced fires. 
She would have spies placed in the class to tell her anything I said that
might be construed as bad.  She never did secure insurance for me until a
week before I left.  Then she charged me for, which the contract stated I
wasn't supposed to happen, but I let her take the money because my father
had just died and I was in no shape to fight.  When my father died, she had
the audacity to ask if it meant that I wouldn't teach that day.  When she
was supposed to give me my last check she was almost an hour late, and she
bitched me out for leaving.  All any of the teachers ever were to her were
products that she could make money off of.  Only one teacher ever got any of
the required severance pay.  Her path around it was to simply fire a teacher
one month before the contract ended.  She liked to play the part of friend
while she connived more ways to get money.  When she found out that many of
us had recieved a U.S. goverment letter stating the pitfalls of teaching in
Korea, she was angry that we were learning more about our rights.  If one
student out of class complained, she would bitch the teacher out. 
Everything I said about her, though, goes triple for her husband.  He was
deviant and seemingly insane.  At one point he had been spreading a story
that I was kissing a teaching from another institute.  I had talked to this
person three times and had never even shaken hands.  When my Canadian
roommate and I got drivers licenses through the help of a friend, he was
furious because it was out of his control and it meant more freedom for us. 
He later began to spread rumors about my Canadian roommate and a new
instructor at his institute. 

Kim Oak Jah's institute was called "Pagoda" and I believe now it is called
"Hangook."  It is located almost catacorner from an ECC institute.  The
last news I received from Korea was that she is down to one teacher but
has connected her business with a national chain so it is now easier for
her to get instructors.  Her husband's family name is all I now: Lee.  His
institute is called, I believe, "Yale."  I don't know the location, but
both businesses are in Chinju, sometimes spelled Jinju.  

I am going to be outside of America for the next year, so I will not be
able to answer any questions about Chinju.  That is, unless I can get
Email where I'll be.

Finally, with all the negatives I've mentioned, I want it to be clear that
this is in no way a testimonial about all institutes, Korea, or Koreans.
I hated my employer but I loved the country.  The Koreans whom I can call
friends went to extremes to help ease my life in their country, and the
majority of Koreans I met were, to this point in my international life,
the most cooperative and willing to aid.  Go to Korea and teach if you
can, but be very careful.

Philip Hinkle