- some guy
Why do they do it? Because they can. There is always a new crop of fresh-faced naieve ESL teachers willing to take their places. The ones that do not require the degree/CELTA combo are more likely to be those kinds of cowboy operations that are the source of so much angst.
The author of the site goes by the name "Inspector McHammered", and despite the implications of the name, writes quite coherantly. His articles are current (May 2007) and well-informed. There has been at least one school from Turkey written about - UKLA Academy in Bursa. The article had to do with a teacher's position being offered, then cancelled at the last moment. The writer, however, noted that it's possible that references didn't check out.
ANTI SPERLING
The editor of the blog has definite concerns about Dave Sperling of eslcafe. Whatever they may be, and you can read about them on the TEFL blacklist, I still think eslcafe is a decent place to go for the Turkey forum. True, it is heavily moderated and threads get locked and removed on a regular basis, but aside from that, teachers are there regularly and share information about schools and life in Turkey that a newbie would be well-advised to read prior to accepting a position there.
Of course eslcafe is a money-generating machine via the advertisers. Of course scurrilous operations are going to be advertised there. If an ESL teacher automatically reads an ad, and thinks "oh, it's on eslcafe, it must be legit..." then that teacher is headed for a heap of trouble anyway. You can't be that naive in this business. You have to do your research. You can't just leap in, feet first without expecting there to be problems.
That said, I do think that TEFLblacklist provides valuable information for potential ESL teachers. To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed, or something to that effect. I wouldn't automatically discount schools posted on TEFLblacklist, but knowing what has happened to other teachers in the past will prepare you mentally for the same things happening to you.
