hey all,
I mentioned in an earlier post that we've lost a few ALTs: one in my building left, and another one left last week as well. A new ALT (the one from New York) moved into my building last week, but he is leaving already. Monday was supposed to be his first day, but he apparently didn't sleep at all, and didn't go in. Something like panic attacks were described, as well.
One of the people from The Company came over, and he also talked to several coordinators over the phone. At the end of the day, he decided that he'd go back to the US immediately, paying the penalties for not giving 1 month notice to The Company and also already having paid 1 month's rent.
The thing that really freaks me out about this incident is that he taught in Korea for a year and China for a few months. What exactly is so terror-inducing about Japan that is not terror-inducing about China and Korea? Korea, from what I've heard from other ALTs, is not the greatest place to teach, be foreign, or to both teach and be foreign, but rather closer to the opposite of great. China is a freaking communist country, which does terriblely repressive things to its own citizens everyday. Nuff said.
Now, this is the second freak-out I've heard about. Earlier this year, we had a girl decide to leave after being in Japan for about 1 month. That was still pretty surprising, but I think the New York guy split after 10 days.
Cheers,
