By Laurie Notch (posted here with the author's permission)

Recently, there seems to be a rash of stories about foreign ESL teachers' experiences in the ``hakwons'' from hell. They often cite instances of being cheated out of salary (especially for overtime work), living in cramped and dirty conditions, being deprived of medical coverage and sick leave and never receiving their severance bonus or airfare reimbursement _ as promised in their contracts. When, of course, the teacher starts to complain over the shoddy living conditions and violated terms of the contract, more often than one would like to believe, the ``hakwon'' director goes ``ballistic'' and resorts to Mafia tactics such as threatening the teacher verbally, and at times physically, resulting in huge conflicts making working relations tense and work conditions difficult.

The teacher then decides to get out in hopes of finding a better job in Korea at some more reputable school, where the terms of the contract are honored and the Korean management is ``sane.'' Wouldn't anyone in such circumstances feel this way?

However, it is nigh to impossible for foreign teachers under contract to relocate to a better job as the Korean government empowers the ``hakwon'' director with the principle of the release letter. Without this letter stating that the teacher is released from all obligation to the sponsoring employer, the teacher is often ``blacklisted'' by Immigration (meaning she/he has no chance of getting another work visa for a very long time) and has no option but to leave the country. When we consider how many teachers have come here all the way from Canada, the United States, England and Australia _ most of them having paid their own airfare _ sudden expulsion can prove devastatingly costly, both financially and emotionally.

Granted, the release letter is a device to protect the ``hakwon'' industry from fickle foreign teachers who might find a better offer and flit out of their obligation to their sponsor, which is actually a reasonable precaution to guarantee the employee honors the contract. However, there are many directors who are absolutely abusive, psychologically disturbed, totally unreasonable, and who constantly intimidate, threaten and even blackmail the teacher into accepting the situation and keep on working under the cruelest of conditions.

Under these circumstances the teacher feels like an indentured servant. Then when the teacher decides she/he can't take it anymore and opts to leave (usually for his/her well-being), the director goes to Immigration, lies through his teeth, distorts the whole story to make the teacher look bad, then has the power to blacklist the teacher from working elsewhere in Korea.

The teacher has to sit with the Immigration officer, take the bullying (without benefit of a legal representative or even an interpreter) then get the final humiliating boot in the rear. ``You have to leave the country NOW!'' _ many times deprived of even the 14-day grace period to pack and make travel arrangements. So, my question is, where are the foreign teachers' rights? Who is there to speak on their behalf?

For many new foreign teachers who come to Korea, being deported and then denied any future work opportunities in Korea simply because they have argued the terms promised in the contract is entirely unfair to both foreign teachers and Koreans alike. Suddenly, they have to find the financial means to leave Korea. As they are strapped for cash, they quickly jaunt to Japan, pick up a tourist visa, then come back and work illegally to make enough money to return home. Once there, they criticize Korean people by proclaiming on the Internet or in local papers _ or even to their statesmen _ how they suffered, spreading their rancor about their experience all over.

This, in turn, dissuades well-intentioned and qualified teachers from coming to teach here. Korea winds up losing not only the very competent teacher that was deported (simply for standing up for fair working and living conditions) but also any good teachers who might come and work in future due to the bad image being created about Korean employers' abusive ways toward foreigners. The word is out: Being a ``hakwon'' teacher means being treated like a dog.

The issue here really boils down to this: Why don't the teachers have any say in the matter, or anyone to represent them at Immigration _ where it seems deportation has already been decided by the time they even have a hearing _ and tell their side of what went on in the ``hakwon'' from hell? It seems the Korean authorities assume that the Korean sponsor is always right and that all foreign teachers are simply out to make money and exploit the situation. Personally, I'm disheartened to see our Korean hosts turn so on their foreign guests, who for the most part are really here to gain an interesting cultural experience and practice the art of teaching.

The problem seems to be most serious in Pusan, Ulsan and other less cosmopolitan areas where xenophobia prevails. Why, in Pusan, just recently, there was a particularly bad situation where the ``hakwon'' director proved a real menace to the welfare of the teacher _ even to the point of resorting to threats of doing bodily harm. This renowned _ but ``psycho'' _ director has lost four teachers in the last eight months by having them fired, deported and blacklisted because they complained about the poor living and working conditions.

They endured endless overtime (without pay), were constantly bullied by said director, lived in unsafe apartments and were denied sick leave entitled by the labor law. With the help of a Korean friend (a layman with no legal experience), one teacher there decided to file a case against the director at the Labor Board over the issue of salary due. The director's response was to deport and blacklist the teacher. Is this what we get for standing up for our rights?

The next critical case I learned of concerned a physically abusive director who struck a teacher who argued with him and then stole his passport (by coming into his room and rifling through his belongings), holding it for ransom, so to speak, in order that the teacher wouldn't up and leave. Another Korean friend (again without legal background) had to threaten this director by reporting him to the police, the Labor Board and the Canadian Embassy! Again, the recourse was to stick Immigration on the teacher. Needless to say, in this case, the threats worked and the director ceded.

Under such conditions, where can a teacher go to get help and counsel? What services are available that can provide interpreters and legal representation for the maligned foreigners? If a Korean were in such a plight in America (even if there illegally), she/he would always be entitled to an interpreter and a lawyer to defend the case.

Why are the Korean authorities so one-sided in their view of foreign workers here? Moreover, where is there an agency that investigates these schools and their ``Mafioso'' directors, where teachers can report incidences of abuse and have the people investigated? Why should such directors be allowed at all to continue to employ foreign teachers (or anyone else for that matter)? Isn't there any official agency that could curb their abusive behavior or even shut them down? I've been here for eight years and I would really like to know.

It seems all the teachers who find themselves in such positions of helplessness can do is pass the word via the Internet, articles in the papers (like this one), word of mouth, or by distributing flyers to other foreigners in the area informing them which schools to avoid when considering teaching posts here. They might also report such cases to their embassy, which does keep files for such complaints. However, embassies and consulates have no jurisdiction over local Korean matters and therefore cannot intervene. But they can publicize the problems through their national information centers. Maybe such negative publicity will finally send home the message that Korea needs to clean up these disreputable ``hakwons.''

Probably the most promising note in all this nasty, mean business is the fact that the Korean Labor Board is very receptive to teachers' complaints. It's just that they are limited by the law as to how far they can go against an abusive employer. After one grueling altercation at Immigration (where the teacher did win the right to be released through the help of a Korean friend who stolidly held his ground against the Immigration officer who claimed he had no right to be there), the Immigration officer confessed to the Korean friend that he didn't understand all these problems with the foreign teachers and would like to meet sometime over a drink to discuss the best way to handle their cases. We're all still waiting for that rendezvous to happen.

In the meantime, the same officer has just taken the side of yet another ``psycho'' Korean ``hakwon'' director _ and another fine teacher that could have contributed to Korea's drive for better English education has been deported. ____

The writer is a visiting professor at Bookyoung University in Pusan.

To send Laurie E-Mail: laurie@sun630cc.nfup.ac.kr