I am writing this as a warning for anyone even thinking of working at Morning Star International School in Hanoi Vietnam.

Trieu Nguyen

Director

Morningstar International Kindergarten. Hanoi - Vietnam

Van Phuc Campus :Tel.844.7261587 Fax.844.72561588

Tay Ho Campus :Tel.844.7195115 Fax:844.7195116

The owner of the school seems to suffer from a multiple-personality disorder and is completely out of lunch most of the time. Example, we will have a meeting and she will say we are going to do A, B, and C this way now ! Ok, no problem start doing A, B and C and a week later she comes in a piss foul mood. "why is A, B and C being done like this !!?? I don't want it done this way!!!!" so I show her the minutes from the meeting clearly stating that IS what she want and she replies "I am too busy but I changed it again and forgot to tell you !!! you need to be more flexible!!'. Now I understand working for any Vietnamese is going to require flexibility and patience, but I am now sick and tired of this happening weekly and having my work load outside of school doubled or tripled. Even recently she cut the lunch hour from one hour to half an hour so we can "get more work done" and now expects me to develop an ESL program in my own time at home..so I can spend more time at school learning the hip-hop dancing routines for the kids. Now I was quite cleared when hired that dancing was not something I could teach and my experience and qualifications were in ESL and young learners.

Another time this poor excuse of a "director" sent me an email saying I should have a "talk" with one of the staff who could never manage to show up to work on time. Reluctantly I had this talk with the teacher and she then basically told me off and to mind my own business. Naturally this cause me to get quite angry but I was not able to suspend the teacher as our only substitute was covering for another teacher on sick leave. Now the amazing part is the director then got angry at ME !!

She then told me that this teacher was quite upset because her she caught her boyfriend sleeping with some other Vietnamese women.... for some reasons I think the director was told this in confidence and was her telling me this girls whole sex life and relationship trouble...and using it to excuse her unprofessional attitude. When I showed the director the email she sent me THE DAY BEFORE telling me to do this, she blew up saying I should not be questioning her decision and she is the boss.....and when I tried to explain that is what I was doing what she said...she said she made a typing error !!!!

Not only did she tell me to do something (I still have the exact email somewhere) the director does not support one of her managers and leaves me out to hang...she tells me the personal sex life of the girl who just told me off......this is the absolute bottom of unprofessionalism..and I resigned my position shortly after.

After leaving this so-called school it got even more interesting. The director proceed to call the other International schools in town and warn them about me. Yet this plan failed, as MS TRIEU has quite a negative reputation in town and one school director called me offering me a position. He laugh and mentioned that he has hired several teachers who have left Morning Star (not in a good way) and that these teachers tended to work out well within the new schools. Due to a different offer I did not accept, but I am still in contact with this person and we share a good laugh at her expense on occasion. She even lied and told staff members that I was looking at inappropriate websites on the school computer...something I would never do knowing how easy it is for an administrator to check what has been viewed...and it is something I don't even do on my home computer. She even went as far as to get a mutual friend to invite me to dinner and find out what legal actions I was pursuing after she threaten to sue me (for breaking the illegal contract)..naturally I was able to see through this ploy and stopped it immediately

I hope this gives prospective teachers some insight into what they are in for at this school. The school will not help you get a proper working visa and you will be working illegally...now must times this is fine but in Hanoi they do check this sometimes and you might find yourself in hot water and deported. She is well know in the Hanoi teaching community as a bit of a farce...more money than brains type yet she will try to spread false accusations and lies about you, unfortunately so many teachers leave in disgust that this often back fires and other schools will contact and hired teachers the MS TRIEU has warned them about...that in itself has to explain her reputation in Hanoi.