There’s a teacher at my school that I used to get along with. I’ve been at this school for 6 months and he’s been there for 7 years. Last month we got into an argument when he suggested the way I teach doesn’t meet “Taiwan standards.” Basically meaning that I should do more written work so the kids can take it home to show their parents. The problem with this is that my class doesn’t show any progress, but when we focus on speaking exercises they become noticeably more expressive and remember class content a lot better.

Fast forward to this week and as I was leaving to go home at night he confronted me. He physically blocked the doorway and said in a stern manner that he’s been watching my classes and that I’m still doing too many speaking exercises and not enough writing tasks. I said now is not a good time to talk about this (it was already half an hour past my finish time) and perhaps we can discuss it tomorrow with one of the local teachers. He then got aggressive and said he’s been here for 5 years and “basically owns the place”.

At this point I was already annoyed and just wanted to leave, but as I tried to get past him he physically pushed me back with both hands. My shoulder hit the wall hard enough to leave a small mark and knocked my bag and some stuff I was carrying to the ground. He then walked away and said something like “you should think about that next time”.

For context I’m an averaged sized woman from the Michigan and he’s at least 6ft from Canada. It’s a medium sized cram school with 4 foreign teachers, 4 local teachers and a manager. The owner has a few locations and comes in semi-regularly.

Anyway the next day I told one of the local teachers what happened and the owner when she arrived. Basically they don’t want to do anything and said I should resolve any disputes I have as to not cause any disruptions in the workplace.

My question is, is there and legal action I should take or what should I do? I don’t think getting the police involved would do anything because it didn’t leave any serious bruising. Should I just quit and find another job or try to find a lawyer?