Beginning with grubby insect infested accommodation and culminating with an illegal contract; my English teaching job in South Korea found through i-to-i didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Their advertising material offered me a job where I would earn enough money to save to go travelling, professional support from i-to-i throughout my time abroad and all in a country where the “absence of western influence has allowed it to preserve the culture and traditions of the past”. After four years hard graft at university this sounded like exactly what I needed.

As my plane took off from Heathrow I felt the stresses of the last four years ebb away and I could barley contain my excitement over what new adventures, experiences and friends the coming year would bring.

What would the school be like? What would the kids be like? What would my boss be like? My contract said I would be living with other English teachers; would they turn out to be kindred spirits and lifelong friends?

My mind buzzed with questions but I wasn’t worried about the answers. i-to-i are a massive company and naively I assumed they would ensure people who paid them money in good faith didn’t end up becoming one of the horror stories of dodgy bosses, unpaid wages and illegal contracts that emanate from private English schools in South Korea.

The i-to-i in country representative was when he arrived late to meet me at the airport, gave me a guidebook and told me I’d be taken to my school by his brother – who spoke almost no English.

I though I’d be taken to my accommodation to freshen up before going to the school and meeting my new boss and coworkers, but I was taken straight to the school. i-to-i had been vague about my accommodation details and I now realised this was because it was provided by the school, i-to-i didn’t even know the address.

After a brief tour of the school and dinner with two Korean teachers who barely spoke a word of English, I was finally taken to my accommodation.

I was nervous about meeting my flatmates but curious that none of them had been mentioned – other than in my contract – and when I entered my new flat I was shocked! Expecting a two or three bed-roomed apartment I was surprised to see a basement bedsit that barley allowed in any natural light. I then discovered my flatmates were brown, had six legs, belonged to the roach family and there were a lot more than three of them!

The following day I was summoned into school at 10am to begin teaching. No training, no orientation (as promised by i-to-i) not even any time to get over the jet lag. It was then I found out my first class would be kindergarten. There hadn’t been any mention of kindergarten in my contract and i-to-i had assured me I wouldn’t be teaching complete beginners! I guess four year olds don’t qualify as complete beginners.

After a lot of complaining helped by a phone call from i-to-i I managed to get my boss to find me a better flat and over the next few months I settled into school life.

But increasingly I found that the other foreign teacher and I were less than valued members of staff. I was given a 15 page story book, expected to teach it at least twice a week for two months and somehow keep the kids interested. I wasn’t to teach vocabulary, the kids just had to memorise the book. Any suggestions I had would be met with feigned interest then completely disregarded, I would rarely be informed about classroom changes or new students yet would be reprimanded for leaving the classroom to photocopy extra work.

I stuck it out until I began to dread Monday morning on Friday night. I had come here to de-stress not learn how it is to hate my job, boss and coworkers and feel completely conned by i-to-i. It was time to hand in my notice.

Looking over my contract for the resignation procedure I realised it contained monetary penalties for leaving early. I had noticed these before leaving the UK but naively assumed a) I would be staying 12 months and b) i-to-i wouldn’t have found me a dodgy contract, so these clauses must be standard practice in Korea. How wrong could I be?

Just a small amount of research borough me to the Korean Labour Standards Act and in section 2 article 27 I found a clause relating to ……Which meant any monetary penalties in my contract were against the law and thus unenforceable. It took just one phone call to get this confirmed by the Korean Labour Standards Board.

I immediately contacted i-to-i and was fobbed off. When I inquired about their promise of: “support throughout your time abroad,” they told me to talk directory to the i-to-i  in country representative. I emailed him explaining my situation but never received a response.

I was therefore astonished that immediately resigning my boss told me the first thing he needed to do was contact the i-to-i in country representative to help him find a replacement and get advice on the illegalities in my contract.

I thought I’d paid i-to-i so I would have their support should a situation like this arise. But it seems that once they have your money they are more interested in supporting the dodgy school directors, of which there are plenty in Korea, who will keep paying them money to find new staff because their schools are so bad foreign teachers keep leaving.

I have had a verbal assurance from my boss that he will not deduct the monetary penalties from my final pay cheque, but that remains to be seen. I have contacted i-to-i about the lack of support from their in country representative but am still awaiting a response.

The moral of this story is. Do your research before you leave. Get your contract checked out before you sign and NEVER pay i-to-i to find you a job.

* Posted by j150vsc on 09/05/2007.