I began posting in the Fall of 2007 in the public interest of the ESL community.
The posting titled "Exultant in Ulsan" related to events surrounding a notoriously bad hagwon just south east of Ulsan Grand Park. Contrary to suggestions on another website, the events occurred in early 2006 and are in no way related to Ahil English School in Ulsan.
Since reference was made to this aged posting and some readers are searching for it, I am pasting it again.
The hagwon had a history of deducting taxes and health insurance premiums but not remitting them to the appropriate Administration. They did assault foreign teachers. They routinely fired within the last 30 to 20 days of 12-month contracts to avoid paying the last month and the agreed-to severance. With the help of the Korean English teacher, the director's brother-in-law was a sexual harasser, convinced he was doing foreign women a favor.
The director of this hagwon paid her dues and did subsequently make serious efforts to improve her School's ESL program and treatment of foreign teachers. According to my observations, not the case with Ahil.

Here is "Exultant in Ulsan"
By:ANET
Date: 26 January 2008

Exultant in Ulsan - An English Teacher
I have been teaching English in East Asia for over four years. For the most part, it has been a wonderful experience. However, two years ago, I signed up with a less than reputable Hagwon, just south of Seonam-dong, Ulsan.
There, I was robbed of my salary. I faced a chaotic school and home environment. I was sexually harassed. I had to involve three outsiders to get appropriate insurance coverage.
To make matters worse, six weeks into the job, I was diagnosed with cancer. By the grace of God, it was in its early stages and would be quickly stopped. The bad hagwon owners denied me access to a hospital. Workplace health and safety was an alien concept to them. Again, I involved the three outsiders. We recommended substitute native English teachers. The School rejected them.
Following a 10 day hospital stay, I immediately returned to work on a full time basis. Though well enough to walk around, teach and manage my classes, I was not fully recovered from surgery. The sexual harassers made me strain and caused a hernia. This was a work related injury, but the School would not allow me to be treated. I continued to do my job.
One day, I discovered that the hagwons owners wanted to fire me without notice. I did not dispute their decision but, according to my employment contract, they were required to give me a 30-day notice of dismissal and the contract would be automatically canceled if they assaulted me.
I began looking for a new job and found one 30 days away. It could have been a win-win situation, however, when I approached the hagwons owners to agree on a 30-day notice, they resorted to verbal and physical assault. I called everyone I could think of, including the Police, and managed to flee the violent situation.
I did not quit. I wanted to complete my 30 days as per the contract, but in a safe environment.
I was taken to a sorry excuse for a foreign affairs office at the local police station.
The bad hagwons owners said that, if I did not accept 500,000 won as last months pay, they would go to Immigration and I would never work in Korea again. So, I rushed to the Immigration office ahead of them. Immigration made them give me an Exit Order. With that paper, I had two weeks to either find another job or leave the country. I had hoped for a Release Letter, but my prospective employer had been scared away.
The following week, I was escorted back to the bad hagwon to vacate the apartment. Once my belongings were in the call-van, I was about to leave when the owners locked the property gate shut. Together, a male chauvinist, the foreign affairs officer from the police station and the hagwons owners tried to force me to write a letter stating I had quit. I managed to get away with a note stating the contract was cancelled. This note, written under duress, would come back to haunt me.
I quickly found a new School and residence. Soon, the hagwons owners sent the male chauvinist to my new School. He falsely claimed I had posted information about them on the Internet and tried to make me sign a letter stating I had quit my job. They were using him to dodge their obligation to pay me in lieu of giving a 30-day notice of dismissal.
When my last months wages went unpaid, I began a long and draining journey through the administrative and judicial processes.
The avenues available to me, a foreigner, were not evident. Getting all documents translated to Korean was daunting enough. A newcomer in Ulsan, not knowing my way around, lacking expertise in Korean law, I toiled. The Administration is very compartmentalized and the bad hagwons owners committed several offences (some civil, others criminal), so I had to split up my claim between different agencies. Unjust dismissal is beyond the Ulsan Labor Office jurisdiction. For that, I had to go to the Busan Labor Relations Commission. Reinstatment was the only remedy that office could offer.
While I struggled along, the male chauvinist and a girlfriend from his church did their best to undermine me, manipulating those who were helping me, trying to have me fired and deported, threatening to sue me. It was like walking with the jaws of a dog around each ankle.
My knowledge of Korean was inadequate and Ulsan Labor Office employees assigned to my claim did not speak English. Hearings, held in Korean only, were taken out of my hands. I could never refute the Hagwons lies because translations came my way at the end of each hearing after the decision makers had ruled.
I would have gotten nowhere had it not been for the priceless assistance of a determined counselor in Ok-dong who put her neck on the line to help me. She joined forces with a representative from a migrant workers office. Furthering my case on paper, I signed my representation over to them. At one point, they went to the bad hagwon. They too were assaulted.
Though expected to assist foreigners, the foreign affairs officer was helping the hagwon. He called members of the Administration and badmouthed me.
Nevertheless, following the tireless efforts of my representatives, the Labor Office ordered the bad hagwon to pay my wages and overtime. I was asked if I wanted to lay criminal charges. At first, I declined to do so.
The delinquent hagwons owners refused to pay me. So I brought the matter to court.
The agents at both the Prosecutors Office and District Court were very understanding. Through their slowly-but-surely process, they endeavored to obtain my money while the hagwons owners tried to negotiate down the amount set by the Labor Office.
One day, I approached the pastor at my Church with a note written in Korean. I asked for an English translation, but he sensed I was carrying a heavier burden than I was showing. He immediately got me some valuable assistance. Through him, more Koreans came forward to work with me.
