I stumbled across this thread in one of my constantly evolving google searches, and found the interplay of "he said, she said" quite fascinating. Especially fascinating since this mysterious Ruth Hannegan, whoever he/she may be, has not felt it necessary to continue to defend him/herself, but the school administrator/manager Jae Yang has. (I am not, by the way, Ruth Hannegan, nor am I related to her--ha ha.) As I read, the phrase that kept coming to mind was "methinks he doth protest too much". And when Mr. Yang's story seemed to change slightly in the telling, if one compared his earliest posts to his later ones, not to mention his increasingly defensive manner, little red flags flew up, small warning bells started to sound, etc. Those telling the truth generally have no need to be defensive.

I was interested enough to google the school's name. Apart from reviews such as Ms. Hannegan's and the school's own website (http://www.chinahavardedu.com/), the only other place I can find this school appearing as "Harvard Foreign Language School" online is in an 2007 article here: http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=2308035. (I'll include the article below in case readers have difficulty accessing it.)

My reason for pointing readers to this article was that it highlighted a very key point that I had thought was strange had never come up in this thread. Why did the school use the name "Harvard" and, apparently, still continue to do so? The initial post by Ms. Hannegan was written in 2005; the article was written in 2007. For at least those two years (and most likely three, as it seems to be still the case as of Mr. Yang's post in April 2008), the school continued to use the "Harvard" name, which was taken with the apparent direct intention of misleading those considering attending the school. In the bjtoday article, the Harvard Foreign Language school representative "admits" (i.e. didn't volunteer the information but stated it when pressed) that the school "has no connection with Harvard University in America, neither inviting teachers from Harvard University, nor awarding Harvard certificates", but that the name was chosen because the students and their families "regard Harvard as a good name".

I know that China has had and still has great difficulty with the issue of copyright; it has been undergoing a slow and painful process of moving out of the old way of "borrowing" into the new concept of "plagiarism" and "copyright infringement". However, for the Korean community, this should not be the case: I'm not an expert in Koreans' attitude toward copyright, but it seems to me that Koreans should be much more familiar with the issue of copyright and intellectual property, given their longer history of free market economy, at least when compared to China. It also seems extremely strange that a school claiming to be Christian would have no problem in misrepresenting itself in this way. Christians generally claim to hold themselves to a standard of ethics above the "well-everybody-here-does-it", i.e. Christians generally consider themselves morally bound to obey the law. Yet here we have this self-proclaimed-Christian, Korean-run school taking advantage of China's lax copyright environment to bask in some reflected glory (and profit) from the real Harvard University's name.

I have no doubt of the truthfulness of the teachers who wrote praising the school's good treatment of them. They sound like quite nice folks who had an excellent experience and have no reason to dislike an employer that fulfilled the contract and treated them decently. However, as I compared the tone of Ms. Hannegan to that of Mr. Yang, and then added to that the red flags over the whole "Harvard" name thing, I have to say that the school sounds defensive, evasive, and not all together honest.

I have worked for a number of employers like this in China, most Chinese, some Korean. In nearly every situation I have found that employers, particularly small language institutes like this, will like you as long as you please them, but cross them in any way... watch your back.

But that's just my humble opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

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[Note: After writing all that about copyright infringement above, I felt bound to point out that I have included all the relevant information I can find about the article below--and I should point out that this article is not being copied for profit nor being stolen and passed off as my own or another's.]
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(http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=2308035)

Harvard in Beijing Residential Community
by Lily Li (03/05/07 21:10)

[photo]
[photo caption: Be careful! Ha Bode is not Ha Fo, the Chinese translation of Harvard. Photo by Lou Ge]

　　When you check Cambridge on the Internet, the University of Cambridge in England is not alone. There is also Cambridge International College of Canada, Cambridge College in England and Cambridge International College in Australia. As for Harvard, residents in Wangjing residential area, Chaoyang District will tell you there are at least two, one in America and one right here in Beijing.

　　After seeing a recruitment advert for this Harvard Foreign Language School, one of the residents, Ms. Xu, called the hotline of Beijing Youth Daily. Harvard University is one of the most famous universities in the world but its in America. When did it come to our area? she asked.

　　The advert says Harvard Foreign Language School offers students a wide range of classes, including ABC Basic English, Childrens English, Primary and Middle School English and Classes for Studying Abroad. It also says Choose Harvard, change your life. But the advert didnt give any clues as to whether the school was related to Harvard University or not.

　　Located on the first floor of an ordinary residential building, the school isnt as impressive as the ad. In a five-meter-wide room we spoke to Ms. Jin, who refused to give her full name, whos in charge of recruitment and consultation.

　　Although all the signboards and publicity materials in the room give Ha Fo (Harvard in Chinese) as the schools name, on the plaque outside was written Ha Bode. The English names are all Harvard. Ms. Jin said both names belong to the school but she also admitted that the school has no connection with Harvard University in America, neither inviting teachers from Harvard University, nor awarding Harvard certificates.

　　We took the name because most of our students are South Koreans in this area, and they regard Harvard as a good name, she said.

　　Wang Jing, lawyer of Beijing Lu Gouqiao Law Office said this school has copied the famous brand name which isnt registered in China, and has misled students and their parents as well as infringing on Trademark Law.