I've just come off the worst teaching experience of my career. Two months working for IHS was all I could stand.

It was somewhat like being sent back in time to the US South in the 1950s. The school had a triple standard:

Korean teachers on one level

white American teachers on another

nonwhite American teachers on the lowest level.

I hadn't experienced such in-your-face racism since I was a kid. The first time I met my supervisor, she gave me the look of purest hatred I'd seen in years. She refused to speak with me most of the time, but played games of imtimidation like glaring at me while I worked online. She constantly did everything she could to undercut me, telling lies to both her boss and to the parents, telling them I was unprepared when I was informed at the last minute of new classes I was to teach, for example.

I was not the only one to be fired or driven out by this racist supervisor. A Black teacher was fired for "looking scary." A white teacher had his romance with a Korean woman broken up by my supervisor, who told her a steady stream of lies. The one who was technically the head teacher, who was also white American, was kept out of nearly all decisions despite having been at the school for eight years, while Korean teachers with only a few months in the field were given more authority.

That head teacher told me he was the only one to ever complete a one year contract at the school. The high turnover meant we were constantly being given new classes to teach at the last minute, and in subjects we were unprepared for. Parts of the classrooms were falling apart, with holes in the wall.

We were told one set of lies after another by the recruiter. The company promised to pay the visas fees back, but never did. The company told us the utilities would be about 40 dollars a month, but then charged us 150 dollars and insisted on a 400 dollar deposit out of the first paycheck.

That deposit was never returned to me, just as several weeks pay owed me has never been paid. I repeatedly tried to get the district boss to intervene, explaining about my supervisor's racism and intimidation. Amazingly, he admitted that she was a racist, but said, "This is Korea. She's your boss, and that is the end of it."

If anyone has any ideas about how to collect my remaining pay, let me know.