On November 3, 2007 a District Court judge ordered the bad hagwons owners to pay me my wages and overtime. Again, the hagwons owners refused to pay and the matter sat on my lawyers desk for months. I wondered if he wasnt dragging matters out until the end of my 12-month contract, hoping I would leave the country and that all would be forgotten.
In the New Year, a new trial date was set for re-issue of the court decision which had gone stale. This time, I asked for asset seizure. This would have a bailiff seize the bad hagwons assets and pay me with the money obtained from their sale.
Together my counselor, my pastor and I expedited the process.
The Labor Office could not make the hagwon pay my wages but, through a Court Indictment, it had imposed a fine on them when they refused to pay.
This fine, a mere 300,000 won, is hardly a deterrent. Delinquent employers happily pay the modest fine rather than the last months salary or the agreed-to severance. So I wrote a Petition to the Court proposing a substantial increase in the amount fined. A valuable helper took it around the community of native English teachers for signature. Many signed it, but several more refused to give me any support. This was discouraging, but my pastor and Korean volunteers had granted me too much of their time for me to give up. I hand-delivered my petition to the courthouse.
The shunning of foreign teachers was the least of my disappointments. I was outraged when friends of the bad hagwon at the local police station joined forces with them to fabricate a case against me. I was called to the criminal division and interrogated. The officers were anxious to draw up statements in Korean and even more anxious to make me sign them, never supplying an English translation, or a copy of what they made me sign. They never charged me with anything. They just interrogated me. They were trying to intimidate me into meeting with the hagwons owners, and force me, with threats of criminal charges, to accept half the amount of money set by the Labor Office and supported by the Court.
I refused to meet with anyone and I waited them out. They called my employer, trying to have me fired. The hagwons owners followed suit. I was mortified that my presence at the School attracted these trouble-makers.
Meanwhile, the Polices foreign affairs officer was calling people at the courthouse to influence them with the only charge he and the police officers could find: They didnt like my personality. I did not charm them. Instead, I expected them to do their job.
The foreign affairs officer also called my current employer. Though my boss insisted I was a very good teacher, the School inevitably linked the annoying calls to my presence.
The behavior of the police officers caught the attention of a senior committee. Disgusted, they mobilized a delegation. They asked to use my claim in laying new groundwork for other foreigners. I accepted and my pastor, a foreigner himself, quickly became a valuable ally. Following some background Korean activity to which I was not privy, I was invited to file written declarations to the Chief of Police. I did. Suddenly, the officers closed the file they were building on me and admitted there was no evidence to proceed with any charges against me.
In the midst of it all, someone at the bad hagwon issued numerous signed copies of a standard form letter defaming me. This is a common offence in the hagwon industry. It is intended to have competent teachers blacklisted. Enough was enough!! I laid the criminal charges I had waved months earlier.
In April 2007, the District Court convicted the bad hagwon and imposed a stiff fine.
This conviction opened the way for me to sue them in civil court for damages. So, quickly, the hagwons owners offered to pay my salary if I stopped all actions against them. I signed an undertaking that I was fully paid and would go no further relating to wages.
The hagwons owners and a migrant workers office representative incessantly chased after me, demanding I drop the defamation suit. It had gone through court. The judge had ruled on it. How could I oppose a judges decision in a criminal matter!
When pestering me led nowhere, they visited my School, my pastor and even his wife. I was furious because they had signed an undertaking to stay away from my School. I appealed to my lawyer and to the Judges office. I brought a copy of my appeal to the Chief of Police charging the hagwons owners with harassment.
I was wasting my time at the Police Station. I noticed the new foreign affairs office showed no improvement. They were no more able to deal with complaints from North American women than they had been a year earlier.
The undermining I faced on my journey through the system are no reflection on Koreans or their culture. They reflect a specific segment of society, and that segment of society is found in most countries. In fact, the male chauvinist is a Canadian and his female friend is of Filipino background.
For themselves, Koreans were embarrassed by the conduct of the hagwons owners. Senior Korean authorities were profusely apologetic for the injurious behavior of the police officers. They wanted me to work with them as they pressed on to improve the efficiency of agencies dealing with foreigners. They admitted being frustrated because most foreigners refuse to come forward, and the few who do, stand alone.
Money was the most important thing to the owners of the bad hagwon, so a monetary fine was the most effective deterrent in their case. I could have received more money from them in return for rescinding the criminal charges. I can still, if I want, proceed with civil charges against the hagwon and get more money, but I came to Korea to teach, not to fight. Moreover, for me, the issue was not about money.
True, hours worked are automatically payable and nobody should have to go through what I faced to get paid. True, this delinquent hagwon has a history of firing teachers 30 to 20 days short of contract completion to avoid paying a severance and the last months wages. But far worse, their tendency to resort to violence is criminal. Their refusal to provide adequate teaching facilities and prompt access to medical care are totally unacceptable business practices.
Those shortcomings are why I pressed on to obtain, not only payment of money owing to me, but also sufficient deterrent from the temptation to re-offend. A decision against the hagwon in a court of law and their name on public record, along with the combination of fines, one for failure to pay my salary, and the other, for defamation, were sufficient deterrent.
Much work remains to be done in the area of workplace health and safety. Though sexual harassment is illegal in South Korea, enforcement of the law has yet to catch up. Also, as we all know, employment contracts are, from where foreign teachers stand, not worth the paper they are printed on. They are not enforceable by the Labor Office.
I had the support of Koreans but I was a lone voice. If foreign teachers had rallied around me, together, we could have obtained better results. Nevertheless, I hope I paved the way for the next aggrieved foreign teacher in Ulsan who had the courage go come forward.
To my pastor, to my counselor and other Koreans who helped me, Thanks to you, WE won.