I taught as an ESL teacher many years ago. After leaving that job to do something else I vowed I would do literally anything else for a job before I would ever return to doing that.

While I didn't face the problems with my employer on the level that you are, the job itself was simply too difficult for the amount of money that we were being paid.

Towards the end of my time there, we were no longer allowed to discipline the kids in really any meaningful capacity. This included giving busy-work for any members of the class to do such as writing a sentence 20 times (surely, this is a common tactic worldwide?)

My tactic in the classroom was to make EVERYONE in the class write lines for the action of the few, even the good kids. While the bad kids were not afraid of having to write lines on their own, the really didn't like letting the rest of the class down - this was quickly outlawed by the administration.

It got to the point where the kids had no reason at all to feel as though we had any real authority and therefore classroom control was nearly impossible. I'm not saying I was an innocent kid in elementary school, I certainly wasn't, but there were certain repercussions for my actions that I was definitely afraid of receiving and this kept me in check.

While I think it is great that you got to experience a year of living in the country that I have called home for many years, I think you are accidentally choosing a fantastic time to get out.