Korean Job Discussion Forums

SanatKumara · Joined: 27 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul Sister

I have been in Korean for 5 months now and came here with a positive attitude to learn Korean and teach English with a high degree of integrity. However, my experience has been nothing less than hell on Earth. I have been lied to, cheated by and screwed over by Koreans in so many ways it makes my head spin.

I am wonderng if others have been given promises by their directors in which later they tell you they have no intention of keeping. Asking for help and being told no way while daily you are asked to go above and beyond your contract when your director needs help. Or, working for an entire month and not being paid and then the director canceling your Visa and getting deported for no apparent reason other than enrollment was down and they needed to get rid of a teacher while the remaining teachers get loaded down with your classes.

So, I am wondering did the first foriegners come here and screw over the Koreans so bad that the Koreans have lost all of their respect for us and could care less? Or, are all the Koreans so ruthless and scummy that if you are white skinned it gives them a license to be bad?

The bottom line is that I hate these people which is a pretty strong statement for me, and I avoid eye contact with any of them at all times whether I am on the street, at work or in restaurant. I've lost any hope whatsoever that living in Korea would be a cool experience.

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

Sounds like you have had a pretty bad experience but you have to remember that not all hogwan owners are bad and not all korea koreans are evil corrupt hogwan owners. I have met some really good koreans while i have been here.
It might be hard to do but you can't let your experience with your hogwan boss taint your perception of all koreans.
One poster on a previous thread suggested shaming bosses that take advantage of teachers.
Say "i thought all koreans were kind and warm hearted and lived up to their word, but because of you I think all koreans are mean, cruel, lie and never keep their promises.
It might not work but its worth a try.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

I have written in another thread that coming to Korea is like entering a giant insane assylum. Shocked

Koreans do some really strange things, and for some really strange reasons. The more you undersand, the less you want to.

This doesn't mean all Koreans are bad, dishonest etc.
There are some really great people out there, but if your director is bad and is screwing you over, it is hard to get past that. If you have grounds to leave, (as in non-payment) do so. Report him to immigration and the labour board. You are allowed to quit and change jobs if your director is not honoring the contract. I have met several people who have done so with little or no problems.

Try to go somewhere outside of work, where you can meet people directly. A Korean language class may be a place to do this.
Just a thought.
Hope things turn around for you.

canuckistan · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 7:15 pm Post subject:

How is it your visa got canceled and then you got deported? Or was it the more usual "exit order?" Were you fired or laid off? Were you given any notice? Why didn't you go to the labour board? Immigration? Letter of release?

Half the battle here is knowing what the law is and what your rights and options are in the case of things getting stupid. A lot of dishonest hagwon owners often take advantage of a foreigner's lack of knowledge in these areas to screw them over. When you demonstrate that you are aware of your rights, they may be much less inclined to try and hose you.

Don't get mad, get crackin'.

lonestar · Joined: 20 Aug 2003

I wish you'd post the name of the school and owner so others can be forewarned.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

sanat kumara: 99% correct and justified. The majority of Koreans are just plain odd, wierd, dysfunctional. They have to be the most consistently silly and annoying nation on earth, a lot of overgrown schoolkids with a lot of outdated attitudes.
I'm largely similar to you- I avoid making eye contact with most Koreans, particularly the men, because it angers me to see into the mind of such small minded, miserable creatures.
However: it's not all bad! I believe that you can save good money here as a teacher(No.1 reason to be here); you can find good jobs- usually in schools managed by women: you can carve out a nice social life with care and persistence.

Glen 2003 · Joined: 01 Sep 2003 Location: China

I'm sorry to hear that you have had such a terrible time in Korea.Perhaps it would be better for you to consider leaving.Why stay in a country if you hate most of the people?

Catalina · Joined: 11 May 2003 Location: Bella Italia

Bad stuff has happened to me too!

My hagwon dictator is unreasonable - so is his academic director wife!

BUT..

If it were not for the kindess of my Korean friends - who arranged rides, translation, brought cups of coffee, made dinners and provided comfort to me during my fight

AND...

The whippersnapper Koreans at the Ministry of Labour in Suwon and the Public Prosecutors office who heard my complaints and offered constructive advice and arranged hearings immediately due to my time limitations

I too would be leaving here a bitter girl. I am bitter now but I get to take all the good stuff with me and plan to leave here a wiser person - all thanks to Korea!!

How bleep ironic is that - and I thought I was here to teach - not to learn...

Catalina

Edited once by Harpeau, 1:11pm, Sat. Sept. 27th 2003.
Edited again by Catalina

Kwangjuchicken · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2003 12:59 am Post subject:

Believe me, it is not only the hagwans. I taught in 2 colleges for 2 years each before starting my current university position. I have been here just for two weeks. At my first college about 1/2 way into my second year, the chair asked me to edit a book he had written in English. It was so bad it took me maybe 200 hours to edit. I basically rewrote the book. After I finished, my reward was a pizza. Then when I asked to be renewed for a third year he said no. I later was told by another Korean professor there ( a great friend of mine) that the reason I was not renewed was because the chair was mad that I had made so many changes in his book. But guess what? My version of the book (with ALL OF MY CHANGES) was published by a top company in the USA.
As for my second college position, after being there for 1.5 years the school changed its name. The owner was the same etc., but the name is different. After I finished my second contract, I was supposed to get 2 years of bonus money and airfare back to my home. However, I did not receive these because of the name change. In their opinion, I only worked at that school for 6 months not 2 years.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

An interesting story there Kwangjuchicken!! It just goes to show that its unwise to ever do anything for a Korean-it normally backfires. They hate the loss of face involved when anyone does something better than them.

If all the nationalities of the world sent their children to a big international party, it would be the Korean kid who sits in the corner cry "I don't want to play anymore!!!"

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Foreigners Are Easy Victims

Foreign residents in Seoul are preferred over any Korean tenant by their landlords because they are paying several times as much as what Koreans are paying for their rent, realtors and industry sources say.

For a 25-pyong (one pyong equals 3.3 square meters) apartment in Seoul, foreign residents are paying as much as two million won ($1,600) in monthly rent while the same apartment may go for only 500,000 won for Koreans.

Current law only allows realtors to charge 0.9 percent of the entire amount of money involved in a contract for their fee while the rate goes down to as little as 0.2 percent as the amount gets bigger, according to Hong Kwang-pyo, director of Real Estate Management Department at the Ministry of Construction and Transportation.

But foreign residents are charged as much as 10 percent of their entire contract money, resulting in millions for realtors, partly because they are unaware of the law, but also because most of their contracts are untraceable.
The Korea Times (August 28, 2003)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200308/kt2003082818233111970.htm

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

it's kind of shocking to hear you say straight out you don't make eye contact on the street, especially with the men, rapier. but me too. and it's not because i didn't try before. they'll catch you looking back, then decide the time is ripe to laugh at you with their friend. or get a 'you're nobody' look back going, when before it was open curiosity. listening to me now you figure i'm going on with a closed mind about the petty, closed minds of others, so who's right? same drama too many times. show interest and they take it for a dog fawning, and snap with their eyes to put you in your place. just twisted. but bearable. the outcome is a clause slapped on the unspoken contract written with the people of korea, 'you're all real nice people, but racist jerks'. gotta wonder about the criticisms about koreans as dysfunctional and so on. sounds similiar to foreigners criticizing their peers here. so if you have dysfunctinal, weird koreans criticizing dysfunctional, weird visiting foreign teachers, what the heck? does it cancel out?

Coffeecup · Joined: 30 Jun 2003

Kwangjuchicken said:

Toby · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: Wedded Bliss

But surely. If you don't like it, leave. If you can't look a Korean in the eye, leave. If you think everyone is wierd, leave. If you think all Koreans are pigs, leave.

They may not be the most understanding of people in the world, but hey, look at us foreigners. Aren't we such a good race of people!! Wow. I wish i could be so ignorant as to slate everyone that I see. Whoops. You already did. I wish I could be rude about the place I have chosen to vist and live. Whoops again. You already did that too. I wish I could just complain about all my hardships that have happened. Whoops. Once again, you have done that too.

No-one comes here and lands the perfect job. We all get hammered in one way or another, but that leaves us wiser for the next job. And there are ways out of contracts and visas. We all know someone who can help us if we need the help.

The day that you can put your hand on your heart and say that you come from a perfect 100% country and that all the people are amazing and friendly to foreigners, then maybe you will have justification about slagging off the country YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO LIVE IN.